Part 3 (2/2)

It was another bond between them.

After awhile he took a small basket from the wall, and began to fill it with his choicest blooms. ”You shall have these to take home,” he said.

”Now come into the house and get your strawberries.”

She followed him reluctantly, turning back several times for one more long sniff of the delicious fragrance.

She was not at all like the Colonel's ideal of what a little girl should be, as she sat in one of the high, stiff chairs, enjoying her strawberries. Her dusty little toes wriggled around in the curls on Fritz's back, as she used him for a footstool. Her dress was draggled and dirty, and she kept leaning over to give the dog berries and cream from the spoon she was eating with herself.

He forgot all this, however, when she began to talk to him.

”My great-aunt Sally Tylah is to our house this mawnin',” she announced, confidentially. ”That's why we came off. Do you know my Aunt Sally Tylah?”

”Well, slightly!” chuckled the Colonel. ”She was my wife's half-sister.

So you don't like her, eh? Well, I don't like her either.”

He threw back his head and laughed heartily. The more the child talked the more entertaining he found her. He did not remember when he had ever been so amused before as he was by this tiny counterpart of himself.

When the last berry had vanished, she slipped down from the tall chair.

”Do you 'pose it's very late?” she asked, in an anxious voice. ”Mom Beck will be comin' for me soon.”

”Yes, it is nearly noon,” he answered. ”It didn't do much good to run away from your Aunt Tyler; she'll see you after all.”

”Well, she can't 'queeze me an' kiss me, 'cause I've been naughty, an'

I'll be put to bed like I was the othah day, just as soon as I get home.

I 'most wish I was there now,” she sighed. ”It's so fa' an' the sun's so hot. I lost my sunbonnet when I was comin' heah, too.”

Something in the tired, dirty face prompted the old Colonel to say, ”Well, my horse hasn't been put away yet. I'll take you home on Maggie Boy.”

The next moment he repented making such an offer, thinking what the neighbours might say if they should meet him on the road with Elizabeth's child in his arm.

But it was too late. He could not unclasp the trusting little hand that was slipped in his. He could not cloud the happiness of the eager little face by retracting his promise.

He swung himself into the saddle, with her in front. Then he put his one arm around her with a firm clasp, as he reached forward to take the bridle.

”You couldn't take Fritz on behin', could you?” she asked, anxiously.

”He's mighty ti'ed too.”

”No,” said the Colonel, with a laugh. ”Maggie Boy might object and throw us all off.”

Hugging her basket of flowers close in her arms, she leaned her head against him contentedly as they cantered down the avenue.

”Look!” whispered all the locusts, waving their hands to each other excitedly. ”Look! The master has his own again. The dear old times are coming back to us.”

”How the trees blow!” exclaimed the child, looking up at the green arch overhead. ”See! They's all a-noddin' to each othah.” ”We'll have to get my shoes an' 'tockin's,” she said, presently, when they were nearly home. ”They're in that fence cawnah behin' a log.”

<script>