"Whereupon Bill an' Jim tracks along inside an' goes to canvassin'
up an' down as to what ensooes doorin' them forty years they've been
parted. Jim wants to know all about Roanoke an' how things stacks up
in old Virginny, an' he's chuckin' in his questions plenty rapid.

"While Bill's replyin', his eye is caught by a frightful-lookin'
female who goes slyin' in an' out, a-organizin' of some grub. She's
the color of a saddle, an' Bill can't make out whether she's a
white, a Mexican, a Digger Injun or a nigger. An' she's that
hideous, this female is, she comes mighty near givin' Bill heart
failure. Son, you-all can't have no idee how turribie this person
looks. She's so ugly the flies won't light on her. Yes, sir! ugly
enough to bring sickness into a fam'ly. Bill can feel all sorts o'
horrors stampedin' about in his frame as he gazes on her. Her eyes
looks like two bullet holes in a board, an' the rest of her feachers
is tetotaciously indeescrib'ble. Bill's intellects at the awful
sight of this yere person almost loses their formation, as army
gents would say. At last Bill gets in a question on his rapid-fire
relatif, who's shootin' him up with queries touchin' Roanoke to beat
a royal flush.

"'Jim,' says Bill, sort o' scared like, 'whoever is this yere lady
who's roamin' the scene?'

"'Well, thar now!' says Jim, like he's plumb disgusted, 'I hope my
gun may hang fire, if I don't forget to introdooce you! Bill, that's
my wife.'

"Then Jim goes surgin' off all spraddled out about the noomerous an'