boy heard him tell Clytie. Also he heard his grandfather say to Clytie,
"Thank God, not for another year!"

The little boy liked Nancy better than ever after that, because she had
liked his father so much, saying he was exactly like a prince, giving
pennies and nickels to everybody and being so handsome and big and grand.
She wished her own Uncle Doctor could be as beautiful and great; and the
little boy was generous enough to wish that his own plain grandfather
might be _almost_ as fine.




CHAPTER VII

THE SUPERLATIVE COUSIN BILL J.


A splendid new interest had now come into the household in the person of
one whom Clytemnestra had so often named as Cousin Bill J. Grandfather
Delcher having been ordered south for the winter by Dr. Crealock, Cousin
Bill J., upon Clytie's recommendation, was imported from up Fredonia way
to look after the cow and be a man about the place. Clytie assured
Grandfather Delcher that Cousin Bill J. had "never uttered an oath, though
he's been around horses all his life!" This made him at once an object of
interest to the little boy, though doubtless he failed to appraise the
restraint at anything like its true value. It had sufficed Grandfather
Delcher, however, and Cousin Bill J., securing leave of absence from the
livery-stable in Fredonia, arrived the day the old man left, making a
double excitement for the household.