to refer to him they usually called him ‘Old 
John Bauk.” They said he always “‘bauked”’ 
when any one wanted him to do a favor. Many 
changes had come over the neighborhood in his 
lifetime, and during the past twenty years beau- 
tiful homes surrounded by attractive grounds had 
been built all about him. But John refused to sell 
his place, living on year after year in his big, de- 
cayed, unpainted house. Some people said that 
he would have to give it up soon for he was far 
behind in his taxes and the sheriff would sell it, 
30 that the county could get its money. 
With this crabbed old man lived his widowed 
daughter, a thin, tired-looking woman, and her 
-ittle Edith about ten years of age. He never 
petted either of them, and the child had always 
been afraid of her grandfather. About the only 
evidence of kindness he showed them was in 
allowing a cat, which they loved, to live on the 
place. It was a scrawny, underfed creature, 
whose chief joy was to sit out at night on the 
ridge of the old tumble-down greenhouse and wail 
aloud its sorrow in the faces of all the stars. 
Old John had a gun and he knew how to use it. 
29 
