"She's my cousin, too," laughed the colonel, "but she always calls
me uncle."

Old Jason turned to him.

"Well, we're a purty rough people down here, but you're welcome to
all we got."

"I've found that out," laughed Colonel Pendleton pleasantly,
"everywhere."

"I wish you both could stay a long time with us," said the old man
to the little strangers. "Jason here would take Gray fishin' an'
huntin', an' Mavis would git on my old mare an' you two could jus'
go flyin' up an' down the road. You could have a mighty good time
if hit wasn't too rough fer ye."

"Oh, no," said the boy politely, and the girl said:

"I'd just love to."

The Blue-grass man's attention was caught by the names.

"Jason," he repeated; "why, Jason was a mighty hunter, and Mavis--
that means 'the songthrush.' How in the world did they get those
names?"

"Well, my granddaddy was a powerful b'arhunter in his day," said
the old man, "an' I heerd as how a school-teacher nicknamed him
Jason, an' that name come down to me an' him. I've heerd o' Mavis