"But I could powwow," she answered cheerily. "Between fixin' up the
buggy, and cookin' and makin' you and Tip comfortable and powwowin'
you, I ain't had a minute's time to think--it's lovely."

"What has Tip been doing all this while?"

"Talkin' about his wife. She _must_ be nice. Did you ever hear her
sing?"

"I should say I had," I answered.

The whining strains of "Jordan's Strand" came wandering out of the
past, out of the kitchen, joining with the sizzle of the cooking and
the clatter of the pans.

"I should say I had," I said again.

"She must be a splendid singer," John Shadrack's widow exclaimed with
much enthusiasm. "Tip says she has one of the best tenor voices they
is. He says sometimes he can hear her clean from his clearin' down to
your barn."

"Farther," said I. "All the way to the school-house."

"Indeed! Now that's nice. I allow she must be very handsome."

"Handsome?" said I, a bit incredulous.

"Why, Tip says she's the best-lookin' woman in the walley, and that
she's a terrible tasty dresser."