"You know'd it well enough," returned the old lady. "You'll bring your mother's gray hairs with sorrer to the grave."

"She ain't got any gray hairs," said Sam doggedly.

"Well, she will have some, ef she lives long enough. I once know'd a boy just like you, an' he was put in jail for stealin'."

"I ain't a-goin to stay and be jawed that way," said Sam. "You won't catch me pulling you out of a hole again. I wouldn't have you for a grandmother for all the world. Tom Baldwin told me, only yesterday, that you was always a-hectorin' him."

Tom Baldwin was the son of Cynthy Ann, and consequently old Mrs. Payson's grandson.

"Did Tom Baldwin tell you that?" demanded the old lady abruptly, looking deeply incensed.

"Well, he's the ungratefullest cub that I ever sot eyes on," exclaimed his indignant grandmother. "Arter all I've done for him. I'm knittin' a pair of socks for him this blessed minute. But he sha'n't have 'em. I'll give 'em to the soldiers, I vum. Did he say anything else?"

"Yes, he said he should be glad when you were gone."