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Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Little Colonel + +Author: Annie Fellows Johnston + +Release Date: December, 2005 [EBook #9407] +[This file was first posted on May 28, 2004] +[Most recently updated: May 28, 2004] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: iso-8859-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE LITTLE COLONEL *** + +</pre> +<h3> +E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, David Widger,<br> +and Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders +</h3> +<br> +<br> +<hr class="full" noshade> +<br> +<br> +<h1>THE LITTLE COLONEL</h1> +<h3>By Annie Fellows Johnston</h3> +<br> +<h4>1895</h4> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<h3>TO ONE OF KENTUCKY'S DEAREST LITTLE DAUGHTERS</h3> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<h4>The Little Colonel</h4> +<h5>HERSELF--THIS REMEMBRANCE OF A HAPPY SUMMER<br> +IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED</h5> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<h2>TABLE OF CONTENTS</h2> +<center>[<a href="#CHAPTER_I.">I</a>] [<a href= +"#CHAPTER_III.">II</a>] [<a href="#CHAPTER_III.">III</a>] [<a href= +"#CHAPTER_IV.">IV</a>] [<a href="#CHAPTER_V.">V</a>] [<a href= +"#CHAPTER_VI.">VI</a>] [<a href="#CHAPTER_VII.">VII</a>] [<a href= +"#CHAPTER_VIII.">VIII</a>] [<a href="#CHAPTER_IX.">IX</a>] +[<a href="#CHAPTER_X.">X</a>]</center> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> +<hr style="width: 25%;"> +<center><a href="#0002.jpg">"'CAUSE I'M SO MUCH LIKE YOU,' WAS THE +STARTLING ANSWER".</a><br> +<a href="#0003.jpg">"THE SAME TEMPER SEEMED TO BE BURNING IN THE +EYES OF THE CHILD".</a><br> +<a href="#0004.jpg">"WITH THE PARROT PERCHED ON THE BROOM SHE WAS +CARRYING".</a><br> +<a href="#0005.jpg">"THE LITTLE COLONEL CLATTERED UP AND DOWN THE +HALL".</a><br> +<a href="#0006.jpg">"SINGING AT THE TOP OF HER VOICE".</a><br> +<a href="#0007.jpg">"'TELL ME GOOD-BY, BABY DEAR,' SAID MRS. +SHERMAN".</a><br> +<a href="#0008.jpg">"'AMANTHIS,' REPEATED THE CHILD +DREAMILY".</a><br> +<a href="#0009.jpg">"SHE CLIMBED UP IN FRONT OF THE +MIRROR".</a><br> +<a href="#0010.jpg">"THE SWEET LITTLE VOICE SANG IT TO THE +END".</a></center> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h1>The Little Colonel</h1> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I."></a>CHAPTER I.</h2> +<br> +<p>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."</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>They were looking down a long avenue that stretched for nearly a +quarter of a mile between rows of stately old locust-trees.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>There was something strangely familiar about the child, +especially in the erect, graceful way she walked.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>He carefully wiped the lens for a better view. When he looked +again he saw that they evidently had not come to visit him.</p> +<p>They had stopped half-way down the avenue, and climbed up on a +rustic seat to rest.</p> +<p>The dog sat motionless about two minutes, his red tongue hanging +out as if he were completely exhausted.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>The Colonel chuckled as they went tumbling about in the grass to +find the stick which the child repeatedly tossed away.</p> +<p>He hitched his chair along to the other end of the porch as they +kept getting farther away from the avenue.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Suddenly the little maid stood up straight, and began to sniff +the air, as if some delicious odour had blown across the lawn.</p> +<p>"Fritz," she exclaimed, in delight, "I 'mell 'trawberries!"</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>He made an imposing figure in his suit of white duck.</p> +<p>The Colonel always wore white from May till October.</p> +<p>There was a military precision about him, from his erect +carriage to the cut of the little white goatee on his determined +chin.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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."</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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?"</p> +<p>It was hard for her to put the "s" before her consonants.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"Suh?" she said, timidly, for it seemed to her that the stern, +piercing eyes had spoken.</p> +<p>"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.</p> +<p>"Eatin' 'trawberries," she answered, coolly.</p> +<p>"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.</p> +<p>"'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.</p> +<p>"What's your name?" he asked, this time looking directly at +her.</p> +<p>"Mothah calls me her baby," was the soft-spoken reply, "but papa +an' Mom Beck they calls me the Little Cun'l."</p> +<p>"What under the sun do they call you that for?" he roared.</p> +<p>"'Cause I'm so much like you," was the startling answer.</p> +<p>"Like me!" fairly gasped the Colonel. "How are you like me?"</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<a name="0002.jpg"></a><br> +<p class="ctr"><img src="images/0002.jpg" width="60%" alt=""></p> +<br> +<p>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."</p> +<p>"Yes, I have too," she persisted. "You's a-hangin' in a gold +frame over ou' mantel."</p> +<p>Just then a clear, high voice was heard calling out in the +road.</p> +<p>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."</p> +<p>The voice was coming nearer.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>There was as much real distress in the child's voice as if she +were telling him of a promised flogging.</p> +<p>"Lloyd! Aw, Lloy-eed!" the call came again.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>He caught her up in his one arm, and strode on to the gate, +where the coloured woman stood.</p> +<p>"Why, Becky, is that you?" he cried, recognizing an old, trusted +servant who had lived at Locust in his wife's lifetime.</p> +<p>Her only answer was a sullen nod.</p> +<p>"Whose child is this?" he asked, eagerly, without seeming to +notice her defiant looks. "Tell me if you can."</p> +<p>"How can I tell you, suh," she demanded, indignantly, "when you +have fo'bidden even her name to be spoken befo' you?"</p> +<p>A harsh look came into the Colonel's eyes. He put the child +hastily down, and pressed his lips together.</p> +<p>"Don't tie my sunbonnet, Mom Beck," she begged. Then she waved +her hand with an engaging smile.</p> +<p>"Good-bye, suh," she said, graciously. "We've had a mighty nice +time!"</p> +<p>The Colonel took off his hat with his usual courtly bow, but he +spoke no word in reply.</p> +<p>When the last flutter of her dress had disappeared around the +bend of the road, he walked slowly back toward the house.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>The old bitterness came back redoubled in its force.</p> +<p>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."</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II."></a>CHAPTER II.</h2> +<br> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>"Yes, I'm better, Becky," was the languid reply. "Put a clean +dress on Lloyd if you are going to take her out."</p> +<p>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!"</p> +<p>The afternoon shadows were stretching long across the grass when +Mom Beck led the child up the green slope in front of the +hotel.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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."</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>There was something magnetic in the child's eyes.</p> +<p>Mrs. Wyford shrugged her shoulders uneasily as she caught their +piercing gaze fixed on her.</p> +<p>"I do believe that little witch understood every word I said," +she exclaimed.</p> +<p>"Oh, certainly not," was the reassuring answer. "She's such a +little thing."</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"We'll go through the woods," said Mom Beck, lifting her over +the fence. "It's not so long that way."</p> +<p>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.</p> +<blockquote>"The clouds hang heavy, an' it's gwine to rain.<br> +Fa'well, my dyin' friends.<br> +I'm gwine to lie in the silent tomb.<br> +Fa'well, my dyin' friends."</blockquote> +<p>A muffled little sob made her stop and look down in +surprise.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>She picked the light form up in her arms, and, pressing the +troubled little face against her shoulder, resumed her walk and her +song.</p> +<blockquote>"It's a world of trouble we're travellin' through,<br> +Fa'well, my dyin' friends."</blockquote> +<p>"Oh, don't, Mom Beck," sobbed the child, throwing her arms +around the woman's neck, and crying as though her heart would +break.</p> +<p>"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.</p> +<p>"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?"</p> +<p>"Who's been tellin' you such nonsense?" asked the woman, +sharply.</p> +<p>"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.</p> +<p>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."</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>"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?"</p> +<p>"'Cause he's stubbo'n," was the unsatisfactory answer. "All the +Lloyds is. Yo' mamma's stubbo'n, an' you's stubbo'n--"</p> +<p>"I'm not!" shrieked the Little Colonel, stamping her foot. "You +sha'n't call me names!"</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Cuddled close in her mother's arms, she had a queer feeling that +she had grown a great deal older in that short afternoon.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>"Did I evah see her befo'?" questioned the Little Colonel.</p> +<p>"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?"</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>There was no answer to her last remark. Mom Beck had stepped +into the pantry for more eggs for the cake she was making.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>A few minutes later a resolute little figure squeezed between +the palings of the garden fence down by the gooseberry bushes.</p> +<p>"Now walk on your tiptoes, Fritz!" commanded the Little Colonel, +"else somebody will call us back."</p> +<p>Mom Beck, busy with her extra baking, supposed she was with her +mother on the shady, vine-covered porch.</p> +<p>She would not have been singing quite so gaily if she could have +seen half a mile up the road.</p> +<p>The Little Colonel was sitting in the weeds by the railroad +track, deliberately taking off her shoes and stockings.</p> +<p>"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!"</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"Fritz, it's gran'fathah," she whispered, in alarm, recognizing +the erect figure of the rider in its spotless suit of white +duck.</p> +<p>"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.</p> +<p>Presently the Little Colonel raised her head cautiously.</p> +<p>"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?"</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III."></a>CHAPTER III.</h2> +<br> +<p>Two hours later, Colonel Lloyd, riding down the avenue under the +locusts, was surprised by a novel sight on his stately front +steps.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>She was industriously stirring something in an old rusty pan +with a big, battered spoon.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>"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!"</p> +<p>The sudden call startled Lloyd so that she dropped the pan, and +the great mud pie turned upside down on the white steps.</p> +<p>"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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<a name="0003.jpg"></a><br> +<p class="lft"><img src="images/0003.jpg" width="56%" alt=""></p> +<br> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"Don't you talk that way to me," cried the Little Colonel, +trembling with a wrath she did not know how to express.</p> +<p>Suddenly she stooped, and snatching both hands full of mud from +the overturned pie, flung it wildly over the spotless white +coat.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"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?"</p> +<p>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."</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"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?"</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"Oh, yes!" she cried, with a beaming smile. "I loves 'm bettah +than anything!"</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>As she passed from one to another as lightly as a butterfly +might have done, she began chanting in a happy undertone.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>There was no special tune. It sounded happy, although nearly +always in a minor key.</p> +<p>"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!"</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"She really does love them," he thought, complacently. "To see +her face one would think she had found a fortune."</p> +<p>It was another bond between them.</p> +<p>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."</p> +<p>She followed him reluctantly, turning back several times for one +more long sniff of the delicious fragrance.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>He forgot all this, however, when she began to talk to him.</p> +<p>"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?"</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>When the last berry had vanished, she slipped down from the tall +chair.</p> +<p>"Do you 'pose it's very late?" she asked, in an anxious voice. +"Mom Beck will be comin' for me soon."</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>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."</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"You couldn't take Fritz on behin', could you?" she asked, +anxiously. "He's mighty ti'ed too."</p> +<p>"No," said the Colonel, with a laugh. "Maggie Boy might object +and throw us all off."</p> +<p>Hugging her basket of flowers close in her arms, she leaned her +head against him contentedly as they cantered down the avenue.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"This road is just back of your garden," he said. "Can you get +through the fence if I take you there?"</p> +<p>"That's the way we came out," was the answer. "See that hole +where the palin's are off?"</p> +<p>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."</p> +<p>He held her close a moment, thinking nothing had ever before +been half so sweet as the way she called him grandfather.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>It was his own little grandchild he held in his arms.</p> +<p>She had sealed the relationship with a trusting kiss.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Her ideas of grandfathers, gained from stories and observation, +led her to class them with fairy godmothers. She had always wished +for one.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"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.</p> +<p>A scrap of white lying on the grass attracted his attention as +he neared the gate.</p> +<p>"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.</p> +<p>"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?"</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV."></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2> +<br> +<p>Mom Beck was busy putting lunch on the table when the Little +Colonel looked in at the kitchen door.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>Fritz was gravely licking his lips, and the Little Colonel had +her mouth full, when they suddenly made their appearance on the +front porch.</p> +<p>Aunt Sally Tyler gave a little shriek, and stopped rocking.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>She stopped out of breath. Mrs. Tyler and her niece exchanged +astonished glances.</p> +<p>"But, baby, how could you disgrace mother so by going up there +looking like a dirty little beggar?"</p> +<p>"He didn't care," replied Lloyd, calmly. "He made me promise to +come again, no mattah if you all did tell me not to."</p> +<p>Just then Becky announced that lunch was ready, and carried the +child away to make her presentable.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>While she was taking her afternoon nap, the two ladies sat out +on the porch, gravely discussing all she had told them.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>"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!"</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>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."</p> +<p>Aunt Sally said nothing, but her thoughts took the shape of Mom +Beck's declaration, "The Lloyds is all stubborn."</p> +<p>"I wouldn't go through his gate now if he got down on his knees +and begged me," continued Elizabeth, hotly.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<a name="0004.jpg"></a><br> +<p class="rgt"><img src="images/0004.jpg" width="56%" alt=""></p> +<br> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"Ha! ha!" screamed the bird. "Polly is a lady! Oh, Lordy! I'm so +happy!"</p> +<p>"She caught that from the washerwoman," laughed Mrs. Sherman. "I +should think the poor thing would be dizzy from whirling around so +fast."</p> +<p>"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.</p> +<p>"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.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>Mrs. Sherman was right. In a few moments Lloyd came up the walk, +singing.</p> +<p>"I wish you'd tell me a pink story," she said, coaxingly, as she +leaned against her mother's knee.</p> +<p>"Not now, dear; don't you see that I am busy talking to Aunt +Sally? Run and ask Mom Beck for one."</p> +<p>"What on earth does she mean by a pink story?" asked Mrs. +Tyler.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>"What an odd little thing she is!" exclaimed Mrs. Tyler. "Isn't +she lots of company for you?"</p> +<p>She need not have asked that question if she could have seen +them that evening, sitting together in the early twilight.</p> +<p>Lloyd was in her mother's lap, leaning her head against her +shoulder as they rocked slowly back and forth on the dark +porch.</p> +<p>There was an occasional rattle of wheels along the road, a +twitter of sleepy birds, a distant croaking of frogs.</p> +<p>Mom Beck's voice floated in from the kitchen, where she was +stepping briskly around.</p> +<blockquote>"Oh, the clouds hang heavy, an' it's gwine to rain.<br> +Fa'well, my dyin' friends,"</blockquote> +<p>she sang.</p> +<p>Lloyd put her arms closer around her mother's neck.</p> +<p>"Let's talk about Papa Jack," she said. "What you 'pose he's +doin' now, 'way out West?"</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"Wondah if she'll run away to-morrow," whispered Mom Beck, as +she came out to carry her in the house.</p> +<p>"Who'd evah think now, lookin' at her pretty, innocent face, +that she could be so naughty? Bless her little soul!"</p> +<p>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.</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V."></a>CHAPTER V.</h2> +<br> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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."</p> +<p>She was always busy and always happy.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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."</p> +<p>The Colonel paid no attention.</p> +<p>"I say," she repeated, "Papa Jack's comin' home to-morrow."</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>"No, I 'pose not," she answered, so carelessly that he was +conscious of a very jealous feeling.</p> +<p>"Chilluns always like to stay with their fathahs when they's +nice as my Papa Jack is."</p> +<a name="0005.jpg"></a><br> +<p class="lft"><img src="images/0005.jpg" width="50%" alt=""></p> +<br> +<p>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.</p> +<p>She did not go back to Locust the next day, nor for weeks after +that.</p> +<p>She was up almost as soon as Mom Beck next morning, thoroughly +enjoying the bustle of preparation.</p> +<p>She had a finger in everything, from polishing the silver to +turning the ice-cream freezer.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Lloyd jumped up and threw her arms about her. "Oh, mothah," she +cried, "you an' Fritz is so bu'ful!"</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"Why, where's Papa Jack?" asked Lloyd, in distress, as passenger +after passenger stepped down. "Isn't he goin' to come?"</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>"I must send somebody for a carriage," she said, looking around +anxiously.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"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.</p> +<p>The Little Colonel looked at his white face in alarm. All the +gladness seemed to have been taken out of the homecoming.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>She was just going mournfully off to bed with an aching lump in +her throat, when her mother opened the door.</p> +<p>"Come tell papa good-night," she said. "He's lots better +now."</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>The ache in her throat was all gone after that. She romped with +Fritz all the time she was undressing.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Mom Beck, rustling around in her best dress ready for church, +that afternoon, took pity on the lonesome child.</p> +<p>"Go get yo' best hat, honey," she said, "an' I'll take you with +me."</p> +<p>It was one of the Little Colonel's greatest pleasures to be +allowed to go to the coloured church.</p> +<p>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'?"</p> +<p>One old woman across the aisle began clapping her hands +together, and repeated in a singsong tone, "Oh, Lordy! I'm so +happy!"</p> +<p>"Why, that's just what our parrot says," exclaimed Lloyd, so +much surprised that she spoke right out loud.</p> +<p>Mom Beck put her handkerchief over her mouth, and a general +smile went around.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Woolly heads wagged, and many feet kept time to the tune:</p> +<blockquote>"Oh! I'se boun' to git to glory.<br> +Hallelujah! Le' me go!"</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<a name="0006.jpg"></a><br> +<p class="rgt"><img src="images/0006.jpg" width="50%" alt=""></p> +<br> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"Howdy, Sistah Po'tah," he said, gravely shaking hands. "That +was a fine disco'se we had the pleasuah of listenin' to this +evenin'."</p> +<p>"'Deed it was, Brothah Fostah," she answered. "How's all up yo' +way?"</p> +<p>The Little Colonel, running on after a couple of white +butterflies, paid no attention to the conversation until she heard +her own name mentioned.</p> +<p>"Mistah Sherman came home last night, I heah."</p> +<p>"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.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>Mom Beck felt a little hand clutch her skirts, and turned to see +a frightened little face looking anxiously up at her.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Her mother followed him to take his directions for the +night.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>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."</p> +<p>The doctor drew on his gloves.</p> +<p>"Why don't you tell your father how matters are?" he asked.</p> +<p>Then he saw he had ventured a step too far.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>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."</p> +<p>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.</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI."></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2> +<br> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"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.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>The last Sabbath's sermon was still fresh in her mind.</p> +<p>"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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>There was no word known to the Little Colonel that brought such, +thoughts of horror as the word poorhouse.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>On their way home she had pointed out to the frightened child a +poor woman who was grubbing in an ash-barrel.</p> +<p>"That's the way people get to look who live in poorhouses," she +said.</p> +<p>It was this memory that was troubling the Little Colonel +now.</p> +<p>"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!"</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"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?"</p> +<p>"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.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>"All right," answered the child.</p> +<p>A quarter of an hour later she stood in her little white +nightgown with her hand on the door-knob.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"Oh, mothah," she whispered, "we does have such lots of +troubles."</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>That comforted the Little Colonel some, but for days she was +haunted by the fear of the poorhouse.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>She loved them all so dearly,--every stick and stone, and even +the stubby old snowball bushes that never bloomed.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>She was still wearing her summer sunbonnet, although the days +were getting frosty.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>She sat with her feet tucked under her when any one called.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>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."</p> +<p>"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--"</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>"Come, Colonel," he called, as he left the house. "I'm going to +take you a little ride."</p> +<p>No one ever knew what the kind old fellow said to her to induce +her to go to her grandfather's.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"Don't send Mom Beck with me," she pleaded, when the time came +to start. "You come with me, mothah."</p> +<p>Mrs. Sherman had not been past the gate for weeks, but she could +not refuse the coaxing hands that clung to hers.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Mrs. Sherman turned up the collar of Lloyd's cloak.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>A week seemed such a long time to look forward to.</p> +<p>She clung to her mother's neck, feeling that she could never +give her up so long.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<a name="0007.jpg"></a><br> +<p class="ctr"><img src="images/0007.jpg" width="50%" alt=""></p> +<br> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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!</p> +<p>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.</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII."></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2> +<br> +<p>That early twilight hour just before the lamps were lit was the +lonesomest one the Little Colonel had ever spent.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>She opened the front door with a wild longing to run away.</p> +<p>"Come, Fritz," she said, closing the door softly behind her, +"let's go down to the gate."</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"Oh, I want to go home so bad!" she sobbed. "I want to see my +mothah."</p> +<p>She laid her hand irresolutely on the latch, pushed the gate +ajar, and then hesitated.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>As they walked slowly back toward the house she rolled it up and +put it lovingly away in her tiny apron pocket.</p> +<p>All that week it was a talisman whose touch helped the homesick +little soul to be brave and womanly.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>"There it goes now," cried the child, jumping up from the +rug.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>The expression on her beaming face was worth a fortune to the +Colonel.</p> +<p>When Walker pushed her chair up to the table, she turned to her +grandfather with shining eyes.</p> +<p>"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!"</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"This is the nicest pahty I evah was at," remarked the Little +Colonel, as Walker helped her to jam the third time.</p> +<p>Her grandfather chuckled.</p> +<p>"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?"</p> +<p>She shook her head gravely.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Nothing could have entertained the child more than these scenes +he recalled of her mother's childhood.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>Lloyd clapped her hands and spun around the room like a top.</p> +<p>"Oh, I'm so glad I came!" she exclaimed for the third time. +"What did she call the doll, gran'fathah, do you remembah?"</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>"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?"</p> +<a name="0008.jpg"></a><br> +<p class="ctr"><img src="images/0008.jpg" width="60%" alt=""></p> +<br> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>He stroked her hair absently, and gazed into the fire. He +scarcely noticed when she slipped away from him.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"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!"</p> +<p>She hummed it over and over until Walker had finished carrying +the dishes away.</p> +<p>It was a strange thing that the Colonel's unfrequent moods of +tenderness were like those warm days that they call +weather-breeders.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>When Maria came up to put Lloyd to bed, Fritz was tearing around +the room barking at his shadow.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"Oh, look at the new moon!" cried Lloyd, pointing to the slender +crescent in the autumn sky.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>No one was watching. He slipped into the house as noiselessly as +his four soft feet could carry him.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>The child felt very sober while she was being put to bed.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Laying her head on her knees, she began to cry quietly, but with +great sobs that nearly choked her.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>He stood on his hind legs, eagerly trying to lap away her tears +with his friendly red tongue.</p> +<p>She clasped him in her arms with an ecstatic hug. "Oh, you're +such a comfort!" she whispered. "I can go to sleep now."</p> +<p>She spread her apron on the bed, and motioned him to jump. With +one spring he was beside her.</p> +<p>It was nearly midnight when the door from the Colonel's room was +noiselessly opened.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Lloyd lay with one hand stretched out, holding the dog's +protecting paw. The other held something against her tear-stained +cheek.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>He laid the glove back on her pillow, and went to his room.</p> +<p>"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?"</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII."></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> +<br> +<p>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.</p> +<p>It was beautifully dressed, although in a queer, old-fashioned +style that seemed very strange to the child.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>Fritz gave a jealous bark.</p> +<p>"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?"</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>She had eaten an early breakfast and gone back up-stairs to +examine the other toys that were spread out in her room.</p> +<p>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?"</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"Billy Goat Gruff was so fat," the story went on, "jus' as fat +as gran'fathah."</p> +<p>The Colonel glanced up with an amused smile at the fine figure +reflected in an opposite mirror.</p> +<p>"Trip-trap, trip-trap, went Billy Goat Gruff's little feet ovah +the bridge to the giant's house."</p> +<p>Just at this point Walker, who was putting things in order, +closed the door between the rooms.</p> +<p>"Open that door, you black rascal!" called the Colonel, furious +at the interruption.</p> +<p>In his haste to obey, Walker knocked over a pitcher of water +that had been left on the floor beside the wash-stand.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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."</p> +<p>Walker grinned, for he had witnessed the scene.</p> +<p>Just then Maria put her head in at the door to say, "May Lilly, +yo' mammy's callin' you."</p> +<p>Lloyd and Fritz followed her noisily down-stairs. Then for +nearly an hour it was very quiet in the great house.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"See what I've found down in the dead leaves," she cried. "A +little blue violet, bloomin' all by itself."</p> +<p>She brought a tiny cup from the next room, that belonged to the +set of doll dishes, and put the violet in it.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>He drew her toward him and kissed her.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>Then for the first time he noticed her outgrown cloak and shabby +shoes.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>"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.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>Here she began to sob, as she fumbled at the door she could not +see to open.</p> +<p>"I'm goin' home to my mothah right now. She loves me if my +clothes are old and ugly."</p> +<p>"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?"</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>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."</p> +<p>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?"</p> +<p>"Oh, yes," she exclaimed, smiling up at him. "I'll bring you +some, too."</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"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.</p> +<p>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."</p> +<p>She climbed up in front of the mirror, and put it on as she had +seen Emma Louise wear hers.</p> +<a name="0009.jpg"></a><br> +<p class="rgt"><img src="images/0009.jpg" width="50%" alt=""></p> +<br> +<p>"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.'"</p> +<p>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."</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"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?"</p> +<p>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."</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"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!"</p> +<p>"My bu'ful Amanthis!" repeated the child, in an awed +whisper.</p> +<p>She sat gazing into the lovely young face for a long time, while +the old man seemed lost in dreams.</p> +<p>"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?"</p> +<p>"Certainly, my dear," was the gentle reply.</p> +<p>It was the twilight hour, when the homesick feeling always came +back strongest to Lloyd.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>The Colonel fidgeted uncomfortably in his chair a moment. Then +to his great relief the tea-bell rang.</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX."></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2> +<br> +<p>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.</p> +<p>She loved to steal into the room before her grandfather came +down, and carry on imaginary conversations with the old +portraits.</p> +<p>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."</p> +<p>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."</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"Heah, Fritz," she was saying, "you get up on the sofa, an' be +the company, an' I'll sing fo' you."</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>He waited until she had gone back to the harp, and then, with +one spring, disappeared under the sofa.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<a name="0010.jpg"></a><br> +<p class="ctr"><img src="images/0010.jpg" width="50%" alt=""></p> +<br> +<p>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.</p> +<blockquote>Sing me the songs that to me were so deah<br> +Long, long ago, long ago.<br> +Tell me the tales I delighted to heah<br> +Long, long ago, long ago."</blockquote> +<p>The sweet little voice sang it to the end without missing a +word. It was the lullaby her mother oftenest sang to her.</p> +<p>The Colonel, who had sat down on the steps to listen, wiped his +eyes.</p> +<p>"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?"</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>It was a happy moment for the Little Colonel when she was lifted +down from Maggie Boy at the cottage gate.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>She found her father propped up among the pillows, his fever all +gone, and the old mischievous twinkle in his eyes.</p> +<p>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."</p> +<p>To his great surprise she laid her head down on his pillow +beside his and burst into tears.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>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."</p> +<p>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."</p> +<p>"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?"</p> +<p>"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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"Well, I never once thought of looking among those letters for +money," she exclaimed, as he held it up with a smile.</p> +<p>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."</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"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.</p> +<p>"I'll never get my strength back," he protested, "unless I have +more exercise."</p> +<p>It was a cold, gray November day. A few flakes of snow were +falling when he started.</p> +<p>"I'll stop and rest at the Tylers'," he called back, "so don't +be uneasy if I'm out some time."</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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!"</p> +<p>Lloyd gave one more terrified look and ran to the kitchen, +screaming for Mom Beck. No one was there.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"Come quick!" she cried. "Papa Jack's a-dyin'! Come stop +him!"</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"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!"</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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."</p> +<p>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."</p> +<p>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.</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X."></a>CHAPTER X.</h2> +<br> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>The last two hours had made a vast change in her feelings. Her +father had only fainted from exhaustion.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"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.</p> +<p>"Mothah! Mothah!" she called, pushing open the parlour door. +"Come heah, quick!"</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"Little daughter," he said, in a tremulous voice. The love of a +lifetime seemed to tremble in those two words.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>As soon as Lloyd began to realize what was happening, her face +grew radiant. She danced around in such excitement that Fritz +barked wildly.</p> +<p>"Come an' see Papa Jack, too," she cried, leading him into the +next room.</p> +<p>Whatever deep-rooted prejudices Jack Sherman may have had, they +were unselfishly put aside after one look into his wife's happy +face.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"Will you take my hand, sir?" he asked, sitting up and offering +it in his straightforward way.</p> +<p>"Of co'se he will!" exclaimed Lloyd, who still clung to her +grandfather's arm. "Of co'se he will!"</p> +<p>"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.</p> +<p>The old Colonel smiled grimly.</p> +<p>"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.</p> +<p>The Colonel himself filled the great punch-bowl that his +grandfather had brought from Virginia.</p> +<p>"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."</p> +<p>In the morning when she found four tiny stockings hanging beside +her own, overflowing with candy for Fritz, her happiness was +complete.</p> +<p>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."</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"They'll soon be heah! They'll soon be heah!" chanted the Little +Colonel every day.</p> +<p>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!"</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>"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.</p> +<p>"A very happy morning," echoed her grandfather, as he walked on +toward the house with Elizabeth's hand clasped close in his +own.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Night and day they had guarded this old home like silent +sentinels that loved it well.</p> +<p>Now, as they looked down on the united family, a thrill passed +through them to their remotest bloom-tipped branches.</p> +<p>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!"</p> +<br> +<hr class="full" noshade> +<br> +<br> +<pre> +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE LITTLE COLONEL *** + +This file should be named tlcol10h.htm or tlcol10h.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, tlcol11h.htm +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, tlcol10ah.htm + + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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