something about the C

. Robert Pagebrook, however, the vehicle presented itself as an antique and a curiosity. Its body was suspended by leathern straps which came out of some high semicircular springs at the back, and it was thus raised so far above the axles that one could enter it only by mounting quite a stairway of steps, which unfolded themselves from its interior. Swinging thus by its leathern straps, the great heavy carriage body really seemed to have no support at all, and Mr. Robert found it necessary to exercise all the f

seat, Mr. Rob began to look at the country or, more properly, to study the road-side,

hirley?" he asked after awhile, as the c

cousin. "It's five miles, or ne

house? Wher

we left the train! Th

call a village a c

ften make much of it. There's Powhatan Court House now, I believe it tried to get itself called 'Scottsville,' or something of that sort, bu

dispense wholly with public roads? I ask for information merely, and the question is suggested by the fac

ad. It's one of the principal

ert as the negro boy who rode behind th

hat abou

blic thoroughfare before. Do you rea

it easy to open on horseback-or, as you would put it, 'by a person riding on horseback.' You see I'm growing circumspect in my choice of words since I've been with yo

now that I know them as another 'custom of the country.' How do thei

d, and the man who would leave a neighbor's gate open might as well take to s

d, consisting of a single carriage track, with a grass plat on each side, fringed with thick undergrowth and overhung by

ked Robert, as a larg

aks, Cousin E

s your Cou

n Edwin Pagebrook. He is our second cousin or, as

subject of cousinhood in its higher branches, and as I understand that a good deal of stress is laid

to go by. It's a 'case in point' as we lawyers say. Let's see. Cousin Edwin's grandfather was our great grandfather; then his father was our grandfather's brother, and that makes him first cousin to my mother and your father. Now I would call mother's first cousin m

at is the exact relationship between Cousin E

ut it. You must get some old lady to explain it with her keys, a

ging, certainly,

families here have intermarried so often that the relationships are all mixed up, and we always claim kin when there is any ghost of a chance for it

gebrook, under any consequent obligation to cons

ly answer

ey. I am sadly ignorant, you understand, and I do not wish to ma

l him Uncle Carter, of course. He i

f course, but I did not know h

he never was. What

alled him

sort of title or other. They call father 'Colonel Barksdale,' and Cousin Edw

ing custom of the cou

ary,' you know, and then

is she? Is

lady, you understand, and Shirley is her home. You'll find somebody of that sort in nearly every house, and they're a delightful sort of somebody, too, to have round. She'll post you up on relationships. She can use up a whole key-basket full of keys, and run 'em over by name backwards or forwards, just as you please. You needn't follow her though if you object to a

akin to me

s father's own b

only my uncle by marriage, a

real relationship; but she's your cousin, anyhow, and you'll offend

uppose I must. However, in the case of a young