{"product_id":"2940013768789","title":"A Tangled Web","description":"A dozen stories have been told about the old Dark jug.  This is the\u003cbr\u003etrue one.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSeveral things happened in the Dark and Penhallow clan because of\u003cbr\u003eit.  Several other things did NOT happen.  As Uncle Pippin said,\u003cbr\u003ethis may have been Providence or it may have been the devil that\u003cbr\u003ecertainly possessed the jug.  At any rate, had it not been for the\u003cbr\u003ejug, Peter Penhallow might to-day have been photographing lions\u003cbr\u003ealone in African jungles, and Big Sam Dark would, in all\u003cbr\u003eprobability, never have learned to appreciate the beauty of the\u003cbr\u003eunclothed female form.  As for Dandy Dark and Penny Dark, they have\u003cbr\u003enever ceased to congratulate themselves that they got out of the\u003cbr\u003eaffair with whole hides.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLegally, the jug was the property of Aunt Becky Dark, née Rebecca\u003cbr\u003ePenhallow.  For that matter, most of the Darks had been née\u003cbr\u003ePenhallow, and most of the Penhallows had been née Dark, save a\u003cbr\u003egoodly minority who had been Darks née Dark or Penhallows née\u003cbr\u003ePenhallow.  In three generations sixty Darks had been married to\u003cbr\u003esixty Penhallows.  The resultant genealogical tangle baffled\u003cbr\u003eeverybody except Uncle Pippin.  There was really nobody for a Dark\u003cbr\u003eto marry except a Penhallow and nobody for a Penhallow to marry\u003cbr\u003eexcept a Dark.  Once, it had been said, they wouldn't take anybody\u003cbr\u003eelse.  Now, nobody else would take them.  At least, so Uncle Pippin\u003cbr\u003esaid.  But it was necessary to take Uncle Pippin's speeches with a\u003cbr\u003elarge pinch of salt.  Neither the Darks nor the Penhallows were\u003cbr\u003egone to seed as far as that.  They were still a proud, vigorous,\u003cbr\u003eand virile clan who hacked and hewed among themselves but presented\u003cbr\u003ean unbroken front to any alien or hostile force.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn a sense, Aunt Becky was the head of the clan.  In point of\u003cbr\u003eseniority Crosby Penhallow, who was eighty-seven when she was\u003cbr\u003eeighty-five, might have contested her supremacy had he cared to do\u003cbr\u003eso.  But at eighty-seven Crosby Penhallow cared only about one\u003cbr\u003ething.  As long as he could foregather every evening with his old\u003cbr\u003ecrony, Erasmus Dark, to play duets on their flutes and violins,\u003cbr\u003eAunt Becky might hold the sceptre of the clan if she wanted to.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt must be admitted frankly that Aunt Becky was not particularly\u003cbr\u003ebeloved by her clan.  She was too fond of telling them what she\u003cbr\u003ecalled the plain truth.  And, as Uncle Pippin said, while the truth\u003cbr\u003ewas all right, IN ITS PLACE, there was no sense in pouring out\u003cbr\u003egreat gobs of it around where it wasn't wanted.  To Aunt Becky,\u003cbr\u003ehowever, tact and diplomacy and discretion, never to mention any\u003cbr\u003econsideration for any one's feelings, were things unknown.  When\u003cbr\u003eshe wanted to say a thing she said it.  Consequently Aunt Becky's\u003cbr\u003ecompany was never dull whatever else it might be.  One endured the\u003cbr\u003edigs and slams one got oneself for the fun of seeing other people\u003cbr\u003ewrithing under THEIR digs and slams.  As Aunt Becky knew from A to\u003cbr\u003eZ all the sad or fantastic or terrible little histories of the\u003cbr\u003eclan, no one had armour which her shafts could not penetrate.\u003cbr\u003eLittle Uncle Pippin said that he wouldn't miss one of Aunt Becky's\u003cbr\u003e\"levees\" for a dog-fight.  \"She's a personality,\" Dr Harry\u003cbr\u003ePenhallow had once remarked condescendingly, on one of his visits\u003cbr\u003ehome to attend some clan funeral.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"She's a crank,\" growled Drowned John Penhallow, who, being a\u003cbr\u003enotorious crank himself, tolerated no rivals.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"It's the same thing,\" chuckled Uncle Pippin.  \"You're all afraid\u003cbr\u003eof her because she knows too much about you.  I tell you, boys,\u003cbr\u003eit's only Aunt Becky and the likes of her that keeps us all from\u003cbr\u003edry-rotting.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAunt Becky had been \"Aunt Becky\" to everybody for twenty years.\u003cbr\u003eOnce when a letter came to the Indian Spring post-office addressed\u003cbr\u003eto \"Mrs Theodore Dark\" the new postmaster returned it marked\u003cbr\u003e\"Person unknown.\"  Legally, it was Aunt Becky's name.  Once she had\u003cbr\u003ehad a husband and two children.  They were all dead long ago--so\u003cbr\u003elong ago that even Aunt Becky herself had practically forgotten\u003cbr\u003ethem.  For years she had lived in her two rented rooms in The\u003cbr\u003ePinery--otherwise the house of her old friend, Camilla Jackson, at\u003cbr\u003eIndian Spring.  Many Dark and Penhallow homes would have been open\u003cbr\u003eto her, for the clan were never unmindful of their obligations, but\u003cbr\u003eAunt Becky would have none of them.  She had a tiny income of her\u003cbr\u003eown and Camilla, being neither a Dark nor a Penhallow, was easily\u003cbr\u003ebossed.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47069025304816,"sku":"2940013768789","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013768789_p0.jpg?v=1763589979","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013768789","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}