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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Little Colonel, by Annie Fellows Johnston
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Little Colonel
+
+Author: Annie Fellows Johnston
+
+Release Date: December, 2005  [EBook #9407]
+Last Updated: August 30, 2012
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LITTLE COLONEL ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David Widger, and Project
+Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE LITTLE COLONEL
+
+By Annie Fellows Johnston
+
+1895
+
+
+TO ONE OF KENTUCKY'S DEAREST LITTLE DAUGHTERS
+
+The Little Colonel
+
+HERSELF--THIS REMEMBRANCE OF A HAPPY SUMMER IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+"'CAUSE I'M SO MUCH LIKE YOU,' WAS THE STARTLING ANSWER".
+"THE SAME TEMPER SEEMED TO BE BURNING IN THE EYES OF THE CHILD".
+"WITH THE PARROT PERCHED ON THE BROOM SHE WAS CARRYING".
+"THE LITTLE COLONEL CLATTERED UP AND DOWN THE HALL".
+"SINGING AT THE TOP OF HER VOICE".
+"'TELL ME GOOD-BY, BABY DEAR,' SAID MRS. SHERMAN".
+"'AMANTHIS,' REPEATED THE CHILD DREAMILY".
+"SHE CLIMBED UP IN FRONT OF THE MIRROR".
+"THE SWEET LITTLE VOICE SANG IT TO THE END".
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+It was one of the prettiest places in all Kentucky where the Little
+Colonel stood that morning. She was reaching up on tiptoes, her eager
+little face pressed close against the iron bars of the great entrance
+gate that led to a fine old estate known as "Locust."
+
+A ragged little Scotch and Skye terrier stood on its hind feet beside
+her, thrusting his inquisitive nose between the bars, and wagging his
+tasselled tail in lively approval of the scene before them.
+
+They were looking down a long avenue that stretched for nearly a quarter
+of a mile between rows of stately old locust-trees.
+
+At the far end they could see the white pillars of a large stone house
+gleaming through the Virginia creeper that nearly covered it. But they
+could not see the old Colonel in his big chair on the porch behind the
+cool screen of vines.
+
+At that very moment he had caught the rattle of wheels along the road,
+and had picked up his field-glass to see who was passing. It was only
+a coloured man jogging along in the heat and dust with a cart full of
+chicken-coops. The Colonel watched him drive up a lane that led to the
+back of the new hotel that had just been opened in this quiet country
+place. Then his glance fell on the two small strangers coming through
+his gate down the avenue toward him. One was the friskiest dog he had
+ever seen in his life. The other was a child he judged to be about five
+years old.
+
+Her shoes were covered with dust, and her white sunbonnet had slipped
+off and was hanging over her shoulders. A bunch of wild flowers she had
+gathered on the way hung limp and faded in her little warm hand. Her
+soft, light hair was cut as short as a boy's.
+
+There was something strangely familiar about the child, especially in
+the erect, graceful way she walked.
+
+Old Colonel Lloyd was puzzled. He had lived all his life in
+Lloydsborough, and this was the first time he had ever failed to
+recognize one of the neighbours' children. He knew every dog and horse,
+too, by sight if not by name.
+
+Living so far from the public road did not limit his knowledge of what
+was going on in the world. A powerful field-glass brought every passing
+object in plain view, while he was saved all annoyance of noise and
+dust.
+
+"I ought to know that child as well as I know my own name," he said to
+himself. "But the dog is a stranger in these parts. Liveliest thing I
+ever set eyes on! They must have come from the hotel. Wonder what they
+want."
+
+He carefully wiped the lens for a better view. When he looked again he
+saw that they evidently had not come to visit him.
+
+They had stopped half-way down the avenue, and climbed up on a rustic
+seat to rest.
+
+The dog sat motionless about two minutes, his red tongue hanging out as
+if he were completely exhausted.
+
+Suddenly he gave a spring, and bounded away through the tall blue grass.
+He was back again in a moment, with a stick in his mouth. Standing
+up with his fore paws in the lap of his little mistress, he looked so
+wistfully into her face that she could not refuse this invitation for a
+romp.
+
+The Colonel chuckled as they went tumbling about in the grass to find
+the stick which the child repeatedly tossed away.
+
+He hitched his chair along to the other end of the porch as they kept
+getting farther away from the avenue.
+
+It had been many a long year since those old locust-trees had seen a
+sight like that. Children never played any more under their dignified
+shadows.
+
+Time had been (but they only whispered this among themselves on rare
+spring days like this) when the little feet chased each other up and
+down the long walk, as much at home as the pewees in the beeches.
+
+Suddenly the little maid stood up straight, and began to sniff the air,
+as if some delicious odour had blown across the lawn.
+
+"Fritz," she exclaimed, in delight, "I 'mell 'trawberries!"
+
+The Colonel, who could not hear the remark, wondered at the abrupt pause
+in the game. He understood it, however, when he saw them wading through
+the tall grass, straight to his strawberry bed. It was the pride of his
+heart, and the finest for miles around. The first berries of the season
+had been picked only the day before. Those that now hung temptingly red
+on the vines he intended to send to his next neighbour, to prove his
+boasted claim of always raising the finest and earliest fruit.
+
+He did not propose to have his plans spoiled by these stray guests.
+Laying the field-glass in its accustomed place on the little table
+beside his chair, he picked up his hat and strode down the walk.
+
+Colonel Lloyd's friends all said he looked like Napoleon, or rather like
+Napoleon might have looked had he been born and bred a Kentuckian.
+
+He made an imposing figure in his suit of white duck.
+
+The Colonel always wore white from May till October.
+
+There was a military precision about him, from his erect carriage to the
+cut of the little white goatee on his determined chin.
+
+No one looking into the firm lines of his resolute face could imagine
+him ever abandoning a purpose or being turned aside when he once formed
+an opinion.
+
+Most children were afraid of him. The darkies about the place shook in
+their shoes when he frowned. They had learned from experience that "ole
+Marse Lloyd had a tigah of a tempah in him."
+
+As he passed down the walk there were two mute witnesses to his old
+soldier life. A spur gleamed on his boot heel, for he had just returned
+from his morning ride, and his right sleeve hung empty.
+
+He had won his title bravely. He had given his only son and his strong
+right arm to the Southern cause. That had been nearly thirty years ago.
+
+He did not charge down on the enemy with his usual force this time. The
+little head, gleaming like sunshine in the strawberry patch,
+reminded him so strongly of a little fellow who used to follow him
+everywhere,--Tom, the sturdiest, handsomest boy in the county,--Tom,
+whom he had been so proud of, whom he had so nearly worshipped.
+
+Looking at this fair head bent over the vines, he could almost forget
+that Tom had ever outgrown his babyhood, that he had shouldered a rifle
+and followed him to camp, a mere boy, to be shot down by a Yankee bullet
+in his first battle.
+
+The old Colonel could almost believe he had him back again, and that he
+stood in the midst of those old days the locusts sometimes whispered
+about.
+
+He could not hear the happiest of little voices that was just then
+saying, "Oh, Fritz, isn't you glad we came? An' isn't you glad we've got
+a gran'fathah with such good 'trawberries?"
+
+It was hard for her to put the "s" before her consonants.
+
+As the Colonel came nearer she tossed another berry into the dog's
+mouth. A twig snapped, and she raised a startled face toward him.
+
+"Suh?" she said, timidly, for it seemed to her that the stern, piercing
+eyes had spoken.
+
+"What are you doing here, child?" he asked, in a voice so much kinder
+than his eyes that she regained her usual self-possession at once.
+
+"Eatin' 'trawberries," she answered, coolly.
+
+"Who are you, anyway?" he exclaimed, much puzzled. As he asked the
+question his gaze happened to rest on the dog, who was peering at him
+through the ragged, elfish wisps of hair nearly covering its face, with
+eyes that were startlingly human.
+
+"'Peak when yo'ah 'poken to, Fritz," she said, severely, at the same
+time popping another luscious berry into her mouth. Fritz obediently
+gave a long yelp. The Colonel smiled grimly.
+
+"What's your name?" he asked, this time looking directly at her.
+
+"Mothah calls me her baby," was the soft-spoken reply, "but papa an' Mom
+Beck they calls me the Little Cun'l."
+
+"What under the sun do they call you that for?" he roared.
+
+"'Cause I'm so much like you," was the startling answer.
+
+"Like me!" fairly gasped the Colonel. "How are you like me?"
+
+"Oh, I'm got such a vile tempah, an' I stamps my foot when I gets mad,
+an' gets all red in the face. An' I hollahs at folks, an' looks jus' zis
+way."
+
+She drew her face down and puckered her lips into such a sullen pout
+that it looked as if a thunder-storm had passed over it. The next
+instant she smiled up at him serenely. The Colonel laughed. "What makes
+you think I am like that?" he said. "You never saw me before."
+
+"Yes, I have too," she persisted. "You's a-hangin' in a gold frame over
+ou' mantel."
+
+Just then a clear, high voice was heard calling out in the road.
+
+The child started up in alarm. "Oh, deah," she exclaimed in dismay, at
+sight of the stains on her white dress, where she had been kneeling on
+the fruit, "that's Mom Beck. Now I'll be tied up, and maybe put to bed
+for runnin' away again. But the berries is mighty nice," she added,
+politely. "Good mawnin', suh. Fritz, we mus' be goin' now."
+
+The voice was coming nearer.
+
+"I'll walk down to the gate with you," said the Colonel, anxious to
+learn something more about his little guest. "Oh, you'd bettah not,
+suh!" she cried in alarm. "Mom Beck doesn't like you a bit. She just
+hates you! She's goin' to give you a piece of her mind the next time she
+sees you. I heard her tell Aunt Nervy so."
+
+There was as much real distress in the child's voice as if she were
+telling him of a promised flogging.
+
+"Lloyd! Aw, Lloy-eed!" the call came again.
+
+A neat-looking coloured woman glanced in at the gate as she was passing
+by, and then stood still in amazement. She had often found her little
+charge playing along the roadside or hiding behind trees, but she had
+never before known her to pass through any one's gate.
+
+As the name came floating down to him through the clear air, a change
+came over the Colonel's stern face. He stooped over the child. His hand
+trembled as he put it under her soft chin and raised her eyes to his.
+
+"Lloyd, Lloyd!" he repeated, in a puzzled way. "Can it be possible?
+There certainly is a wonderful resemblance. You have my little Tom's
+hair, and only my baby Elizabeth ever had such hazel eyes."
+
+He caught her up in his one arm, and strode on to the gate, where the
+coloured woman stood.
+
+"Why, Becky, is that you?" he cried, recognizing an old, trusted servant
+who had lived at Locust in his wife's lifetime.
+
+Her only answer was a sullen nod.
+
+"Whose child is this?" he asked, eagerly, without seeming to notice her
+defiant looks. "Tell me if you can."
+
+"How can I tell you, suh," she demanded, indignantly, "when you have
+fo'bidden even her name to be spoken befo' you?"
+
+A harsh look came into the Colonel's eyes. He put the child hastily
+down, and pressed his lips together.
+
+"Don't tie my sunbonnet, Mom Beck," she begged. Then she waved her hand
+with an engaging smile.
+
+"Good-bye, suh," she said, graciously. "We've had a mighty nice time!"
+
+The Colonel took off his hat with his usual courtly bow, but he spoke no
+word in reply.
+
+When the last flutter of her dress had disappeared around the bend of
+the road, he walked slowly back toward the house.
+
+Half-way down the long avenue where she had stopped to rest, he sat down
+on the same rustic seat. He could feel her soft little fingers resting
+on his neck, where they had lain when he carried her to the gate.
+
+A very un-Napoleonlike mist blurred his sight for a moment. It had been
+so long since such a touch had thrilled him, so long since any caress
+had been given him.
+
+More than a score of years had gone by since Tom had been laid in a
+soldier's grave, and the years that Elizabeth had been lost to him
+seemed almost a lifetime.
+
+And this was Elizabeth's little daughter. Something very warm and sweet
+seemed to surge across his heart as he thought of the Little Colonel. He
+was glad, for a moment, that they called her that; glad that his only
+grandchild looked enough like himself for others to see the resemblance.
+
+But the feeling passed as he remembered that his daughter had married
+against his wishes, and he had closed his doors for ever against her.
+
+The old bitterness came back redoubled in its force.
+
+The next instant he was stamping down the avenue, roaring for Walker,
+his body-servant, in such a tone that the cook's advice was speedily
+taken: "Bettah hump yo'self outen dis heah kitchen befo' de ole tigah
+gits to lashin' roun' any pearter."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+Mom Beck carried the ironing-board out of the hot kitchen, set the irons
+off the stove, and then tiptoed out to the side porch of the little
+cottage.
+
+"Is yo' head feelin' any bettah, honey?" she said to the pretty,
+girlish-looking woman lying in the hammock. "I promised to step up to
+the hotel this evenin' to see one of the chambah-maids. I thought I'd
+take the Little Cun'l along with me if you was willin'. She's always
+wild to play with Mrs. Wyford's children up there."
+
+"Yes, I'm better, Becky," was the languid reply. "Put a clean dress on
+Lloyd if you are going to take her out."
+
+Mrs. Sherman closed her eyes again, thinking gratefully, "Dear, faithful
+old Becky! What a comfort she has been all my life, first as my nurse,
+and now as Lloyd's! She is worth her weight in gold!"
+
+The afternoon shadows were stretching long across the grass when Mom
+Beck led the child up the green slope in front of the hotel.
+
+The Little Colonel had danced along so gaily with Fritz that her cheeks
+glowed like wild roses. She made a quaint little picture with such short
+sunny hair and dark eyes shining out from under the broad-brimmed white
+hat she wore.
+
+Several ladies who were sitting on the shady piazza, busy with their
+embroidery, noticed her admiringly. "It's Elizabeth Lloyd's little
+daughter," one of them explained. "Don't you remember what a scene there
+was some years ago when she married a New York man? Sherman, I believe,
+his name was, Jack Sherman. He was a splendid fellow, and enormously
+wealthy. Nobody could say a word against him, except that he was a
+Northerner. That was enough for the old Colonel, though. He hates
+Yankees like poison. He stormed and swore, and forbade Elizabeth ever
+coming in his sight again. He had her room locked up, and not a soul on
+the place ever dares mention her name in his hearing."
+
+The Little Colonel sat down demurely on the piazza steps to wait for the
+children. The nurse had not finished dressing them for the evening.
+
+She amused herself by showing Fritz the pictures in an illustrated
+weekly. It was not long until she began to feel that the ladies were
+talking about her. She had lived among older people so entirely that
+her thoughts were much deeper than her baby speeches would lead one to
+suppose.
+
+She understood dimly, from what she had heard the servants say, that
+there was some trouble between her mother and grandfather. Now she heard
+it rehearsed from beginning to end. She could not understand what
+they meant by "bank failures" and "unfortunate investments," but she
+understood enough to know that her father had lost nearly all his money,
+and had gone West to make more.
+
+Mrs. Sherman had moved from their elegant New York home two weeks ago
+to this little cottage in Lloydsborough that her mother had left her.
+Instead of the houseful of servants they used to have, there was only
+faithful Mom Beck to do everything.
+
+There was something magnetic in the child's eyes.
+
+Mrs. Wyford shrugged her shoulders uneasily as she caught their piercing
+gaze fixed on her.
+
+"I do believe that little witch understood every word I said," she
+exclaimed.
+
+"Oh, certainly not," was the reassuring answer. "She's such a little
+thing."
+
+But she had heard it all, and understood enough to make her vaguely
+unhappy. Going home she did not frisk along with Fritz, but walked
+soberly by Mom Beck's side, holding tight to the friendly black hand.
+
+"We'll go through the woods," said Mom Beck, lifting her over the fence.
+"It's not so long that way."
+
+As they followed the narrow, straggling path into the cool dusk of
+the woods, she began to sing. The crooning chant was as mournful as a
+funeral dirge.
+
+  "The clouds hang heavy, an' it's gwine to rain.
+  Fa'well, my dyin' friends.
+  I'm gwine to lie in the silent tomb.
+  Fa'well, my dyin' friends."
+
+A muffled little sob made her stop and look down in surprise.
+
+"Why, what's the mattah, honey?" she exclaimed. "Did Emma Louise make
+you mad? Or is you cryin' 'cause you're so ti'ed? Come! Ole Becky'll
+tote her baby the rest of the way."
+
+She picked the light form up in her arms, and, pressing the troubled
+little face against her shoulder, resumed her walk and her song.
+
+  "It's a world of trouble we're travellin' through,
+  Fa'well, my dyin' friends."
+
+"Oh, don't, Mom Beck," sobbed the child, throwing her arms around the
+woman's neck, and crying as though her heart would break.
+
+"Land sakes, what is the mattah?" she asked, in alarm. She sat down on a
+mossy log, took off the white hat, and looked into the flushed, tearful
+face.
+
+"Oh, it makes me so lonesome when you sing that way," wailed the Little
+Colonel. "I just can't 'tand it! Mom Beck, is my mothah's heart all
+broken? Is that why she is sick so much, and will it kill her suah
+'nuff?"
+
+"Who's been tellin' you such nonsense?" asked the woman, sharply.
+
+"Some ladies at the hotel were talkin' about it. They said that
+gran'fathah didn't love her any moah, an' it was just a-killin' her."
+Mom Beck frowned fiercely.
+
+The child's grief was so deep and intense that she did not know just
+how to quiet her. Then she said, decidedly, "Well, if that's all that's
+a-troublin' you, you can jus' get down an' walk home on yo' own laigs.
+Yo' mamma's a-grievin' 'cause yo' papa has to be away all the time.
+She's all wo'n out, too, with the work of movin', when she's nevah been
+used to doin' anything. But her heart isn't broke any moah'n my neck
+is."
+
+The positive words and the decided toss Mom Beck gave her head settled
+the matter for the Little Colonel. She wiped her eyes and stood up much
+relieved.
+
+"Don't you nevah go to worryin' 'bout what you heahs," continued the
+woman. "I tell you p'intedly you cyarnt nevah b'lieve what you heahs."
+
+"Why doesn't gran'fathah love my mothah?" asked the child, as they came
+in sight of the cottage. She had puzzled over the knotty problem all the
+way home. "How can papas not love their little girls?"
+
+"'Cause he's stubbo'n," was the unsatisfactory answer. "All the Lloyds
+is. Yo' mamma's stubbo'n, an' you's stubbo'n--"
+
+"I'm not!" shrieked the Little Colonel, stamping her foot. "You sha'n't
+call me names!"
+
+Then she saw a familiar white hand waving to her from the hammock, and
+she broke away from Mom Beck with very red cheeks and very bright eyes.
+
+Cuddled close in her mother's arms, she had a queer feeling that she had
+grown a great deal older in that short afternoon.
+
+Maybe she had. For the first time in her little life she kept her
+troubles to herself, and did not once mention the thought that was
+uppermost in her mind.
+
+"Yo' great-aunt Sally Tylah is comin' this mawnin'," said Mom Beck, the
+day after their visit to the hotel. "Do fo' goodness' sake keep yo'self
+clean. I'se got too many spring chickens to dress to think 'bout
+dressin' you up again."
+
+"Did I evah see her befo'?" questioned the Little Colonel.
+
+"Why, yes, the day we moved heah. Don't you know she came and stayed so
+long, and the rockah broke off the little white rockin'-chair when she
+sat down in it?"
+
+"Oh, now I know!" laughed the child. "She's the big fat one with curls
+hangin' round her yeahs like shavin's. I don't like her, Mom Beck. She
+keeps a-kissin' me all the time, an' a-'queezin' me, an' tellin' me to
+sit on her lap an' be a little lady. Mom Beck, I de'pise to be a little
+lady."
+
+There was no answer to her last remark. Mom Beck had stepped into the
+pantry for more eggs for the cake she was making.
+
+"Fritz," said the Little Colonel, "yo' great-aunt Sally Tylah's comin'
+this mawnin', an' if you don't want to say 'howdy' to her you'll have to
+come with me."
+
+A few minutes later a resolute little figure squeezed between the
+palings of the garden fence down by the gooseberry bushes.
+
+"Now walk on your tiptoes, Fritz!" commanded the Little Colonel, "else
+somebody will call us back."
+
+Mom Beck, busy with her extra baking, supposed she was with her mother
+on the shady, vine-covered porch.
+
+She would not have been singing quite so gaily if she could have seen
+half a mile up the road.
+
+The Little Colonel was sitting in the weeds by the railroad track,
+deliberately taking off her shoes and stockings.
+
+"Just like a little niggah," she said, delightedly, as she stretched out
+her bare feet. "Mom Beck says I ought to know bettah. But it does feel
+so good!"
+
+No telling how long she might have sat there enjoying the forbidden
+pleasure of dragging her rosy toes through the warm dust, if she had not
+heard a horse's hoof-beats coming rapidly along.
+
+"Fritz, it's gran'fathah," she whispered, in alarm, recognizing the
+erect figure of the rider in its spotless suit of white duck.
+
+"Sh! lie down in the weeds, quick! Lie down, I say!" They both made
+themselves as flat as possible, and lay there panting with the exertion
+of keeping still.
+
+Presently the Little Colonel raised her head cautiously.
+
+"Oh, he's gone down that lane!" she exclaimed. "Now you can get up."
+After a moment's deliberation she asked, "Fritz, would you rathah have
+some 'trawberries an' be tied up fo' runnin' away, or not be tied up and
+not have any of those nice tas'en 'trawberries?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+Two hours later, Colonel Lloyd, riding down the avenue under the
+locusts, was surprised by a novel sight on his stately front steps.
+
+Three little darkies and a big flop-eared hound were crouched on the
+bottom step, looking up at the Little Colonel, who sat just above them.
+
+She was industriously stirring something in an old rusty pan with a big,
+battered spoon.
+
+"Now, May Lilly," she ordered, speaking to the largest and blackest of
+the group, "you run an' find some nice 'mooth pebbles to put in for
+raisins. Henry Clay, you go get me some moah sand. This is 'most too
+wet."
+
+"Here, you little pickaninnies!" roared the Colonel, as he recognized
+the cook's children. "What did I tell you about playing around here,
+tracking dirt all over my premises? You just chase back to the cabin
+where you belong!"
+
+The sudden call startled Lloyd so that she dropped the pan, and the
+great mud pie turned upside down on the white steps.
+
+"Well, you're a pretty sight!" said the Colonel, as he glanced with
+disgust from her soiled dress and muddy hands to her bare feet.
+
+He had been in a bad humour all morning. The sight of the steps covered
+with sand and muddy tracks gave him an excuse to give vent to his cross
+feelings.
+
+It was one of his theories that a little girl should always be kept as
+fresh and dainty as a flower. He had never seen his own little daughter
+in such a plight as this, and she had never been allowed to step outside
+of her own room without her shoes and stockings.
+
+"What does your mother mean," he cried, savagely, "by letting you run
+barefooted around the country just like poor white trash? An' what are
+you playing with low-flung niggers for? Haven't you ever been taught any
+better? I suppose it's some of your father's miserable Yankee notions."
+
+May Lilly, peeping around the corner of the house, rolled her frightened
+eyes from one angry face to the other. The same temper that glared from
+the face of the man, sitting erect in his saddle, seemed to be burning
+in the eyes of the child, who stood so defiantly before him. The same
+kind of scowl drew their eyebrows together darkly.
+
+"Don't you talk that way to me," cried the Little Colonel, trembling
+with a wrath she did not know how to express.
+
+Suddenly she stooped, and snatching both hands full of mud from the
+overturned pie, flung it wildly over the spotless white coat.
+
+Colonel Lloyd gasped with astonishment. It was the first time in his
+life he had ever been openly defied. The next moment his anger gave way
+to amusement.
+
+"By George!" he chuckled, admiringly. "The little thing has got spirit,
+sure enough. She's a Lloyd through and through. So that's why they call
+her the 'Little Colonel,' is it?"
+
+There was a tinge of pride in the look he gave her haughty little head
+and flashing eyes. "There, there, child!" he said, soothingly. "I didn't
+mean to make you mad, when you were good enough to come and see me. It
+isn't often I have a little lady like you pay me a visit."
+
+"I didn't come to see you, suh," she answered, indignantly, as she
+started toward the gate. "I came to see May Lilly. But I nevah would
+have come inside yo' gate if I'd known you was goin' to hollah at me an'
+be so cross."
+
+She was walking off with the air of an offended queen, when the Colonel
+remembered that if he allowed her to go away in that mood she would
+probably never set foot on his grounds again. Her display of temper had
+interested him immensely.
+
+Now that he had laughed off his ill humour, he was anxious to see what
+other traits of character she possessed. He wheeled his horse across the
+walk to bar her way, and quickly dismounted.
+
+"Oh, now, wait a minute," he said, in a coaxing tone. "Don't you want
+a nice big saucer of strawberries and cream before you go? Walker's
+picking some now. And you haven't seen my hothouse. It's just full of
+the loveliest flowers you ever saw. You like roses, don't you, and pinks
+and lilies and pansies?"
+
+He saw he had struck the right chord as soon as he mentioned the
+flowers. The sullen look vanished as if by magic. Her face changed as
+suddenly as an April day.
+
+"Oh, yes!" she cried, with a beaming smile. "I loves 'm bettah than
+anything!"
+
+He tied his horse, and led the way to the conservatory. He opened the
+door for her to pass through, and then watched her closely to see what
+impression it would make on her. He had expected a delighted exclamation
+of surprise, for he had good reason to be proud of his rare plants. They
+were arranged with a true artist's eye for colour and effect.
+
+She did not say a word for a moment, but drew a long breath, while the
+delicate pink in her cheeks deepened and her eyes lighted up. Then she
+began going slowly from flower to flower, laying her face against the
+cool, velvety purple of the pansies, touching the roses with her lips,
+and tilting the white lily-cups to look into their golden depths.
+
+As she passed from one to another as lightly as a butterfly might have
+done, she began chanting in a happy undertone.
+
+Ever since she had learned to talk she had a quaint little way of
+singing to herself. All the names that pleased her fancy she strung
+together in a crooning melody of her own.
+
+There was no special tune. It sounded happy, although nearly always in a
+minor key.
+
+"Oh, the jonquils an' the lilies!" she sang. "All white an' gold an'
+yellow. Oh, they're all a-smilin' at me, an' a-sayin' howdy! howdy!"
+
+She was so absorbed in her intense enjoyment that she forgot all about
+the old Colonel. She was wholly unconscious that he was watching or
+listening.
+
+"She really does love them," he thought, complacently. "To see her face
+one would think she had found a fortune."
+
+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."
+
+The Colonel obediently got down and handed them to her. As he mounted
+again he saw a carriage coming toward them. He recognized one of his
+nearest neighbours. Striking the astonished Maggie Boy with his spur,
+he turned her across the railroad track, down the steep embankment, and
+into an unfrequented lane.
+
+"This road is just back of your garden," he said. "Can you get through
+the fence if I take you there?"
+
+"That's the way we came out," was the answer. "See that hole where the
+palin's are off?"
+
+Just as he was about to lift her down, she put one arm around his neck,
+and kissed him softly on the cheek. "Good-bye, gran'fatha'," she said,
+in her most winning way. "I've had a mighty nice time." Then she added,
+in a lower tone, "'Kuse me fo' throwin' mud on yo' coat."
+
+He held her close a moment, thinking nothing had ever before been half
+so sweet as the way she called him grandfather.
+
+From that moment his heart went out to her as it had to little Tom and
+Elizabeth. It made no difference if her mother had forfeited his love.
+It made no difference if Jack Sherman was her father, and that the two
+men heartily hated each other.
+
+It was his own little grandchild he held in his arms.
+
+She had sealed the relationship with a trusting kiss.
+
+"Child," he said, huskily, "you will come and see me again, won't you,
+no matter if they do tell you not to? You shall have all the flowers and
+berries you want, and you can ride Maggie Boy as often as you please."
+
+She looked up into his face. It was very familiar to her. She had looked
+at his portrait often, unconsciously recognizing a kindred spirit that
+she longed to know.
+
+Her ideas of grandfathers, gained from stories and observation, led her
+to class them with fairy godmothers. She had always wished for one.
+
+The day they moved to Lloydsborough, Locust had been pointed out to her
+as her grandfather's home. From that time on she slipped away with
+Fritz on every possible occasion to peer through the gate, hoping for a
+glimpse of him.
+
+"Yes, I'll come suah!" she promised. "I likes you just lots,
+gran'fathah!" He watched her scramble through the hole in the fence.
+Then he turned his horse's head slowly homeward.
+
+A scrap of white lying on the grass attracted his attention as he neared
+the gate.
+
+"It's the lost sunbonnet," he said, with a smile. He carried it into the
+house, and hung it on the hat-rack in the wide front hall.
+
+"Ole marse is crosser'n two sticks," growled Walker to the cook at
+dinner. "There ain't no livin' with him. What do you s'pose is the
+mattah?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+Mom Beck was busy putting lunch on the table when the Little Colonel
+looked in at the kitchen door.
+
+So she did not see a little tramp, carrying her shoes in one hand, and a
+basket in the other, who paused there a moment. But when she took up the
+pan of beaten biscuit she was puzzled to find that several were missing.
+
+"It beats my time," she said, aloud. "The parrot couldn't have reached
+them, an' Lloyd an' the dog have been in the pa'lah all mawnin'.
+Somethin' has jus' natch'ly done sperrited 'em away."
+
+Fritz was gravely licking his lips, and the Little Colonel had her mouth
+full, when they suddenly made their appearance on the front porch.
+
+Aunt Sally Tyler gave a little shriek, and stopped rocking.
+
+"Why, Lloyd Sherman!" gasped her mother, in dismay. "Where have you
+been? I thought you were with Becky all the time. I was sure I heard you
+singing out there a little while ago."
+
+"I've been to see my gran'fathah," said the child, speaking very fast.
+"I made mud pies on his front 'teps, an' we both of us got mad, an'
+I throwed mud on him, an' he gave me some 'trawberries an' all these
+flowers, an' brought me home on Maggie Boy."
+
+She stopped out of breath. Mrs. Tyler and her niece exchanged astonished
+glances.
+
+"But, baby, how could you disgrace mother so by going up there looking
+like a dirty little beggar?"
+
+"He didn't care," replied Lloyd, calmly. "He made me promise to come
+again, no mattah if you all did tell me not to."
+
+Just then Becky announced that lunch was ready, and carried the child
+away to make her presentable.
+
+To Lloyd's great surprise she was not put to bed, but was allowed to go
+to the table as soon as she was dressed. It was not long until she had
+told every detail of the morning's experience.
+
+While she was taking her afternoon nap, the two ladies sat out on the
+porch, gravely discussing all she had told them.
+
+"It doesn't seem right for me to allow her to go there," said Mrs.
+Sherman, "after the way papa has treated us. I can never forgive him
+for all the terrible things he has said about Jack, and I know Jack can
+never be friends with him on account of what he has said about me. He
+has been so harsh and unjust that I don't want my little Lloyd to have
+anything to do with him. I wouldn't for worlds have him think that I
+encouraged her going there."
+
+"Well, yes, I know," answered her aunt, slowly. "But there are some
+things to consider besides your pride, Elizabeth. There's the child
+herself, you know. Now that Jack has lost so much, and your prospects
+are so uncertain, you ought to think of her interests. It would be a
+pity for Locust to go to strangers when it has been in your family for
+so many generations. That's what it certainly will do unless something
+turns up to interfere. Old Judge Woodard told me himself that your
+father had made a will, leaving everything he owns to some medical
+institution. Imagine Locust being turned into a sanitarium or a
+training-school for nurses!"
+
+"Dear old place!" said Mrs. Sherman, with tears in her eyes. "No one
+ever had a happier childhood than I passed under these old locusts.
+Every tree seems like a friend. I would be glad for Lloyd to enjoy the
+place as I did."
+
+"I'd let her go as much as she pleases, Elizabeth. She's so much like
+the old Colonel that they ought to understand each other, and get along
+capitally. Who knows, it might end in you all making up some day."
+
+Mrs. Sherman raised her head haughtily. "No, indeed, Aunt Sally. I can
+forgive and forget much, but you are greatly mistaken if you think I can
+go to such lengths as that. He closed his doors against me with a curse,
+for no reason on earth but that the man I loved was born north of the
+Mason and Dixon line. There never was a nobler man living than Jack,
+and papa would have seen it if he hadn't deliberately shut his eyes and
+refused to look at him. He was just prejudiced and stubborn."
+
+Aunt Sally said nothing, but her thoughts took the shape of Mom Beck's
+declaration, "The Lloyds is all stubborn."
+
+"I wouldn't go through his gate now if he got down on his knees and
+begged me," continued Elizabeth, hotly.
+
+"It's too bad," exclaimed her aunt; "he was always so perfectly devoted
+to 'little daughter,' as he used to call you. I don't like him myself.
+We never could get along together at all, because he is so high-strung
+and overbearing. But I know it would have made your poor mother mighty
+unhappy if she could have foreseen all this."
+
+Elizabeth sat with the tears dropping down on her little white hands,
+as her aunt proceeded to work on her sympathies in every way she could
+think of.
+
+Presently Lloyd came out all fresh and rosy from her long nap, and went
+to play in the shade of the great beech-trees that guarded the cottage.
+
+"I never saw a child with such influence over animals," said her mother,
+as Lloyd came around the house with the parrot perched on the broom she
+was carrying. "She'll walk right up to any strange dog and make friends
+with it, no matter how savage-looking it is. And there's Polly, so old
+and cross that she screams and scolds dreadfully if any of us go near
+her. But Lloyd dresses her up in doll's clothes, puts paper bonnets on
+her, and makes her just as uncomfortable as she pleases. Look! that is
+one of her favourite amusements."
+
+The Little Colonel squeezed the parrot into a tiny doll carriage, and
+began to trundle it back and forth as fast as she could run.
+
+"Ha! ha!" screamed the bird. "Polly is a lady! Oh, Lordy! I'm so happy!"
+
+"She caught that from the washerwoman," laughed Mrs. Sherman. "I should
+think the poor thing would be dizzy from whirling around so fast."
+
+"Quit that, chillun; stop yo' fussin'," screamed Polly, as Lloyd grabbed
+her up and began to pin a shawl around her neck. She clucked angrily,
+but never once attempted to snap at the dimpled fingers that squeezed
+her tight. Suddenly, as if her patience was completely exhausted, she
+uttered a disdainful "Oh, pshaw!" and flew up into an old cedar-tree.
+
+"Mothah! Polly won't play with me any moah," shrieked the child, flying
+into a rage. She stamped and scowled and grew red in the face. Then she
+began beating the trunk of the tree with the old broom she had been
+carrying.
+
+"Did you ever see anything so much like the old Colonel?" said Mrs.
+Tyler, in astonishment. "I wonder if she acted that way this morning."
+
+"I don't doubt it at all," answered Mrs. Sherman. "She'll be over it in
+just a moment. These little spells never last long."
+
+Mrs. Sherman was right. In a few moments Lloyd came up the walk,
+singing.
+
+"I wish you'd tell me a pink story," she said, coaxingly, as she leaned
+against her mother's knee.
+
+"Not now, dear; don't you see that I am busy talking to Aunt Sally? Run
+and ask Mom Beck for one."
+
+"What on earth does she mean by a pink story?" asked Mrs. Tyler.
+
+"Oh, she is so fond of colours. She is always asking for a pink or a
+blue or a white story. She wants everything in the story tinged with
+whatever colour she chooses,--dresses, parasols, flowers, sky, even the
+icing on the cakes and the paper on the walls."
+
+"What an odd little thing she is!" exclaimed Mrs. Tyler. "Isn't she lots
+of company for you?"
+
+She need not have asked that question if she could have seen them that
+evening, sitting together in the early twilight.
+
+Lloyd was in her mother's lap, leaning her head against her shoulder
+as they rocked slowly back and forth on the dark porch.
+
+There was an occasional rattle of wheels along the road, a twitter of
+sleepy birds, a distant croaking of frogs.
+
+Mom Beck's voice floated in from the kitchen, where she was stepping
+briskly around.
+
+  "Oh, the clouds hang heavy, an' it's gwine to rain.
+  Fa'well, my dyin' friends,"
+
+she sang.
+
+Lloyd put her arms closer around her mother's neck.
+
+"Let's talk about Papa Jack," she said. "What you 'pose he's doin' now,
+'way out West?"
+
+Elizabeth, feeling like a tired, homesick child herself, held her close,
+and was comforted as she listened to the sweet little voice talking
+about the absent father.
+
+The moon came up after awhile, and streamed in through the vines of
+the porch. The hazel eyes slowly closed as Elizabeth began to hum an
+old-time negro lullaby.
+
+"Wondah if she'll run away to-morrow," whispered Mom Beck, as she came
+out to carry her in the house.
+
+"Who'd evah think now, lookin' at her pretty, innocent face, that she
+could be so naughty? Bless her little soul!"
+
+The kind old black face was laid lovingly a moment against the fair,
+soft cheek of the Little Colonel. Then she lifted her in her strong
+arms, and carried her gently away to bed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+Summer lingers long among the Kentucky hills. Each passing day seemed
+fairer than the last to the Little Colonel, who had never before known
+anything of country life.
+
+Roses climbed up and almost hid the small white cottage. Red birds
+sang in the woodbine. Squirrels chattered in the beeches. She was
+out-of-doors all day long.
+
+Sometimes she spent hours watching the ants carry away the sugar she
+sprinkled for them. Sometimes she caught flies for an old spider that
+had his den under the porch steps. "He is an ogah" (ogre), she explained
+to Fritz. "He's bewitched me so's I have to kill whole families of flies
+for him to eat."
+
+She was always busy and always happy.
+
+Before June was half over it got to be a common occurrence for Walker
+to ride up to the gate on the Colonel's horse. The excuse was always to
+have a passing word with Mom Beck. But before he rode away, the Little
+Colonel was generally mounted in front of him. It was not long before
+she felt almost as much at home at Locust as she did at the cottage.
+
+The neighbours began to comment on it after awhile. "He will surely make
+up with Elizabeth at this rate," they said. But at the end of the summer
+the father and daughter had not even had a passing glimpse of each
+other. One day, late in September, as the Little Colonel clattered up
+and down the hall with her grandfather's spur buckled on her tiny foot,
+she called back over her shoulder: "Papa Jack's comin' home to-morrow."
+
+The Colonel paid no attention.
+
+"I say," she repeated, "Papa Jack's comin' home to-morrow."
+
+"Well," was the gruff response. "Why couldn't he stay where he was? I
+suppose you won't want to come here any more after he gets back."
+
+"No, I 'pose not," she answered, so carelessly that he was conscious of
+a very jealous feeling.
+
+"Chilluns always like to stay with their fathahs when they's nice as my
+Papa Jack is."
+
+The old man growled something behind his newspaper that she did not
+hear. He would have been glad to choke this man who had come between him
+and his only child, and he hated him worse than ever when he realized
+what a large place he held in Lloyd's little heart.
+
+She did not go back to Locust the next day, nor for weeks after that.
+
+She was up almost as soon as Mom Beck next morning, thoroughly enjoying
+the bustle of preparation.
+
+She had a finger in everything, from polishing the silver to turning the
+ice-cream freezer.
+
+Even Fritz was scrubbed till he came out of his bath with his curls all
+white and shining. He was proud of himself, from his silky bangs to the
+tip of his tasselled tail.
+
+Just before train time, the Little Colonel stuck his collar full of late
+pink roses, and stood back to admire the effect. Her mother came to the
+door, dressed for the evening. She wore an airy-looking dress of the
+palest, softest blue. There was a white rosebud caught in her dark hair.
+A bright colour, as fresh as Lloyd's own, tinged her cheeks, and the
+glad light in her brown eyes made them unusually brilliant.
+
+Lloyd jumped up and threw her arms about her. "Oh, mothah," she cried,
+"you an' Fritz is so bu'ful!"
+
+The engine whistled up the road at the crossing. "Come, we have just
+time to get to the station," said Mrs. Sherman, holding out her hand.
+
+They went through the gate, down the narrow path that ran beside the
+dusty road. The train had just stopped in front of the little station
+when they reached it.
+
+A number of gentlemen, coming out from the city to spend Sunday at the
+hotel, came down the steps. They glanced admiringly from the beautiful,
+girlish face of the mother to the happy child dancing impatiently up and
+down at her side. They could not help smiling at Fritz as he frisked
+about in his imposing rose-collar.
+
+"Why, where's Papa Jack?" asked Lloyd, in distress, as passenger after
+passenger stepped down. "Isn't he goin' to come?"
+
+The tears were beginning to gather in her eyes, when she saw him in the
+door of the car; not hurrying along to meet them as he always used to
+come, so full of life and vigour, but leaning heavily on the porter's
+shoulder, looking very pale and weak.
+
+Lloyd looked up at her mother, from whose face every particle of colour
+had faded. Mrs. Sherman gave a low, frightened cry as she sprang forward
+to meet him. "Oh, Jack! what is the matter? What has happened to you?"
+she exclaimed, as he took her in his arms. The train had gone on, and
+they were left alone on the platform.
+
+"Just a little sick spell," he answered, with a smile. "We had a fire
+out at the mines, and I overtaxed myself some. I've had fever ever
+since, and it has pulled me down considerably."
+
+"I must send somebody for a carriage," she said, looking around
+anxiously.
+
+"No, indeed," he protested. "It's only a few steps; I can walk it
+as well as not. The sight of you and the baby has made me stronger
+already."
+
+He sent a coloured boy on ahead with his valise, and they walked slowly
+up the path, with Fritz running wildly around them, barking a glad
+welcome.
+
+"How sweet and homelike it all looks!" he said, as he stepped into the
+hall, where Mom Beck was just lighting the lamps. Then he sank down on
+the couch, completely exhausted, and wearily closed his eyes.
+
+The Little Colonel looked at his white face in alarm. All the gladness
+seemed to have been taken out of the homecoming.
+
+Her mother was busy trying to make him comfortable, and paid no
+attention to the disconsolate little figure wandering about the house
+alone. Mom Beck had gone for the doctor.
+
+The supper was drying up in the warming-oven. The ice-cream was melting
+in the freezer. Nobody seemed to care. There was no one to notice the
+pretty table with its array of flowers and cut glass and silver.
+
+When Mom Beck came back, Lloyd ate all by herself, and then sat out on
+the kitchen door-step while the doctor made his visit.
+
+She was just going mournfully off to bed with an aching lump in her
+throat, when her mother opened the door.
+
+"Come tell papa good-night," she said. "He's lots better now."
+
+She climbed up on the bed beside him, and buried her face on his
+shoulder to hide the tears she had been trying to keep back all evening.
+
+"How the child has grown!" he exclaimed. "Do you notice, Beth, how much
+plainer she talks? She does not seem at all like the baby I left last
+spring. Well, she'll soon be six years old,--a real little woman. She'll
+be papa's little comfort."
+
+The ache in her throat was all gone after that. She romped with Fritz
+all the time she was undressing.
+
+Papa Jack was worse next morning. It was hard for Lloyd to keep quiet
+when the late September sunshine was so gloriously yellow and the whole
+outdoors seemed so wide awake.
+
+She tiptoed out of the darkened room where her father lay, and swung on
+the front gate until she saw the doctor riding up on his bay horse. It
+seemed to her that the day never would pass.
+
+Mom Beck, rustling around in her best dress ready for church, that
+afternoon, took pity on the lonesome child.
+
+"Go get yo' best hat, honey," she said, "an' I'll take you with me."
+
+It was one of the Little Colonel's greatest pleasures to be allowed to
+go to the coloured church.
+
+She loved to listen to the singing, and would sit perfectly motionless
+while the sweet voices blended like the chords of some mighty organ
+as they sent the old hymns rolling heavenward. Service had already
+commenced by the time they took their seats. Nearly everybody in the
+congregation was swaying back and forth in time to the mournful melody
+of "Sinnah, sinnah, where's you boun'?"
+
+One old woman across the aisle began clapping her hands together, and
+repeated in a singsong tone, "Oh, Lordy! I'm so happy!"
+
+"Why, that's just what our parrot says," exclaimed Lloyd, so much
+surprised that she spoke right out loud.
+
+Mom Beck put her handkerchief over her mouth, and a general smile went
+around.
+
+After that the child was very quiet until the time came to take the
+collection. She always enjoyed this part of the service more than
+anything else. Instead of passing baskets around, each person was
+invited to come forward and lay his offering on the table.
+
+Woolly heads wagged, and many feet kept time to the tune:
+
+  "Oh! I'se boun' to git to glory.
+  Hallelujah! Le' me go!"
+
+The Little Colonel proudly marched up with Mom Beck's contribution,
+and then watched the others pass down the aisle. One young girl in a
+gorgeously trimmed dress paraded up to the table several times, singing
+at the top of her voice.
+
+"Look at that good-fo'-nothin' Lize Richa'ds," whispered Mom Beck's
+nearest neighbour, with a sniff. "She done got a nickel changed into
+pennies so she could ma'ch up an' show herself five times."
+
+It was nearly sundown when they started home. A tall coloured man,
+wearing a high silk hat and carrying a gold-headed cane, joined them on
+the way out.
+
+"Howdy, Sistah Po'tah," he said, gravely shaking hands. "That was a fine
+disco'se we had the pleasuah of listenin' to this evenin'."
+
+"'Deed it was, Brothah Fostah," she answered. "How's all up yo' way?"
+
+The Little Colonel, running on after a couple of white butterflies, paid
+no attention to the conversation until she heard her own name mentioned.
+
+"Mistah Sherman came home last night, I heah."
+
+"Yes, but not to stay long, I'm afraid. He's a mighty sick man, if I'm
+any judge. He's down with fevah,--regulah typhoid. He doesn't look to me
+like he's long for this world. What's to become of poah Miss 'Lizabeth
+if that's the case, is moah'n I know." "We mustn't cross the bridge till
+we come to it, Sistah Po'tah," he suggested.
+
+"I know that; but a lookin'-glass broke yeste'day mawnin' when nobody
+had put fingah on it. An' his picture fell down off the wall while I was
+sweepin' the pa'lah. Pete said his dawg done howl all night last night,
+an' I've dremp three times hand runnin' 'bout muddy watah."
+
+Mom Beck felt a little hand clutch her skirts, and turned to see a
+frightened little face looking anxiously up at her.
+
+"Now, what's the mattah with you, honey?" she asked. "I'm only a-tellin'
+Mistah Fostah about some silly old signs my mammy used to believe in.
+But they don't mean nothin' at all."
+
+Lloyd couldn't have told why she was unhappy. She had not understood all
+that Mom Beck had said, but her sensitive little mind was shadowed by a
+foreboding of trouble.
+
+The shadow deepened as the days passed. Papa Jack got worse instead of
+better. There were times when he did not recognize any one, and talked
+wildly of things that had happened out at the mines.
+
+All the long, beautiful October went by, and still he lay in the
+darkened room. Lloyd wandered listlessly from place to place, trying to
+keep out of the way, and to make as little trouble as possible.
+
+"I'm a real little woman now," she repeated, proudly, whenever she was
+allowed to pound ice or carry fresh water. "I'm papa's little comfort."
+
+One cold, frosty evening she was standing in the hall, when the doctor
+came out of the room and began to put on his overcoat.
+
+Her mother followed him to take his directions for the night.
+
+He was an old friend of the family's. Elizabeth had climbed on his knees
+many a time when she was a child. She loved this faithful, white-haired
+old doctor almost as dearly as she had her father.
+
+"My daughter," he said, kindly, laying his hand on her shoulder, "you
+are wearing yourself out, and will be down yourself if you are not
+careful. You must have a professional nurse. No telling how long this is
+going to last. As soon as Jack is able to travel you must have a change
+of climate."
+
+Her lips trembled. "We can't afford it, doctor," she said. "Jack has
+been too sick from the very first to talk about business. He always said
+a woman should not be worried with such matters, anyway. I don't know
+what arrangements he has made out West. For all I know, the little
+I have in my purse now may be all that stands between us and the
+poorhouse."
+
+The doctor drew on his gloves.
+
+"Why don't you tell your father how matters are?" he asked.
+
+Then he saw he had ventured a step too far.
+
+"I believe Jack would rather die than take help from his hands," she
+answered, drawing herself up proudly. Her eyes flashed. "I would, too,
+as far as I am concerned myself."
+
+Then a tender look came over her pale, tired face, as she added, gently,
+"But I'd do anything on earth to help Jack get well."
+
+The doctor cleared his throat vigorously, and bolted out with a
+gruff good night. As he rode past Locust, he took solid satisfaction in
+shaking his fist at the light in an upper window.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+The Little Colonel followed her mother to the dining-room, but paused
+on the threshold as she saw her throw herself into Mom Beck's arms and
+burst out crying.
+
+"Oh, Becky!" she sobbed, "what is going to become of us? The doctor says
+we must have a professional nurse, and we must go away from here soon.
+There are only a few dollars left in my purse, and I don't know what
+we'll do when they are gone. I just know Jack is going to die, and then
+I'll die, too, and then what will become of the baby?" Mom Beck sat
+down, and took the trembling form in her arms.
+
+"There, there!" she said, soothingly, "have yo' cry out. It will do you
+good. Poah chile! all wo'n out with watchin' an' worry. Ne'm min', ole
+Becky is as good as a dozen nuhses yet. I'll get Judy to come up an'
+look aftah the kitchen. An' nobody ain' gwine to die, honey. Don't you
+go to slayin' all you's got befo' you's called on to do it. The good
+Lawd is goin' to pahvide fo' us same as Abraham."
+
+The last Sabbath's sermon was still fresh in her mind.
+
+"If we only hold out faithful, there's boun' to be a ram caught by
+the hawns some place, even if we haven't got eyes to see through the
+thickets. The Lawd will pahvide whethah it's a burnt offerin' or a
+meal's vittles. He sho'ly will." Lloyd crept away frightened. It seemed
+such an awful thing to see her mother cry.
+
+All at once her bright, happy world had changed to such a strange,
+uncertain place. She felt as if all sorts of terrible things were about
+to happen.
+
+She went into the parlour, and crawled into a dark corner under the
+piano, feeling that there was no place to go for comfort, since the
+one who had always kissed away her little troubles was so heart-broken
+herself.
+
+There was a patter of soft feet across the carpet, and Fritz poked his
+sympathetic nose into her face. She put her arms around him, and laid
+her head against his curly back with a desolate sob.
+
+It is pitiful to think how much imaginative children suffer through
+their wrong conception of things. She had seen the little roll of bills
+in her mother's pocketbook. She had seen how much smaller it grew every
+time it was taken out to pay for the expensive wines and medicines that
+had to be bought so often. She had heard her mother tell the doctor that
+was all that stood between them and the poorhouse.
+
+There was no word known to the Little Colonel that brought such,
+thoughts of horror as the word poorhouse.
+
+Her most vivid recollection of her life in New York was something that
+happened a few weeks before they left there. One day in the park she ran
+away from the maid, who, instead of Mom Beck, had taken charge of her
+that afternoon.
+
+When the angry woman found her, she frightened her almost into a spasm
+by telling her what always happened to naughty children who ran away.
+
+"They take all their pretty clothes off," she said, "and dress them up
+in old things made of bed-ticking. Then they take 'm to the poorhouse,
+where nobody but beggars live. They don't have anything to eat but
+cabbage and corndodger, and they have to eat that out of tin pans. And
+they just have a pile of straw to sleep in."
+
+On their way home she had pointed out to the frightened child a poor
+woman who was grubbing in an ash-barrel.
+
+"That's the way people get to look who live in poorhouses," she said.
+
+It was this memory that was troubling the Little Colonel now.
+
+"Oh, Fritz!" she whispered, with the tears running down her cheeks, "I
+can't beah to think of my pretty mothah goin' there. That woman's
+eyes were all red, an' her hair was jus' awful. She was so bony an'
+stahved-lookin'. It would jus' kill poah Papa Jack to lie on straw an'
+eat out of a tin pan. I know it would!"
+
+When Mom Beck opened the door, hunting her, the room was so dark that
+she would have gone away if the dog had not come running out from under
+the piano.
+
+"You heah, too, chile?" she asked, in surprise. "I have to go down now
+an' see if I can get Judy to come help to-morrow. Do you think you can
+undress yo'self to-night?"
+
+"Of co'se," answered the Little Colonel. Mom Beck was in such a hurry to
+be off that she did not notice the tremble in the voice that answered
+her.
+
+"Well, the can'le is lit in yo' room. So run along now like a nice
+little lady, an' don't bothah yo' mamma. She got her hands full
+already."
+
+"All right," answered the child.
+
+A quarter of an hour later she stood in her little white nightgown with
+her hand on the door-knob.
+
+She opened the door just a crack and peeped in. Her mother laid her
+finger on her lips, and beckoned silently. In another instant Lloyd was
+in her lap. She had cried herself quiet in the dark corner under the
+piano; but there was something more pathetic in her eyes than tears. It
+was the expression of one who understood and sympathized.
+
+"Oh, mothah," she whispered, "we does have such lots of troubles."
+
+"Yes, chickabiddy, but I hope they will soon be over now," was the
+answer, as the anxious face tried to smile bravely for the child's sake,
+"Papa is sleeping so nicely now he is sure to be better in the morning."
+
+That comforted the Little Colonel some, but for days she was haunted by
+the fear of the poorhouse.
+
+Every time her mother paid out any money she looked anxiously to see how
+much was still left. She wandered about the place, touching the trees
+and vines with caressing hands, feeling that she might soon have to
+leave them.
+
+She loved them all so dearly,--every stick and stone, and even the
+stubby old snowball bushes that never bloomed.
+
+Her dresses were outgrown and faded, but no one had any time or thought
+to spend on getting her new ones. A little hole began to come in the toe
+of each shoe.
+
+She was still wearing her summer sunbonnet, although the days were
+getting frosty.
+
+She was a proud little thing. It mortified her for any one to see her
+looking so shabby. Still she uttered no word of complaint, for fear of
+lessening the little amount in the pocketbook that her mother had said
+stood between them and the poorhouse.
+
+She sat with her feet tucked under her when any one called.
+
+"I wouldn't mind bein' a little beggah so much myself," she thought,
+"but I jus' can't have my bu'ful sweet mothah lookin' like that awful
+red-eyed woman."
+
+One day the doctor called Mrs. Sherman out into the hall. "I have just
+come from your father's," he said. "He is suffering from a severe attack
+of rheumatism. He is confined to his room, and is positively starving
+for company. He told me he would give anything in the world to have his
+little grandchild with him. There were tears in his eyes when he said
+it, and that means a good deal from him. He fairly idolizes her. The
+servants have told him she mopes around and is getting thin and pale. He
+is afraid she will come down with the fever, too. He told me to use any
+stratagem I liked to get her there. But I think it's better to tell you
+frankly how matters stand. It will do the child good to have a change,
+Elizabeth, and I solemnly think you ought to let her go, for a week at
+least."
+
+"But, doctor, she has never been away from me a single night in her
+life. She'd die of homesickness, and I know she'll never consent to
+leave me. Then suppose Jack should get worse--"
+
+"We'll suppose nothing of the kind," he interrupted, brusquely. "Tell
+Becky to pack up her things. Leave Lloyd to me. I'll get her consent
+without any trouble."
+
+"Come, Colonel," he called, as he left the house. "I'm going to take you
+a little ride."
+
+No one ever knew what the kind old fellow said to her to induce her to
+go to her grandfather's.
+
+She came back from her ride looking brighter than she had in a long
+time. She felt that in some way, although in what way she could not
+understand, her going would help them to escape the dreaded poorhouse.
+
+"Don't send Mom Beck with me," she pleaded, when the time came to start.
+"You come with me, mothah."
+
+Mrs. Sherman had not been past the gate for weeks, but she could not
+refuse the coaxing hands that clung to hers.
+
+It was a dull, dreary day. There was a chilling hint of snow in the damp
+air. The leaves whirled past them with a mournful rustling.
+
+Mrs. Sherman turned up the collar of Lloyd's cloak.
+
+"You must have a new one soon," she said, with a sigh. "Maybe one of
+mine could be made over for you. And those poor little shoes! I must
+think to send to town for a new pair."
+
+The walk was over so soon. The Little Colonel's heart beat fast as they
+came in sight of the gate. She winked bravely to keep back the tears;
+for she had promised the doctor not to let her mother see her cry.
+
+A week seemed such a long time to look forward to.
+
+She clung to her mother's neck, feeling that she could never give her up
+so long.
+
+"Tell me good-bye, baby dear," said Mrs. Sherman, feeling that she could
+not trust herself to stay much longer. "It is too cold for you to stand
+here. Run on, and I'll watch you till you get inside the door."
+
+The Little Colonel started bravely down the avenue, with Fritz at her
+heels. Every few steps she turned to look back and kiss her hand.
+
+Mrs. Sherman watched her through a blur of tears. It had been nearly
+seven years since she had last stood at that old gate. Such a crowd of
+memories came rushing up!
+
+She looked again. There was a flutter of a white handkerchief as the
+Little Colonel and Fritz went up the steps. Then the great front door
+closed behind them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+That early twilight hour just before the lamps were lit was the
+lonesomest one the Little Colonel had ever spent.
+
+Her grandfather was asleep up-stairs. There was a cheery wood fire
+crackling on the hearth of the big fireplace in the hall, but the great
+house was so still. The corners were full of shadows.
+
+She opened the front door with a wild longing to run away.
+
+"Come, Fritz," she said, closing the door softly behind her, "let's go
+down to the gate."
+
+The air was cold. She shivered as they raced along under the bare
+branches of the locusts. She leaned against the gate, peering out
+through the bars. The road stretched white through the gathering
+darkness in the direction of the little cottage.
+
+"Oh, I want to go home so bad!" she sobbed. "I want to see my mothah."
+
+She laid her hand irresolutely on the latch, pushed the gate ajar, and
+then hesitated.
+
+"No, I promised the doctah I'd stay," she thought. "He said I could help
+mothah and Papa Jack, both of 'em, by stayin' heah, an' I'll do it."
+
+Fritz, who had pushed himself through the partly opened gate to rustle
+around among the dead leaves outside, came bounding back with something
+in his mouth.
+
+"Heah, suh!" she called. "Give it to me!" He dropped a small gray kid
+glove in her outstretched hand. "Oh, it's mothah's!" she cried. "I
+reckon she dropped it when she was tellin' me good-bye. Oh, you deah old
+dog fo' findin' it."
+
+She laid the glove against her cheek as fondly as if it had been her
+mother's soft hand. There was something wonderfully comforting in the
+touch.
+
+As they walked slowly back toward the house she rolled it up and put it
+lovingly away in her tiny apron pocket.
+
+All that week it was a talisman whose touch helped the homesick little
+soul to be brave and womanly.
+
+When Maria, the coloured housekeeper, went into the hall to light the
+lamps, the Little Colonel was sitting on the big fur rug in front of the
+fire, talking contentedly to Fritz, who lay with his curly head in her
+lap.
+
+"You all's goin' to have tea in the Cun'ls room to-night," said Maria.
+"He tole me to tote it up soon as he rung the bell."
+
+"There it goes now," cried the child, jumping up from the rug.
+
+She followed Maria up the wide stairs. The Colonel was sitting in a
+large easy chair, wrapped in a gaily flowered dressing-gown, that made
+his hair look unusually white by contrast.
+
+His dark eyes were intently watching the door. As it opened to let the
+Little Colonel pass through, a very tender smile lighted up his stern
+face.
+
+"So you did come to see grandpa after all," he cried, triumphantly.
+"Come here and give me a kiss. Seems to me you've been staying away a
+mighty long time."
+
+As she stood beside him with his arm around her, Walker came in with a
+tray full of dishes. "We're going to have a regular little tea-party,"
+said the Colonel.
+
+Lloyd watched with sparkling eyes as Walker set out the rare
+old-fashioned dishes. There was a fat little silver sugar-bowl with a
+butterfly perched on each side to form the handles, and there was a
+slim, graceful cream-pitcher shaped like a lily.
+
+"They belonged to your great-great-grandmother," said the Colonel, "and
+they're going to be yours some day if you grow up and have a house of
+your own."
+
+The expression on her beaming face was worth a fortune to the Colonel.
+
+When Walker pushed her chair up to the table, she turned to her
+grandfather with shining eyes.
+
+"Oh, it's just like a pink story," she cried, clapping her hands. "The
+shades on the can'les, the icin' on the cake, an' the posies in the
+bowl,--why, even the jelly is that colah, too. Oh, my darlin' little
+teacup! It's jus' like a pink rosebud. I'm so glad I came!"
+
+The Colonel smiled at the success of his plan. In the depths of his
+satisfaction he even had a plate of quail and toast set down on the
+hearth for Fritz.
+
+"This is the nicest pahty I evah was at," remarked the Little Colonel,
+as Walker helped her to jam the third time.
+
+Her grandfather chuckled.
+
+"Blackberry jam always makes me think of Tom," he said. "Did you ever
+hear what your Uncle Tom did when he was a little fellow in dresses?"
+
+She shook her head gravely.
+
+"Well, the children were all playing hide-and-seek one day. They hunted
+high and they hunted low after everybody else had been caught, but they
+couldn't find Tom. At last they began to call, 'Home free! You can come
+home free!' but he did not come. When he had been hidden so long they
+were frightened about him, they went to their mother and told her he
+wasn't to be found anywhere. She looked down the well and behind the
+fire-boards in the fireplaces. They called and called till they were out
+of breath. Finally she thought of looking in the big dark pantry where
+she kept her fruit. There stood Mister Tom. He had opened a jar of
+blackberry jam, and was just going for it with both hands. The jam was
+all over his face and hair and little gingham apron, and even up his
+wrists. He was the funniest sight I ever saw."
+
+The Little Colonel laughed heartily at his description, and begged for
+more stories. Before he knew it he was back in the past with his little
+Tom and Elizabeth.
+
+Nothing could have entertained the child more than these scenes he
+recalled of her mother's childhood.
+
+"All her old playthings are up in the garret," he said, as they rose
+from the table. "I'll have them brought down to-morrow. There's a doll
+I brought her from New Orleans once when she was about your size. No
+telling what it looks like now, but it was a beauty when it was new."
+
+Lloyd clapped her hands and spun around the room like a top.
+
+"Oh, I'm so glad I came!" she exclaimed for the third time. "What did
+she call the doll, gran'fathah, do you remembah?"
+
+"I never paid much attention to such things," he answered, "but I
+do remember the name of this one, because she named it for her
+mother,--Amanthis."
+
+"Amanthis," repeated the child, dreamily, as she leaned against his
+knee. "I think that is a lovely name, gran'fathah. I wish they had
+called me that." She repeated it softly several times. "It sounds like
+the wind a-blowin' through white clovah, doesn't it?"
+
+"It is a beautiful name to me, my child," answered the old man, laying
+his hand tenderly on her soft hair, "but not so beautiful as the woman
+who bore it. She was the fairest flower of all Kentucky. There never was
+another lived as sweet and gentle as your Grandmother Amanthis."
+
+He stroked her hair absently, and gazed into the fire. He scarcely
+noticed when she slipped away from him.
+
+She buried her face a moment in the bowl of pink roses. Then she went
+to the window and drew back the curtain. Leaning her head against the
+window-sill, she began stringing on the thread of a tune the things that
+just then thrilled her with a sense of their beauty.
+
+"Oh, the locus'-trees a-blowin'," she sang, softly. "An' the moon
+a-shinin' through them. An' the starlight an' pink roses; an'
+Amanthis--an' Amanthis!"
+
+She hummed it over and over until Walker had finished carrying the
+dishes away.
+
+It was a strange thing that the Colonel's unfrequent moods of tenderness
+were like those warm days that they call weather-breeders.
+
+They were sure to be followed by a change of atmosphere. This time as
+the fierce rheumatic pain came back he stormed at Walker, and scolded
+him for everything he did and everything he left undone.
+
+When Maria came up to put Lloyd to bed, Fritz was tearing around the
+room barking at his shadow.
+
+"Put that dog out, M'ria!" roared the Colonel, almost crazy with its
+antics. "Take it down-stairs, and put it out of the house, I say! Nobody
+but a heathen would let a dog sleep in the house, anyway."
+
+The homesick feeling began to creep over Lloyd again. She had expected
+to keep Fritz in her room at night for company. But for the touch of the
+little glove in her pocket, she would have said something ugly to her
+grandfather when he spoke so harshly.
+
+His own ill humour was reflected in her scowl as she followed Maria down
+the stairs to drive Fritz out into the dark. They stood a moment in the
+open door, after Maria had slapped him with her apron to make him go off
+the porch.
+
+"Oh, look at the new moon!" cried Lloyd, pointing to the slender
+crescent in the autumn sky.
+
+"I'se feared to, honey," answered Maria, "less I should see it through
+the trees. That 'ud bring me bad luck for a month, suah. I'll go out on
+the lawn where it's open, an' look at it ovah my right shouldah."
+
+While they were walking backward down the path, intent on reaching a
+place where they could have an uninterrupted view of the moon, Fritz
+sneaked around to the other end of the porch.
+
+No one was watching. He slipped into the house as noiselessly as his
+four soft feet could carry him.
+
+Maria, going through the dark upper hall, with a candle held high above
+her head and Lloyd clinging to her skirts, did not see a tasselled tail
+swinging along in front of her. It disappeared under the big bed when
+she led Lloyd into the room next the old Colonel's.
+
+The child felt very sober while she was being put to bed.
+
+The furniture was heavy and dark. An ugly portrait of a cross old man in
+a wig frowned at her from over the mantel. The dancing firelight made
+his eyes frightfully lifelike.
+
+The bed was so high she had to climb on a chair to get in. She heard
+Maria's heavy feet go shuffling down the stairs. A door banged. Then it
+was so still she could hear the clock tick in the next room.
+
+It was the first time in all her life that her mother had not come to
+kiss her good night. Her lips quivered, and a big tear rolled down on
+the pillow.
+
+She reached out to the chair beside her bed, where her clothes were
+hanging, and felt in her apron pocket for the little glove. She sat up
+in bed, and looked at it in the dim firelight. Then she held it against
+her face. "Oh, I want my mothah! I want my mothah!" she sobbed, in a
+heart-broken whisper.
+
+Laying her head on her knees, she began to cry quietly, but with great
+sobs that nearly choked her.
+
+There was a rustling under the bed. She lifted her wet face in alarm.
+Then she smiled through her tears, for there was Fritz, her own dear
+dog, and not an unknown horror waiting to grab her.
+
+He stood on his hind legs, eagerly trying to lap away her tears with his
+friendly red tongue.
+
+She clasped him in her arms with an ecstatic hug. "Oh, you're such a
+comfort!" she whispered. "I can go to sleep now."
+
+She spread her apron on the bed, and motioned him to jump. With one
+spring he was beside her.
+
+It was nearly midnight when the door from the Colonel's room was
+noiselessly opened.
+
+The old man stirred the fire gently until it burst into a bright flame.
+Then he turned to the bed. "You rascal!" he whispered, looking at Fritz,
+who raised his head quickly with a threatening look in his wicked eyes.
+
+Lloyd lay with one hand stretched out, holding the dog's protecting paw.
+The other held something against her tear-stained cheek.
+
+"What under the sun!" he thought, as he drew it gently from her fingers.
+The little glove lay across his hand, slim and aristocratic-looking. He
+knew instinctively whose it was. "Poor little thing's been crying," he
+thought. "She wants Elizabeth. And so do I! And so do I!" his heart
+cried out with bitter longing. "It's never been like home since she
+left."
+
+He laid the glove back on her pillow, and went to his room.
+
+"If Jack Sherman should die," he said to himself many times that night,
+"then she would come home again. Oh, little daughter, little daughter!
+why did you ever leave me?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+The first thing that greeted the Little Colonel's eyes when she opened
+them next morning was her mother's old doll. Maria had laid it on the
+pillow beside her.
+
+It was beautifully dressed, although in a queer, old-fashioned style
+that seemed very strange to the child.
+
+She took it up with careful fingers, remembering its great age. Maria
+had warned her not to waken her grandfather, so she admired it in
+whispers.
+
+"Jus' think, Fritz," she exclaimed, "this doll has seen my Gran'mothah
+Amanthis, an' it's named for her. My mothah wasn't any bigger'n me when
+she played with it. I think it is the loveliest doll I evah saw in my
+whole life."
+
+Fritz gave a jealous bark.
+
+"Sh!" commanded his little mistress. "Didn't you heah M'ria say, 'Fo' de
+Lawd's sake don't wake up ole Marse?' Why don't you mind?"
+
+The Colonel was not in the best of humours after such a wakeful night,
+but the sight of her happiness made him smile in spite of himself, when
+she danced into his room with the doll.
+
+She had eaten an early breakfast and gone back up-stairs to examine the
+other toys that were spread out in her room.
+
+The door between the two rooms was ajar. All the time he was dressing
+and taking his coffee he could hear her talking to some one. He supposed
+it was Maria. But as he glanced over his mail he heard the Little
+Colonel saying, "May Lilly, do you know about Billy Goat Gruff? Do you
+want me to tell you that story?"
+
+He leaned forward until he could look through the narrow opening of the
+door. Two heads were all he could see,--Lloyd's, soft-haired and golden,
+May Lilly's, covered with dozens of tightly braided little black tails.
+
+He was about to order May Lilly back to the cabin, when he remembered
+the scene that followed the last time he had done so. He concluded to
+keep quiet and listen.
+
+"Billy Goat Gruff was so fat," the story went on, "jus' as fat as
+gran'fathah."
+
+The Colonel glanced up with an amused smile at the fine figure reflected
+in an opposite mirror.
+
+"Trip-trap, trip-trap, went Billy Goat Gruff's little feet ovah the
+bridge to the giant's house."
+
+Just at this point Walker, who was putting things in order, closed the
+door between the rooms.
+
+"Open that door, you black rascal!" called the Colonel, furious at the
+interruption.
+
+In his haste to obey, Walker knocked over a pitcher of water that had
+been left on the floor beside the wash-stand.
+
+Then the Colonel yelled at him to be quick about mopping it up, so that
+by the time the door was finally opened, Lloyd was finishing her story.
+
+The Colonel looked in just in time to see her put her hands to her
+temples, with her forefingers protruding from her forehead like horns.
+She said in a deep voice, as she brandished them at May Lilly, "With my
+two long speahs I'll poke yo' eyeballs through yo' yeahs." The little
+darky fell back giggling. "That sut'n'y was like a billy-goat. We had
+one once that 'ud make a body step around mighty peart. It slip up
+behine me one mawnin' on the poach, an' fo' awhile I thought my haid was
+buss open suah. I got up toreckly, though, an' I cotch him, and when I
+done got through, Mistah Billy-goat feel po'ly moah'n a week. He sut'n'y
+did."
+
+Walker grinned, for he had witnessed the scene.
+
+Just then Maria put her head in at the door to say, "May Lilly, yo'
+mammy's callin' you."
+
+Lloyd and Fritz followed her noisily down-stairs. Then for nearly an
+hour it was very quiet in the great house.
+
+The Colonel, looking out of the window, could see Lloyd playing
+hide-and-seek with Fritz under the bare locust-trees. When she came in
+her cheeks were glowing from her run in the frosty air. Her eyes shone
+like stars, and her face was radiant.
+
+"See what I've found down in the dead leaves," she cried. "A little blue
+violet, bloomin' all by itself."
+
+She brought a tiny cup from the next room, that belonged to the set of
+doll dishes, and put the violet in it.
+
+"There!" she said, setting it on the table at her grandfather's elbow.
+"Now I'll put Amanthis in this chair, where you can look at her, an' you
+won't get lonesome while I'm playing outdoors."
+
+He drew her toward him and kissed her.
+
+"Why, how cold your hands are!" he exclaimed. "Staying in this warm room
+all the time makes me forget it is so wintry outdoors. I don't believe
+you are dressed warmly enough. You ought not to wear sunbonnets this
+time of year."
+
+Then for the first time he noticed her outgrown cloak and shabby shoes.
+
+"What are you wearing these old clothes for?" he said, impatiently. "Why
+didn't they dress you up when you were going visiting? It isn't showing
+proper respect to send you off in the oldest things you've got."
+
+It was a sore point with the Little Colonel. It hurt her pride enough to
+have to wear old clothes without being scolded for it. Besides, she
+felt that in some way her mother was being blamed for what could not be
+helped.
+
+"They's the best I've got," she answered, proudly choking back the
+tears. "I don't need any new ones, 'cause maybe we'll be goin' away
+pretty soon."
+
+"Going away!" he echoed, blankly, "Where?" She did not answer until he
+repeated the question. Then she turned her back on him, and started
+toward the door. The tears she was too proud to let him see were running
+down her face.
+
+"We's goin' to the poah-house," she exclaimed, defiantly, "jus' as soon
+as the money in the pocketbook is used up. It was nearly gone when I
+came away."
+
+Here she began to sob, as she fumbled at the door she could not see to
+open.
+
+"I'm goin' home to my mothah right now. She loves me if my clothes are
+old and ugly."
+
+"Why, Lloyd," called the Colonel, amazed and distressed by her sudden
+burst of grief. "Come here to grandpa. Why didn't you tell me so
+before?"
+
+The face, the tone, the outstretched arm, all drew her irresistibly
+to him. It was a relief to lay her head on his shoulder, and unburden
+herself of the fear that had haunted her so many days.
+
+With her arms around his neck, and the precious little head held close
+to his heart, the old Colonel was in such a softened mood that he would
+have promised anything to comfort her.
+
+"There, there," he said, soothingly, stroking her hair with a gentle
+hand, when she had told him all her troubles. "Don't you worry about
+that, my dear. Nobody is going to eat out of tin pans and sleep on
+straw. Grandpa just won't let them."
+
+She sat up and wiped her eyes on her apron. "But Papa Jack would die
+befo' he'd take help from you," she wailed. "An' so would mothah. I
+heard her tell the doctah so."
+
+The tender expression on the Colonel's face changed to one like flint,
+but he kept on stroking her hair. "People sometimes change their minds,"
+he said, grimly. "I wouldn't worry over a little thing like that if I
+were you. Don't you want to run down-stairs and tell M'ria to give you
+a piece of cake?"
+
+"Oh, yes," she exclaimed, smiling up at him. "I'll bring you some, too."
+
+When the first train went into Louisville that afternoon, Walker was
+on board with an order in his pocket to one of the largest dry goods
+establishments in the city. When he came out again, that evening, he
+carried a large box into the Colonel's room.
+
+Lloyd's eyes shone as she looked into it. There was an elegant
+fur-trimmed cloak, a pair of dainty shoes, and a muff that she caught up
+with a shriek of delight.
+
+"What kind of a thing is this?" grumbled the Colonel, as he took out a
+hat that had been carefully packed in one corner of the box. "I
+told them to send the most stylish thing they had. It looks like a
+scarecrow," he continued, as he set it askew on the child's head.
+
+She snatched it off to look at it herself. "Oh, it's jus' like Emma
+Louise Wyfo'd's!" she exclaimed. "You didn't put it on straight. See!
+This is the way it goes."
+
+She climbed up in front of the mirror, and put it on as she had seen
+Emma Louise wear hers.
+
+"Well, it's a regular Napoleon hat," exclaimed the Colonel, much
+pleased. "So little girls nowadays have taken to wearing soldier's caps,
+have they? It's right becoming to you with your short hair. Grandpa is
+real proud of his 'little Colonel.'"
+
+She gave him the military salute he had taught her, and then ran to
+throw her arms around him. "Oh, gran'fathah!" she exclaimed, between her
+kisses, "you'se jus' as good as Santa Claus, every bit."
+
+The Colonel's rheumatism was better next day; so much better that toward
+evening he walked down-stairs into the long drawing-room. The room had
+not been illuminated in years as it was that night.
+
+Every wax taper was lighted in the silver candelabra, and the dim old
+mirrors multiplied their lights on every side. A great wood fire threw a
+cheerful glow over the portraits and the frescoed ceiling. All the linen
+covers had been taken from the furniture.
+
+Lloyd, who had never seen this room except with the chairs shrouded and
+the blinds down, came running in presently. She was bewildered at first
+by the change. Then she began walking softly around the room, examining
+everything.
+
+In one corner stood a tall, gilded harp that her grandmother had played
+in her girlhood. The heavy cover had kept it fair and untarnished
+through all the years it had stood unused. To the child's beauty-loving
+eyes it seemed the loveliest thing she had ever seen.
+
+She stood with her hands clasped behind her as her gaze wandered from
+its pedals to the graceful curves of its tall frame. It shone like
+burnished gold in the soft firelight.
+
+"Oh, gran'fathah!" she asked at last in a low, reverent tone, "where did
+you get it? Did an angel leave it heah fo' you?"
+
+He did not answer for a moment. Then he said, huskily, as he looked up
+at a portrait over the mantel, "Yes, my darling, an angel did leave it
+here. She always was one. Come here to grandpa."
+
+He took her on his knee, and pointed up to the portrait. The same harp
+was in the picture. Standing beside it, with one hand resting on its
+shining strings, was a young girl all in white.
+
+"That's the way she looked the first time I ever saw her," said the
+Colonel, dreamily. "A June rose in her hair, and another at her throat;
+and her soul looked right out through those great, dark eyes--the
+purest, sweetest soul God ever made! My beautiful Amanthis!"
+
+"My bu'ful Amanthis!" repeated the child, in an awed whisper.
+
+She sat gazing into the lovely young face for a long time, while the old
+man seemed lost in dreams.
+
+"Gran'fathah," she said at length, patting his cheek to attract his
+attention, and then nodding toward the portrait, "did she love my
+mothah like my mothah loves me?"
+
+"Certainly, my dear," was the gentle reply.
+
+It was the twilight hour, when the homesick feeling always came back
+strongest to Lloyd.
+
+"Then I jus' know that if my bu'ful gran'mothah Amanthis could come down
+out of that frame, she'd go straight and put her arms around my mothah
+an' kiss away all her sorry feelin's."
+
+The Colonel fidgeted uncomfortably in his chair a moment. Then to his
+great relief the tea-bell rang.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+Every evening after that during Lloyd's visit the fire burned on the
+hearth of the long drawing-room. All the wax candles were lighted, and
+the vases were kept full of flowers, fresh from the conservatory.
+
+She loved to steal into the room before her grandfather came down, and
+carry on imaginary conversations with the old portraits.
+
+Tom's handsome, boyish face had the greatest attraction for her.
+His eyes looked down so smilingly into hers that she felt he surely
+understood every word she said to him. Once Walker overheard her saying,
+"Uncle Tom, I'm goin' to tell you a story 'bout Billy Goat Gruff."
+
+Peeping into the room, he saw the child looking earnestly up at the
+picture, with her hands clasped behind her, as she began to repeat her
+favourite story. "It do beat all," he said to himself, "how one little
+chile like that can wake up a whole house. She's the life of the place."
+
+The last evening of her visit, as the Colonel was coming down-stairs he
+heard the faint vibration of a harp-string. It was the first time Lloyd
+had ever ventured to touch one. He paused on the steps opposite the
+door, and looked in.
+
+"Heah, Fritz," she was saying, "you get up on the sofa, an' be the
+company, an' I'll sing fo' you."
+
+Fritz, on the rug before the fire, opened one sleepy eye and closed
+it again. She stamped her foot and repeated her order. He paid no
+attention. Then she picked him up bodily, and, with much puffing and
+pulling, lifted him into a chair.
+
+He waited until she had gone back to the harp, and then, with one
+spring, disappeared under the sofa.
+
+"N'm min'," she said, in a disgusted tone. "I'll pay you back, mistah."
+Then she looked up at the portrait. "Uncle Tom," she said, "you be the
+company, an' I'll play fo' you."
+
+Her fingers touched the strings so lightly that there was no discord in
+the random tones. Her voice carried the air clear and true, and the
+faint trembling of the harp-strings interfered with the harmony no more
+than if a wandering breeze had been tangled in them as it passed.
+
+ "Sing me the songs that to me were so deah
+  Long, long ago, long ago.
+  Tell me the tales I delighted to heah
+  Long, long ago, long ago."
+
+The sweet little voice sang it to the end without missing a word. It was
+the lullaby her mother oftenest sang to her.
+
+The Colonel, who had sat down on the steps to listen, wiped his eyes.
+
+"My 'long ago' is all that I have left to me," he thought, bitterly,
+"for to-morrow this little one, who brings back my past with every word
+and gesture, will leave me, too. Why can't that Jack Sherman die while
+he's about it, and let me have my own back again?"
+
+That question recurred to him many times during the week after Lloyd's
+departure. He missed her happy voice at every turn. He missed her bright
+face at the table. The house seemed so big and desolate without her. He
+ordered all the covers put back on the drawing-room furniture, and
+the door locked as before.
+
+It was a happy moment for the Little Colonel when she was lifted down
+from Maggie Boy at the cottage gate.
+
+She went dancing into the house, so glad to find herself in her mother's
+arms that she forgot all about the new cloak and muff that had made her
+so proud and happy.
+
+She found her father propped up among the pillows, his fever all gone,
+and the old mischievous twinkle in his eyes.
+
+He admired her new clothes extravagantly, paying her joking compliments
+until her face beamed; but when she had danced off to find Mom Beck,
+he turned to his wife. "Elizabeth," he said, wonderingly, "what do you
+suppose the old fellow gave her clothes for? I don't like it. I'm no
+beggar if I have lost lots of money. After all that's passed between us
+I don't feel like taking anything from his hands, or letting my child do
+it, either."
+
+To his great surprise she laid her head down on his pillow beside his
+and burst into tears.
+
+"Oh, Jack," she sobbed, "I spent the last dollar this morning. I wasn't
+going to tell you, but I don't know what is to become of us. He gave
+Lloyd those things because she was just in rags, and I couldn't afford
+to get anything new."
+
+He looked perplexed. "Why, I brought home so much," he said, in a
+distressed tone. "I knew I was in for a long siege of sickness, but I
+was sure there was enough to tide us over that."
+
+She raised her head. "You brought money home!" she replied, in surprise.
+"I hoped you had, and looked through all your things, but there was only
+a little change in one of your pockets. You must have imagined it when
+you were delirious."
+
+"What!" he cried, sitting bolt upright, and then sinking weakly back
+among the pillows. "You poor child! You don't mean to tell me you have
+been skimping along all these weeks on just that check I sent you before
+starting home?"
+
+"Yes," she sobbed, her face still buried in the pillow. She had borne
+the strain of continued anxiety so long that she could not stop her
+tears, now they had once started.
+
+It was with a very thankful heart she watched him take a pack of
+letters from the coat she brought to his bedside, and draw out a sealed
+envelope.
+
+"Well, I never once thought of looking among those letters for money,"
+she exclaimed, as he held it up with a smile.
+
+His investments of the summer before had prospered beyond his greatest
+hopes, he told her. "Brother Rob is looking after my interests out West,
+as well as his own," he explained, "and as his father-in-law is the
+grand mogul of the place, I have the inside track. Then that firm I went
+security for in New York is nearly on its feet again, and I'll have back
+every dollar I ever paid out for them. Nobody ever lost anything by
+those men in the long run. We'll be on top again by this time next year,
+little wife; so don't borrow any more trouble on that score."
+
+The doctor made his last visit that afternoon. It really seemed as if
+there would never be any more dark days at the little cottage.
+
+"The clouds have all blown away and left us their silver linings," said
+Mrs. Sherman the day her husband was able to go out-of-doors for the
+first time. He walked down to the post-office, and brought back a letter
+from the West. It had such encouraging reports of his business that
+he was impatient to get back to it. He wrote a reply early in the
+afternoon, and insisted on going to mail it himself.
+
+"I'll never get my strength back," he protested, "unless I have more
+exercise."
+
+It was a cold, gray November day. A few flakes of snow were falling when
+he started.
+
+"I'll stop and rest at the Tylers'," he called back, "so don't be uneasy
+if I'm out some time."
+
+After he left the post-office the fresh air tempted him to go farther
+than he had intended. At a long distance from his home his strength
+seemed suddenly to desert him. The snow began to fall in earnest. Numb
+with cold, he groped his way back to the house, almost fainting from
+exhaustion.
+
+Lloyd was blowing soap-bubbles when she saw him come in and fall heavily
+across the couch. The ghastly pallor of his face and his closed eyes
+frightened her so that she dropped the little clay pipe she was using.
+As she stooped to pick up the broken pieces, her mother's cry startled
+her still more. "Lloyd, run call Becky, quick, quick! Oh, he's dying!"
+
+Lloyd gave one more terrified look and ran to the kitchen, screaming for
+Mom Beck. No one was there.
+
+The next instant she was running bareheaded as fast as she could go,
+up the road to Locust. She was confident of finding help there. The
+snowflakes clung to her hair and blew against her soft cheeks. All she
+could see was her mother wringing her hands, and her father's white
+face. When she burst into the house where the Colonel sat reading by the
+fire, she was so breathless at first that she could only gasp when she
+tried to speak.
+
+"Come quick!" she cried. "Papa Jack's a-dyin'! Come stop him!"
+
+At her first impetuous words the Colonel was on his feet. She caught him
+by the hand and led him to the door before he fully realized what she
+wanted. Then he drew back. She was impatient at the slightest delay, and
+only half answered his questions.
+
+"Oh, come, gran'fathah!" she pleaded. "Don't wait to talk!" But he held
+her until he had learned all the circumstances. He was convinced by what
+she told him that both Lloyd and her mother were unduly alarmed. When he
+found that no one had sent for him, but that the child had come of her
+own accord, he refused to go.
+
+He did not believe that the man was dying, and he did not intend to step
+aside one inch from the position he had taken. For seven years he had
+kept the vow he made when he swore to be a stranger to his daughter. He
+would keep it for seventy times seven years if need be.
+
+She looked at him perfectly bewildered. She had been so accustomed to
+his humouring her slightest whims, that it had never occurred to her he
+would fail to help in a time of such distress.
+
+"Why, gran'fathah," she began, her lips trembling piteously. Then her
+whole expression changed. Her face grew startlingly white, and her eyes
+seemed so big and black. The Colonel looked at her in surprise. He had
+never seen a child in such a passion before. "I hate you! I hate you!"
+she exclaimed, all in a tremble. "You's a cruel, wicked man. I'll nevah
+come heah again, nevah! nevah! nevah!"
+
+The tears rolled down her cheeks as she banged the door behind her
+and ran down the avenue, her little heart so full of grief and
+disappointment that she felt she could not possibly bear it.
+
+For more than an hour the Colonel walked up and down the room, unable to
+shut out the anger and disappointment of that little face.
+
+He knew she was too much like himself ever to retract her words. She
+would never come back. He never knew until that hour how much he
+loved her, or how much she had come to mean in his life. She was
+gone hopelessly beyond recall, unless--He unlocked the door of the
+drawing-room and went in. A faint breath of dried rose-leaves greeted
+him. He walked over to the empty fireplace and looked up at the sweet
+face of the portrait a long time. Then he leaned his arm on the mantel
+and bowed his head on it. "Oh, Amanthis," he groaned, "tell me what to
+do."
+
+Lloyd's own words came back to him. "She'd go right straight an' put her
+arms around my mothah an' kiss away all the sorry feelin's."
+
+It was a long time he stood there. The battle between his love and pride
+was a hard one. At last he raised his head and saw that the short winter
+day was almost over. Without waiting to order his horse he started off
+in the falling snow toward the cottage.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+A good many forebodings crowded into the Colonel's mind as he walked
+hurriedly on. He wondered how he would be received. What if Jack Sherman
+had died after all? What if Elizabeth should refuse to see him? A dozen
+times before he reached the gate he pictured to himself the probable
+scene of their meeting.
+
+He was out of breath and decidedly disturbed in mind when he walked up
+the path. As he paused on the porch steps, Lloyd came running around the
+house carrying her parrot on a broom. Her hair was blowing around her
+rosy face under the Napoleon hat she wore, and she was singing.
+
+The last two hours had made a vast change in her feelings. Her father
+had only fainted from exhaustion.
+
+When she came running back from Locust, she was afraid to go in the
+house, lest what she dreaded most had happened while she was gone. She
+opened the door timidly and peeped in. Her father's eyes were open. Then
+she heard him speak. She ran into the room, and, burying her head in her
+mother's lap, sobbed out the story of her visit to Locust.
+
+To her great surprise her father began to laugh, and laughed so heartily
+as she repeated her saucy speech to her grandfather, that it took the
+worst sting out of her disappointment.
+
+All the time the Colonel had been fighting his pride among the memories
+of the dim old drawing-room, Lloyd had been playing with Fritz and Polly.
+
+Now as she came suddenly face to face with her grandfather, she dropped
+the disgusted bird in the snow, and stood staring at him with startled
+eyes. If he had fallen out of the sky she could not have been more
+astonished.
+
+"Where is your mother, child?" he asked, trying to speak calmly. With
+a backward look, as if she could not believe the evidence of her own
+sight, she led the way into the hall.
+
+"Mothah! Mothah!" she called, pushing open the parlour door. "Come heah,
+quick!"
+
+The Colonel, taking the hat from his white head, and dropping it on the
+floor, took an expectant step forward. There was a slight rustle, and
+Elizabeth stood in the doorway. For just a moment they looked into each
+other's faces. Then the Colonel held out his arm.
+
+"Little daughter," he said, in a tremulous voice. The love of a lifetime
+seemed to tremble in those two words.
+
+In an instant her arms were around his neck, and he was "kissing away
+the sorry feelin's" as tenderly as the lost Amanthis could have done.
+
+As soon as Lloyd began to realize what was happening, her face grew
+radiant. She danced around in such excitement that Fritz barked wildly.
+
+"Come an' see Papa Jack, too," she cried, leading him into the next
+room.
+
+Whatever deep-rooted prejudices Jack Sherman may have had, they were
+unselfishly put aside after one look into his wife's happy face.
+
+He raised himself on his elbow as the dignified old soldier crossed the
+room. The white hair, the empty sleeve, the remembrance of all the old
+man had lost, and the thought that after all he was Elizabeth's father,
+sent a very tender feeling through the younger man's heart.
+
+"Will you take my hand, sir?" he asked, sitting up and offering it in
+his straightforward way.
+
+"Of co'se he will!" exclaimed Lloyd, who still clung to her
+grandfather's arm. "Of co'se he will!"
+
+"I have been too near death to harbour ill will any longer," said the
+younger man, as their hands met in a strong, forgiving clasp.
+
+The old Colonel smiled grimly.
+
+"I had thought that even death itself could not make me give in," he
+said, "but I've had to make a complete surrender to the Little Colonel."
+That Christmas there was such a celebration at Locust that May Lilly
+and Henry Clay nearly went wild in the general excitement of the
+preparation. Walker hung up cedar and holly and mistletoe till the
+big house looked like a bower. Maria bustled about, airing rooms and
+bringing out stores of linen and silver.
+
+The Colonel himself filled the great punch-bowl that his grandfather had
+brought from Virginia.
+
+"I'm glad we're goin' to stay heah to-night," said Lloyd, as she hung up
+her stocking Christmas Eve. "It will be so much easiah fo' Santa Claus
+to get down these big chimneys."
+
+In the morning when she found four tiny stockings hanging beside her
+own, overflowing with candy for Fritz, her happiness was complete.
+
+That night there was a tree in the drawing-room that reached to the
+frescoed ceiling. When May Lilly came in to admire it and get her share
+from its loaded branches, Lloyd came skipping up to her. "Oh, I'm goin'
+to live heah all wintah," she cried. "Mom Beck's goin' to stay heah with
+me, too, while mothah an' Papa Jack go down South where the alligatahs
+live. Then when they get well an' come back, Papa Jack is goin' to build
+a house on the othah side of the lawn. I'm to live in both places at
+once; mothah said so."
+
+There were music and light, laughing voices and happy hearts in the old
+home that night. It seemed as if the old place had awakened from a long
+dream and found itself young again.
+
+The plan the Little Colonel unfolded to May Lilly was carried out in
+every detail. It seemed a long winter to the child, but it was a happy
+one. There were not so many displays of temper now that she was growing
+older, but the letters that went southward every week were full of her
+odd speeches and mischievous pranks. The old Colonel found it hard to
+refuse her anything. If it had not been for Mom Beck's decided ways, the
+child would have been sadly spoiled.
+
+At last the spring came again. The pewees sang in the cedars. The
+dandelions sprinkled the roadsides like stars. The locust-trees tossed
+up the white spray of their fragrant blossoms with every wave of their
+green boughs.
+
+"They'll soon be heah! They'll soon be heah!" chanted the Little Colonel
+every day.
+
+The morning they came she had been down the avenue a dozen times to look
+for them before the carriage had even started to meet them. "Walkah,"
+she called, "cut me a big locus' bough. I want to wave it fo' a flag!"
+
+Just as he dropped a branch down at her feet, she caught the sound of
+wheels. "Hurry, gran'fathah," she called; "they's comin'." But the
+old Colonel had already started on toward the gate to meet them. The
+carriage stopped, and in a moment more Papa Jack was tossing Lloyd up in
+his arms, while the old Colonel was helping Elizabeth to alight.
+
+"Isn't this a happy mawnin'?" exclaimed the Little Colonel, as she
+leaned from her seat on her father's shoulder to kiss his sunburned
+cheek.
+
+"A very happy morning," echoed her grandfather, as he walked on toward
+the house with Elizabeth's hand clasped close in his own.
+
+Long after they had passed up the steps the old locusts kept echoing
+the Little Colonel's words. Years ago they had showered their fragrant
+blossoms in this same path to make a sweet white way for Amanthis's
+little feet to tread when the Colonel brought home his bride.
+
+They had dropped their tribute on the coffin-lid when Tom was carried
+home under their drooping branches. The soldier-boy had loved them so,
+that a little cluster had been laid on the breast of the gray coat he
+wore.
+
+Night and day they had guarded this old home like silent sentinels that
+loved it well.
+
+Now, as they looked down on the united family, a thrill passed through
+them to their remotest bloom-tipped branches.
+
+It sounded only like a faint rustling of leaves, but it was the locusts
+whispering together. "The children have come home at last," they
+kept repeating. "What a happy morning! Oh, what a happy morning!"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Little Colonel, by Annie Fellows Johnston
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