I see a good-lookin' young chap a-comin' up the path from the front gate
with my Josiah, and I hastily but firmly turned my apron the other side
out--I had been windin' some blue yarn that day for some socks for my
Josiah, and had colored it a little--it wuz a white apron--and then I
waited middlin' serene till he come in with him.

And lo! and behold! Josiah introduced him as Christopher Columbus Allen,
my own cousin on my own side, and also on hisen.

He wuz a very good-lookin' chap, some older than Thomas Jefferson, and I
do declare if he didn't look some like him, which wouldn't be nothin'
aginst the law, or aginst reason, bein' that they wuz related to each
other.

I wuz glad enough to see him, and I inquired after the relations with
considerable interest, and some affection (not such an awful sight,
never havin' seen 'em much, but a little, jest about enough).

And then I learnt with some sadness that his father and mother had
passed away not long before that, and that his sister Isabelle wuz not
over well.

And there wuz another coincerdence that struck aginst me almost hard
enough to knock me down.

Isabelle! jest think on't, when my mind wuz on a perfect strain about
Isabelle Casteel.

Columbus and Isabelle!--the idee!