"Miss Cassie was my mother's second cousin on the Adkins side of the family. Big Bill, you may remember that your Mawmaw didn't have much use for the Adkinses. She used to say....Well, that is a story for another time. Anyway," Aunt Cathy paused to pour herself another glass of tea. "Miss Cassie was the bastard daughter of Uncle James and Emma Cooper. Uncle James denied it for years until he was on his deathbed. But Ms. Cassie favored him so much that no one in the family ever doubted that she was his.
    "James and his wife Clara had a bunch of sons, but no daughter to help Aunt Clara with the house. They had got poor Emma from the orphanage over in Ironton and brought her to the farm to help with the women's work. And work that poor girl did. She was just little when they got her, probably only 9 or 10, but they worked her from the start like she was a mule. Miss Cassie said her mother had scars on her back from the beatings they gave her."
    "Everybody in Clay County knew that Uncle James was one to cat around," Aunt Cathy reached over to the old Tom and scratched him under the chin.