and in silence over them--hazard the most
ridiculous answers, and laugh derisively at her
own affected ignorance. She would guess again
and again, and assume the most gleeful surprise
upon at last giving the proper answer, and then
she would laugh jubilantly, and mockingly scout
herself with having given out "a fool-riddle" that
she could guess "with both eyes shut."

"Talk about riddles," she said abruptly to us,
one evening after supper, as we lingered watching
her clearing away the table--"talk about riddles,
it--takes--David--Mason--Jeffries--to--tell--riddles!
Bet you don't know

'Riddle-cum, riddle-cum right!
Where was I last Saturd'y night?
The winds blow--the boughs did shake--
I saw the hole a fox did make!' "


Again we felt that indefinable thrill never
separate from the strange utterance, suggestive always
of some dark mystery, and fascinating and holding
the childish fancy in complete control.

"Bet you don't know this-'un neether:

'A holler-hearted father,
And a hump-back mother--