BELITTLE COLONEL'S 
 CHRISTMAS -VACATION! 
 
 IP 
 L ANNIE -FELLOWS 
 
 u JOHNSTON
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 MABEL R. GILLIS
 
 THE LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS 
 VACATION
 
 Works of 
 ANNIE FELLOWS JOHNSTON 
 
 The Little Colonel Series 
 
 (Trade Mark, Reg. U. S. Pat. Of.) 
 Each one vol., large 12mo, cloth, illustrated 
 
 The Little Colonel Stories $1.50 
 
 (Containing in one volume the three stories, The 
 Little Colonel," " The Giant Scissors," and 
 " Two Little Knights of Kentucky.") 
 
 The Little Colonel's House Party .... 1.50 
 
 The Little Colonel's Holidays 1.50 
 
 The Little Colonel's Hero 1.50 
 
 The Little Colonel at Boarding-School . . . 1.50 
 
 The Little Colonel in Arizona 1.50 
 
 The Little Colonel's Christmas Vacation . . . 1.50 
 
 The Little Colonel: Maid of Honor .... 1.50 
 
 The Little Colonel's Knight Comes Riding . . 1.50 
 
 The above 9 v->ls., boxed 13.50 
 
 In Preparation A New Little Colonel Book . . 1.50 
 
 The Little Colonel Good Times Book . . . 1.50 
 
 Illustrated Holiday Editions 
 
 Each one vol., small quarto, cloth, illustrated, and printed 
 in colour 
 
 The Little Colonel $1.25 
 
 The Giant Scissors ....... 1.25 
 
 Two Little Knights of Kentucky .... 1.25 
 
 Big Brother 1.25 
 
 Cosy Corner Series 
 
 Each one vol., thin 12mo, cloth, illustrated 
 
 The Little Colonel . . $.50 
 
 The Giant Scissors . . .-,... . . .50 
 
 Two Little Knights of Kentucky . . . . .50 
 
 Big Brother .50 
 
 Ole Mammy's Torment v .50 
 
 The Story of Dago .50 
 
 Cicely 50 
 
 Aunt 'Liza's Hero . .50 
 
 The Quilt that Jack Built , .50 
 
 Flip's " Islands of Providence " .50 
 
 Mildred's Inheritance ........ .50 
 
 Other Books 
 
 Joel: A Boy of Galilee $1.50 
 
 In the Desert of Waiting . 50 
 
 The Three Weavers . 50 
 
 Keeping Tryst .50 
 
 The Legend of the Bleeding Heart . . . .50 
 
 Asa Holmes ' . ' . 1.00 
 
 Songs Ysame (Poems, with Albion Fellows Bacon) . 1.00 
 
 L. C PAGE & COMPANY 
 200 Summer Street Boston, Mass.
 
 "'GEE WHIZ!' EXCLAIMED BOB, IN A TEASING TONE. ' SAV THAT 
 AGAIN, WON'T YOU PLEASE?'" (Seepage 163)
 
 the Little Colonel's 
 bri$tma$ Uacation 
 
 By ANNIE FELLOWS JOHNSTON 
 
 Author of" The Little Colonel Series." " Bl Brother," 
 
 " Ole Mammy's Torment," " Joel: A Boy of Galilee," 
 
 "Asa Holmes," etc. 
 
 Illustrated by ETHELDRED B. BARRY 
 
 BOSTON * L. C. PAGE 
 & COMPANY * PUBLISHERS 
 
 
 i
 
 Copyright, igos 
 
 BY L. C. PAGE & COMPANY 
 
 (INCORPORATED) 
 
 Att rights reserved 
 
 Published October, 1905 
 
 Ninth Impression, June, 1908
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PACB 
 
 I. WARWICK HALL i 
 
 II. "THE OLD GIRLS' WELCOME TO THE NEW" 22 
 
 III. AN EXCURSION 46 
 
 IV. "KEEP TRYST" 70 
 
 V. A MEMORY - BOOK AND A SOUVENIR SPOON . 95 
 VI. CHRISTMAS CAROLS 121 
 
 VII. HOMEWARD BOUND 138 
 
 VIII. A PICNIC IN THE SNOW 156 
 
 IX. A PROGRESSIVE CHRISTMAS PARTY . .176 
 
 X. THE DUNGEON OF DISAPPOINTMENT . . 198 
 
 XI. IN THE ATTIC 218 
 
 XII. HUMDRUM DAYS 235 
 
 XIII. IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF AMANTHIS . . . 254 
 
 XIV. " CINDERELLA " 273 
 
 XV. A HARD -EARNED PEARL . . . .292 
 
 XVI. SWEET SIXTEEN " 315
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 <GEE WHIZ!' EXCLAIMED ROB, IN A TEASING 
 TONE. ' SAY THAT AGAIN, WON'T YOU PLEASE ? ' " 
 (See page 163} . ~. . . . Frontispiece 
 
 " MADAM'S CONVERSATION LED FAR AWAY FROM THE 
 
 CREST AND ITS LESSON " . . . .25 
 
 ' STUDYING THE FACE OF THE HANDSOME YOUNG 
 
 FELLOW WITH INTEREST" . . . . .105 
 
 " ' I TELL YOU SOMEBODY WAS TRYING TO SANDBAG 
 
 ME'" . . . . . . . . . 152 
 
 "ONE OF THE BOYS HAD DARED HIM TO CARRY IT" 221 
 " < I NEARLY FAINTED WHEN I HAPPENED TO LOOK 
 
 UP'" . . . . . . . 248 
 
 " SHE RODE OVER TO ROLLINGTON " . . . . 299 
 
 " NO MATTAH WHAT LIES AHEAD . . . I'LL NOT DIS- 
 APPOINT THEM'" ....... 333
 
 THE LITTLE COLONEL'S 
 CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 WARWICK HALL 
 
 WARWICK HALL looked more like an old Eng- 
 lish castle than a modern boarding-school for girls. 
 Gazing at its high towers and massive portal, one 
 almost expected to see some velvet-clad page or 
 lady-in-waiting come down the many flights of 
 marble steps leading between stately terraces to the 
 river. Even a knight with a gerfalcon on his wrist 
 would not have seemed out of place, and if a slow- 
 going barge had trailed by between the willow- 
 fringed banks of the Potomac, it would have seemed 
 more in keeping with the scene than the steamboats 
 puffing past to Mount Vernon, with crowds of ex- 
 cursionists on deck. 
 
 The gorgeous peacocks strutting along the ter- 
 races in the sun were partly responsible for this 
 i
 
 2 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 impression of mediaeval grandeur. It was for that 
 very purpose that Madam Chartley, the head of the 
 school, kept the peacocks. That was one reason, 
 also, that she proudly retained the coat of arms in 
 the great stained glass window over the stairs, 
 when circumstances obliged her to turn her ances- 
 tral home into a boarding-school. She thought a 
 sense of mediaeval grandeur was good for girls, 
 especially young American girls, who are apt to 
 be brought up without proper respect for age, either 
 of individuals or institutions. 
 
 In the dining-room two long lines of portraits 
 looked down from opposite walls. One was headed 
 by a grim old earl, and the other by an equally grim 
 old Pilgrim father of Mayflower fame. The two 
 lines joined over the fireplace in the portraits of 
 Madam Chartley's great-grandparents. It was for 
 this great-grandmother, a daughter of the Pilgrims 
 and a beautiful Washington belle, that Warwick 
 Hall had been built; for she refused to give up 
 her native land entirely, even for the son of an earl. 
 
 At his death, when the title and the English es- 
 tates were inherited by a distant cousin, the only 
 male heir, this place on the Potomac was all that 
 was left to her and her daughter. It had been 
 closed for two generations. Now it had come down
 
 WARWICK HALL 3 
 
 at last to Madam Chartley. Although it found her 
 too poor to keep up such an establishment, it also 
 found her too proud to let her heritage go to stran- 
 gers, and practical enough to find some way by 
 which she might retain it comfortably. That way 
 was to turn it into a first-class boarding-school. 
 She was a graduate of one of the best American 
 colleges. The patrician standards inherited from 
 her old world ancestors, combined with the energy 
 and common sense of the new, made her an ideal 
 woman to undertake the education of young girls, 
 and Warwick Hall was an ideal place in which to 
 carry out her wise theories. 
 
 The Potomac was red with the glow of the sun- 
 set one September evening, when four girls, on their 
 way back to Washington after a day's sightseeing, 
 hurried to the upper deck of the steamboat. Some 
 one had called out that Warwick Hall was in sight. 
 In their haste to reach the railing, they scarcely 
 noticed a tall girl in blue, already standing there, 
 who obligingly moved along to make room for 
 them. 
 
 She scrutinized them closely, however, for she 
 had seen them in the cabin a little while before, and 
 their conversation had been so amusing that she 
 longed to make their acquaintance. Her face bright-
 
 4 KITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 ened expectantly at their approach, and, as they 
 leaned over the railing, she studied them with grow- 
 ing interest. The oldest one was near her own 
 age, she decided after a careful survey, about seven- 
 teen; and they were all particular about the little 
 things that count so much with fastidious school- 
 girls. She approved of each one of them from 
 their broad silk shoe-laces to the pink tips of their 
 carefully manicured finger-nails. 
 
 As the boat swung around a bend in the river, 
 bringing the castle-like building into full view, a 
 chorus of delighted exclamations broke out all along 
 the deck. The four girls hung over the railing with 
 eager faces. 
 
 " Look, Lloyd, look ! " cried one of them, ex- 
 citedly. " Peacocks on the terraces ! It's the finish- 
 ing touch to the picture. We'll feel like Lady Clare 
 walking down those marble steps. There surely 
 must be a milk-white doe somewhere in the back- 
 ground." 
 
 " Oh, Betty, Betty ! " was the laughing answer. 
 " You'll do nothing now but quote Tennyson and 
 write poetry from mawning till night." 
 
 " They're from Kentucky," thought the girl in 
 blue. " I'm sure of it from the way they talk." 
 
 As the boat glided slowly along, Lloyd threw
 
 WARWICK HALL 5 
 
 her arm around the girl beside her, with an impul- 
 sive squeeze. 
 
 " Kitty Walton," she exclaimed, " aren't you 
 glad that the old Lloydsboro Seminary burned 
 down? If it hadn't, we wouldn't be on ouah way 
 now to that heavenly-looking boahding-school ! " 
 
 The sudden hug loosened Kitty's hat, held inse- 
 curely by one pin, and in another instant the strong 
 breeze would have carried it over into the river 
 had not the girl in blue caught it as it swept past 
 her. She handed it back with a friendly smile, 
 glad of an opportunity to speak. 
 
 " You are new pupils for Warwick Hall, aren't 
 you?" she asked, when Kitty had laughingly 
 thanked her. " I hope so, for I'm one of the old 
 girls. This will be my third year." 
 
 " How perfectly lovely ! " exclaimed Kitty. 
 " We've been fairly crazy to meet some one from 
 there. Do tell us if it is as fine as it looks, and 
 as the catalogue says." 
 
 " It is the very nicest place in the world," was 
 the enthusiastic reply. " There are hardly any rules, 
 and none of them are the kind that rub you up 
 the wrong way. We don't have to wear uniforms, 
 and we're not marched out to walk in wholesale 
 lots like prisoners in a chain-gang."
 
 6 LITTLE COLONEUS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 " That's what I used to despise at the Seminary," 
 interrupted Lloyd. " I always felt like pah't of a 
 circus parade, or an inmate of some asylum, out for 
 an airing. Keeping in step and keeping in line 
 with a lot of othahs made a punishment out of 
 the walk, when it would have been such a pleasuah 
 if we could have skipped along as we pleased. I 
 felt resentful from the moment the gong rang for 
 us to stah't. It had such a bossy, tyrannical sawt of 
 sound." 
 
 " You'll not find it that way at Warwick Hall," 
 was the emphatic answer. " There are bells for 
 rising and chapel and meals, but the signal for ex- 
 ercise is a hunter's horn, blown on the upper ter- 
 race. There's something so breezy and out-of-doors 
 in the sound that it is almost as irresistible a call 
 as the Pied Piper of Hamelin's. You ought to see 
 the doors fly open along the corridors, and the girls 
 pour out when that horn blows. We can go in 
 twos or threes or squads, any way we please, and in 
 any direction, so long as we keep inside the grounds. 
 There's an orchard to stroll through, and a wooded 
 hillside, and a big meadow. On bad days there is 
 over half a mile of gravel road that runs through 
 the grounds to the trolley station, or we can take 
 our exercise going round and round the garden
 
 WARWICK: HALL 7 
 
 walks. The garden is over there at the left of the 
 Hall," she explained, waving her hand toward it. 
 " Do you see that pergola stretching along the 
 highest terrace? That is where the garden begins, 
 and the ivy running over it was started from a slip 
 that Madam Chartley brought from Sir Walter 
 Scott's home at Abbotsford. 
 
 "It is the stateliest old garden you ever saw, 
 and the pride of the school. There's a sun-dial in 
 it, and hollyhocks from Ann Hathaway's cottage, 
 and rhododendrons from Killarney. There's all 
 the flowers mentioned in the old songs. Madam 
 has brought slips and roots and seeds from all sorts 
 of places, so that nearly every plant is connected 
 with some noted place or person. I simply love 
 it. In warm weather I get up early in the morning, 
 and study my Latin out in the honeysuckle arbour. 
 Latin is my hardest study, but it doesn't seem half 
 so hard out there among the bees and humming- 
 birds, where it's all so sweet and still." 
 
 "Oh, will they let you do things like that?" 
 came the same amazed question from all four at 
 once. 
 
 " You wait and see," was the encouraging reply. 
 " That isn't the beginning." 
 
 The four exchanged ecstatic glances.
 
 8 LITTLE COLONEVS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 "Oh, we haven't introduced ourselves," ex- 
 claimed Kitty, bethinking herself of formalities. 
 " I am Katherine Walton, and this is my big sister, 
 Allison. That is Lloyd Sherman and Elizabeth 
 Lewis. They're almost as good as sisters, for they 
 live together, and Lloyd's mother is Betty's god- 
 mother. And we're all from the same place, Lloyds- 
 boro Valley, Kentucky." 
 
 " And I am Juliet Lynn from Wisconsin. That 
 is, I lived there till papa had to come to Washing- 
 ton. He's a Congressman now. I was sure that 
 you were from Kentucky, and I've been hoping that 
 you were new girls for the Hall ever since I heard 
 you talking about some house-party where you all 
 did such funny things." 
 
 " Oh, yes, that was one we had this summer at 
 The Beeches," began Kitty, glibly, "when we all 
 took turns " 
 
 But, with a big-sister frown of warning, Allison 
 said, in a low aside : " For pity's sake, don't stop 
 to tell all that long rigmarole over now. We want 
 to hear some more about the school." 
 
 "What is Madam Chartley herself like?" she 
 asked, turning to Juliet. " She must be something 
 of an old dragon if she can keep forty girls straight 
 with so few rules. We've pictured her as a big 
 
 1
 
 WARWICK HALL 9 
 
 British matron, dignified and imposing, a sort 
 of lioness rampant, you know, with a stern air, as 
 if she was about to say in a deep voice, * England 
 expects every man to do his 
 duty, sir!'" 
 
 "But she isn't that way at all!" cried Juliet, 
 almost indignantly. " She's just as American as 
 you are, for she was born and educated in this 
 country. She has the gentlest voice and sweetest 
 manner. Her hair is snow-white, and there's some- 
 thing awfully aristocratic about her, for she is 
 sort of well, I hardly know how to express it, 
 but just what you'd expect the ' daughter of a hun- 
 dred earls' to be, you know. But you won't feel 
 one bit in awe of her. The girls simply adore 
 her." 
 
 " But isn't she something to be afraid 1 of when 
 you break the rules?" queried Kitty, anxiously. 
 "When you have midnight feasts and pillow-case 
 prowls and all that?" 
 
 Juliet shook her head. "We 3on't 'do those 
 things. I tell you it isn't like any other boarding- 
 school you ever heard of." 
 
 " Then I know I sha'n't like it," declared Kitty. 
 "All my life I've looked forward to going off to 
 school just for the jolly good times I'd have. You
 
 10 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 see we were only day-pupils at Lloydsboro Semi- 
 nary, and there wasn't a chance for that kind of 
 fun, except the one term when Lloyd and Betty 
 boarded in the school while their family was away 
 from home. We managed to stir up a little excite- 
 ment then, and I'd hoped for all sorts of thrilling 
 adventures here. I'm horribly disappointed that 
 it's so tame and goody-goody." 
 
 Juliet's face coloured resentfully. " It isn't tame 
 at all ! " she declared. " It's only that we are always 
 so busy doing pleasant things and going to interest- 
 ing places that nobody cares for stolen spreads. 
 Some girls don't like the place just at first, because 
 it's so different from what they've been used to. 
 But by the end of the term they're so in love with 
 Warwick Hall and everything about it that noth- 
 ing could induce them to change schools. There's 
 only one girl I ever heard of who didn't like it." 
 
 " And why didn't she? " asked Lloyd and Allison, 
 in the same breath. 
 
 " Well, she came from some ranch away out 
 West, Wyoming or Nevada or some of those places, 
 where she'd been as free and easy as a squaw, and 
 she couldn't stand so much civilization. You see, 
 from the minute you enter Warwick Hall you feel 
 somehow that you're a guest of Madam Chartley's
 
 WARWICK HALL II 
 
 instead of a pupil She uses the old family silver 
 and the china has her great-grandfather's crest on 
 it, and she brought over a London butler who grew 
 up in the family service. She keeps him for the 
 same reason that she keeps the peacocks, I suppose. 
 They give such a grand air to the place. 
 
 " Lida Wilsy that's the girl from the ranch 
 couldn't live up to so much stateliness, especially 
 of the stony-eyed butler. Hawkins was too much 
 for her. She told her roommate that she thought 
 it was foolish to have so many forks and spoons 
 at each place. One was enough for anybody to 
 get through a dinner with. Life was too short for 
 so much fuss and feathers. She never could learn 
 which to use first, and she would get her silverware 
 so hopelessly mixed up that by the time dessert was 
 brought on maybe she would have nothing to eat 
 it with but an oyster fork. I've seen her ready to 
 go under the table from embarrassment. Not that 
 she cared so much what the girls thought. She 
 joked about it to them. Her father owned the big- 
 gest part of a silver mine, and they could have had 
 Tiffany's whole stock of forks if they'd wanted 
 them. It was Hawkins she was afraid of. Of 
 course Jie was too well trained to show what he 
 thought of her mistakes, but you couldn't help feel-
 
 12 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 ing his high and mighty inward scorn of such igno- 
 rance. It fairly oozed from his finger-tips." 
 
 Kitty's black eyes sparkled, anticipating times 
 ahead when she would certainly make it lively for 
 Hawkins. 
 
 "There's grandfathah ! " cried Lloyd, catching 
 sight of a white-haired old gentleman who had 
 just come up on deck. " I want to tell him about 
 the garden before we lose sight of it." 
 
 Juliet's glance followed her with interest as she 
 darted away, for it was a distinguished-looking 
 old gentleman who lifted his hat with elaborate 
 courtesy at her approach. He was dressed in white 
 duck, and the right coat-sleeve hung empty. 
 
 "It's Colonel Lloyd," explained Allison, noting 
 Juliet's glance of curiosity. " He's bringing us all 
 to school, for it wasn't convenient for mother or 
 Mrs. Sherman to come." 
 
 "They don't look alike," remarked Juliet, sur- 
 veying them with a puzzled expression. " But 
 what is it about them there is such a startling 
 resemblance?" 
 
 "Everybody notices it," said Kitty. "When 
 Lloyd was smaller, they used to call her the Little 
 Colonel all the time, but especially when she was 
 in a temper. They call her Princess now."
 
 WARWICK HALL 13 
 
 " Princess," echoed Juliet. " That name suits 
 her exactly." 
 
 She cast another admiring glance at the slender, 
 fair-haired girl, standing with her hand in her 
 grandfather's arm, pointing out the beauties of the 
 place they were slowly passing. 
 
 " And she will suit Warwick Hall," she added, 
 with a sudden burst of schoolgirl enthusiasm, " just 
 as the peacocks suit it, and the coat of arms, and 
 Madam' Chartley herself. She's got that same 
 ' daughter-of-a-hundred-earls ' air about her that 
 Madam has." 
 
 " Oh, it all sounds so delightful and fascinating," 
 sighed Betty, pushing back the brown hair that blew 
 in little curls about her face, and smiling at the 
 slowly disappearing Hall with a happy light in her 
 brown eyes. " I can hardly wait for to-morrow." 
 
 The boat had glided on until only the high, 
 square tower was left in view, with the red sunset 
 glow upon it. 
 
 u The splendour falls on castle walls 
 
 And snowy summits old in story* 8 * 
 
 Betty sang half under her breath, with a farewell 
 flutter of her 'handkerchief, as the boat rounded a 
 bend in the river which hid the tower from sight.
 
 14 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 Already she was in love with the place, and already, 
 as Lloyd had predicted, she was fitting some line 
 of Tennyson to it at every turn. 
 
 Acquaintance progressed rapidly in the next half- 
 hour. Long before they reached Washington, Ju- 
 liet knew, not only that she had guessed Allison's 
 age correctly at seventeen, that Betty was sixteen, 
 and Lloyd and Kitty a year younger, but that each 
 girl in her own way would make a desirable friend. 
 Incidentally she learned that Allison and Kitty had 
 lived in the Philippines, and were daughters of the 
 brave General Walton who had lost his life there 
 in his country's service. When they parted at the 
 boat-landing, it was with delightful anticipations 
 of the next day, and with each one eager to renew 
 an acquaintance so pleasantly begun. 
 
 If Warwick Hall suggested ancient stateliness on 
 the outside, it was informal and frivolous enough 
 within, when forty girls were taking possession 
 of their rooms on the opening day of the school 
 year. In and out like a flock of twittering sparrows, 
 the old pupils 'darted from one room to another, 
 exchanging calls and greetings, laughing over old 
 jokes and reminiscences, and settling down into
 
 WARWICK HALL 1 5 
 
 familiar corners with an ease that the new girls 
 envied. 
 
 Juliet Lynn, quickly establishing herself in her 
 last year's quarters, started down the corridor to 
 announce at every door that she was the first one 
 unpacked and settled. All the other rooms were 
 in hopeless confusion, beds, chairs, and floors being 
 piled with the contents of open trunks. 
 
 At the first door where she paused, a shower of 
 shoes and slippers was the only answer to her tri- 
 umphant announcement. At the next a laughing 
 cry of " Help! help! " greeted her. At the third 
 she was informed that there was standing-room 
 only. 
 
 " Don't you believe it, Juliet ! " called a gay voice 
 from the chiffonier, where an earlier visitor was 
 perched. " There's always room at the top. I've 
 discovered where Min keeps her butter-scotch. 
 Come in and have some." 
 
 " No, I'm going the rounds to see what every- 
 body is about," she answered. " You're all in such 
 a mess now, I'd rather look in later. I'm one 
 of the early settlers, and have been in order for 
 ages." 
 
 "What's the odds so long as you're happy?" 
 called the girl on the chiffonier. " Besides, it's
 
 1 6 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 no better next door. They'll invite you to make 
 yourself at home under the bed, as they did me. 
 Come on back and tell us your summer's experi- 
 ences. Min has had one dizzy whirl of adventures 
 after another." 
 
 But Juliet kept on down the hall. She wanted to 
 find what rooms had been assigned to the girls 
 whom she had met the day before on the boat, and 
 to hear their first impressions of Warwick Hall. 
 Presently, through a half-open door, she caught 
 sight of Betty, sitting at an open window over- 
 looking the river. With chin in hand and elbows 
 resting on the sill, she was gazing dreamily out at 
 the willow-fringed banks, so absorbed in her 
 thoughts that she did not hear Juliet's first knock. 
 But at the second she started up and called cor- 
 dially : " Oh, I'm so glad to see you ! Come 
 in!" 
 
 " Why, you're all unpacked and put away, too! " 
 exclaimed Juliet, in surprise, looking around the 
 orderly room. " I thought that I was the only one, 
 but I see you've even hung your pictures." 
 
 " Yes, we don't know any of the other girls yet, 
 so we didn't lose any time running back and forth 
 to their rooms, as everybody else is doing. We've 
 been through ever so long. Lloyd is out exploring!
 
 WARWICK HALL lj 
 
 the grounds with Allison, but I was too tired after 
 all the sightseeing we have done. I'd be glad not 
 to stir out of my room for a week." 
 
 She pushed a rocking-chair hospitably toward 
 her guest, and leaned back in the opposite one. 
 
 " I don't want to sit down," said Juliet. " I'm 
 just exploring. I think it's so much fun to poke 
 around the first day and see how everybody is fixed. 
 You don't mind, do you, if I walk around and look 
 at your pictures ? " 
 
 " No, indeed ! " answered Betty, cordially. 
 " Help yourself," 
 
 Catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror, she 
 sat up straight in her chair, and adjusted the side- 
 combs which were slipping out of her curly hair. 
 It was a pleasing reflection that the mirror showed 
 her, of a slim girl in a linen shirt-waist and a dark 
 brown skirt just reaching to her ankles. But it held 
 her gaze only long enough for her to see that her 
 belt was properly pulled down and her stock all 
 that could be desired. The friendly brown eyes and 
 the trusting little mouth never needed readjustment. 
 They always met the world with a smile, and thus 
 far the world had always smiled back at them. 
 
 " Last year," said Juliet, as she wandered around, 
 " the girl who had this room simply plastered the
 
 1 8 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 walls with posters. It was so sporty-looking. She 
 had hunting scenes between these windows, and 
 there was a frieze of hounds and a yard of puppies 
 where you have that panel of photographs. Oh, 
 what perfectly beautiful places ! " she cried, moving 
 nearer. " Do tell me about them. Is that where 
 you live? " 
 
 " Yes, this is our Lloydsboro Valley corner 
 the Happy Valley we call it," answered Betty, cross- 
 ing the room to point out the various places : " Lo- 
 cust," her home and Lloyd's, a stately white-pillared 
 mansion at the end of a long locust avenue ; " The 
 Beeches," where the Waltons lived; the vine-cov- 
 ered stone church ; the old mill ; the post-office, and 
 a row of snap shots showing Lloyd and her 
 mounted on their ponies, Tarbaby and Lad. 
 
 " What good times you must have there ! " sighed 
 Juliet, presently. 
 
 Betty opened a drawer in the writing-desk and 
 took out six little books, bound in white kid, her 
 initials stamped in gold on each cover. 
 
 " Just see how many ! " she exclaimed. " I 
 started to keep a record of all my good times when 
 I went to Lloyd's first house-party. When god- 
 mother gave me this volume, number one, I thought 
 it would take a lifetime to fill it, but so many lovely
 
 WARWICK HALL 19 
 
 things happened that summer that it was full in 
 a little while. Then I went abroad in the fall, and 
 that trip filled a volume. Now I am beginning the 
 seventh." 
 
 Juliet stared at the pile of white books in amaze- 
 ment. " What a lot of work ! " she cried. " Doesn't 
 it take every bit of pleasure out of your good times, 
 thinking that you'll have to write all about it after- 
 ward? I tried to keep a diary once, but it looked 
 more like the report of a weather bureau than any- 
 thing else, and my small brother got hold of it and 
 mortified me nearly to death one night when we 
 had company, by quoting something from it. It 
 sounded dreadfully sentimental, although it hadn't 
 seemed so when I wrote it. That's the trouble in 
 keeping a journal, don't you think so? You'll often 
 put down something that seems important at the 
 time, but that sounds silly afterward." 
 
 " No," said Betty, hesitatingly. " I always enjoy 
 going back to read the first volumes. It's interest- 
 ing to see how one changes from year to year in 
 opinions as well as handwriting. See how little 
 and cramped the letters are in this first volume. It's 
 good exercise, and, as I expect to write a book some 
 day, every bit of practice helps." 
 
 Betty made the announcement as simply as if
 
 2O LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 she had said she intended to darn a stocking some 
 day, and Juliet looked at her in open-mouthed won- 
 der. She had never encountered a girl of that spe- 
 cies before, and more than ever she felt that her 
 friendship would be worth cultivating. When she 
 finally took her departure, there was no time for 
 any further tour of inspection, but she ran into 
 several rooms on the way back to her own to say, 
 hastily : " Girls, do all you can to get that Ken- 
 tucky quartette into our sorority ! I'll tell you about 
 them later. We must give them a grand rush to- 
 morrow night at the old girls' welcome to the new. 
 I hope I'll get to take Elizabeth Lewis. My decors, 
 she's a perfect genius! She's written poems and 
 plays that have been published, and she's at work 
 on a book!" 
 
 As Juliet closed the door behind her, Betty took 
 up the new volume in the series of little white rec- 
 ords, and began turning the blank pages. Like the 
 new school year, it lay spread out before her, white 
 and fair, hers to write therein as she chose. 
 
 " And I'll try my hardest to make it the best and 
 happiest record of them all," she said to herself. 
 As she dipped her pen into the ink, there was a 
 knock at the door, and a white-capped maid looked 
 in.
 
 WARWICK HALL 21 
 
 " Madam Chartley would be pleased to see you 
 at once in the pink room, miss," she announced, 
 and Betty, much surprised, rose to answer the un- 
 expected summons.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 "THE OLD GIRLS' WELCOME TO THE NEW" 
 
 As Betty opened the door, she ran into Kitty 
 Walton, who at sight of her struck an attitude 
 on the threshold, crossing her hands on her breast, 
 and rolling her eyes upward until only the whites 
 were visible. 
 
 "What new pose is this, you goose?" laughed 
 Betty, shaking her gently by one shoulder. 
 
 " Don't laugh," was the solemn answer. " This 
 is pious resignation to fate." Then her hands 
 dropped and she turned to Betty tragically. 
 
 " I've just come from an interview with Madam 
 Chartley," she explained. " And what do you think? 
 That blessed old soul expects me to live up to the 
 motto on her teacups! But how can I give Haw- 
 kins his just due if I do? I had the loveliest things 
 planned for his tormenting, but I'd be ashamed to 
 look her in the face if she ever found me out after 
 this interview. 
 
 M
 
 "THE OLD GIRLV WELCOME" 2$ 
 
 " Oh, Betty, I don't want to renounce the world 
 and the flesh and all the other bad things this early 
 in the term, but I'm afraid that I've already done it. 
 She's laid a spell on all of us." 
 
 " Has she sent for Lloyd and Allison, too ? " 
 
 " Yes, Allison was the first victim. She came 
 back in a regular dare-to-be-a-Daniel mood, arid 
 announced that she intended to start in, heart and 
 soul, for the studio honours this year. Then Lloyd 
 had her turn, and she came back looking like Joan 
 of Arc when she'd been listening to the voices. I 
 vowed she shouldn't have that effect on me, but 
 here I am, perfectly docile as you see, fangs drawn 
 and claws cut. I tremble for the effect on you, 
 sweet innocent. Your wings will sprout before you 
 get back." 
 
 Betty laughed and hurried past her 'down the 
 stairs. Evidently it was Madam's custom to make 
 the acquaintance of her new girls in this way, one 
 at a time. Only fifteen freshmen were admitted 
 each year, so it was possible for her to take a per- 
 sonal interest in every pupil. 
 
 Betty's heart fluttered expectantly as she paused 
 an instant in the door of the pink room. Madam 
 Chartley had looked very imposing and dignified 
 as she presided at the lunch-table that noon, with
 
 24 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 the stately Hawkins behind her chair and the stately 
 portraits looking down from the walls. 
 
 She looked now as if she might be the original 
 of one of these old portraits herself, as she sat there 
 in the high-backed chair, with the griffins carved 
 on its teakwood frame. Her gray gown trailed 
 around her in graceful folds. There was a soft 
 fall of lace at wrists and throat, and her white hair 
 had a sheen like silver against the pink brocade with 
 which the chair was upholstered. 
 
 With a smile which seemed to take Betty straight 
 into her confidence, she held out her hand and drew 
 her to a seat beside her. An old-fashioned silver 
 tea-service stood on a table at her elbow, and when 
 the maid had brought hot water, she busied herself 
 in filling a cup for Betty. 
 
 "There!" she said, as she passed it to her. 
 "There's nothing like a cozy chat over a cup of 
 tea for warming acquaintances into friends." 
 
 Betty wondered, as she took a proffered slice of 
 lemon, if Madam began all her interviews in this 
 way, and if she was to hear the same little sermon 
 about the crest on the ancestral teacups that Kitty 
 had heard. It certainly was an interesting crest. 
 She lifted the fragile bit of china for a closer sur- 
 vey. A mailed arm, rising out of a heart, clasped
 
 " MADAM'S CONVERSATION LED FAR AWAY FROM THE CREST 
 AND ITS LESSON "
 
 ' THE OLD GIRLS' WELCOME" 2$ 
 
 a spear in its hand, and under it ran the motto, " I 
 keep tryst." 
 
 But Madam's conversation led far away from 
 the crest and its lesson. At first it was about a 
 quaint old English inn, where is served delicious 
 toasted scones with five o'clock tea. When she 
 mentioned that, it was as if they had discovered 
 a mutual friend, for Betty cried out joytully that 
 she had been there, and had spent a long rainy 
 afternoon in one of its rooms, where Scott had writ- 
 ten many chapters of " Kenil worth." Betty remem- 
 bered afterward that not a word was said about 
 school and its obligations. It was of the Old 
 Curiosity Shop they spoke, arid the House of 
 Seven Gables. Madam promised to show her the 
 autographs of Dickens and Hawthorne, which she 
 had in her collection, and a pen which had once 
 belonged to George Eliot. 
 
 Then Betty found that Madam had known Miss 
 Alcott, and, before she realized what she was doing, 
 she had thrown herself down impulsively on the 
 stool at her feet, and, with both hands clasping the 
 griffin's head on the arm of the high-backed chair, 
 was asking a dozen eager questions about " Little 
 Women" and the author who had been her first 
 inspiration to write.
 
 26 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 Nearly an hour later, when she went back to her 
 room, it was with something singing in her heart 
 that made her very solemn and very happy. It 
 was the immortal music of the Choir Invisible. 
 She had been in the unseen company of earth's 
 best and noblest, and felt in her soul that some day 
 she, too, would have a right to be counted in that 
 chorus, having done something really great and 
 worth while. 
 
 That evening after dinner Kitty bounced into 
 the room where Allison sat talking with Lloyd and 
 Betty during recreation hour. 
 
 "To-morrow night there's to be the Old Girls' 
 Welcome to the New ! " she cried. " Come on in, 
 Juliet, and tell them about it." 
 
 Juliet thrust her head through the half-open door. 
 
 " Haven't time to stop," she answered, " but I'll 
 tell this much. It's the first of the great social 
 functions. Everybody wears her party clothes and 
 a sweet smile. It's the first lesson of the year in 
 How to attain Ease under New and Exacting Con- 
 ditions. No matter how the seniors snub you later 
 on, in order to teach you your proper place, you'll 
 all be birds of a feather that one time, and flock 
 together as peaceably as pet hens. 
 
 " Each new girl has an escort appointed by the
 
 "THE OLD GIRLS' WELCOME" 2/ 
 
 entertaining committee, who sends her flowers and 
 calls for her and sees that her programme is filled. 
 So there are never any wallflowers the first night. 
 No, Allison, it isn't a dance. The programmes are 
 for progressive conversation. Somewhere in the 
 background there's a piano playing waltzes and two- 
 steps, and so forth, but you talk out the numbers 
 instead of dancing them. Changing partners so 
 often keeps you from getting bored, and strangers 
 can tell who is talking to them, for there are the 
 names on their programmes. You can refer to 
 that when anybody comes up to claim you. I'm 
 to take Lloyd, and Sybil Green is to take Kitty. 
 I haven't found out the other assignments yet. I'll 
 let you know as soon as I do. Continued in our 
 next." 
 
 With an airy wave of the hand she withdrew, 
 leaving them to an animated discussion of what 
 to wear. 
 
 " You must remember that this isn't the only 
 time you're to appear in public, Katherine Walton," 
 said Allison, severely, when Kitty proposed her best 
 array. " There's to be a reception at the White 
 House next week, and Friday night we're to go in 
 to Washington to see Jefferson in ' Rip Van 
 Winkle,' and there's to be a studio tea soon, and
 
 28 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 a recital, and all sorts of things. I saw the bulletin 
 of the term's entertainments in the hall this eve- 
 ning." 
 
 "We'll never be seen at those things," insisted 
 Kitty. 
 
 " We'll scarcely be a drop in the bucket. But 
 to-morrow night, isn't the whole affair for us? 
 We'll be the whole show. We'll be it, Allison, and 
 1 it's my night to howl.' I intend to wear my rose- 
 pink mull and a rosebud in my raving tresses, and 
 carry the gorgeous spangled fan that the dear old 
 admiral gave me in Manila. So there ! " 
 
 " Then don't come near me," said Allison, with 
 a warning shake of her head, " for I am going to 
 wear my cerise crepe de chine. It's lovely by itself, 
 but by the side of anything the shade of your pink 
 mull it's the most hideous, sickly colour you ever 
 saw. I wish you'd wear that pale green dress, 
 Kitty. You look sweet in that, and it goes so well 
 with mine." 
 
 " But, my dear sister," laughed Kitty, " I don't 
 expect to spend any time getting acquainted with 
 you. I'll probably not be near you the whole eve- 
 ning. It's not expected that, just because we are 
 from Kentucky, we have to pose as those two 
 devoted creatures on the State seal, stand around
 
 - THE OLD GIRLS' WELCOME* 2Q 
 
 with our hands clasped, exclaiming ' United we 
 stand, divided we fall ! ' to every one that comes 
 up." 
 
 " Nevah mind, Allison," said Lloyd, laughing at 
 Kitty's dramatic gestures and her sister's worried 
 expression. " I'll play ' State seal ' with you. I 
 have a pale green almost the shade of Kitty's, and 
 I'll wear the coral clasps and chains that were Papa 
 Jack's mothah's. He gave them to me just before 
 I left home. I'll show them to you." 
 
 She began to rummage through her trunk. Betty 
 sat looking at the ceiling, trying to decide the mo- 
 mentous question of dress for herself. Finally she 
 announced : " I'll just wear white, then I'll har- 
 monize with everybody, and can run up to the first 
 one of you I happen to see when I need a spark 
 of courage. I know I'll be terribly embarrassed. 
 It makes me cold right now to think of meeting 
 so many strangers." 
 
 But Betty's courage needed no reinforcing next 
 evening, when Maria Overlin, one of the seniors, 
 took her in charge. The reception took place in 
 what had been the ballroom, in the days when War- 
 wick Hall was noted for its brilliant entertainments. 
 Even its first hostess could not have received her 
 distinguished guests with courtlier grace than
 
 30 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 Madam Chartley received her pupils, when, to the 
 music of a stately minuet, they filed past her down 
 the long line of teachers. 
 
 For once, each of the new girls, no matter how 
 timid or inexperienced in social ways, tasted the 
 sweets of popularity, and the four whom Juliet 
 Lynn had dubbed the Kentucky quartette were over- 
 whelmed with attentions. 
 
 Juliet, who had hoped to escort Betty, was glad 
 that Lloyd had fallen to her lot when she saw what 
 an admiring little court flocked around her wher- 
 ever she turned. In the pale green dress, with its 
 clasps of pink coral carved in the shape of tiny 
 butterflies, she looked more princess-like than ever. 
 She wore a bracelet of the coral butterflies also, and 
 a slender circlet of them about her throat. They 
 gave a soft pink flush to her cheeks. 
 
 No sooner had she passed the receiving line than 
 she was surrounded by a group of white-gowned 
 girls clamouring for an introduction and a place 
 on her programme. 
 
 "Whose initials are these?" she whispered to 
 Juliet presently when the card was all filled and 
 there were still several girls asking to be allowed 
 to write their names on it.
 
 "THE OLD GfXLS' WELCOME" 31 
 
 " Couldn't I give Miss Bartlett this line where 
 there's nothing but G. M. scrawled on it? " 
 
 " Mercy, no ! " exclaimed Juliet. " That's for 
 Gabrielle Melville. It would never do for you two 
 to miss each other to-night. I put them down for 
 her, as she's to play later in the evening on the 
 violin, you know, and I knew she'd never get here 
 in time to do it herself. She always has such frantic 
 times dressing. Just struggles into her things, 
 never can find half her clothes, and what she does 
 manage to fall into catches and rips in the struggle. 
 Her hat is always over one ear, and her belts never 
 make connection in the back, but she's so adorable 
 that nobody minds her wild toilets. They laugh 
 and say, ' Oh, it's just Gay.' That's her nickname, 
 you know. Here's Emily Chapman coming to claim 
 you. Emily, you can tell Lloyd some things about 
 Gay, can't you ? " 
 
 "I rather think so," laughed Emily. "We 
 roomed together last year, and I got her again 
 this term. It took a fight, though, for she's the 
 most popular girl in school." 
 
 "Is she pretty?" asked Lloyd. 
 
 " We think so, don't we, Juliet? If she had any 
 enemies, they might say that she has red hair and 
 a pug nose. But that would be exaggerating. Her
 
 32 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 hair is that beautiful bronzy auburn that crinkles 
 around her face and blows in her eyes till she al- 
 ways seems to be bringing a breeze with her." 
 
 "And her nose isn't pug exactly," chimed in 
 Juliet " There's just a darling, saucy little tip to 
 it, that seems to suit her. She wouldn't be half as 
 pretty with the approved Gibson girl kind, no mat- 
 ter how perfect it was." 
 
 " And her complexion is so lovely," Emily re- 
 sumed, enthusiastically. " And her eyes are a jolly, 
 laughing kind of brown, with an amber sparkle in 
 them, except when she gets into one of her intense, 
 serious moods. Then they are almost black, they're 
 so deep and velvety. She's never twice in the same 
 mood. Oh! There she comes now." 
 
 A side door opened, and a slim little thing all 
 in white, with a violin under her arm 1 and a dis- 
 tracted pucker on her face, hurried up to the piano. 
 Nervously feeling her belt to make sure that she 
 was presentable before turning her back on the 
 audience, she whispered to the girl who was to play 
 her accompaniments, and began tuning the violin. 
 Then, tucking it under her chin as if she loved it, 
 she listened an instant to the piano prelude, and 
 drew her bow softly across the strings. 
 
 " Good ! " whispered Emily. " It's that Mexi-
 
 THE OLD GIRLS* WELCOME" 33 
 
 can swallow song. She always has such a rapt 
 expression on her face when she plays that. She 
 makes me think of St. Cecilia. She's so earnest 
 in all she does. If it's no more than making fudge, 
 she throws her whole soul into it, just that way. 
 She's as intense as if the fate of a nation depended 
 on whatever she happens to be doing." 
 
 As Lloyd joined loudly in the applause which 
 followed the performance, another girl came up to 
 claim her attention. It was Myra Carr, the senior 
 who had taken Allison under her wing. 
 
 "Doesn't Gay play splendidly?" she exclaimed, , 
 not knowing that she had been the previous topic 
 of conversation. " We think she's a genius. She 
 improvises little things sometimes in the twilight 
 that are so sweet and sad they make you cry. Then 
 she's unconventional enough to be a genius. She's 
 always shocking people without meaning to, and so 
 careless, she'd lose her head if nature hadn't at- 
 tended to the fastenings. 
 
 " We all love her dearly, but we vowed the last 
 time we went sightseeing that she should never go 
 with us again unless she let us tie her up in a bag, 
 so that nothing could drop out by the way. First 
 she lost her hat. ' It blew off the trolley-car, one 
 of those ' seeing Washington ' affairs, you know.
 
 34 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 She had to go bareheaded all the rest of the way. 
 Then she lost her pocketbook, and such a time as 
 we had hunting that. The time before, she lost a 
 locket that had been a family heirloom, and we 
 missed our train and got caught in a shower look- 
 ing for it." 
 
 " Where does she live? " asked Lloyd, watching 
 the bright face that was making its way toward 
 them across the crowded room. 
 
 " At Fort Sam Houston, down in San Antonio. 
 Her father is an army officer at that post." 
 
 There was no time for further discussion, for 
 Gabrielle was coming toward her with outstretched 
 hand. 
 
 "This is Juliet's Princess, isn't it?" she asked, 
 with a smile that captivated Lloyd at once, flashing 
 over the whitest of little teeth. " You're getting all 
 sorts of titles to-night. I heard a girl speak of you 
 as a mermaid in that pale sea-green gown and cor- 
 als, but I've come over here on purpose to call you 
 the ' Little Colonel.' . You don't know how much 
 good it does me to hear a military title once more. 
 Out at the fort it's all majors and captains and such 
 things." 
 
 Then, dropping her grown-up society manner,
 
 "TffE OLD GIRLS* WELCOME" 3$ 
 
 she suddenly giggled, turning to include Emily in 
 the conversation. 
 
 " Oh, girls, I had the worst time getting dressed 
 this evening that I ever had in my life. When I 
 unpacked my trunk yesterday, everything was so 
 wrinkled that there was only one dress I could wear 
 without having it pressed; this white one. So I 
 laid it out, but, when I went to put it on to-night, 
 I found that mamma had made a mistake in pack- 
 ing, and put in Lucy's skirt instead. Lucy is my 
 older sister," she explained to Lloyd. " We each 
 had a dotted Swiss this summer, made exactly alike, 
 but Lucy is so much taller than I that her skirts 
 trail on me. Just look how imposing ! " 
 
 She swept across the floor and back to show the 
 effect of her trail. 
 
 " Of course there was nothing to do at that late 
 hour but pin it up in front and go ahead. I'm 
 afraid every minute that I'll trip and fall all over 
 myself, but I do feel so dignified when I feel my 
 train sweeping along behind me. The pins keep 
 falling out all around the belt, and I can't help 
 stepping on the hem in front. I love trains," she 
 added, switching hers forward with a grand air 
 that was so childlike in its enjoyment that Lloyd
 
 36 LITTLE COLO NE US CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 felt impelled to hug her. " It gives you such a 
 dressed-up, peacocky feeling." 
 
 Then she looked up in her most soulful, intense 
 way, as if she were asking for important informa- 
 tion. " Do you know whether it's true or not ? 
 Does a peacock stop strutting if it happens to see 
 its feet? My old nurse told me that, and said that 
 it shows that pride always goes before a fall. I 
 never was where they kept peacocks before I came 
 to Warwick Hall, and I've spent hours watching 
 Madam's to see if it is true. But they are always 
 so busy strutting, I've never been able to catch 
 them looking at their feet." 
 
 She glanced at her own feet as she spoke, then 
 gasped and, covering her face with her hands, sank 
 limply into a chair in the corner behind her. 
 
 "What's the matter?" cried Juliet, alarmed by 
 the sudden change. 
 
 " Look! Oh, just look!" was the hysterical an- 
 swer, as she thrust out both feet, and sat pointing 
 at them tragically, with fingers and thumbs of both 
 hands outspread. 
 
 " No wonder they felt queer. I was so intent on 
 getting my dress pinned up, and in rushing out in 
 time to play, that I couldn't take time to analyze 
 my feelings and discover the cause of the queerness.
 
 "THE OLD GIRLS 1 WELCOME" 37 
 
 Madeline blew in at a critical point to borrow a pin, 
 and that threw me off, I suppose." 
 
 From under the white skirt protruded two feet 
 as unlike as could well be imagined. One was cased 
 in dainty white kid, the other in an old red felt 
 bedroom slipper, edged with black fur. 
 
 " And it would have been all the same," sighed 
 Gay, "if I had been going to an inaugural ball 
 to hobnob with crowned heads. And I had hoped 
 to make such a fine impression on the Little Colo- 
 nel," she added, in a plaintive tone, with a childlike 
 lifting of the face that Lloyd thought most charm- 
 ing. 
 
 If the mistake had been made by any other girl 
 in the school, it would not have seemed half so 
 ridiculous, but whatever Gay did was irresistibly 
 funny. A laughing crowd gathered around her, 
 as she sat with the red slipper and the white one 
 stretched stiffly out in front of her, bewailing her 
 fate. 
 
 " Anyhow," she remarked, " I'll always have the 
 satisfaction of knowing that I put my best foot fore- 
 most, and if they had been alike I couldn't have 
 done that. Now could I ? " And the girls laughed 
 again, because it was Gay who said it in her own 
 inimitable way, and because the old felt slipper
 
 38 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 looked so ridiculous thrust out from under the 
 dainty white gown. As others came crowding up 
 to see what was causing so much merriment in that 
 particular corner, Gay attempted to slip out and go 
 to her room to correct her mistake. But Sybil 
 Green, pushing through the outer ring, came up 
 with Allison and Kitty. 
 
 " Gay," she began, " here are the girls that you 
 especially wanted to meet : General Walton's daugh- 
 ters." 
 
 Gay's face flushed with pleasure, and, forgetting 
 her errand, she impulsively stretched out a hand to 
 each, and held them while she talked. 
 
 " Oh, I'm so glad to meet you! " she cried. " I 
 wish that I had known that you girls were here 
 yesterday before papa left. He is Major Melville, 
 and he was such a friend of your father's. He 
 was on that long Indian campaign with him in 
 Arizona, and I've heard him talk of him by the 
 hour. And last week " here she lowered her 
 voice so that only Allison and Kitty heard, and 
 were thrilled by the sweet seriousness of it. " Last 
 week he took me out to Arlington to carry a great 
 wreath of laurel. When he'd laid it on the grave, 
 he stood there with bared head, looking all around, 
 and I heard him say, in a whisper, ' No one in all
 
 "THE OLD GIRLS' WELCOME* 39 
 
 Arlington has won his laurels more bravely than 
 you, my captain.' You see it was as a captain that 
 papa knew him best. He would have been so 
 pleased to have seen you girls." 
 
 Kitty squeezed the hand that still held hers and 
 answered, warmly : " Oh, you dear, I hope we'll 
 be as good friends as our fathers were ! " And 
 Allison answered, winking back the tears that had 
 sprung to her eyes : " Thank you for telling us 
 about the laurel. Mother will appreciate it so 
 much." 
 
 While this conversation was going on at Lloyd's 
 elbow, Betty came up to her on the other side. 
 " Please see if my dress is all right in the back," 
 she whispered. " It feels as if it were unfastened." 
 Then, as Lloyd assured her it was properly but- 
 toned, she added, in an undertone : " Have you met 
 Maud Minor? She's one of the new girls." 
 
 Lloyd shook her head. 
 
 " Then I'm going to introduce you as soon as I 
 can. She knows Malcolm Maclntyre." 
 
 " Knows Malcolm ! " exclaimed Lloyd, in amaze- 
 ment. " Where on earth did she ever meet him ? " 
 
 " At the seashore last summer. She can't talk 
 about anything else. She thinks he is so handsome 
 and has such beautiful manners and is so adorably
 
 4O LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 romantic. Those are her very words. She has 
 his picture. Evidently he has talked to her about 
 you, for she's so curious to know you. She asked 
 a string of questions that I thought were almost 
 impertinent." 
 
 "Where is she?" asked Lloyd. 
 
 " There, that girl in white crossing the room 
 with the fat one in lavender." 
 
 Lloyd gave a long, critical look, and then said, 
 slowly : " She's the prettiest girl in the room, and 
 she makes me think of something I've read, but 
 I can't recall it." 
 
 "I know," said Betty, "but you'll laugh at me 
 if I say Tennyson again. It's from ' Maud ' 
 
 <* ' I kissed her slender hand. 
 She took the kiss sedately. 
 Maud is not seventeen, 
 But she is tall and stately.' 
 
 "But she is not as sedate as she looks," added 
 Betty, truthfully. " I'd like her better if she didn't 
 gush. That's the only word that will express it. 
 And it seemed queer for her to take me into her 
 confidence the minute she was introduced. Right 
 away she gave me to understand that she'd had a 
 sort of an affair with Malcolm. She didn't say 
 so in so many words, but she gave me the impres-
 
 " THE OLD GIRLS' WELCOME" 4! 
 
 sion that he had been deeply interested in her, in 
 a romantic way, you know." 
 
 Lloyd looked at Maud again, more critically this 
 time, and with keener interest. Then .her thoughts 
 flew back to the churchyard stile where they had 
 paused in their gathering of Christmas greens one 
 winter day. For an instant she seemed to see the 
 handsome boy looking down at her, begging a token 
 of the Princess Winsome, and saying, in a low 
 tone, " I'll be whatever you want me to be, Lloyd." 
 
 Juliet's voice broke in on her reverie. " Miss 
 Sherman, allow me to present Miss Minor." 
 
 Maud was slightly taller than Lloyd, but it was 
 not her extra inches alone which seemed to give her 
 the air of looking down on every one. It was her 
 patronizing manner. Lloyd resented it. Instinct- 
 ively she drew herself up and responded somewhat 
 haughtily. 
 
 " My dear, I've been simply dying to meet you," 
 began Maud, effusively. " Ever since I found out 
 that you were the girl Malcolm Maclntyre used to 
 be so fond of." 
 
 Lloyd responded coldly, certain that Malcolm had 
 not discussed their friendship in a way to warrant 
 this outburst from a stranger. 
 
 "Do you know his brothah Keith, too?" she
 
 42 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 asked. "We're devoted to both the boys. You 
 might say we grew up togethah, for they visited 
 in the Valley so much. We've been playmates since 
 we were babies. You must meet the Walton girls. 
 They are Malcolm's cousins, you know." 
 
 Before Maud realized how it came about, Lloyd 
 had graciously turned her over to Allison and Kitty, 
 and made her escape with burning cheeks and a 
 resentful feeling. Maud's words kept repeating 
 themselves : " So adorably romantic. The girl 
 Malcolm used to be so fond of ! " They made her 
 vaguely uncomfortable. She wondered why. 
 
 For another hour she went on making acquaint- 
 ances and adding to her store of information about 
 Warwick Hall. They couldn't have chafing-dishes 
 in their rooms, one frivolous sophomore told her. 
 The insurance companies objected after one girl 
 spilled a bottle of alcohol and set fire to the cur- 
 tains. But once a week those who pined for candy 
 could make it over the gas-stove in the Domestic 
 Science kitchen. Those who were too lazy to make 
 it could buy it Monday afternoons from Mammy 
 Easter, an old coloured woman who lived in a cabin 
 on the place. She was famous for her pralines, 
 the sophomore declared. " We have jolly charades 
 and impromptu tableaux up in the gymnasium
 
 "THE OLD GIRLS' WELCOME" 43 
 
 sometimes. Oh, school at the Hall is one grand 
 lark!" 
 
 " Don't you believe it," said the spectacled junior 
 who monopolized Lloyd next. " It's a hard dig to 
 keep up to the mark they set here. But I must say 
 it is an agreeable kind of a dig," she added. 
 
 " It's good just to wake up in the morning and 
 know there's going to be another whole day of it. 
 The classes are so interesting, and the teachers so 
 interested in us, that they bring out the very best 
 in everybody Even a grasshopper would have its 
 ambition aroused if it stayed in this atmosphere 
 long." 
 
 She peered at Lloyd through her glasses as if 
 to satisfy herself that she would be understood, 
 and then added, confidentially : " I can fairly feel 
 myself grow here. I feel the way I imagine the 
 morning-glories do when they find themselves 
 climbing up the trellis. They just stretch out their 
 hands and everything helps them up, the sun 
 and the soil, the wind and the dew. And here at 
 Warwick Hall there's so much to help. Even the 
 little glimpses we get over the garden wall into the 
 outside world of Washington, with its politics and 
 great men. But those two people over there help 
 me most of all." She nodded toward Madam
 
 44 LITTLE COLONEDS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 Chartley and Miss Chilton, the teacher of English, 
 who were now seated together on a sofa near the 
 door. 
 
 " When I look at them I feel that the morning- 
 glory vine must climb just as high as it possibly 
 can, and shake out a wealth of bells in return for 
 all that has been given toward its growth. Don't 
 you ? " 
 
 " Yes," answered Lloyd, slightly embarrassed by 
 the soulful gaze turned on her through the spec- 
 tacles. " Betty would enjoy knowing you," she 
 exclaimed. " She is always saying and writing 
 such things." 
 
 " Oh, I thought that you were the one that 
 writes," answered the junior. " Aren't you the 
 one the freshmen are going to elect class editor 
 for their page of the college paper? " 
 
 " No, indeed ! " protested Lloyd, laughing at the 
 idea. " Come across the room with me and I'll find 
 Betty for you." 
 
 " There won't be time to-night," responded the 
 junior, " for there goes the music that means good 
 night. They always play ' America ' as a signal 
 that it's time to go." 
 
 " What makes you so quiet ? " asked Betty, a 
 little later, as they slowly undressed. She had chat-
 
 "TffE OLD GIRLS' WELCOME* 45 
 
 tered along, commenting on the events of the eve- 
 ning, ever since they came to their room, but Lloyd 
 had seemed remarkably unresponsive. 
 
 " Oh, nothing," yawned Lloyd. " I was just 
 thinking of that fairy-tale of the three weavers. I'll 
 turn out the light." 
 
 As she reached up to press the electric button, 
 she thought again, for the twentieth time, " I won- 
 der what it was that Malcolm told Maud Minor." 
 Then she nestled down among the pillows, saying, 
 sleepily, to herself : " Anyway, I'm mighty glad 
 that I nevah gave him that curl he begged for."
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 AN EXCURSION 
 
 IT was a Sabbath afternoon in October, sunny 
 and still, with a purple haze resting on the distant 
 woodlands across the river. A warm odour of ripe 
 apples floated across the old peach orchard, for a 
 few rare pippin-trees stood in its midst, flaunting 
 the last of their fruitage from gnarled limbs, or 
 hiding it in the sear grass underneath. 
 
 Here and there groups of bareheaded girls wan- 
 dered in the sun-flecked shade, exchanging confi- 
 dences and stooping now and then to pounce joy- 
 fully upon some apple that had hitherto evaded 
 discovery. Betty, who had been reading aloud for 
 nearly an hour to a little group under one of the 
 largest trees, closed her book with a yawn. Lloyd 
 and Kitty leaned lazily back against the mossy 
 trunk, and Allison, with her arms around her knees, 
 gazed dreamily across the river. The only one 
 who did not seem to have fallen under the drowsy 
 46
 
 AN EXCURSION 47 
 
 spell of the Indian summer afternoon was Gay. 
 Up in the tree above them, she lay stretched out 
 along a limb, peering 1 down through the leaves like 
 a saucy squirrel. 
 
 "What a Sleepy Hollow tale that was!" she 
 exclaimed. " It just suits the day, but it has hyp- 
 notized all of you. Do wake up and be sociable." 
 
 She began breaking off bits of twigs and drop- 
 ping them down on the heads below. One struck 
 Lloyd's ear, and she brushed it off impatiently, 
 thinking it was a bug. Gay laughed and began 
 teasingly : 
 
 " There was a young maiden named Lloyd, 
 Whom reptiles always annoyed. 
 An innocent worm would cause her to squirm, 
 And cloyed toyed employed 
 
 I'm stuck, Betty. Come to the rescue with a 
 rhyme." 
 
 " So with germicide she's overjoyed," supplied 
 Betty, promptly. 
 
 " That's all right," said Kitty, waking up. 
 " Let's each make a Limerick. Five minutes is 
 the limit, and the one that hasn't his little verse 
 ready when the time is up will have to answer truth- 
 fully any question the others agree to ask." 
 
 " No," objected Lloyd. " I'd be suah to be it
 
 48 LITTLE COLONEUS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 I can make the rhymes, but the lines limp too dread- 
 fully for any use." 
 
 " We won't count that," promised Kitty, looking 
 at her chatelaine watch. " Now, one, two, three ! 
 Fire away ! " 
 
 There was silence for a little space, broken only 
 by the soft cooing of a far-away dove. Then Betty 
 looked up with a satisfied smile. The anxious 
 pucker smoothed out of Lloyd's forehead, and Alli- 
 son nodded her readiness. 
 
 " Lloyd first," called Kitty, looking at her watch 
 again. 
 
 A mischievous smile brought the dimples to the 
 Little Colonel's face as she began: 
 
 There's a girl in our school called Kitty, 
 Evidently not from the city. 
 With screeches and squawkin's 
 She upset the nerves of poah old Hawkins. 
 Oh, her behaviour was not at all pretty." 
 
 A burst of laughter greeted Lloyd's attempt at 
 verse-making, for the subject which she had chosen 
 recalled one of Kitty's outbreaks the first week of 
 school, when the temptation to upset Hawkins's 
 dignity was more than she could resist. No one 
 of them who had seen Hawkins's wild exit from 
 the linen closet the night she hid on the top shelf,
 
 AN EXCURSION 49 
 
 and raised his hair with her blood-curdling moans 
 and spectral warnings (having blown out his candle 
 from above), could think of the occurrence without 
 laughing till the tears came to their eyes. 
 
 "Now, Allison," said Kitty, when the final giggle 
 had died away. " It's your turn." Allison referred 
 to the lines she had scribbled on the back of a mag- 
 azine: 
 
 u There is a young maiden, they say, 
 Who grows more beloved every day. 
 When we talk or we ramble, there's always a scramble 
 To be next to the maid who is Gay" 
 
 "Whew! Thanks awfully!" came the embar- 
 rassed exclamation from the boughs above, and 
 Betty cried, in surprise : " Why, I wrote about her, 
 too. I said: 
 
 " Like the bow on the strings when she plays, 
 So she crosses with music our days. 
 Our hearts doth she tune to the gladness of June, 
 And the smile that brings sunshine is Gay's." 
 
 "My dear, that's no Limerick, that's poet*/!" 
 exclaimed Kitty, and Gay_ called down : "It's aw- 
 fully nice of you, girls, but please change the sub- 
 ject. I'm so covered with confusion that I'm about 
 to fall off this limb."
 
 50 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 " Well, here's something mean enough to brace 
 you up," answered Kitty. " It's about Maud 
 Minor. It's hateful of me to write it, but I happened 
 to see her going down the terrace steps and it just 
 popped into my head: 
 
 " There is a young lady named Maud, 
 Whose manners are overmuch thawed. 
 She'll beat an oil-well. When they'd gushed for a spell 
 // would take a back seat and applaud." 
 
 "What's the matter, Kitty?" asked Betty, "I 
 thought you admired her immensely." 
 
 " I did that first week, but it's just as I say. 
 She gushes over me so, simply because I am Mal- 
 colm's cousin. I know very well that I am not 
 the dearest, cutest, brightest, most beautiful and 
 angelic being in the universe, and she isn't- sincere 
 when she insists that I am. She overdoes it, and 
 is so dreadfuly effusive that I want to run when- 
 ever she comes near me. I wish she wasn't going 
 on the excursion to-morrow." 
 
 " She doesn't worry me," said Gay. " I meet 
 her on her own ground and fire back her own ad- 
 jectives at her, doubled and twisted. She has let 
 me alone for some time." 
 
 The discussion of Maud led their thoughts away 
 from Gay's Limerick, and Kitty forgot to ask for
 
 AN EXCURSION 5 1 
 
 it. They sat in silence again, and the plaintive call- 
 ing of the dove sounded several times before any 
 one spoke. 
 
 "It's so sweet and peaceful here," said Betty, 
 softly. " It makes me think of Lloydsboro Valley. 
 I could shut my eyes and almost believe I was back 
 in the old Seminary orchard." 
 
 " I'm glad we're not," said Allison. " For then 
 we'd miss to-morrow's excursion. And I like hav- 
 ing our holiday on Monday instead of Saturday, 
 as we did there." 
 
 " What excursion are you talking about ? " asked 
 Gay, lazily swinging her foot over the limb. 
 
 Betty explained. " We're going to see some rare 
 old books and illuminated manuscripts. Miss Chil- 
 ton has a friend in Washington who has one of 
 the finest private collections in the country, and 
 she offered to take any of the freshman class who 
 cared to go. Ten of us have accepted the invita- 
 tion. We're going to the Congressional Library 
 in the morning, take lunch at some restaurant, and 
 then call on this lady early in the afternoon. It 
 will be the only chance to see them, as she is going 
 abroad very soon, and the house will be closed for 
 the winter." 
 
 " There are other things in the collection besides
 
 52 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 books," said Allison " Some queer old musical in- 
 struments, a harpsichord and a lute, and an old 
 violin worth its weight in gold. Some of the 
 most noted violinists in the world have played 
 on it." 
 
 " Oh, I know ? " cried Gay, raising herself to 
 a sitting position and throwing away the core of 
 the apple she had been eating. " That's the excur- 
 sion I missed last year when I sprained my ankle. 
 I never was so disappointed in my life. I'm going 
 right now to ask Miss Chilton to take me, too. 
 I'm wild to get my fingers on that violin." 
 
 Swinging lightly down from the limb to the 
 ground, she twisted around like a contortionist in 
 a vain attempt to see her back. 
 
 " There ! " she exclaimed, feeling her belt with 
 a sigh of relief. " For a wonder there's nothing 
 torn or busted this trip. I must be reforming. 
 Girls, what do you think! I haven't lost a single 
 thing for a whole week." 
 
 " Don't brag," warned Lloyd. " Mom Beck 
 would say you'd bettah scratch on wood if you 
 don't want yoah luck to change." 
 
 Gay shrugged her shoulders at the superstition, 
 but she reached over and lightly scratched the pencil 
 thrust through Betty's curly hair.
 
 AN EXCURSION 53 
 
 "There goes the first bell for vespers," said 
 Kitty, as they strolled slowly back toward the Hall, 
 five abreast and arm in arm. With one accord they 
 began to hum the hymn with which the service 
 always opened, " Day is dying in the west." 
 
 " It's going to be a fair day to-morrow," prophe- 
 sied Gay, pausing an instant on the chapel steps. 
 " There's Miss Chilton. I'll run over and ask her 
 now." 
 
 " It's all right," she whispered several minutes 
 later, when she slipped into the seat next Lloyd. 
 " I can go. It'll be the greatest kind of a lark." 
 
 As Sybil Green passed through the hall next 
 morning, where the excursionists were assembling, 
 Gay stopped her and began slowly revolving on 
 her heels. " Now view me with a critic's eye," she 
 commanded. " Gaze on me from chapeau to shoe 
 sole, and bear witness that I am properly girded 
 up for the occasion. See how severely neat and 
 plain I am. See how beautifully my belts make con- 
 nection in the back. Three big, stout safety-pins 
 will surely keep my skirt and shirt-waist together 
 till nightfall, and there's not a thing about me that 
 I can possibly lose." 
 
 She was still turning around and around. " Not 
 a watch, ring, pin, or bangle! Not even a pocket-
 
 54 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 book. Miss Chilton is carrying my car-fare, and 
 my handkerchief is up my sleeve." 
 
 " You might lose your balance or your presence 
 of mind," laughed Sybil. " You'll have to watch 
 her, girls. How spick and span you all look," she 
 added, as they trooped past, behind Miss Chilton, 
 most of them in freshly laundered shirt-waist suits, 
 for the Indian summer day was as warm and sunny 
 as June. 
 
 " It would be just about Gay's luck to run into 
 a watering-cart or lean up against a freshly painted 
 door, in that pretty pongee suit," she thought, 
 watching them out of sight. 
 
 But for once Gay's lucky star was in the ascend- 
 ant. The trip to the library left her without spot 
 or wrinkle, and as she followed Miss Chilton into 
 the restaurant she could not help smiling at her 
 reflection in the mirror. It looked so trim and neat. 
 
 The restaurant was crowded. The waiters rushed 
 back and forth, balancing their great trays on their 
 finger-tips in a reckless way that made Gay dodge 
 every time they passed. 
 
 " Oh, you needn't laugh," she exclaimed, when 
 some one jokingly called attention to her. " I'm 
 born to trouble; and I have a feeling that some- 
 thing is going to happen before the day is over."
 
 AN EXCURSION 55 
 
 Something did happen almost immediately, but 
 not to Gay. Two of the pompous coloured men 
 collided just as they were passing Miss Chilton's 
 table. One tray dropped to the floor with a tre- 
 mendous crash of breaking dishes. The other was 
 caught dexterously in mid-air, but not before its 
 contents had turned a somersault and wrought ruin 
 all around it. A bowl of tomato soup splashed over 
 Lloyd's immaculate shirt-waist and ran in two long 
 red streaks across the shoulders of her duck jacket, 
 which she had hung on her chair-post. Her little 
 gasp of dismay was followed by one from Maud 
 Minor, whose dainty gray silk waist was spattered 
 plentifully with coffee. 
 
 There was a profusion of apologies from the 
 waiters and a momentary confusion as the wreck 
 was cleared away. In the midst of it, Miss Chil- 
 ton was pleased and gratified to hear a low-pitched 
 voice at the table behind her say : " Those are War- 
 wick Hall girls. I recognize their chaperon, but 
 I would have known them anywhere from the lady- 
 like way they treated the affair. So quiet and self- 
 controlled, not a bit of fuss or excitement, and it 
 probably means that the day's outing will be spoiled 
 for two of them."
 
 56 LITTLE COLONEUS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 The girls proceeded with their dessert, but Miss 
 Chilton sat considering 1 . 
 
 " If you girls were only familiar with the city," 
 she said at last, looking at her watch, " I could 
 let you go to some shop and get new shirt-waists, 
 and you could meet me at my friend's afterward. 
 But even if you could find your way to the shop, 
 I would be afraid to risk your finding her house. 
 You would have to change cars and walk a block 
 after leaving the last one. I must keep my engage- 
 ment with her promptly, for she is an extremely 
 busy woman, and has granted this view of her 
 library as a personal favour to me." 
 
 "Do let me take them, Miss Chilton," urged 
 Gay, eagerly. " I'm the only old girl in the crowd. 
 I learned my way all about town during last Christ- 
 mas vacation. We could meet you in time to see 
 part of the things. All I care for is that violin. 
 Please say yes. I'll be the strictest, most dignified 
 chaperon you ever heard of." 
 
 Miss Chilton laughed at the expression of feroc- 
 ity which Gay's face suddenly assumed to convince 
 her that she could play the part she begged for. 
 
 " Really that seems to be the only way out of 
 tKe difficulty," she answered. " I'll give you a note 
 to the department store which Madam Chartley
 
 AN EXCURSION 57 
 
 always patronizes, so that you can have your pur- 
 chases charged." 
 
 " What if we can't find anything to fit," sug- 
 gested Maud, " and it should take such a long time 
 to alter them that we'd be too late to meet you ? " 
 
 Miss Chilton considered again. " It's almost 
 preposterous to imagine that, but it is always well 
 to provide for every emergency. If anything un- 
 foreseen should happen to delay you, or you can't 
 find the proper things to make yourselves present- 
 able, just go to the station and take the first car 
 back to the school. I'll inquire of the ticket agent, 
 and if you've left a card saying ' gone on/ I'll 
 know that you are safe. If you've left no word, 
 I'll put these girls on the car for home, and come 
 back and institute a search for you." 
 
 While the others busied themselves with finger- 
 bowls, she wrote a hasty note on a leaf torn from 
 her memorandum book, which she gave to Maud. 
 Then she handed a card to Gay. 
 
 " You are the pilot, so here is my friend's ad- 
 dress on this card. I've marked the line of cars 
 you're to take, and the avenue where you change." 
 
 " Better let Lloyd take it," suggested Kitty. But, 
 with a saucy grimace, Gay folded it and slipped 
 it under her belt.
 
 58 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 " There ! " she said, fastening it with a big black 
 pin she borrowed from Allison. " I've woven that 
 pin in and out, first in the ribbon and then through 
 the card, till it's as tight as if it had grown there." 
 
 " Can't you take us down an alley? " asked Lloyd. 
 " It mawtifies me dreadfully to have to go down 
 the street looking like this." 
 
 " The car-line that passes this door goes directly 
 to the department store," answered Gay. " It's only 
 a few blocks away, but we'll take it. That tomato 
 soup on you certainly does look gory." 
 
 Maud had taken the veil from her hat and thrown 
 it over her shoulders in a way to hide the coffee 
 stains. " Never mind," she said, carelessly, as they 
 left the restaurant. " Just hold your head up and 
 sail along with your most princess-like air, and 
 people will be so busy admiring you that they won't 
 have time to look at your soupy waist/' 
 
 " Ugh ! It smells so greasy and horrid," sniffed 
 the Little Colonel, ignoring Maud's remark. " It's 
 just like dishwatah and bacon rinds. I want to get 
 away from it as soon as possible." 
 
 " Misses' white shirt-waists?" repeated the sales- 
 woman in the big department store, when they 
 reached it a few minutes later. " Certainly. Here 
 is something pretty. The newest fall goods."
 
 AN EXCURSION 59 
 
 She led them to a counter piled high with boxes, 
 and they made a hasty selection. Some alteration 
 was needed in the collar of the one Lloyd chose, 
 and in the sleeves of Maud's. While they waited 
 in the fitting-room, turning over some back numbers 
 of fashion-plates and magazines, Gay amused her- 
 self by wandering around the millinery department, 
 trying on hats. Presently she found one so becom- 
 ing that she ran back to them, delighted. 
 
 " It isn't once in a thousand years that I find a 
 picture hat that looks well with my pug nose! " 
 she cried. " But gaze on this ! " 
 
 She revolved slowly before them,, so radiantly 
 pleased over her discovery that she looked unusually 
 pretty. Both girls exclaimed over its becomingness. 
 Then Lloyd's gaze wandered from the airy struc- 
 ture of chiffon and flowers down Gay's back to her 
 waist-line. 
 
 "Mercy, child!" she exclaimed. "You've lost 
 your belt. Every one of those three safety-pins is 
 showing, and they each look a foot long ! " 
 
 Gay's hand flew wildly to the back of her dress, 
 but she felt in vain for a belt under which to hide 
 the pins. She turned toward them with a hopeless 
 drooping of the shoulders. 
 
 "How did I lose it?" she demanded, helplessly.
 
 60 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 " It had the safest, strongest kind of a clasp. When 
 do you suppose I did it, and where? I must have 
 been a sight parading the street this way like an 
 animated pincushion." 
 
 She passed her hand over the obtrusive pins 
 again. " I certainly had it on when we left the 
 restaurant. Yes, and after we got on the car to 
 come here, for I remember just after you paid the 
 fare I ran my fingers down inside of it to make 
 sure that Miss Chilton's card was still safely pinned 
 to it." 
 
 Then she rolled up her eyes and fell limply back 
 against the wall. 
 
 " Girls ! " she exclaimed, in a despairing voice, 
 " the card is lost with it, too. I've no more idea 
 than the man in the moon where Miss Chilton's 
 friend lives, or what her name is, or what car-line 
 to take to get there. Do either of you remember 
 hearing her say anything that would throw any 
 light on the subject?" 
 
 Neither Lloyd nor Maud could remember, and 
 the three stood staring at each other with startled 
 faces. 
 
 " Maybe you dropped your belt coming up in 
 the elevator/' suggested Maud. " You might in-
 
 AN EXCURSION- 6l 
 
 quire. As soon as we get our clothes on, we'll 
 help you hunt." 
 
 Gay flew to lay aside the picture hat for her own, 
 and, with her hands clutching her dress to hide 
 the unsightly safety-pins, started on her search 
 through the store. 
 
 " We came straight past the ribbon counter and 
 the embroideries to the silks, and then we turned 
 here and took the elevator," she said to herself, 
 retracing her steps. But inquiries of the elevator 
 boy and every clerk along the line failed to elicit 
 any information about the lost belt. 
 
 " No, it was only an ordinary belt that no one 
 would look at the second time," she explained to 
 those who asked for a description. " Just dark blue 
 ribbon with a plain oxidized silver clasp. But there 
 was an address pinned to it that is very important 
 for me to find." 
 
 The floor-walker obligingly joined in the search, 
 going to the door and scanning the pavement and 
 the street-crossing at which they had left the car, 
 but to no purpose. 
 
 " I can buy a new belt and have it charged," she 
 said to Lloyd, when she came back to report, " but 
 there is no way to get the lost address. If I could 
 only remember the name, I could look for it in
 
 62 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 the directory, but I never heard it. Miss Chilton 
 always spoke of the lady as ' my friend.' " 
 
 " I heard her speak it once," said Lloyd, " but I 
 can't remembah it now." 
 
 " Go over the alphabet," suggested Maud. " Say 
 all the names you can think of beginning with A 
 and then B, and so on. Maybe you will stumble 
 across one that you recognize as the right one." 
 
 Lloyd shook her head. " No, it was an unusual 
 name, a long foreign-sounding one. I wondahed 
 at the time how she could trip it off her tongue so 
 easily." 
 
 " Then we're lost ! Hopelessly, helplessly un- 
 done ! " moaned Gay. " All our lovely outing 
 spoiled! You won't get to see the books, nor I 
 the violin. I know you are hating me horribly. 
 There's nothing to do but go back to Warwick 
 Hall, and leave a note with the ticket agent for 
 Miss Chilton." 
 
 The tears stood in her eyes, and she looked so 
 broken-hearted that Lloyd put her arms around her, 
 insisting that it didn't make a mite of difference 
 to her. That she didn't care much for the old books, 
 anyhow, and for her not to grieve about it another 
 minute. 
 
 Maud's face darkened as she listened. Presently
 
 AN EXCURSION 63 
 
 she said : " I don't care particularly about the books, 
 either, but I don't see any use of our losing the 
 entire holiday. You know your way about the city, 
 Gay; I have some car- fare in my purse, and so 
 has Lloyd. We can go larking by ourselves." 
 
 The dressmaker came back with Maud's waist. 
 She put it on, and Gay went for her belt. While 
 Lloyd was still waiting for her waist, Maud saun- 
 tered out of the fitting-room, and asked permission 
 to use the telephone. She was still using it when 
 Gay joined them. 
 
 " Wait a minute," Maud called to her invisible 
 auditor, and, still holding the receiver, turned 
 toward the girls. 
 
 " Such grand luck ! " she exclaimed, in a low 
 tone. " I just happened to think of a young fellow 
 I know here in town Charlie Downs. He is 
 always ready for anything going, and, when I tele- 
 phoned him the predicament we are in, he said right 
 away he would meet us down here and take us all 
 to the matinee." 
 
 " Charlie Downs," echoed Gay. " I never heard 
 of him." 
 
 "That doesn't make any difference," Maud an- 
 swered, hurriedly. Then, in a still lower tone, with 
 her back to the telephone : " He's all right. He's
 
 64 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 a sort of a distant relative of mine, that is, his 
 cousin married into our family. I can vouch for 
 Charlie. He's a young medical student, and he's 
 in old Doctor Spencer's office. Everybody knows 
 Doctor Spencer, one of the finest specialists in the 
 country." 
 
 She turned toward the telephone again, but Gay 
 stopped her. " It's out of the question, Maud, for 
 us to accept such an invitation. It's kind of him 
 to ask us, but you're in my charge, and I'll have to 
 take the responsibility of refusing." 
 
 "Well, I never heard the like of that!" said 
 Maud, angrily, looking down on Gay in such a 
 scornful, disgusted way that Lloyd would have 
 laughed had the situation not been so tragic. Gay, 
 trying to be commanding, reminded her of an anx- 
 ious little hen, ruffling its feathers because the ob- 
 stinate duckling in its brood refused to come out 
 of the water. 
 
 " Madam Chartley wouldn't like it," urged Gay. 
 
 " Then she should have made rules to that effect. 
 You know there's not a single one that would stand 
 in the way of our doing this." 
 
 " Yes, there is. It's an unwritten one, but it's 
 the one law of the Hall that Madam expects every 
 one to live up to."
 
 AN EXCURSION 65 
 
 "May I ask what?" Maud's tone was freez- 
 ingly polite. 
 
 " The motto under the crest. It's on everything 
 you know, the old earl's teacups, the stationery, and 
 everything ' Keep tryst.' " 
 
 " Fiddlesticks for the old earl's teacups ! " said 
 Maud, shrugging her shoulders. " It's unreason- 
 able to expect us to keep tryst with Miss Chilton 
 now." 
 
 "Not that," said Gay, ready to cry. "We're 
 to keep tryst with what she expects of us. She 
 expects us to do the right thing under all circum- 
 stances, and you know the right thing now is to 
 go home. We were recognized at the restaurant 
 as Warwick Hall girls, and we might be again at 
 the matinee. What would people think of the 
 school if they saw three of the girls there with a 
 strange young man without a chaperon ? " 
 
 " You're the chaperon. If you'd do to take us 
 shopping, you'd do for that." 
 
 " Oh, Maud, don't be unreasonable," urged Gay. 
 " It's entirely different. Don't be offended, please, 
 but we can't go. It's simply out of the ques- 
 tion." 
 
 " Indeed it isn't," answered Maud, turning again 
 to the telephone. " Go home if you want to, but
 
 66 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 Lloyd and I will do as we please. I'll accept for 
 us." 
 
 This time Lloyd stopped her. "Wait! Let's 
 telephone out to the Hall and ask Madam." 
 
 Maud shrugged her shoulders. " You know very 
 well she'd say no if you asked her beforehand." 
 Then the two heard one side of her conversation 
 over the telephone. 
 
 " Hello, Charlie ! Sorry to keep you waiting so 
 long." 
 
 " The girls are afraid to go." 
 
 "What's that?" 
 
 " I don't suppose so." 
 
 " I'm perfectly willing. I'll ask them." 
 
 Then turning again, with the receiver in her 
 hand : " He says that the matinee will probably be 
 over before the second train out to the Hall, and, 
 if it isn't, we can leave a little earlier and be at 
 the station before Miss Chilton gets there, and she 
 need never know but what we've just been street- 
 car riding, as we first planned." 
 
 "Then that settles it!" exclaimed Lloyd. "If 
 he said that, I wouldn't go with him for anything 
 in the world." 
 
 "Why?" demanded Maud. Her eyes flashed 
 angrily.
 
 AN EXCURSION 67 
 
 " Because because," stammered Lloyd. " Well, 
 it'll make you mad, but I can't help it. Papa Jack 
 said one time that an honourable man would never 
 ask me to do anything clandestine. And it would 
 be sneaking to do as he proposes." 
 
 Maud was white with rage, and the hand that 
 held the receiver trembled. " Have the goodness 
 to keep your insulting remarks to yourself in the 
 future, Miss Sherman." 
 
 " Please don't go," begged Gay. " I feel so re- 
 sponsible for getting you home safely, and it would 
 be sneaking, you know, to pretend we'd been simply 
 trolley-riding when we'd been off with him." 
 
 " You're nasty little cats to say such things ! " 
 stormed Maud. " I don't want to have anything 
 more to do with either of you. Go on home and 
 leave me alone. Hello! Hello, Charlie! " 
 
 They heard her make an engagement to meet him 
 at the drug-store on the next corner. Then she 
 sailed out of the store past them, without a glance 
 in their direction. Gay began fumbling up her 
 sleeve for her handkerchief. The tears were gath- 
 ering too fast to be winked back. 
 
 " It's all my fault," she sobbed. " Oh, if I hadn't 
 lost that unlucky belt. To think that I begged to 
 be a chaperon, and then wasn't fit to be trusted."
 
 68 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 Lloyd tried vainly to comfort her. A little later 
 two disconsolate-looking girls took the first after- 
 noon train out to Warwick Hall, and stole up to 
 Lloyd's room. As Betty was with Miss Chilton, 
 no one knew of their arrival, and they spent sev- 
 eral uncomfortable hours agonizing over the ques- 
 tion of what they should say when they were called 
 to account. They decided at last that they would 
 give no more information about Maud than that 
 a distant relative had called for her. 
 
 At five o'clock, Miss Chilton reached the ticket- 
 office with her little brood, and found Lloyd's card 
 with the words " gone on " scribbled in one corner. 
 Lloyd and Gay, watching at the window for their 
 arrival, saw with sinking hearts that Maud was 
 not with them. They hoped that she would come 
 on the same train, and would be forced to make her 
 own explanations. But they were not called upon 
 to explain her disappearance. Miss Chilton, almost 
 'distracted with an attack of neuralgic headache, 
 went to her room immediately, and sent down word 
 that she would not appear at dinner. 
 
 " She'll surely come on the next train," Gay 
 whispered to Lloyd, but the whistle sounded at the 
 station, and they watched the clock in vain. Ample 
 time passed for one to have walked the distance
 
 AN EXCURSION 69 
 
 twice from the station to the Hall, but no one 
 came. 
 
 It was half-past six when they filed down to 
 dinner. The halls were lighted, and all the chande- 
 liers in the great dining-room glowed. 
 
 As they passed the window on the stair-landing, 
 Lloyd pressed her face against the pane and peered 
 out into the darkness. Gay, just behind her, paused 
 and peered also. 
 
 " What do you suppose has happened ? " she 
 whispered. " It's as dark as a pocket, and Maud 
 hasn't come yet."
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 LLOYD and Betty were starting to undress when 
 there was a light tap at the door, and Gay's head 
 appeared. In response to their eager call, she came 
 in, and, shutting the door behind her, stood with 
 her back against it. 
 
 " No, I can't sit down," she answered. " It's 
 too late to stop. I only ran in to tell you that Maud 
 got home about five minutes ago. ' Charlie ' came 
 with her as far as the door and Madam has just 
 sent for her to demand an explanation. She told 
 her roommate that she knew she was in for a scold- 
 ing, and that, as one might as well be killed for 
 a sheep as a lamb, she made her good time last as 
 long as she could. After the matinee they had a 
 little supper at some roof-garden or cafe or some- 
 thing of the kind, where there was a band concert. 
 Then he brought her out on the car, and they 
 
 strolled along the river road home. The moon was 
 70
 
 "KEEP TRYST n 7 1 
 
 just beginning to come up. She's had a beautiful 
 time, and thinks she has done something awfully 
 cute, but she'll think differently by the time Madam 
 is through with her." 
 
 " Will she be very terrible? " asked Lloyd, paus- 
 ing with brush in hand. 
 
 " I don't know," answered Gay. " Nothing like 
 this has happened since I have been at the Hall, 
 but I've heard her say that this is not a reform 
 school, and girls who have to be punished and 
 scolded are not wanted here. If they can't measure 
 up to the standard of good behaviour, they can't 
 stay. As long as this is the first offence, she'll 
 probably be given another trial, but I'd not care to 
 be in her shoes when Madam calls her to judg- 
 ment." 
 
 No one ever knew what passed between the two 
 in the up-stairs office, but Maud sailed down to 
 breakfast next morning as if nothing had happened. 
 The only difference in her manner was when Lloyd 
 and Gay took their places opposite her at the table. 
 They glanced across with the usual good morning, 
 but she looked past them as if she neither saw nor 
 heard. 
 
 " Cut dead ! " whispered Lloyd. Gay giggled, as 
 she unfolded her napkin. " I'm very sure she has
 
 72 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 no cause to be angry with us. We are the ones 
 who ought to act offended." 
 
 Soon after breakfast they were called into Miss 
 Chilton's room, but to their great relief found that 
 she already knew what had happened, and that they 
 were to be questioned only about their own part 
 in the affair. So presently Gay passed out to her 
 Latin recitation, and Lloyd wandered around the 
 room, waiting for the literature class to assemble. 
 
 Miss Chilton's room was the most attractive one 
 in the Hall. It looked more like a cheerful library 
 than a schoolroom. Low book-shelves lined the 
 walls, with here and there a fine bust in bronze or 
 Carrara marble. Pictures from many lands added 
 interest, and the wicker chairs, instead of being 
 arranged in stiff rows, stood invitingly about, as 
 if in a private parlour. There were always violets 
 on Miss Chilton's desk, and ferns and palms in the 
 sunny south windows. The recitations were car- 
 ried on in such a delightfully informal way that 
 the girls looked forward to this hour as one of the 
 pleasantest of the day. 
 
 This morning, to their surprise, instead of ques- 
 tioning them about the topic they had studied, Ro- 
 mance of the Middle Ages, she announced that she 
 had a story which Madam Chartley had requested
 
 "KEEP TRYST n 73 
 
 her to read to them, and she wished such close at- 
 tention paid to it that afterward each one could 
 write it from memory for the next day's lesson. 
 
 " I have a reason for wishing to impress this little 
 tale indelibly on your minds," she said, " so I shall 
 offer this inducement for concentrating your atten- 
 tion upon it : five credits to each one who can hand 
 in a full synopsis of the story, and ten to the one 
 who can reproduce it most literally and fully." 
 
 There was a slight flutter of expectancy as the 
 class settled itself to listen, and, opening the little 
 green and gold volume where a white ribbon kept 
 the place, she began to read : 
 
 " Now there was a troubadour in the kingdom 
 of Arthur, who, strolling through the land with 
 only his minstrelsy to win him a way, found in 
 every baron's hall and cotter's hut a ready welcome. 
 And while the boar's head sputtered on the spit, 
 or the ale sparkled in the shining tankards, he told 
 such tales of joust and journey, and feats of brave 
 knight errantry, that even the scullions left their 
 kitchen tasks, and, creeping near, stood round the 
 door with mouths agape to listen. 
 
 " Then with his harp-strings tuned to echoes of 
 the wind dn winter moors, he sang of death and
 
 74 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 valour on the field, of love and fealty in the hall, 
 till those who listened forgot all save his singing 
 and the noble knights whereof he sang. 
 
 " One winter night, as thus he carolled in a great 
 earl's hall, a little page crept nearer to his bench 
 beside the fire, and, with his blue eyes fixed in won- 
 derment upon the graybeard's face, stood spell- 
 bound. Now Ederyn was the page's name, an 
 orphan lad whose lineage no man knew, but that 
 he came of gentle blood all eyes could see, although 
 as vassal 'twas his lot to wait upon the great earl's 
 squire. 
 
 "It was the Yule-tide, and the wassail-bowl passed 
 round till boisterous mirth drowned oftentimes the 
 minstrel's song, but Ederyn missed no word. Scarce 
 knowing what he did, he crept so close he found 
 himself with upturned face against the old man's 
 knee. 
 
 " ' How now, thou flaxen-haired/ the minstrel 
 said, with kindly smile. ' Dost like my song? ' 
 
 " ' Oh, sire/ the youth made answer, ' methinks 
 on such a wing the soul could well take flight to 
 Paradise. But tell me, prithee, is it possible for 
 such as / to gain the title of a knight? How doth 
 one win such honours and acclaim and reach the 
 high estate that thou dost laud?'
 
 "KEEP TRYST" 75 
 
 " The minstrel g-azed a little space into the Yule 
 log's flame, and stroked his long hoar beard. Then 
 made he answer: 
 
 " ' Some win their spurs and earn th'e royal ac- 
 colade because the blood of dragons stains their 
 hands. From mighty combat with these terrors 
 they come victorious to their king's reward. And 
 some there be sore scarred with conquest of the 
 giants that ever prey upon the borders of our fair 
 domain. Some, who have gone on far crusades to 
 alien lands, and there with heart of gold and iron 
 hand have proved their fealty to the Crown/ 
 
 " Then Ederyn sighed, for well he knew his 
 stripling form could never wage fierce combat with 
 a dragon. His hands could never meet the brawny 
 grip of giants. * Is there no other way?' he fal- 
 tered. 
 
 " ' I wot not/ was the answer. ' But take an old 
 man's counsel. Forget thy dreams of glory, and 
 be content to serve thy squire. For what hast such 
 as thou to do with great ambitions? They'd prove 
 but flames to burn away thy daily peace/ 
 
 " With that he turned to quaff the proffered 
 bowl and add his voice to those whose mirth al- 
 ready shook the rafters. Nor had he any further 
 speech with Ederyn. But afterward the pretty lad
 
 76 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 was often in his thoughts, and in his wanderings 
 about the land he mused upon the question he had 
 asked. 
 
 " Another twelvemonth sped its way, and once 
 again the Yule log burned within the hall, and once 
 again the troubadour knocked at the gate, all in 
 the night and falling snow. And as before, with 
 merry jests they led him in and made him welcome. 
 And as before, was every mouth agape from 
 squire's to scullion's, as he sang. 
 
 " Once more he sang of knights and ladyes fair, 
 of love and death and valour; and Ederyn, the 
 page, crept nearer to him till the harp-strings ceased 
 to thrill. With head upon his hands, he sat and 
 sighed. Not even when the wassail-bowl was 
 passed with mirth and laughter did he look up. 
 And when the graybeard minstrel saw his grief, 
 he thought upon his question of the Yule-tide gone. 
 
 " ' Ah, now, thou flaxen-haired/ he whispered in 
 his ear. ' I bear thee tidings which should make 
 thee sing for joy. There is a way for even such 
 as thou to win the honours thou dost covet. I heard 
 it in the royal court when last I sang there at the 
 king's behest/ 
 
 " Then all aquiver with his eagerness did Ederyn
 
 "KEEP TRYST" 77 
 
 kneel, with face alight, beside the minstrel's knee 
 to hear. 
 
 " ' Know this,' began the graybeard. ' 'Tis the 
 king's desire to 'stablish round him at his court 
 a chosen circle whose fidelity hath stood the utmost 
 test. Not deeds of prowess are required of these 
 true followers, with no great conquests doth he tax 
 them, but they must prove themselves trustworthy, 
 until on hand and heart it may be graven large, 
 "In all things faithfitl." 
 
 "'To Merlin, the enchanter, he hath left the 
 choice, who by some strange spell I wot not of will 
 send an eerie call through all the kingdom. And 
 only those will hear who wake at dawn to listen 
 in high places. And only those will heed who keep 
 the compass needles of their souls true to the north 
 star of a great ambition. The time of testing will 
 be long, the summons many. To duty and to sor- 
 row, to disappointment and defeat, thou may'st be 
 called. No matter what the tryst, there is but one 
 reply if thou wouldst win thy knighthood. Give 
 heed and I will teach thee now that answer.' 
 
 "Then smiting on his harp, the minstrel sang, 
 so softly under cover of the noise, that only Ederyn 
 heard. Through all the song ran ever this refrain.
 
 78 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 It seemed a brooklet winding in and out through 
 some fair meadow: 
 
 41 'Tis the king's call. O list ! 
 
 Thou heart and hand of mine, keep tryst 
 Keep tryst or die ! ' 
 
 " Then Ederyn, with his hand upon his heart, 
 made solemn oath. ' Awake at dawn and listening 
 in high places will I await that call. With the com- 
 pass needle of my soul true to the north star of 
 a great ambition will I follow where it leads, and 
 though through fire and flood it take me, I'll make 
 but this reply: 
 
 < 'Tis the king's call. O list ! 
 
 Thou heart and hand of mine, keep tryst 
 Keep tryst or die ! ' 
 
 " Pressing the old man's hand in gratitude (he 
 could say no word for the strange fulness in his 
 throat that well-nigh choked him), he rose from 
 his knees and left the hall to muse on what had 
 passed. 
 
 " That night he climbed into the tower, and, 
 with his face turned to the east, kept vigil all alone. 
 Below, the rioters waxed louder in their mirth. 
 The knife was in the meat, the drink was in the 
 horn. But he would not join their revels, lest morn-
 
 "KEEP TRYST" 79 
 
 ing find him sunk in sodden sleep, heavy with feast- 
 ing and witless from wine. 
 
 " As gray dawn trailed across the hills, he started 
 to his feet, for far away sounded the call for which 
 he had been waiting. It was like the faint blowing 
 of an elfin horn, but the words came clearly. 
 
 " ' Ederyn ! Ederyn ! One awaits thee at night- 
 fall in the shade of the yew-tree by the abbey tower ! 
 Keep tryst!' 
 
 " Now the abbey tower was the space of forty 
 furlongs from the domain of the earl, and full well 
 Ederyn knew that only by especial favour of his 
 squire could he gain leave of absence for this jaunt. 
 So, from sunrise until dusk, he worked with will, 
 to gain the wished-for leave. Never before did 
 buckles shine as did the buckles of the squire en- 
 trusted to his polishing. Never did menial tasks 
 cease sooner to be drudgery, because of the good- 
 will with which he worked. And when the day 
 was done, so well had every duty been performed, 
 right willingly the squire did grant him grace, and 
 forthwith Ederyn sped upon his mission. 
 
 " The way was long, and, when he reached the 
 abbey tree, he fell a-trembling, for there a tall wraith 
 stood within the shadows of the yew. No face 
 had it that he could see, its hands no substance,
 
 80 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 but he met it bravely, saying : ' I am Ederyn, come 
 to keep the king's tryst.' 
 
 " And then the spectre's voice replied : ' Well 
 hast thou kept it, for 'tis known to me the many 
 menial tasks thou didst perform ere thou couldst 
 come upon thy quest. In token that we two have 
 met, here is my pledge that thou may'st keep to 
 show the king.' 
 
 " He felt a light touch on the bosom of his inner 
 vestment, and suddenly he stood alone beside the 
 gruesome abbey. Clammy with fear, he knew not 
 why, he drew his mantle round him and sped home 
 as one speeds in a fearsome dream. And that it 
 was a dream he half-believed, when later, in the 
 hall, he served at meat those gathered round the 
 old earl's board. But when he sought his bed, and 
 threw aside his outer garment, there on his coarse, 
 rough shirt of hodden gray a pearl gleamed white 
 above his heart, where the wraith's cold hand had 
 touched him. It was the token to the king that 
 he had answered faithfully his call. 
 
 " Again before the dawn he climbed into the 
 tower, and, listening when the voices of the world 
 were still, heard clear and sweet, like far-blown elfin 
 horn, another summons. 
 
 "'Ederyn! Ederyn! One awaits thee at the
 
 "KEEP TRYST" 8 1 
 
 midnight hour beside black Kilgore's water. Keep 
 tryst ! ' 
 
 " Again to gain his squire's permission he toiled 
 with double care. This time his task was counting 
 all the spears and halberds, the battle-axes and the 
 coats of mail that filled the earl's great armament. 
 And o'er and o'er he counted, keeping careful tally 
 with a bit of keel upon the iron-banded door, till 
 the red lines that he marked there made his eyes 
 ache and his head swim. At last the task was fin- 
 ished, and so well the squire praised him, and for 
 his faithfulness again was fain to speed him on his 
 way. 
 
 " It was a woful journey to the waters of Kilgore. 
 Sleep weighed on Ederyn's eyelids, and haltingly 
 he went the weary miles, footsore and worn. But 
 midnight found him on the spot where one awaited 
 him, another wraith-like envoy of the king, and it, 
 too, left a touch upon his heart in token he had 
 kept the tryst. And when he looked, another pearl 
 gleamed there beside the first. 
 
 " So many a day went by, and Ederyn failed not 
 in his homely tasks, but carried to his common 
 round of duties all his might, as if they were great 
 feats of prowess. Thus gained he liberty to keep 
 the tryst with every messenger the king did send.
 
 82 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 "Once he fared forth along a dangerous road 
 that led he knew not where, and, when he found 
 it crossed a loathly swamp all filled with slime and 
 creeping things, fain would he have fled. But, 
 pushing on for sake of his brave oath, although 
 with fainting heart, he reached the goal at last. 
 This time his token made him wonder much. For 
 when he wakened from his swoon, a shining star 
 lay on his heart above the pearls. 
 
 " Now it fell out the squire to whom this Ederyn 
 was page was killed in conflict with a robber band, 
 and Ederyn, for his faithfulness, was taken by the 
 earl to fill that squire's place. Soon after that, they 
 left the hall, and journeyed on a visit to a distant 
 lord. 'Twas to the Castle of Content they came, 
 where was a joyous garden. And now no menial 
 tasks employed the new squire's time. Here was 
 he free to wander all the day through vistas of 
 the joyous garden, or loiter by the fountain in the 
 courtyard and watch the maidens at their tasks, hav- 
 ing fair speech with them among the flowers. And 
 one there was among them, so lily-like in face, so 
 gentle-voiced and fair, that Ederyn well-nigh for- 
 got his oath, and felt full glad when for a space 
 the king's call ceased to sound. And gladder was 
 he still, when, later on, the earl's long visit done,
 
 "KEEP TRYST" 83 
 
 he left young Ederyn behind to serve the great lord 
 of the castle, for so the two friends had agreed, 
 since Ederyn had pleased the old lord's fancy. 
 
 " Yet was he faithful to his vow, and failed not 
 every dawn to mount to some high place, when all 
 the voices of the world were still, and listen for 
 the sound of Merlin's horn. One morn it came: 
 
 " ' Ederyn ! Ederyn ! One waits thee far away. 
 By the black cave of Atropos, when the moon fulls, 
 keep thy tryst ! ' 
 
 " Now 'twas a seven days' journey to that cave, 
 and Ederyn, thinking of the lily maid, was loath 
 to leave the garden. He lingered by the fountain 
 until nightfall, saying to himself : * Why should 
 I go on longer in these foolish quests, keeping tryst 
 with shadows that vanish at the touch ? No nearer 
 am I to a knight's estate than, when a stripling 
 page, I listened to the minstrel's tales.' 
 
 " The fountain softly splashed within the garden. 
 From out the banquet-hall there stole the sound 
 of tinkling lutes, and then the lily maiden sang. 
 Her siren voice filled all his heart, and he forgot 
 his oath to duty. But presently a star reflected in 
 the fountain made him look up into the jewelled 
 sky, where shone the polar constellation. And there 
 he read the oath he had forgotten : ' With the com-
 
 84 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 pass needle of my soul true to the north star of 
 my great ambition, I will follow where it leads/ 
 
 " Thrusting his fingers in his ears to silence the 
 beloved voice of her who sang, he madly rushed 
 from out the garden into the blackness of the night. 
 The Castle of Content clanged its great gate behind 
 him. He shivered as he felt the jar through all 
 his frame, but, never taking out his fingers, on he 
 ran, till scores of furlongs lay between him and 
 the tempting of that siren voice. 
 
 " It was a strange and fearsome wood that lay 
 between him and the cave. All things seemed 
 moaning and afraid. He saw no forms, but every- 
 where the shadows shuddered, and moans and 
 groans pursued him till nameless fears clutched at 
 his heart with icy chill. Then suddenly the earth 
 slipped way beneath his feet, and cold waves closed 
 above his head. He knew now he had fallen in 
 the pool that lies upon the far edge of the fearsome 
 wood, a pool so deep and of such whirling mo- 
 tion that only by the fiercest struggle may one 
 escape. Gladly he would have allowed the waters 
 to close over him, such cold pains smote his heart, 
 had he not seemed to hear the old minstrel's song. 
 It aroused him to a final effort, and he gasped be- 
 tween his teeth:
 
 " KEEP TRYST" 8$ 
 
 'Tis the king's call ! O list ! 
 
 Thou heart and hand of mine, keep tryst 
 Keep tryst or die ! ' 
 
 " With that, in one mighty struggle he dragged 
 himself to land. A bow-shot farther on he saw the 
 cave, and by sheer force of will crept toward it. 
 What happened then he knew not till the moon 
 rose full and high above him. A form swathed all 
 in black bowed over him. 
 
 " ' Ederyn/ she sighed. ' Here is thy token that 
 the king may know that thou hast met me face to 
 face.' 
 
 " He thought it was a diamond at first, that 
 sparkled there beside the star, but when he looked 
 again, lo, nothing but a tear. 
 
 " Then went he back unto the joyous garden 
 by slow degrees, for he was now sore spent. And 
 after that the summons came full often. When- 
 ever all the world seemed loveliest and life most 
 sweet, then was the call most sure to come. But 
 never once he faltered. Never was he faithless to 
 the king's behest. Up weary mountain steps he 
 toiled to find the sombre face of Disappointment 
 there in waiting, and Suffering and Pain were often 
 at his journey's end, and once a sore Defeat. But 
 bravely as the months went by he learned to smile
 
 86 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 into their eyes, no matter which one handed out 
 to him the pledge of Duty well performed. 
 
 " One day, when he no longer was a beardless 
 youth, but grown to pleasing stature and of great 
 brawn, he heard the hoped-for call of which he 
 long had dreamed : ' Ederyn ! Ederyn ! The king 
 himself awaits thee. Midsummer morn at lark- 
 song, keep tryst beside the palace gate.' 
 
 " As travellers on the desert, spent and worn, 
 see far across the sand the palm-tree's green that 
 marks life-giving wells, so Ederyn hailed this sum- 
 mons to the king. The soul-consuming thirst that 
 long had urged him on grew fiercer as the well of 
 consummation came in sight. Hope shod his feet 
 .with wings, as thus with every nerve a-strain he 
 pushed toward the final tryst. So fearful was he 
 some mishap might snatch the cup away ere it had 
 touched his thirsty lips, that three full days before 
 the time he reached the Vale of Avalon, and sat 
 him down outside the entrance to the palace. 
 
 " Now there came prowling through the wood 
 that edged the fair domain the gnarled dwarfs that 
 do the will of Shudderwain. And Shudderwain, 
 of all the giants thereabouts, most cruel was and to 
 be feared. Knowing full well what pleasure it 
 would give the bloody monster, these dwarfs laid
 
 KEEP TRYST" 8/ 
 
 evil hands on Ederyn. Sleeping they found hfm, 
 and bound him with hard leathern thongs, and then 
 with gibes and impish laughter dragged him into 
 a dungeon past the help of man. 
 
 " Two days and nights he lay there, raging at 
 fate and at his helplessness, till he was well-nigh' 
 mad, bethinking him of all his baffled hopes. And 
 like a madman gnawed he on the leathern thongs 
 till he was free, and beat his hands against the 
 stubborn rock that would not yield, and threw him- 
 self against the walls that held him in. 
 
 " The dwarfs from time to time peered through 
 the slatted window overhead and mocked him, 
 pointing with their crooked thumbs. 
 
 "'Ha! ha! Thou'lt keep no tryst,' they chat- 
 tered. ' But if thou'lt swear upon thy oath to go 
 back to the joyous garden, and hark no more for 
 Merlin's call, we'll let thee loose from out this 
 Dungeon of thy Disappointment.' 
 
 "Then was Ederyn tempted, for the dungeon 
 was foul indeed, and his heart cried out to go back 
 to the lily maiden. But once more in his ears he 
 thrust his fingers and cried : 
 
 " < To the king's call alone 111 list ! 
 
 Oh, heart and hand of mine, keep tryst* 
 Keep tryst or die ! '
 
 88 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 " On the third night, with the quiet of despair 
 he threw him prone upon the dungeon floor and 
 held his peace, no longer gnawing on his thong's 
 or beating on the rock. A single moonbeam strag- 
 gled through the slatted window, and by its light 
 he saw a spider spinning out a web. Then, look- 
 ing dully around, he saw the dungeon was hung 
 thick with other webs, foul with the dust of years. 
 Great festoons of the cobweb film shrouded his 
 prison walls. As up and down the hairy creature 
 swung itself upon its thread, the hopeless eyes of 
 Ederyn followed it. 
 
 " All in a twinkling he saw how he might profit 
 by the spider's teaching, and clapped his hand across 
 his mouth to keep from shouting out his joy, so 
 that the dwarfs could hear. Now once more like 
 a madman rushing at the walls, he tore down all 
 the dusty webs, and twisted them together in long 
 strands. These strands he braided in thick ropes 
 and tied them, knotting them and twisting and 
 doubling once again. All the while he kept bewail- 
 ing the stupid way in which he wasted time. 
 ' Three days ago I might have quit this den/ he 
 sighed, ' had I but used the means that lay at hand. 
 Full well I knew that heaven always finds a way 
 to help the man who helps himself. No creature
 
 "JsTJSEP TRYST 89 
 
 lives too mean to be of service, and even dungeon 
 walls must harbour help for him who boldly grasps 
 the first thing that he sees and makes it serve him.' 
 
 So fast and furiously he worked that, long before 
 the moonbeam faded, his cobweb rope was strong 
 enough to bear his weight, and long enough to 
 reach twice over to the slatted window overhead. 
 By many trials he at last succeeded in throwing it 
 around a spike that barred the window, and, climb- 
 ing up, he forced the slats apart and clambered 
 through. Then tying the rope's end to the window, 
 he slid down all the dizzy cliffside in which the 
 dwarfs had dug the dungeon, and dropped into the 
 stream that ran below. 
 
 " Lo, when he looked around him it was dawn. 
 Midsummer morn it was, and, plunging through the 
 wood, he heard the lark's song rise, and reached 
 the palace gate just as it opened to the blare of 
 trumpets for the king's train to ride forth. When 
 Ederyn saw the royal cavalcade, he shrunk back 
 into the wayside bushes, so ill-befitting did it seem 
 that he should come before the king in tattered 
 garments, with blood upon his hands where the 
 sharp rocks had cut, and with foul dungeon stains. 
 
 " But that the king might know he'd ever proven 
 faithful, he sank upon his knees and bared his breast
 
 90 LITTLE COLONEUS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 at his approach. There all the pledges glistened in 
 the sunlight, in rainbow hues. There Pain had 
 dropped her heart's blood in a glittering ruby, and 
 Honour set her seal upon him in a golden star. 
 A diamond gleamed where Sorrow's tear had fallen, 
 and amethysts glowed now with purple splendour 
 to mark his patient meeting with Defeat. But 
 mostly were the pledges little pearls for little duties 
 faithfully performed; and there they shone, and, 
 as the people gazed, they saw the jewels take the 
 shape of letters, so that the king read out before 
 them all, ' Semper Udelis! 
 
 " Then drew the king his royal sword and lightly 
 smote on Ederyn's shoulder, and cried : ' Arise, Sir 
 Knight, Sir Ederyn the Trusty. Since I may trust 
 thee to the utmost in little things as well as great, 
 since thou of all men art most worthy, henceforth 
 by thy king's heart thou shalt ride, ever to be his 
 faithful guard arid comrade.' 
 
 " So there before them all he did him honour, 
 and ordered that a prancing steed be brought and 
 a good sword buckled on his side. 
 
 " Thus Ederyn won his sovereign's favour. 
 Soon, by his sovereign's grace permitted, he went 
 back to the joyous garden to woo the lily maiden. 
 When he had won his bride and borne her to the
 
 "KEEP TRYST n 91 
 
 palace, then was his great reward complete for all 
 his years of fealty to his vow. Then out into the 
 world he went to guard his king. Henceforth 
 blazoned on his shield and helmet he bore the crest 
 a heart with hand that grasped a spear, and, 
 underneath these words: 
 
 "'I keep the tryst!'" 
 
 Slipping the white ribbon back between the pages 
 to mark the place, Miss Chilton laid the little green 
 and gold volume on the table, and smiled at the 
 circle of attentive faces. 
 
 " I am sure you understand why I have read this 
 story," she said. " It is the motto of the school. 
 Tradition has it that Sir Ederyn was an ancient 
 member of Madam Chartley's family. At any rate, 
 it has borne his crest for many, many generations, 
 and there could be no better motto for a school. 
 The world expects us to do certain things.' We 
 must keep tryst with these expectations. You all 
 know what happened yesterday. Madam looks for 
 a certain course of conduct from her girls. She 
 does not make rules. She only expects what the 
 inborn instinct of a true lady would prompt you 
 to do or to be. I am sure that after this explana-
 
 92 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 tion none of you will fail to keep tryst with her 
 expectations." 
 
 That was the only public reference to Maud's 
 escapade. She left the room with a very red face 
 when the class was dismissed. The little story 
 put her so plainly in the wrong before the other 
 girls that it made her cross and uncomfortable. 
 
 Every member of the class had five marks to 
 her credit, and Betty was the lucky one whose al- 
 most literal reproduction of the story gave her ten. 
 She copied it all down in her white record after- 
 ward, adding a verse that she had once seen in 
 an autograph album 1 : 
 
 " Life is a rosary 
 
 Strung with the beads of little deeds, 
 Done humbly, Lord, as unto thee." 
 
 She repeated the verse aloud to Lloyd. " I'd 
 like to make that kind of a rosary. I'd like to act 
 out that story. It just strikes my fancy. It would 
 be such a satisfaction to lay aside a token each 
 night, as Ederyn did, that I had kept tryst with 
 duty, had perfect lessons, or lived through a 
 day just as nearly right as I possibly could." 
 
 She went on writing after she had made the 
 remark, but Lloyd, pleased by the thought, sat star-
 
 U KEEP TRYST" 93 
 
 ing at the lamp. It was nearly bedtime, and pres- 
 ently, putting aside her book, she rose and crossed 
 over to the bureau. In a sandalwood box in the 
 top drawer was a broken fan-chain of white beads 
 tiny Roman pearls that she had bought in a 
 shop in the Via Crucia. She had intended to string 
 them sometime, mixing with them here and there 
 some curious blue beads she had seen made at a 
 glass-blower's in Venice large blue ones with tiny 
 roses on the sides. 
 
 Betty, busy with her diary, did not notice how 
 long Lloyd stood with her back toward her, pour- 
 ing the little Roman pearls from one hand to the 
 other. 
 
 " It seems almost babyish," Lloyd was saying to 
 herself. " But othah girls keep memory-books and 
 such things, and this is such a pretty idea. No 
 one need know. Yes, I'll begin the rosary this very 
 night, for every lesson was perfect to-day, and I 
 truly tried my best in everything." 
 
 Hesitating an instant longer, she rummaged 
 through the drawer for a piece of fine white silk 
 cord which she remembered having placed there. 
 When she found it, she knotted one end securely, 
 and then slowly slipped one little pearl bead down 
 against the knot.
 
 94 LITTLE COLO NEDS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 " There ! " she thought, with a hasty glance over 
 her shoulder at Betty, as she dropped the string back 
 into its box. " There's one token that I've kept 
 tryst, even if I nevah earn any moah. I'm going 
 to have that string half-full by vacation."
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 A MEMORY - BOOK AND A SOUVENIR SPOON 
 
 THE string of white beads grew steadily, but 
 work went hand in hand with play at Warwick 
 Hall, as Kitty's memory-book testified. She brought 
 it out to liven the recreation hour one rainy after- 
 noon, late in the term, when they were house-bound 
 by the weather. Its covers, labelled " Gala Days 
 and Bonfire Nights," were bulging with souvenirs 
 of many memorable occasions. She sat on the 
 floor with it spread open on her lap. Betty was 
 on one side and Lloyd on the other, while Gay 
 leaned against her back and looked over her shoul- 
 der. 
 
 Kitty opened her treasure-house of mementos 
 with a giggle, for on the first page was a water- 
 colour sketch of Gay as -she had appeared on the 
 welcoming night. She had painted her with two 
 enormous feet protruding from her flowing skirts, 
 one cased in a party slipper with an exaggerated 
 French heel, the other in a down-trodden bedroom 
 slipper painted a brilliant crimson. 
 95
 
 96 LITTLE COLONEDS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 "You mean thing!" cried Gay, laughing over 
 the ridiculous caricature of herself. 
 
 " That isn't a circumstance to some of them," 
 remarked Allison, who was virtuously spending 
 her recreation hour in sewing buttons on her gloves 
 and mending a rip in the lining of her coat-sleeve. 
 " Wait till you come to the programme of the 
 recital given by the students of voice, violin, and 
 piano. The pictures she made all around the mar- 
 gin of it are some of the best she has done. The 
 sketch of Susie Tyndall, tearing her hair and shriek- 
 ing out the ' Polish Boy/ is simply killing." 
 
 " Kitty Walton," exclaimed Gay, as she bent over 
 the grotesquely decorated programme, " where do 
 you keep this book o' nights? I'll surely have to 
 steal it. Think what it will be worth to us when 
 we are old ladies. There's one thing certain, you 
 could never pose as a saintly old grandmother with 
 such a record for mischief as this to bear witness 
 against you." 
 
 Kitty looked up with a startled expression. 
 " You know, it never occurred to me before that 
 I'd ever look at this book through spectacles. I 
 wonder if I'll find it as amusing then, when I'm 
 dignified and rheumatic, as I do now." 
 
 " I'm sure that will be pleasant to recall," said
 
 A MEMORY-BOOK AND A SOUVENIR SPOON 97 
 
 Betty, pointing to a withered rose pinned to the 
 next page. " That will properly impress your 
 grandchildren." 
 
 Underneath the rose was written the date of 'a 
 private reception granted the Warwick Hall girls 
 at the White House. 
 
 " I had such a lovely time that afternoon," sighed 
 Betty. " It was so much nicer to go as we did, 
 for a friendly little visit under Madam's wing, than 
 to have pushed by in a big public mob. Wasn't 
 Cora Basket funny? She was so overawed by the 
 honour that she fairly turned purple. Her room- 
 mate vows that, when she wrote home, she began, 
 ' Preserve this letter ! The hand that is now writ- 
 ing it has been shaken by the President of the 
 United States of America ! ' ' 
 
 " Cordie Brown was funnier than Cora," said 
 Allison. " She wanted to impress people with the 
 idea that the affair was nothing to her. That it 
 rather bored her, in fact. She went around with 
 her nose in the air, trying to appear so superior 
 and indifferent, as if crowned heads and their ilk 
 made her tired." 
 
 " What's this ? " demanded Lloyd, as they turned 
 the next leaf, through which a single long black
 
 98 LITTLE COLONEVS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 hair had been drawn. Underneath was the grue- 
 some legend, " Dead men tell no tales." 
 
 " Oh, that's only a 'hair from the tail of the dog 
 of the child of the wife of the wild man of Bor- 
 neo,' " laughed Kitty, attempting to turn the page; 
 but Lloyd, laying both palms across it, held it fast. 
 
 " You know it's not, you naughty thing. You've 
 been up to some prank." 
 
 " It a p. j. A private joke," explained Kitty, 
 bending over the book and laughing till her fore- 
 head touched her knees. " I'm dying to tell you, 
 for it's the funniest thing in the collection. It hap- 
 pened at the Hallowe'en party, and I promised not 
 to tell." 
 
 " Promised whom ? " demanded Betty. 
 
 " Can't tell that, either," was all that Kitty would 
 say. She flipped over the next leaf. A gilded wish- 
 bone was fastened to the page by the bit of red 
 ribbon run through it. 
 
 " That's ' In Memoriam ' of the grand spread 
 at the Thanksgiving Day feast. And this button 
 pasted on just below it, popped off the glove of 
 Mademoiselle La Tosto the afternoon she came to 
 the Studio Tea and Art reception. You know how 
 the girls buzzed around her like a swarm of bees, 
 begging for her autograph. I'd rather have this
 
 A MEMORY- BOOK AND A SOUVENIR SPOON 99 
 
 button than a dozen autographs, for it dropped off 
 her glove as she clapped her hands in that vivacious 
 Frenchy way of hers, when she saw my caricature 
 of Paderewski that the girls stuck up on the wall. 
 Understand, young ladies, she was applauding it. 
 I walked on air all afternoon." 
 
 " Why undah the sun have you saved this tea 
 leaf?" asked Lloyd, pointing to one pasted care- 
 fully in the corner of the next page. 
 
 " Don't you remember the day that we went down 
 to Mammy Easter's cabin, and her old black grand- 
 mother was there, and told our fortunes? She 
 was a regular old hag, Gay. I wish you could have 
 seen her, teeth all gone; skin puckered as a dried 
 apple; she looked more monkey than human. But 
 she's a fine fortune-teller. I made a few hiero- 
 glyphics to recall what she said. This mark is 
 supposed to be a coach and four. She said that 
 Allison was to wed wid de quality and ride in a 
 car' age, but sorrow would be her po'shun if she 
 walked proud. She said that I'm bawn to trouble 
 as de spah'ks fly upwa'd, case I won't hah'k to 
 counsel, and that I mustn't marry the first man that 
 axes me, and I mustn't marry the second man that 
 axes me, but the third man that axes me, him I 
 can safely marry. This tea leaf stands for the third
 
 lOO LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 man. I'm to have three sons and one daughter, 
 and my luck will come to me through running water 
 when the weather-vane points west." 
 
 Kitty pointed to several pencil scratches beside 
 the tea leaf, intended to signify a brook and a 
 weather-vane on a steeple. 
 
 " What did she say about Betty? " asked Gay. 
 
 Kitty studied the next line of hieroglyphics a 
 moment. " Oh, I see now. I intended this for 
 a ship. She said there was a veil done hanging 
 ovah her future, so she couldn't rightly tell, but 
 she could see ships coming and going and crowds 
 of people, and she could see that her fortune was 
 mixed up with a great many other persons. She 
 said that the teacup held gold for her, and the signs 
 all ' pinted friendly.' " 
 
 "And Lloyd?" queried Gay, trying to decipher 
 the next line of pencil marks. " Surely that's not 
 a cat I see." 
 
 " A cat, a teapot, and a ball of knitting," laughed 
 Kitty. " I supposed that Lloyd's fortune would 
 be something thrilling, but according to the old 
 darky, it's to be the tamest of all. She said, ' I see 
 a rising sun, and a row of lovahs, but I don't see 
 you a-taking any of 'em, honey. Yo' ways am 
 ways of pleasantness and all yo' paths am peace,
 
 A MEMORY- BOOK AND A SOUVENIR SPOON IOI 
 
 but I'se powahful skeered dat you'se gwine to be 
 an ole maid. I sholy is.' " 
 
 "Is that so, Lloyd?" asked Gay, leaning- over 
 Kitty's shoulder to laugh at the Little Colonel's 
 teased expression. Kitty answered for her. 
 
 " Not if we can help it. We want her for a 
 cousin, and we think that she ought to marry Mal- 
 colm just for the sake of being able to claim us 
 as her dear relations. Look how she's blushing, 
 girls." 
 
 " I'm not ! " was the indignant answer. " You're 
 just trying to make me get red, because you know 
 I do it so easily." 
 
 She turned the page hastily and began to talk 
 about its contents to change the subject. There 
 were scraps of ribbon, as they went farther on, 
 a burnt match, a peacock feather, a tiny block of 
 wood with a hole shot through it, a strand of em- 
 broidery silk, a faded pansy, a hundred bits of 
 worthless rubbish which an unknowing hand would 
 have swept into the waste-basket; but to Kitty each 
 one was a key to unlock some happy memory of 
 her swiftly passing school-days. As the four heads, 
 brown and golden, black and auburn, bent over the 
 book, the rain beat against the windows in torrents. 
 
 With needle in air, Allison sat a moment watch-
 
 IO2 LITTLE COLONEL: s CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 ing the water stream down the pane. " This makes 
 me think of that afternoon in old Lloydsboro Semi- 
 nary," she said, musingly, " when Ida Shane read 
 the ' Fortunes of Daisy Dale ' aloud to us. I won- 
 der what has become of Ida. She was living in 
 a little country town up in the mountains the last 
 time I heard of her, taking in sewing and doing her 
 own work." 
 
 " She's the girl who caused so much excitement 
 at the Seminary," Betty explained to Gay. " The 
 one who got our Shadow Club into disgrace. She 
 tried to elope one night, but the teachers found 
 it out and sent her home. It didn't do any good, 
 for she ran away with Ned Bannon the next sum- 
 mer, and they were married by a justice of the 
 peace. I don't see how Ida could do it when she'd 
 always been so romantic, and planned to have her 
 wedding just like Daisy Dale's, in cherry blossom 
 time, and in the little stone church at Lloydsboro, 
 with the vines over the belfry. It's so quaint and 
 English looking, just like the one that Daisy was 
 married in. Instead of being all in white, she was 
 married in the dress she happened to have on when 
 she ran away, just an old black walking skirt 
 and plaid shirt-waist. No veil, no trail, and no 
 orange-blossoms, and she had counted on having
 
 A MEMORY- BOOK AND A SOUVENIR SPOON 1 03 
 
 all three. It was so prosy and commonplace after 
 the grand things she had planned." 
 
 " She's had it prosy enough ever since, too," 
 remarked Allison. " Ned drinks so hard that he 
 can't keep a position. She didn't reform him one 
 single bit, and I reckon she understands now why 
 her aunt objected so strongly to her marrying him. 
 Poor Ida, to think of her having to take in sewing 
 to keep her from actual starvation ! It's awful ! " 
 
 " Poah Ida ! " echoed Lloyd. " I don't see how 
 she does it. When she was in the Seminary, she 
 couldn't do anything with her needle but embroidah. 
 I used to have Mom Beck do her mending and 
 darning when she did mine." 
 
 " Thank fortune my mending is done ! " ex- 
 claimed Allison, dropping her thimble into her 
 work-bag, and throwing her coat across a chair. 
 " It's almost time for the bell. I must take Juliet 
 Lynn the papers I promised her." 
 
 Lloyd and Betty, looking at the clock, scrambled 
 to their feet, and a moment after only Gay and 
 Kitty were left on the rug with the memory-book 
 open between them. 
 
 " Do you think that Lloyd really cares for your 
 cousin ? " asked Gay. 
 
 " No," was the emphatic answer. " You can make
 
 104 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 her blush that way about anybody, and I love to 
 tease her. When she first came back from Arizona, 
 I used to think she liked Phil Tremont, a boy she 
 met out there, and then I thought maybe it was 
 Joyce's brother Jack. She talked so much about the 
 duck hunts they had together, and what a splen- 
 did fellow he was, and how much her father ad- 
 mired him. But the Princess is so particular that 
 I believe the old darky told her fortune truly. If 
 she's so particular at fifteen, ' I'se powahful skeered 
 she's gwine to be an old maid. I sholy is.' For 
 what will she be at twice fifteen ? " 
 
 Gay laughed at the imitation of the old coloured 
 woman, then asked : " But doesn't your cousin 
 come up to her standard? According to Maud 
 Minor he is as handsome as a Greek god, as accom- 
 plished as all the Muses put together, and as enter- 
 taining as a four-ring circus." 
 
 "Oh, Malcolm's all right," answered Kitty. 
 " We're awfully fond of him, but we're not so crazy 
 about him as to think all that. I have a picture of 
 him somewhere in my box of photographs, if you'd 
 like to see it." 
 
 Climbing on a chair to reach the box on the top 
 of the wardrobe, she took it down and began rum- 
 maging through it. In a moment she tossed a pho-
 
 STUDYING THE FACE OF THE HANDSOME YOUNG FELLOW 
 WITH INTEREST "
 
 A MEMORY- BOOK AND A SOUVENIR SPOON 1 05 
 
 tograph to Gay, who still sat on the floor, Turk 
 fashion. 
 
 " Here is one he had taken years ago when he 
 and Keith used to play they were two little Knights 
 of Kentucky, and went around trying to set the 
 wrongs of the world to rights." 
 
 While Gay was still exclaiming over it, she threw 
 down another. " Here's the one I was looking for. 
 It was taken this summer at Narragansett Pier on 
 his polo pony." 
 
 Gay seized it, studying the face of the handsome 
 young fellow with interest. " Why, he's almost 
 grown ! " she cried. 
 
 " Yes, he's nearly eighteen, and he is even better 
 looking than that picture. And here's Keith, the 
 one I'm so fond of. We always have so much fun 
 when they come out to grandmother's for the holi- 
 days." 
 
 The box slipped and the entire contents show- 
 ered over the floor. Gay helped her to put them 
 back into the box, glancing at each one as she 
 did so. One in a cadet uniform attracted her at- 
 tention. 
 
 "Who's this? Now he's the one I'd like to 
 know. I suppose it's because I've lived at an army
 
 IO6 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 post always that I adore anything military. He 
 looks interesting." 
 
 Kitty leaned over to look. " Oh, that's my 
 brother Ranald. He's away at military school. 
 Won't he be teased when I tell him what you said ? 
 He's dreadfully bashful with girls, though you'd 
 think he oughtn't to be. He was under fire ever 
 so many times with papa in the Philippines when 
 he was a little chap. You know he was the young- 
 est captain in the army, at one time, and was on 
 General Grant's staff when he was still in short 
 trousers." 
 
 " Why, of course, I know," cried Gay, enthusi- 
 astically. " I heard some officers talking about it 
 one night at dinner just after it happened. Papa 
 toasted ' The Little Captain ' in such a pretty speech 
 that the officers who had fought with your father 
 cheered. But I never dreamed then that I'd ever 
 know his sister, or be sitting here holding his pic- 
 ture, talking about him. I'm going to take pos- 
 session of this," she added, when all the other pho- 
 tographs were back in the box. 
 
 " You don't care, do you ? I'd like it to add to 
 my collection of heroes. I'll put it in a frame made 
 of brass buttons and crossed guns and all sorts
 
 A MEMORY-BOOK AND A SOUVENIR SPOON IO/ 
 
 of ornaments that the officers have given me off 
 of their uniforms." 
 
 " No, I don't care," answered Kitty. " Allison 
 has one like it, and I can get another any time 
 by writing home for it. I wish you would take 
 it, for that would give me such a fine thing to tease 
 him about. I could worry him nearly distracted." 
 
 " I don't care how much you tease him so long 
 as I may keep the picture," laughed Gay. " I'm 
 a thousand times obliged to you." 
 
 As she sat looking at it, she exclaimed, suddenly : 
 " Kitty Walton, you're an awfully lucky girl to 
 have such nice boys in your family. I wish I knew 
 them. I haven't a brother or even a forty-second 
 cousin." 
 
 " Well, you can know them if you'll come home 
 with me to spend the Christmas vacation. Ranald 
 always brings a boy home with him for the holi- 
 days, and mother said Allison and I might bring 
 a friend. I'm sure she'd rather have you than any- 
 body else, she knows your father and mother so 
 well." 
 
 The amber lights in Gay's brown eyes deepened. 
 "Oh, I'd love to!" she cried. "I'd dearly love 
 to! It's too far to go away back to San Antonio 
 for such a short time, and I hated to think of the
 
 IO8 LITTLE COLONEUS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 holidays, knowing" I'd have to stay here at the Hall, 
 with all you girls gone. Are you sure your mother 
 won't object ? " 
 
 " You wait and see," advised Kitty. " You don't 
 know mammy ! You'll not have any doubt of your 
 welcome when her letter comes." 
 
 " Oh, it would be too lovely for anything ! " ex- 
 claimed Gay, listening with a far-away look in her 
 eyes, as Kitty began outlining plans for the coming 
 holidays. Presently, in sheer joy at the prospect, 
 they pulled each other up from the floor, and, 
 springing on to the bed, danced a Highland fling 
 in the middle of it, till a slat fell out with a terri- 
 fying crash. 
 
 With the coming of December the holiday gaie- 
 ties began. A spirit of festivity lurked in the very 
 air. A mock Christmas tree was one of the yearly 
 features of the school, when each pupil's pet fad 
 or peculiarity was suggested by appropriate gifts. 
 Preparations for the tree began early in the month, 
 and whispered consultations were carried on in 
 every corner, with much giggling and profound 
 assurances of secrecy. 
 
 The practising of Christmas carols went on in 
 the music-rooms, and snatches of them floated down
 
 A MEMORY-BOOK AND A SOUVENIR SPOON 1 09 
 
 the halls and through the building, till the blithe 
 young hearts were filled to overflowing with the 
 cheer and good-will of the sweet old melodies. 
 Now the usual Monday sightseeing gave way to 
 shopping, and every moment that could be snatched 
 from school work was given to crochet-needles and 
 embroidery-hoops, to the finishing of an endless 
 variety of gifts, and the wrapping of same in mys- 
 terious packages. 
 
 One Monday Betty did not join the others in 
 their weekly shopping expedition. Her few pur- 
 chases had been made, and she wanted the day to 
 work on unfinished gifts. She was making most 
 of them with her needle. She was glad afterward 
 that she had decided to stay when a slow winter 
 rain began to fall. It melted the light snow-fall 
 which whitened the ground into a disagreeable 
 compound of slush and mud. 
 
 It was almost dark when Kitty and Allison burst 
 into the room, their arms full of bundles, and began 
 displaying their purchases. Lloyd followed more 
 slowly, and, dropping her packages on the floor 
 by the radiator, stood trying to warm her fingers 
 through her wet gloves. Presently, in the midst 
 of the exhibition, with her hat still on, she flung 
 herself across her bed, piled up as it was with
 
 IIO LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 strings and crumpled wrapping-paper. " Excuse 
 me if I mash your bargains, Kitty," she said, weakly, 
 closing her eyes. " But I'm as limp as a rag ! So 
 ti'ahed "I feel as if I were falling to pieces. We 
 tramped around in the wet so long, and then inside 
 the stores there were such crowds that we were 
 pushed and jammed and stepped on everywhere we 
 turned. It seemed to me we waited hours for our 
 change. Then the car we came out on was so ovah- 
 heated that we almost stifled. I'm suah I caught 
 cold when the icy wind struck us aftah we left 
 the station." 
 
 She shivered as she spoke. Betty sprang up and 
 began tugging at her wet wraps. 
 
 " Don't lie there that way," she begged. " Let 
 me help you get into some dry clothes, and ask the 
 housekeeper for a glass of hot milk." 
 
 At first Lloyd protested that she was too tired 
 to move. Betty could be as persistent as a mosquito 
 at times. She insisted until Lloyd finally allowed 
 her to have her way, and got up wearily to put 
 on the dry skirts and stockings which she brought 
 to her. A hot dinner made her feel somewhat bet- 
 ter, but her face was flushed when they went up- 
 stairs for the study hour. Betty saw her wipe her 
 eyes as she took out her Latin grammar, and in-
 
 A MEMORY -BOOK AND A SOUVENIR SPOON III 
 
 stantly forgave the petulant way in which Lloyd 
 had answered her several times during the evening. 
 
 " Don't try to study, Lloyd," she urged. " I 
 know you don't feel well." 
 
 " No," acknowledged the Little Colonel, " every 
 bone in my body aches, and my head is simply split- 
 ting." 
 
 " Let me run down to the sanitarium and ask 
 Miss Gilmer to come up and see if she can't do 
 something for you," began Betty, but Lloyd inter- 
 rupted her, stamping her foot with a touch of her 
 old childish imperiousness. 
 
 " You sha'n't go ! I'm not sick ! I've just caught 
 a plain cold." 
 
 " But people don't catch just plain colds nowa- 
 days," persisted Betty. " They always catch mi- 
 crobes at the same time, that are apt to turn into 
 la grippe and pneumonia and all sorts of dreadful 
 things. ' A stitch in time saves nine/ you know," 
 she added, wisely, quoting from the motto embroid- 
 ered on her darning-bag, which happened to be 
 hanging on a chair-post in the corner. " ' An ounce 
 of prevention is worth a pound of cure* every 
 time." 
 
 " Oh, for mercy's sake, Betty," cried Lloyd, im- 
 patiently, " let me alone and don't be so preachy.
 
 112 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 I'm not going to repoa't a little thing like a head- 
 ache and a soah throat to the nurse. She'd put 
 me to bed and keep me there for a week. I'd get 
 behind with my lessons, and lose all the holiday fun. 
 Like as not mothah and Papa Jack would come 
 straight aftah me, and take me home befoah we'd 
 had the mock Christmas tree or any of the things 
 I've been looking forward to so long." 
 
 Betty picked up her algebra again without an 
 audible reply, but inwardly she was saying : " I 
 know she is sick, or she wouldn't be so cross." 
 
 The next day found Lloyd with such high fever 
 that she was installed at once in the sanitarium. 
 " It is la grippe that she has," the nurse told Betty. 
 " It is the real thing, and not what people always 
 claim to have with an ordinary cold. The worst 
 will probably be over in a few days, but it will leave 
 her so exhausted and so susceptible to other things 
 that I shall keep her with me for a week at least." 
 
 Lloyd rebelled at first, but she had to submit as 
 her fever mounted higher, and the world grew, to 
 her blurred fancy, one great, throbbing ache. She 
 was glad to give herself up to Miss Gilmer's sooth- 
 ing touches. Mrs. Sherman did not come, for a 
 letter from the school physician assured her that 
 Lloyd was receiving every care and attention that
 
 A MEMORY-BOOK AND A SOUVENIR SPOON 113 
 
 she could have had at home, and the case was quite 
 a simple one. 
 
 Miss Gilmer, the nurse, was a big motherly 
 woman, who seemed to radiate comfort and cheer, 
 as a stove does heat. After the first few days, Lloyd 
 would have enjoyed the time spent with her in 
 the cheerful room assigned her had she not been 
 haunted by the thought that she was falling behind 
 her classes. 
 
 " It's a pretty good sawt of a world, aftah all," 
 she said one day, as she sat propped up among the 
 pillows, enjoying a dainty mid-afternoon lunch 
 Madam Chartley had personally prepared and sent 
 in hot from the chafing-dish. Bouillon in the thin- 
 nest of fragile china, and a toasted scone which 
 recalled delightfully the little English inn she had 
 visited near Kenilworth ruins. By some oversight, 
 no spoon had been sent in on the tray, and Miss 
 Gilmer supplied the deficiency by bringing one of 
 her own from a little cabinet in the next room. 
 
 " It has a history," Miss Gilmer said, and Lloyd 
 looked at it with interest before dipping it into the 
 cup. 
 
 "Why, the handle is a May-pole!" she ex- 
 claimed, with pleasure. " And the date down among 
 the garlands is the queen's birthday, isn't it? I
 
 114 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 remembah we were up in the Burns country that 
 day, when we saw the school-children celebrating 
 it." 
 
 " To think of an American girl remembering that 
 date ! " cried Miss Gilmer, in a pleased tone. " It 
 is a great day on my calendar, for it was then that 
 I met Madam Chartley, for the first time, on the 
 queen's birthday. She has been my good angel 
 ever since. It was she who sent me that May-pole 
 spoon, as a souvenir of that meeting." 
 
 " Oh, would you tell me about it ? " asked Lloyd. 
 " It sounds so interesting." 
 
 Taking up some needlework from a basket on 
 the table, Miss Gilmer leaned back as if to begin 
 a long story. 
 
 " There isn't so much to tell, after all," she said, 
 pausing to thread her needle. " It was long ago, 
 when Madam Chartley was Alicia Raeburn, and I 
 was a bashful little English schoolgirl at St. Agnes 
 Hall. Alicia had come from America to visit her 
 uncle, who was proctor of the cathedral. His 
 grounds joined the school premises on the south, 
 and I often used to peep through the hedge and 
 watch her strolling around the garden. She was 
 older than I, and the difference in our ages seemed 
 greater then than now, for I was still wearing short
 
 A MEMORY- BOOK AND A SOUVENIR SPOON 11$ 
 
 frocks, and she had just put on long ones. I had 
 heard that she was to be presented at court next 
 season. That, and the fact that she was an Ameri- 
 can, and very beautiful, and that she looked lonely 
 strolling around the old proctor's garden by herself, 
 threw a glamour of romance about her. 
 
 " I would have given a fortune to have made her 
 acquaintance, and I spent hours down by the brook 
 dreaming innocent little day-dreams in which I pic- 
 tured such meetings. Suddenly heliotrope became 
 my favourite flower instead of roses, because she 
 so often wore a bunch of it tucked in the belt of 
 her gray dress. Indeed, because she so often wore 
 it, I grew to regard it as sacred to her alone, and 
 felt that no one else had a right to wear it. For- 
 tunately, at that season of the year it grew only 
 in the proctor's conservatory, so that the schoolgirls 
 could not obtain it. I would have inwardly resented 
 it, if any one of them had taken such a liberty as 
 to wear her flower. She seemed to me the most 
 beautiful and perfect creature I had ever seen, and 
 I worshipped her from afar, and imitated her in 
 every way possible. I don't suppose you can under- 
 stand such an infatuation." 
 
 " Indeed I do undahstand," interrupted Lloyd, 
 eagerly. She was thinking of Ida Shane, and the
 
 Il6 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 way she had fallen under the spell of her charming 
 personality. Even yet the odour of violets brought 
 back the same little thrill it had awakened when 
 violets seemed made for Ida's exclusive wearing. 
 Miss Gilmer's feeling for the beautiful Alicia Rae- 
 burn was no deeper than hers had been for Ida. 
 She could readily understand about the heliotrope. 
 
 " Well, then," Miss Gilmer went on, " you can 
 imagine my state of mind when at last I actually 
 met her. It was on the queen's birthday. At our 
 school, instead of having the May-pole dance on 
 May-day, we waited until the queen's birthday, and 
 on that occasion Alicia was one of the invited 
 guests. It was quite by accident she spoke to me. 
 She dropped her handkerchief, and I sprang to pick 
 it up. But she must have seen the adoration in my 
 poor little embarrassed face, for I went quite red 
 I am sure. I could fairly feel the hot blood surge 
 over me. She said something pleasant to cover my 
 confusion, and then swept her skirts aside for me 
 to share her seat. She wanted to ask some ques- 
 tions about the customs of the school, she said. 
 
 " That was the beginning of our acquaintance. 
 Next day she waved her handkerchief over the 
 hedge to me, and the next called me over for a little 
 chat. She was lonely in the great garden. After
 
 A MEMORY -BOOK AND A SOUVENIR SPOON I I'J 
 
 awhile I plucked up courage to tell her how I had 
 watched her through the hedge, and dreamed about 
 meeting her. I could not put it into words, but 
 she could readily see that the good Victoria and 
 the queen of the May were not the sovereigns who 
 claimed my dearest allegiance. It was the ' Queen 
 Rose of the rosebud garden of girls,' the beautiful 
 Alicia Raeburn. 
 
 " She went away that summer, but we had grown 
 to be such friends that she promised to write to 
 me once a year, in order that I might not lose her 
 entirely out of my life. She knew what a lonely 
 little orphan I was, and she never denied me the 
 joy of that yearly letter. They were full of her 
 travels and the interesting experiences of her life, 
 for she married a young English officer and went 
 to India, 
 
 " They came back to England once. I saw her 
 then. It was at a great ball given for the Prince 
 of Wales when he honoured the little cathedral town 
 with a visit. She could hardly believe that I was 
 the little schoolgirl who had eyed her so adoringly 
 through the hedge. I had grown so large. But 
 she found from others what a lonely life I had, 
 and, knowing how much her friendship meant, she 
 still gave me the pleasure of that yearly letter, writ-
 
 Il8 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 ten on the queen's birthday. That she should re- 
 member through all her busy years shows one of 
 the finest traits of her character. 
 
 " Once she was too ill to write, but the message 
 came just the same. She sent this spoon with the 
 May-pole handle, and on her card was scrawled the 
 one line, ' I keep the tryst.' She had told me the 
 story of their family crest. You don't know how 
 many times in the next few years the sight of that 
 card and the souvenir spoon helped me. Her fidelity 
 to a promise made me rely on her and her friendship 
 when all others failed me. My guardian died and 
 left my property in such shape that I found I would 
 Have to support myself, and I began to take training 
 for a professional nurse. When she heard of it, 
 she wrote and told me that she, too, had been 
 obliged by her husband's death to earn her own 
 living, and that she had established this school in 
 her great-grandmother's old mansion. She offered 
 me the position of professional nurse here. I came 
 on the next steamer, and have been here ever 
 since. 
 
 " You don't know how many times I've thought 
 how different my life would have been if she had 
 failed in that one little matter of sending a yearly 
 letter. No doubt it was a bore to her oftentimes,
 
 A MEMORY- BOOK AND A SOUVENIR SPOON IIQ 
 
 but it was the line that kept us in touch and finally 
 drew me to this happy anchorage. Alicia Chartley 
 is a great woman, my dear. She has left her im- 
 print on every girl who has passed through this 
 school, and there'll be a long line of them to rise 
 up and call her blessed. Not so much for the fine 
 ladies she has made of them with her high-bred 
 ways and ideals, but for the example she has set 
 them always in that one thing. No matter in how 
 small a duty, she has never once failed to keep the 
 tryst." 
 
 Lloyd would have liked to ask some questions 
 about Madam's girlhood, but some one called Miss 
 Gilmer into the office just then, so, taking the tray 
 with its empty cup and plate, she passed out. Lloyd 
 thumped her pillows and lay looking out of the 
 window at the sparrows on the balcony railing. 
 All the ache was gone, and, with a delightful sense 
 of drowsiness and of well-being, she began slipping 
 into a little doze. Even illness had its bright side, 
 she thought, languidly. She liked Miss Gilmer's 
 reminiscences. They opened into a world so de- 
 lightfully English. When she came back she would 
 ask for more stories. Down from the distant music- 
 room stole the faint echo of one of the carols. She 
 opened her eyes to listen.
 
 I2O LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 " God rest you, merry Christians, 
 
 Let nothing you dismay, 
 For Christ our Lord and Saviour 
 Was born on Christmas Day." 
 
 Lloyd liked that carol. " ' Let nothing you dis- 
 may,' " she repeated, softly. " No, it doesn't really 
 make any difference what happens," she thought, 
 closing her eyes again and curling up like a sleepy 
 kitten. " It will all come right in the end, as it did 
 with Miss Gilmer. I'll not worry about missing 
 so many lessons and so many pearls on my rosary. 
 I'll just be thankful for Christmas and all it brings." 
 
 Again through her drowsy senses echoed the 
 refrain, and she dropped to sleep, repeating, slowly, 
 " ' Let nothing you dismay ! ' "
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 CHRISTMAS CAROLS 
 
 " THIS is the worst time of all the yeah to be 
 sick," fretted the Little Colonel, pausing in her rest- 
 less journey around the room. She had been pacing 
 from window to fireplace in the nurse's office, and 
 from fireplace to window again, watching the clock 
 and the slowly westering sun, as if watching would 
 hasten the day to its close. 
 
 Miss Gilmer, who was placidly knitting, changed 
 needles without looking up. " That is what people 
 always say. I've never yet found one whose cal- 
 endar had a time when illness would be convenient." 
 
 " But now, just befoah the holidays, a thousand 
 things are waiting to be done. I'm behind a whole 
 week with my studies, and my Christmas presents 
 that I'm going to make are scarcely begun. You 
 haven't even let me look at the material. I feel 
 like a caged lion, and I'd like to roah and claw and 
 ramp around till I'd smashed my ban's." 
 
 121
 
 122 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 " You'll have your liberty soon," laughed Miss 
 Gilmer. " I think it will be safe to let you go down 
 to the dining-room this evening, and I'll give you 
 your honourable discharge in the morning. But, 
 if I were in your place, I would make no attempt 
 to catch up with the classes this term. I would 
 lock the unfinished presents away in a drawer, and 
 not give any this Christmas. You ought to spend 
 the holidays as quietly as possible, doing nothing 
 but rest." 
 
 Lloyd turned toward her with an exclamation of 
 dismay. 
 
 "Oh, Miss Gilmer! That's impossible! We've 
 planned for a gayer Christmas vacation than we've 
 evah had befoah. Every day will be full to the 
 brim. And I must make up the recitations I have 
 missed. I've had such good repoah'ts all term that 
 I can't beah to spoil everything right at the end. 
 When I was in bed, feeling so bad, I made up my 
 mind I wouldn't worry about them, but now I feel 
 as good as new, only a little weak, and one always 
 feels weak aftah fevah. It's to be expected. You 
 know I wasn't dangerously ill." 
 
 " No," admitted Miss Gilmer, " but your little 
 illness has left you with less strength than you think 
 you have. You are like an ice-pond that is just
 
 CHRISTMAS CAROLS 123 
 
 beginning to freeze over. A very light weight will 
 break it through at that stage, but if there is no 
 strain until it has frozen properly, it can bear the 
 weight of the most heavily loaded wagons." 
 
 Lloyd slipped into a chair and stared dismally 
 at the fire. 
 
 " But I am strongah than you think, Miss Gilmer. 
 Except one time when I had the measles, I'd never 
 been sick in rny life till last week. I don't believe 
 it's good for people to coddle themselves and worry 
 all the time for feah they are going to be ill." 
 
 " Oh," answered the nurse, " I fully agree with 
 you in that, still I should not be doing my duty if 
 I did not put up a warning signal when I see dan- 
 ger ahead. I do see it now. You are getting on 
 very nicely, but the ice is very thin, far too thin 
 for any such extra weights as double study hours 
 and holiday dissipations. If you don't walk lightly, 
 there'll be a nervous breakdown." 
 
 Some one called Miss Gilmer away before she 
 could finish her warning, and Lloyd sat facing the 
 fire and this unpleasant bit of counsel for nearly 
 half an hour. A verse from her favourite carol 
 came echoing through the halls from the distant 
 music-room, for it was practice hour again, but this 
 time it did not fit her mood, and it brought no cheer.
 
 124 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 It was all well enough for those girls up-stairs, 
 happy and well and able to do as they pleased, to 
 be singing " Let nothing you dismay," but she 
 couldn't help being dismayed at Miss Gilmer's opin- 
 ion of her condition. She was ready to cry, think- 
 ing how all her holidays would be spoiled should 
 she follow the nurse's advice. 
 
 With her chin in her hand and her elbow on the 
 arm of the chair, she sat picturing her doleful 
 Christmas if she could have no part in the giving, 
 and must be left out of all the merrymaking they 
 had planned. Tears welled up into her eyes, and 
 her miserable reverie might have ended in a down- 
 pour had it not been interrupted by the entrance 
 of Gay and Betty. Having taken a hasty run across 
 the terraces, they had obtained permission to spend 
 the rest of the recreation hour with Lloyd. 
 
 " We can't waste a minute now," exclaimed Gay, 
 as she pulled out her knitting-work and began click- 
 ing her ivory needles through a rainbow shawl she 
 was making. " I believe Betty sleeps with her em- 
 broidery hoops under her pillow, and I know that 
 Allison paints in her sleep." 
 
 " What would you do if you were in my place? " 
 mourned Lloyd. She repeated the nurse's dismal 
 warning.
 
 CHRISTMAS CAROLS 12$ 
 
 " Boo ! She magnifies her office," said Gay, 
 glancing over her shoulder to make sure that they 
 were alone. " I suppose it is perfectly natural that 
 she should. When you're with Miss White, she 
 makes you feel that there's nothing in life to live 
 for but Latin. When you're with Miss Hooker, 
 mathematics is the chief end of man. With Pro- 
 fessor Stroebel the violin is the one and only. So 
 of course a professional nurse is in duty bound to 
 make hygiene the first consideration. Don't listen 
 to them, listen to me. I change my mind a dozen 
 times a day, and have a new fad every fortnight, 
 so it stands to reason that my advice is more broad- 
 minded than the advice of a person who rides only 
 one hobby, and rides that in a rut." 
 
 Lloyd laughed at Gay's foolishness, but groaned 
 when Betty told her how far the classes had ad- 
 vanced during her absence from recitations. 
 
 "I'll have to work like a beavah this next week 
 to catch up. I stah'ted out to have perfect repoah'ts, 
 and I feel that I must stick to it, as Ederyn did 
 when he heard the king's call. It is an obligation 
 that I must meet. I must keep tryst or die." 
 
 Gay looked at her admiringly. " I knew you 
 were like that," she exclaimed. " If there is any- 
 thing I envy it is strength of character."
 
 126 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 The admiring glance and Gay's remark carried 
 greater weight than all the nurse's warning. There 
 was another reason now for persevering in her de- 
 termination. Gay expected it of her, and she could 
 not fall below Gay's expectation of what a strong 
 character should accomplish. 
 
 Gay, having finished a white stripe across the 
 shawl, opened the sweet-grass Indian basket hang- 
 ing on her chair-post, and took out several skeins 
 of zephyr of a delicate sea-shell pink. 
 
 " Let me hold it while you wind," begged Lloyd. 
 " It's such an exquisite shade, like the heart of a 
 la France rose. It makes me think of the stories 
 mothah used to tell me. Everything in them had 
 to be pink, from the little girl's dress to the bow 
 on her kitten's neck. Her slippahs, parasol, flowahs 
 in the garden, papah on the wall, icing on the cake, 
 everything had to be pink." 
 
 " What a funny little creature you must have 
 been," laughed Gay, secretly making note of Lloyd's 
 favourite colour, and resolving to change the names 
 on two packages laid away in her trunk. The blue 
 sachet-bag with the forget-me-nots should go to 
 Betty instead of Lloyd, as she had originally in- 
 tended. Lloyd should have the one with the gar- 
 lands of pink rosebuds.
 
 CHRISTMAS CAROLS H2J 
 
 " My room at home is furnished in pink," Lloyd 
 went on. " Oh, Gay, I'm wild for you to see Locust. 
 I'm going to have you and the Walton girls and 
 Katie Mallard, one of our neighbahs, spend two 
 days and nights with us. While I've been cooped 
 up heah getting well, I've planned some of the love- 
 liest things to do that you evah dreamed of. It's 
 going to be the gayest vacation that evah was." 
 
 When Miss Gilmer returned at the end of the 
 hour, Lloyd looked so much brighter and better 
 that she gave her an unexpected furlough. 
 
 " There, run along to your room with the other 
 girls. I'll expect you back at bedtime, for I want 
 to keep you under my wing one more night, but 
 you're at liberty till then on one condition, you're 
 not to look into a book." 
 
 " I'll promise ! Oh, I'll promise ! " cried Lloyd, 
 impetuously throwing her arms around the nurse. 
 " You're such a deah ! Not that I'm anxious to 
 get away from you," she added, fearing that her 
 delight might be misunderstood. " But I just want 
 to get out ! " 
 
 True to her promise, Lloyd opened no books, 
 but, flying to her room, she took out one of the 
 uncompleted Christmas gifts, a pair of bedroom 
 slippers, and worked with feverish haste until din-
 
 128 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 ner was ready. It was good to be at the table again 
 with the other girls after her week of solitary meals 
 in the nursery. Afterward it was a temptation to 
 linger in the library talking with them, but the 
 thought of the many tasks undone sent her hurry- 
 ing back to her room. 
 
 Betty followed presently with the Walton girls, 
 and they all worked steadily on their various gifts 
 until the bell rang for the evening study hour. 
 Then Allison and Kitty reluctantly departed, and 
 Betty took out her algebra. Lloyd crocheted in 
 silence for half an hour longer, her fingers flying 
 faster and faster in her eagerness to complete the 
 task. Finally she laid it down with a sigh of relief. 
 
 " There! " she exclaimed aloud. " That's done. 
 They're all ready for the bows. Now, thank for- 
 tune, I can check them off my list." 
 
 Betty looked up with an absent-minded smile, 
 nodded approvingly at the finished slippers stand- 
 ing on the table, and then went on with her prob- 
 lems. Lloyd opened her bureau-drawer to search 
 for the ribbon which she had bought for the bows. 
 As she rummaged through it, her hand touched the 
 little sandalwood box that held the unfinished ro- 
 sary. She glanced over her shoulder. Betty was 
 deep in her algebra. So, taking out the string- of
 
 CHRISTMAS CAROLS 12$ 
 
 beads, she passed it slowly through her fingers. 
 Then she held it up, and, looping it around her 
 throat, looked in the mirror. 
 
 " I suppose it's mighty childish of me," she said 
 to herself, " but I can't enjoy my vacation if I go 
 home with a single one of this term's pearls miss- 
 ing. I've got to make up those lessons, no mattah 
 what the nurse says. I can rest aftahward." 
 
 A few minutes later she presented herself at Miss 
 Gilmer's door with the announcement that she 
 would go to bed an hour earlier than usual, in order 
 to get a good start for the next day. 
 
 All that week she worked with a restless energy 
 that kept her keyed to the highest pitch of effort. 
 She scarcely ate, and her sleep was broken, but 
 her eyes were so bright and her manner so ani- 
 mated, that Betty wrote home that Lloyd's little 
 spell of illness seemed to have done her good. 
 
 By studying before breakfast, and snatching 
 every minute she could spare from other duties, 
 she managed to have perfect recitations in each 
 study, and at the same time to make up the lessons 
 she had missed. Five o'clock Saturday afternoon 
 found her with the last task done. She slipped 
 ten more little Roman pearls over the silken cord; 
 five for the week's advance work, and five for the
 
 130 LITTLE COLONEL 'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 days she had missed. Then with a sigh of re- 
 lief she put the sandalwood box into her trunk, 
 already partly packed for home-going, and flung 
 herself wearily across the bed. 
 
 The mock Christmas-tree had been lighted the 
 evening before, and the gifts distributed. She had 
 not enjoyed it as she had expected to, although 
 some of the jokes were excruciatingly funny, and 
 the girls had laughed until they were limp. She 
 was too tired to laugh much. She was glad that 
 Sunday was coming before the day of leave-taking. 
 She made up her mind that she would skip dinner, 
 and ask Betty just to slip her something from the 
 table. 
 
 Then she remembered that this was the night the 
 carols were to be sung in the chapel. She could 
 not miss that. It was the prettiest service of all 
 the year, the old girls said. Some one had told 
 her it was a custom for everybody to wear white 
 to the carol-singing, but it was hard to remember 
 things, maybe she had only dreamed it. She wished 
 that she. did not have to remember things, but 
 could lie there without moving, until morning. 
 What was it her mother used to sing to her? 
 " Asleep in the arms of the slow-swinging seas." 
 Oh ! The white seal's lullaby. That was what she
 
 CHRISTMAS CAROLS l"$l 
 
 wanted. How good it would feel to be rocked by 
 the restful motion of the waves, to be caught in that 
 long sleepy sweep of the slow-swinging seas. 
 
 When she opened her eyes again it was to find 
 the room lighted, and Betty dressing for the carol 
 service. She had slept an hour. 
 
 "It'll never do to miss the carols," Betty as- 
 sured her, when she suggested skipping dinner. 
 " Come on, I'll help you dress. Just tell me what 
 you want to wear, and I'll lay out your things 
 while you're shaking your wits together. You'll 
 feel better after you've had a hot dinner." So 
 struggling with the weariness which nearly over- 
 powered her, Lloyd forced herself to follow Betty's 
 example, and go down to the dining-room when 
 the bell rang. An hour later she fell into line 
 with the other girls, as, all in white, they filed into 
 the chapel. 
 
 " How Christmasey it looks and smells," she 
 whispered to Allison, as the doors swung open and 
 a breath from the pine woods greeted them. The 
 chancel was wreathed and festooned with masses 
 of evergreen. To-night tall white candles furnished 
 the only light. Far down the dim aisles they twin- 
 kled like stars against the dark background of cedar 
 and hemlock.
 
 132 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 Betty was glad that they had entered early. The 
 deep silence of those moments of waiting, the dim 
 light of the Christmas tapers, and the fragrance of 
 the pine seemed as much a part of the service as 
 anything which followed. In the expectant hush 
 that rilled the little chapel, she pictured the three 
 kings riding through the night, until she could 
 almost see the shadowy desert and hear the tread 
 of the camels who bore the wise men on their star- 
 lit quest. She saw the hillside of Judea, where the 
 shepherds kept their night-watch by their flocks, 
 and all the mystery and wonder of the first great 
 Christmastide seemed to vibrate through her heart, 
 as the deep organ prelude suddenly filled the air 
 with the jubilant chords of " Joy to the world, the 
 Lord has come." 
 
 Presently the music changed, and the girls looked 
 around expectantly. From far down distant halls 
 and corridors came a chorus of girlish voices : " Oh, 
 little town of Bethlehem." So sweet and far away 
 it was, the audience in the chapel involuntarily 
 leaned forward to listen. Across the campus it 
 sounded, gradually drawing nearer and clearer, 
 until, with a triumphant burst of melody, the doors 
 swung open and the white-robed choir swept in. 
 
 Only the best voices in the school had been chosen
 
 CHRISTMAS CAROLS I $3 
 
 for this choir, and weeks of training preceded the 
 service. One after another they sang the sweet 
 old tunes of the Christmas waits until they reached 
 Lloyd's favourite, " Let nothing you dismay." She 
 listened to it with pleasure now, since her greatest 
 cause for dismay had been removed. She had kept 
 tryst with the term's obligations, as the last pearl 
 on the rosary could testify. 
 
 In the hush that followed that carol, an old man, 
 with silvery hair and benign face, rose under the 
 tall candles of the chancel. 
 
 " It's the bishop," whispered Gay to Lloyd. 
 " Old Bishop Chartley. He is Madam's uncle, and 
 he always comes down for this service." 
 
 Then even her irrepressible tongue grew still, for, 
 in a deep voice that filled the chapel, he began to 
 read the story of the three wise men who followed 
 the star with their gifts of gold and frankincense 
 and myrrh, until it led them to Bethlehem's manger. 
 An old, old story, but it bloomed anew once more, 
 as it has bloomed every year since first the wonder- 
 ing wise men started on their quest. 
 
 The bishop closed the Book. " How shall we 
 keep the King's birthday? " he asked. " What gifts 
 shall we bring? To-day in a quaint old tale, be- 
 loved in boyhood, I found the answer. It is the
 
 134 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 story of a strange country called Cathay, and this 
 is the way it runs : 
 
 1 ' The ruler thereof is one Kublan Khan, a 
 mighty warrior. His government is both wise and 
 just, and is administered to rich and poor alike, 
 without fear or favour. On the king's birthday 
 the people observe what is called the White Feast. 
 Then are the king and his court assembled in a 
 great room of the palace, which is alt white, the 
 floor of marble and the walls hung with curtains 
 of white silk. All are in white apparel, and they 
 offer unto the king white gifts, to show that their 
 love and loyalty are without a stain. The rich bring 
 to their lord pearls, carvings of ivory, white char- 
 gers, and costly broidered garments. The poor pre- 
 sent white pigeons and handfuls of rice. Nor doth 
 the great king regard one gift above another, so 
 long as all be white. And so do they keep the king's 
 birthday.' " . . . I : 
 
 Lloyd, leaning forward, listened with such breath- 
 less interest that it attracted Gay's attention. 
 " That's just like your pink story," she whispered. 
 Lloyd gave her fingers a responsive squeeze, but 
 never took her eyes from the benign old face. The 
 bishop was applying the story to the audience be- 
 fore him.
 
 CHRISTMAS CAROLS 135 
 
 "As these pagans of Cathay kept the feast of 
 Kublan Kahn, so we may make of Christmas a 
 White Feast, whose offerings are without stain. 
 We need make no weary pilgrimages across the 
 trackless sands, as did those Eastern sages. ' Inas- 
 much as ye have done it unto the least of these my 
 brethren' (these are the King's own words), 'ye have 
 done it unto me/ At our very doors we may give 
 to Him, through His poor and needy. 
 
 " But there is another way. You are all familiar 
 with the motto of this house, and the legend which 
 gave rise to it. Clad in the white garments of 
 Righteousness, we may keep the tryst as Ederyn 
 kept it, and bring to the King the white pearls of 
 a well-spent life. Days unstained by selfishness, 
 days filled up with duties faithfully performed. 
 It matters not how small and commonplace our 
 efforts seem, the rice and the pigeons of the poor 
 showed Kublan Kahn his subjects' loyalty as fully 
 as the ivory carvings and the costly broidered gar- 
 ment. Nor doth the great King regard one gift 
 of ours above another, so long as all be white. If 
 only on our breasts the tokens Duty gives us spell 
 out the words, 'semper fidelis/ then ours will be 
 the royal accolade : ' Well done, thou good and 
 faithful servant. Enter thou into the joy of thy
 
 136 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 Lord.' To give ourselves, unstained and gladly, 
 thus may we keep the White Feast on the birthday 
 of the King." 
 
 Then the choir stood again, but Lloyd scarcely 
 noticed what it sang. She was thinking of the 
 bishop's story, and her secret hidden away in the 
 sandalwood box. She was so glad now that she 
 had strung the pearls. She had begun it because 
 it pleased her fancy to act out the story of Ederyn, 
 but now the sacred meaning the old bishop gave 
 the story thrilled her through and through. The 
 King's call suddenly seemed very sweet and per- 
 sonal. Henceforth she would string the pearls in 
 answer to that call. 
 
 When they all knelt in the closing prayer, she 
 fervently echoed the bishop's petition : " Grant 
 that we make of this Christmastide a White Feast, 
 and that all our days may be worthy of thy ac- 
 ceptance, unstained by selfishness and full of deeds 
 to show our love and loyalty." 
 
 The white-robed choir filed slowly out, their 
 music sounding fainter and fainter until it died 
 away across the campus, and the white-robed audi- 
 ence was left kneeling in silence. There were tears 
 in Gay's eyes when she arose. Such music always 
 stirred her to the depths. Kitty went back to her
 
 CHRISTMAS CAROLS 137 
 
 room humming one of the carols, and Betty stole 
 away to write the bishop's sermon in her little white 
 record, while the memory of it was still warm in 
 her heart. 
 
 At Miss Gilmer's request, Lloyd waited a moment 
 in the vestibule. At first she wished that Miss 
 Gilmer had not detained her. She wanted to go 
 on with Allison, who had her by the arm. After- 
 ward, however, she was glad of the waiting. It 
 gave her an opportunity to meet the venerable 
 bishop. 
 
 " So you are going home to-morrow for the holi- 
 days," he said, genially, as he held out his hand. 
 " Godspeed, daughter. May you keep the White 
 Feast with joy." 
 
 It seemed to Lloyd that that "Godspeed" fol- 
 lowed her like a benediction.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND 
 
 O Warwick Hall, dear Warwick Hall, 
 Thy happy hours we'll oft recall I 
 No time or change can break thy tie, 
 Though for awhile we say good-bye 
 Good-bye! Good-bye!" 
 
 AMID a flutter of handkerchiefs and a babel of 
 parting cries, each 'bus-load of girls departed from 
 the Hall to the station singing the farewell song 
 of the school. 
 
 A dozen times on the way home Allison, hum- 
 ming it unconsciously, found the rest of the party 
 joining in. It was an uneventful journey, but a 
 merry one to the five girls, travelling for the first 
 time without a chaperon. For the first few hours 
 they had the observation car to themselves. Even 
 the porter mysteriously disappeared. 
 
 " He's curled up asleep somewhere, rest his soul," 
 said Gay, when she had rung for him several times. 
 
 "All the better," answered Kitty. "We don't 
 really need the table, and it's nice to have him out 
 138
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND 139 
 
 of the way. This is as good as travelling in a pri- 
 vate car. We can ' stand on our head in our little 
 trundle-bed, and nobody nigh to hinder.' Oh, girls, 
 I'm so crazy glad that we're on our way home that 
 I'm positively obliged to do something to let off 
 steam. I've exhausted my vocabulary trying to ex- 
 press my delight, so there's nothing left but to 
 howl." 
 
 " Or to wriggle," suggested Gay. " Why not 
 try facial expression ? How is this for transcendent 
 joy?" 
 
 The grotesque smile which she turned upon them 
 was so ridiculous that they screamed with laughter. 
 
 " Oh, Gay, do stop ! " begged Betty. " You're 
 as bad as a comic valentine." 
 
 " I'd like to see you do any better," retorted Gay. 
 
 " Let's all try," suggested Kitty. " Line up in 
 front of this mirror, girls. Now all look pleasant, 
 please. Now let your smiles express rapture. Now, 
 frenzied delight ! " 
 
 Fascinated by their own ugliness, the five girls 
 stood in a row distorting their pretty faces with 
 hideous grins and grimaces until they were weak 
 from laughing. The banging of the car door sent 
 them scuttling into their seats. A portly old gen- 
 tleman passed through the car to the rear platform,
 
 I4O LITTLE^ COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 and, slamming the door behind him, stood looking 
 down the rapidly vanishing track. Evidently it 
 was too breezy a view-point for the old gentleman, 
 even with his coat-collar turned up and hat pulled 
 down to meet his ears, for in a moment he came in 
 and passed back to his seat in a forward car. The 
 girls sat demurely looking out of the windows until 
 he was gone, then they faced each other, giggling. 
 
 " Suppose he had caught us making those idiotic 
 faces," exclaimed Allison. " He would have taken 
 us for a lot of escaped lunatics." 
 
 " No, he wouldn't," insisted Gay. " He was a 
 real benevolent-looking old fellow, the kind that 
 understands young people, and he'd know that it 
 was just that Christmas has gone to our heads, and 
 made us a little flighty. I'm sure that his name 
 is James, and that he has six old maid daughters. 
 He lives out West, and he's taking home a trunk 
 full of presents for them." 
 
 " Let's guess what he has for them," said Kitty. 
 " I'll say that the oldest one is named Emmaline, 
 and he is taking her a squirrel fur muff." 
 
 " Arid the next one is Agnes Dorothea," said 
 Betty, taking her turn, as if it were a game. " She's 
 the delicate one of the family, and a sort of invalid. 
 So he bought her a lavender shoulder shawl that
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND 14! 
 
 caught his fatherly eye in a show window, because 
 it was so soft and fluffy. But it will shrink and 
 fade the first time it is washed till Agnes Dorothea 
 will look like a homeless cat if she wears it. Still 
 she will persist in putting it on because dear father 
 brought it to her from Washington." 
 
 " He'd certainly think you all were crazy if he 
 could heah yoah remah'ks," laughed Lloyd. 
 
 " Speaking of shawls," cried Gay, " that reminds 
 me of that rainbow shawl in my bag. I haven't 
 taken a stitch in it since we started, and I intended 
 to knit all the way home. I simply have to, if I'm 
 to get it done in time." 
 
 Taking out the square of linen in which the 
 fleecy zephyr was wrapped, she settled herself by 
 the rear window in a big arm-chair, with her feet 
 drawn up under her, and fell to work with all her 
 might. 
 
 " It's so nice and cosy to have the car all to our- 
 selves," sighed Allison, stretching out luxuriously 
 on the sofa. Betty, bending over her embroidery, 
 smiled tenderly at a picture that her memory showed 
 her just then. She was comparing this journey 
 with the first one she had ever taken. And she 
 saw in her thoughts a little brown-eyed girl of 
 eleven, setting forth on her first venture into the
 
 142 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 wide world, with a sunbonnet tied over her curls, 
 and an old-fashioned covered basket on her arm. 
 What a dread undertaking that journey had been 
 from the Cuckoo's Nest to the House Beautiful. 
 She remembered how frightened she was, and how 
 she had studied the picture of Red Ridinghood, 
 printed in colours on the border of her handker- 
 chief, until she was afraid to speak even to the 
 conductor. She saw a possible wolf in every 
 stranger. 
 
 Somehow her thoughts kept going back to that 
 time, even in the midst of Gay's most amusing non- 
 sense, and Kitty's brightest repartee. Even when 
 Allison began to sing " O Warwick Hall," and 
 she chimed in with the others, " Dear Warwick 
 Hall," she was not thinking of school, but of the 
 Cuckoo's Nest, and Davy, and the old weather- 
 beaten meeting-house, in whose window she had 
 passed so many summer afternoons, reading the 
 musty dog-eared books she found in the little red 
 bookcase. 
 
 " What are you smiling about, Betty, all to yoah- 
 self ? " asked Lloyd. " You look as if you are a 
 thousand miles away." 
 
 Betty glanced up with a little start. " Oh, I was 
 just thinking about the Cuckoo's Nest, and wishing
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND 143 
 
 that I could see Davy's face when they open the 
 Christmas box I sent. There are only trifles in it, 
 but the box will mean a lot to them, for Cousin 
 Hetty never has time to make anything of Christ- 
 mas." 
 
 Lloyd sat up with a sudden exclamation. " Oh, 
 Betty, I beg yoah pah'don. There's a lettah for 
 you in my bag from some of them that I forgot to 
 give you. Hawkins came up with it just as we 
 drove off, and there was so much excitement and 
 confusion I nevah thought of it again till this min- 
 ute. I'm mighty sorry I forgot." 
 
 " It doesn't make any difference," Betty assured 
 her. " Good news can afford to wait, and, if it's 
 bad news, it would have spoiled all the first part 
 of this trip." 
 
 She tore open the envelope arid glanced down 
 the page. Lloyd, looking up, saw a distressed ex- 
 pression cross her face and the brown eyes fill with 
 tears. 
 
 " Oh, it's poor little Davy that's in trouble," said 
 Betty, answering Lloyd's anxious question. " He 
 had his leg badly hurt last week, broken in two 
 places. He was riding one of those heavy old farm 
 horses, hurrying home to get out of a storm. Go- 
 ing down a steep, slippery hill, it stumbled and fell
 
 144 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 on him. He'll have to lie in bed for weeks, with 
 his knee in plaster, and he's so tired of it already, 
 and so lonesome. Nobody has any time to sit with 
 him. I know how it is. I was sick myself once 
 at the Cuckoo's Nest. Oh, I'd give anything if I 
 could spend my vacation there with him." 
 
 "And give up all your good times at home?" 
 cried Kitty. " He surely couldn't expect such a 
 sacrifice as that." 
 
 " But it wouldn't be any sacrifice. Not a mite ! 
 I haven't seen him for such a long time, and I'd 
 love to go. He used to be the dearest little fellow, 
 never out of my sight a moment during the day. 
 They used to call him ' Betty's shadow.' " 
 
 " Why don't you go if you wish it so much ? " 
 was on the tip of Gay's tongue, but she stopped 
 the question just before it slipped off, remembering 
 Betty's dependence on her godmother. Kitty had 
 told her all about it one time. Naturally she 
 wouldn't want to ask for the money, even for such 
 a short journey, when so much was being spent to 
 keep her at school with Lloyd; and naturally she 
 would not want to ask to leave Locust at* Christmas, 
 when that was the time of all the year when she 
 could be of service, and in many ways add greatly 
 to the pleasure of the entire household.
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND 145 
 
 The nonsense stopped for a few minutes. No one 
 knew what to say to comfort Betty, although they 
 were genuinely sorry, and glanced from time to 
 time at the brown head turned away from them 
 toward the window. She was looking at the flying 
 landscape through a blur of tears, recalling the 
 way little Davy's dimpled fingers had clung to hers, 
 his chubby feet followed her. Of course he was 
 much larger and older, she told herself, not at all 
 like the little fellow she had left so long ago. He 
 was big enough to stand pain now, and probably 
 the worst of his suffering was over. Still, she saw 
 only a solemn baby face when she pictured him, 
 and heard only the lisping voice, saying as he used 
 to say when stumped toe or bruised finger brought 
 the tears : " It hurth your Davy boy. Tie a wag 
 on it, Betty." How he had loved her stories! 
 What a pleasure they would be to him now in the 
 long days he would be forced to spend in bed. 
 
 Suddenly conscious of the silence around her, 
 Betty turned, realizing that her depression had cast 
 a shadow on the spirits of all the rest. 
 
 " Don't think about my bad news any more," 
 she said, brightly. " It probably isn't half as bad 
 as I have been picturing it. My imagination always 
 runs away with me. It isn't Davy the baby that's
 
 146 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 had such an awful accident. It was that thought 
 that hurt me so at first. I keep forgetting that 
 it's five years since I left there. I'm going to drop 
 him a postal card at the next station. I can write 
 to him every day, and make a sort of game of the 
 letters with riddles and suggestions of things for 
 him to do, and that will help the time pass." 
 
 " First call to dinnah in the dinah," called a 
 coloured waiter, passing through the car in white 
 jacket and apron. 
 
 " Now we'll have to stop all our foolishness," 
 said Allison, sedately, as she rose to lead the way 
 to the dining-car. They followed as decorously as 
 grandmothers, each realizing the responsibility that 
 devolved on her, since they were travelling without 
 a chaperon. 
 
 To be sure, Gay choked on an olive when Kitty 
 made some wicked remark about the fussy old 
 woman across the aisle, who wouldn't be pleased 
 with anything the waiter brought her; and it was 
 too much for their gravity when an excessively 
 dignified man at the next table, who had been star- 
 ing at the wall like a wooden Indian, suddenly 
 sneezed so violently that his eye-glasses dropped 
 into his soup with a splash. 
 
 Otherwise they were models of propriety, and
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND \tf 
 
 more than one head turned to look at the bright 
 girlish faces, and smile at the keen, unspoiled en- 
 joyment which they evidently found in life and in 
 each other. 
 
 They did not stay long in the observation-car 
 when they went back to it after dinner. Other 
 people had come in, and it was not so attractive 
 as when they occupied it alone. The lamps had 
 been lighted so early that short December day that 
 it seemed much later than it really was, and they 
 were all tired. At nine o'clock, when they went to 
 their berths in the forward end of the car, they 
 found several sections already made up for the 
 night, and the porter was moving on down toward 
 theirs. 
 
 The fussy old woman, who had been so hard to 
 please at the table, came squeezing her way through 
 the valises that blocked the aisle, and took posses- 
 sion of the section opposite Betty and Lloyd. 
 
 " Oh, my country ! " whispered Lloyd. " I won- 
 dah if she's going to keep up that grumbling and 
 scolding all night. I'm glad that I am not that 
 poah henpecked maid of hers. She certainly makes 
 life misahable for her." 
 
 It was nearly two hours before Jenkins, the long- 
 suffering maid, succeeded in settling her mistress
 
 148 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 to her satisfaction behind the curtains of her berth. 
 The girls made no attempt to get into the dressing- 
 room until the little comedy was over. They 
 laughed until they were hysterical over each scene 
 as it occurred. A comedy in three acts, Betty called 
 it the losing of the cold-cream bottle and the 
 finding of same in madam's overshoe. The unavail- 
 ing search for a certain black silk handkerchief in 
 which madam was wont to tie her head up in of 
 nights, and the substitution of a towel instead, which 
 the porter obligingly brought. 
 
 Next there was a supposed case of poisoning, 
 Jenkins in her trepidation having administered three 
 pink pellets from a bottle instead of two white ones 
 from a box. Five minutes' reign of terror after 
 that mistake brought the poor maid to a witless 
 state that left her almost helpless. Various trips 
 were made to the dressing-room, at which times 
 the old lady's face was massaged, her grizzly hair 
 rolled on crimping-pins, and her shoulders rubbed 
 with an evil-smelling liniment which permeated the 
 whole car. She seemed as oblivious to the presence 
 of the other passengers as if she were on a desert 
 island, and, being somewhat deaf, made Jenkins 
 repeat her timid replies louder and louder until they 
 were almost screaming at each other.
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND 149 
 
 Every one on the car was smiling 1 broa'dly when 
 at last she subsided behind the curtains. The smiles 
 grew to audible mirth when she confided in a loud 
 voice to Jenkins, stowed away in the berth above 
 her, that she hoped to goodness nobody on board 
 would snore and keep her awake. 
 
 Jenkins's answer, floating tremulously down, 
 convulsed the sleepy girls : " Hi 'ope not, ma'am. 
 Hit's a bad 'abit, ma'am, halmost, you might say, 
 han haffliction." 
 
 "What?" came in a thunderous voice from the 
 lower berth, and Jenkins, craning her head turtle- 
 wise over the edge of her bed, called back in a 
 tremulous squeak : " Hi honly said as 'ow hit were 
 a bad 'abit, ma'am ! " 
 
 " Hump! " was the answer. " See that you don't 
 do it yourself. I've got my umbrella here ready to 
 punch you if you do." 
 
 A titter ran from seat to seat. The girls, unable 
 to stifle their amusement any longer, seized their 
 bags and hurried down the aisle to the dressing- 
 room, where, under cover of the rattle of the train, 
 they could laugh as freely as they pleased. 
 
 When Lloyd and Betty stole back to their berths 
 a few minutes later, they looked at each other with 
 an amused smile. From the opposite section came
 
 I5O LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 an unmistakable sound, long-drawn and penetrating 
 as a cross-cut saw. Madam was evidently asleep. 
 Betty giggled, as from Jenkins's perch came a gentle 
 echo. 
 
 " * Hi homy said as 'ow hit were a bad 'abit, 
 ma'am/ " whispered Lloyd. " Wouldn't you love 
 to jab the old lady herself with an umbrella ? " 
 
 Gay, in the dressing-room, was carefully count- 
 ing over her toilet articles, as she put them back 
 into her bag. " Soap-box, comb, nail-file, tooth- 
 powder I haven't lost a thing this trip, Allison. 
 I'm beginning to feel proud of myself. Here's my 
 watch and here's my tickets, buttoned up in this 
 pocket. Mamma had it made on purpose, so in 
 case of a wreck at night I'd have them on me. She 
 patted the pocket sewed securely in the dark blue 
 silk robe she wore, made in loose kimono fash- 
 ion. 
 
 " Now I'm all ready," she added, dropping her 
 shoes into her bag and closing it. In her soft Indian 
 moccasins, beaded like a squaw's, she executed a 
 little heel and toe dance in the narrow passage out- 
 side, while she waited for Allison to gather up her 
 clothes and follow. She thought every one else 
 was in bed, and when suddenly the outside door 
 opened and she heard some one coming in from the
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND !$! 
 
 next car, she flew down the aisle like a frightened 
 rabbit. 
 
 It was only a brakeman who stood just inside 
 the door a moment with his lantern, and then went 
 out again. All the lights had been turned down in 
 the car, and Gay stumbled several times over shoes 
 and valises protruding in the aisle. But finally, 
 with a bound, she made her escape, as she supposed, 
 from whoever it was that had caught her dancing 
 in her moccasins in the passage. 
 
 She gave a headlong dive into her berth. Just 
 then the car lurched forward, sending her bag bang- 
 ing against the window, but she did not loosen her 
 hold of it, and she was still clinging to it five min- 
 utes later. 
 
 For, with a scream of terror, she rolled out of 
 the berth far faster than she had rolled in. It was 
 madam's fat body that writhed under her, and her 
 stern voice that yelled "Murder! murder!" in a 
 voice calculated to wake the dead. 
 
 "'Elp! 'elp!" screamed Jenkins from the upper 
 berth, afraid to look out between the curtains, but 
 bravely pushing the button of the porter's bell till 
 some one, wakened by the cries and persistent ring- 
 ing, wildly called " Fire! " 
 
 " It's train robbahs ! " gasped Lloyd, sitting up.
 
 I$2 LITTLE COLONEDS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 Little cold shivers ran up and down her back, but 
 she was conscious of a pleasant thrill of excitement. 
 Heads were thrust out all up and down the aisle. 
 The bell and the cries of murder and 'elp never 
 stopped until the porter and Pullman conductor 
 came running to the rescue. 
 
 But there was nothing for them to see. At the 
 first yell, Gay had tumbled hastily out, still clinging 
 to her bag. Before the old lady had sufficiently 
 recovered from her surprise enough to wonder what 
 sort of a wild beast had pounced in upon her, Gay 
 was safe in her own berth, drawn up in a knot, and 
 trembling behind her closely buttoned curtains. 
 Her heart beat so loud that she thought it would 
 certainly betray her. 
 
 " You must have had the nightmare," said the 
 conductor, politely, trying not to smile as the angry 
 face, under its towel turban, glared out at him. 
 
 " Nightmare! " blazed the irate old lady. " I'm 
 no fool. Don't you suppose that I know when I'm 
 hit? I tell you somebody was trying to sandbag 
 me. I thought a Saratoga trunk had fallen in on 
 me. It's your business to take care of passengers 
 on this train, arid I intend to hold the company 
 responsible. I shall certainly sue the railroad for 
 this shock to my nervous system as soon as I get
 
 "'I TELL YOU SOMEBODY WAS TRYING TO SANDBAG ME
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND 1 53 
 
 home. I have a weak heart and I can't stand such 
 performances as this." 
 
 It took a long time to pacify her. Gay lay in her 
 berth, shaking first with fright and then with laugh- 
 ter. She could not go to sleep without sharing her 
 secret with the other girls, but she was afraid to 
 trust herself to speak. She had grown almost hys- 
 terical over the affair. Finally she crept in beside 
 Lloyd to whisper, brokenly : " / am the nightmare 
 that sandbagged the old lady. / am the Saratoga 
 trunk that fell on her. Oh, Lloyd, I'll never brag 
 again. I had just told Allison I hadn't lost a single 
 thing this trip, and then I turned around and lost 
 myself. I got into the wrong berth. Oh ! oh ! It 
 was so funny to see her, all done up in that towel. 
 It'll kill me if I can't stop laughing." 
 
 She crept back to her own side of the aisle again, 
 and Lloyd got up to repeat it to Betty and Allison, 
 who passed it on to Kitty. It was nearly half an 
 hour before they stopped giggling over it, and then 
 Kitty started them all afresh by leaning out to say, 
 in a stage whisper, as a certain duet was renewed 
 by Jenkins and her mistress, " * Hi honly said as 
 'ow hit were a bad 'abit.' " 
 
 It was snowing next morning, just a few flakes 
 against the window-pane, as they sat in the dining-
 
 154 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 car at breakfast, but the landscape grew whiter as 
 they whirled on toward home. 
 
 " Just as it ought to be for Christmas," declared 
 Allison. " Oh, The Beeches will look so lovely in 
 the snow, and the big log fire will seem so good, 
 I can hardly wait to get there ! " 
 
 " I know just how it's all going to be," ex- 
 claimed Kitty, wriggling impatiently in her seat. 
 " It will be this way, Gay. They'll all be down 
 at the station to meet us, mother and little Elise 
 and Uncle Harry and his dog. Aunt Allison will 
 probably be there, too, and grandmother, if she 
 feels well enough. And old black fat Butler will 
 be standing by the baggage-room door with his 
 wheelbarrow, waiting to take our trunks. And 
 we'll all talk at once. Everybody along the road 
 will be calling ' Howdy ! ' to us, and at the post- 
 office Miss Mattie will come out to shake hands with 
 us, and tell us how glad she is to see us back. Then 
 it'll be just a step, past the church and the manse 
 and the Bakewell cottage, and we'll turn in at The 
 Beeches, and the fun will begin." 
 
 Betty turned to Gay. " That doesn't sound very 
 exciting or especially interesting to a stranger, but, 
 oh, Gay, the Valley is so dear when you once get 
 to know it. And when you go back, you feel almost
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND 1 55 
 
 as if everybody were related to you, they're all 
 so friendly and cordial and glad to welcome you 
 home." 
 
 Even to impatient schoolgirls homeward bound, 
 the journey's end comes at last, so by nightfall it 
 all happened just as Kitty had predicted. Such 
 a royal welcome awaited Gay that she felt drawn 
 into the midst of things from the moment she 
 stepped from the car. 
 
 " You're right, Betty," she whispered as she left 
 her. " It is a dear Valley, and I feel already as if 
 I belong here." 
 
 The two groups separated when the checks had 
 been sorted out and the baggage disposed of. Then, 
 still laughing and talking, Kitty led one on its merry 
 way toward The Beeches, and the other whirled 
 rapidly away in the carriage toward the lights of 
 Locust.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 A PICNIC IN THE SNOW 
 
 "WHAT a good gray day this is!" exclaimed 
 Betty next morning, turning from the window to 
 look around the cheerful breakfast-room, all aglow 
 with an open wood-fire. " It's so bleak outside that 
 there is no temptation to go gadding, and so cosy 
 indoors that we'll be glad of the chance to stay at 
 home and finish tying up our Christmas pack- 
 ages." 
 
 " Yes," assented Lloyd, who, having finished her 
 breakfast, was standing on the hearth-rug, her back 
 to the fire and her hands clasped behind her. 
 " And for once I intend to have mine all ready 
 the day befoah, so I need not be rushed up to the 
 last minute. For that reason I am glad that mothah 
 had to take the early train to town this mawning, 
 to finish her shopping. If she'd been at home, I 
 should have talked all the time, without accomplish- 
 ing a thing." 
 
 til
 
 A PICNIC IN THE SNOW \tf 
 
 " I think your tissue-paper and ribbon was put 
 into my trunk," said Betty, drumming idly on the 
 window-pane. " I'll go and unpack it in a minute, 
 and have it off my mind, as soon as I see who this 
 is coming up the avenue." 
 
 A tall young fellow had turned in at the gate, 
 and was striding along toward the house as if in 
 a great hurry. 
 
 " It's Rob Moore ! " she exclaimed, in surprise. 
 " I thought he wasn't coming home until Christmas 
 eve." 
 
 " So did I," answered Lloyd, crossing the room 
 to look over Betty's shoulder. " I'll beat you to 
 the front doah, Betty." 
 
 There was a wild dash through the hall. Both 
 slim figures bounced against the door at the same 
 instant. There was a laughing scuffle over the latch, 
 and then the two girls stood arm in arm between 
 the white pillars of the porch, gaily calling a greet- 
 ing. 
 
 Rob waved a pair of skates in reply, and quick- 
 ened his stride until he came within speaking dis- 
 tance. One would have thought from his greeting 
 that they had seen each other only the day before. 
 Rob never wasted time on formalities. 
 
 " Hurry up, girls ! Get your skates. The ice
 
 1 58 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 is fine on the creek, and there's a crowd waiting 
 for us down at the depot." 
 
 "Who?" demanded Lloyd. 
 
 " Oh, the Maclntyre boys and the Walton girls 
 and that little red-headed thing that they brought 
 home from school with them. Kitty's going to 
 have a picnic on the creek bank for her." 
 
 " A picnic in Decembah ! " ejaculated Lloyd. 
 
 " That's what she said," Rob answered, clicking 
 his skates together as he followed the girls into the 
 house. " They telephoned over to me to hustle up 
 here and get you girls. They're on their way to 
 the station now. We're to meet them in the wait- 
 ing-room." 
 
 " They should have let us know soonah," began 
 Lloyd, " so that we could have had a lunch ready. 
 There'll be nothing cooked to take this time of day." 
 
 " They didn't know it themselves," he inter- 
 rupted. " Kitty proposed it at the breakfast-table, 
 and they just grabbed up whatever they could get 
 their hands on and started off." 
 
 " We have so much to do to-day," said Betty. 
 " I don't see how we can ever get through if we stop 
 for this." 
 
 " Let everything slide ! " begged Rob. " Do your 
 work to-morrow. This will be lots of fun. The
 
 A PICNIC IN THE SNOW 159 
 
 ice may not last more than a day or so, and the 
 Maclntyre boys are not going to be out here all 
 vacation." 
 
 " I suppose we could tie up those packages to- 
 night," said Lloyd, with an inquiring look at Betty. 
 
 " Of course," Rob answered for her. " And I'll 
 help you with anything you have to do. Come on." 
 
 " Well, then, you run out to the kitchen and ask 
 Aunt Cindy to give you something for a lunch, 
 anything in sight, and we'll get ready while Mom 
 Beck finds our skates." 
 
 Rob rubbed his ears apprehensively. " I'd as 
 soon beard the lion in his den as Aunt Cindy in her 
 kitchen. She's never forgiven my early thefts." 
 
 " Go on, goosey," laughed Lloyd. " Don't you 
 know that since you're * growed up,' as Aunt Cindy 
 says, she swears by you? I heard her tell Mom 
 Beck last night she reckoned she'd have to make 
 a batch of little sugah hah't cakes right away, for 
 Mistah Rob would be coming prowling round her 
 cooky jah," 
 
 " Am I growed up? " asked Rob gravely, throw- 
 ing back his shoulders and looking into the mirror 
 at the tall reflection it showed him. 
 
 "You are in inches and ells," laughed Lloyd, 
 " but you're not always six feet tall in yoah actions."
 
 160 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 " It's only when I am in your society that I ap- 
 pear so juvenile," retorted Rob. " When I'm away 
 at school with the other fellows, I feel and act as 
 old as Daddy, but when I'm back home, where you 
 all seem to expect me to be a kid, I naturally adjust 
 myself to that role just to be companionable and 
 obliging. You would be afraid of me if I were 
 to turn out my whiskers and stand back on my 
 dignity. You know you would." 
 
 "Don't try it, Bobby," advised Lloyd. "It 
 wouldn't be becoming. Trot out to Aunt Cindy 
 and get the lunch. That's a good little man. We'll 
 be ready in just a few minutes." 
 
 Even in her baby days, Lloyd had been patroniz- 
 ing at times to her good-natured playmate, order- 
 ing him about with a princess-like right that always 
 seemed part of the game. So now he laughingly 
 shrugged his shoulders and started to the kitchen, 
 while Lloyd followed Betty up-stairs to change her 
 slippers for heavy-soled walking-boots. 
 
 A few minutes later the three were hurrying 
 down the avenue to the gate, under the bare wind- 
 swept branches of the locusts. 
 
 " Aunt Cindy had disappeared temporarily," said 
 Rob. " There wasn't a soul in the kitchen, so I 
 rummaged around till I found this old basket, and
 
 A PICNIC IN THE SNOW l6l 
 
 filled it with a little of everything in sight. It is 
 a long way to the creek. We'll be ready to eat 
 nails by the time we tramp over there in this snappy 
 weather." 
 
 " It is snappy," agreed Lloyd. " Betty, yoah 
 cheeks are as red as fiah." 
 
 The rosy face under the brown tam-o'-shanter 
 smiled back at her. " So are yours. Aren't they, 
 Rob? They are as red as her coat." 
 
 " Hello ! " exclaimed Rob, noticing for the first 
 time the long red coat that Lloyd wore. " That's 
 something new, isn't it? I thought you looked 
 different, but I couldn't tell exactly what it was. 
 That's a stunner, sure enough, Princess. It sort 
 of livens up the landscape." 
 
 " I'm glad you like it," laughed Lloyd, " but I 
 don't believe you would have seen it at all if Betty 
 hadn't called yoah attention to it. You'll nevah 
 get on in society, Bobby, if you don't learn to notice 
 things. You'll miss all the chances most boys take 
 advantage of to pay compliments and make pretty 
 little speeches." 
 
 Rob scowled. " You know I don't go in for that 
 sort of stuff." 
 
 " But you ought to," persisted Lloyd, who was 
 in a perverse mood. " I considah it my duty to take
 
 1 62 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 you in hand and teach you. You may practise on 
 Betty and me. Now we've been talking to Gay all 
 term about our friends in Lloydsboro Valley, and 
 naturally we want everybody to put their best foot 
 foremost and show off their prettiest. Malcolm 
 and Keith will leave a charming impression of them- 
 selves, because they will make her feel in such an 
 easy graceful way that she has made that sawt of 
 an impression on them. If she wears an especially 
 pretty dress, or says an especially bright thing, or 
 plays unusually well, they will notice it in some 
 way so that she will know that they noticed it, and 
 that they were pleased. Naturally that will please 
 her, and she will like them bettah for it." 
 
 Rob faced her with a whimsical expression. 
 " Look here, Lloyd Sherman, I've played every kind 
 of a game that you've asked me to ever since I 
 learned to walk. I've been your man Friday when 
 you wanted to be Robinson Crusoe, and played 
 B'r Fox to your B'r Rabbit. You've scalped me 
 and buried me and dug me up. You've made 
 me be Pharaoh with the ten plagues of Egypt, or 
 a Christian martyr thrown to the wild beasts, just 
 as it pleased your fancy. I've even played dolls 
 with you week at a time, but I swear I draw the 
 line at this. I'll do anything in reason to help en-
 
 A PICNIC IN THE SNOW 163 
 
 tertain your chum, ride or dance or skate or get 
 up private theatricals, but I'll iwt make a ninny 
 of myself trying to be flowery and get off compli- 
 mentary speeches. It comes natural to some people, 
 but I'm not built that way. I'd be as awkward at 
 it as a fish out of water." 
 
 Lloyd turned her head with a despairing gesture. 
 " Oh, Rob, you're hopeless ! You don't undahstand 
 at all ! Nobody wants you to be flowery, and no- 
 body likes flat-footed, out-and-out compliments. 
 They're not nice at all. I just meant well I 
 scarcely know what I did mean, but you know how 
 Malcolm does. It isn't that he says a thing in so 
 many words, but he has a way of somehow making 
 you feel that he has noticed nice things about you, 
 and that he is thinking compliments." 
 
 " Gee whiz ! " exclaimed Rob, in a teasing tone. 
 " Say that again, won't you please, and say it 
 slowly, so that I can take it all in. Do I get the 
 thought ? To be agreeable one must not say things, 
 but must cultivate an air of having noticed that you 
 are agreeable, and stand off and think compliments 
 so hard that you can actually feel them flying 
 through the air. Is that your idea? " 
 
 " Oh, Rob! Stop your teasing."
 
 1 64 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 11 Well, that is what you said, or words to that 
 effect. Didn't she, Betty?" 
 
 The brown eyes flashed an amused smile at him. 
 They walked along in silence for a few minutes, 
 then he said, humbly, but with a twinkle in his eye 
 which boded mischief: "Well, I'll do the best I 
 can to please you, Lloyd. I'll watch Malcolm till 
 I get the hang of it, then I'll stand off and think 
 compliments about your friend till her ears burn 
 and she is duly impressed. Grandfather is always 
 saying, ' Who does the best his circumstance allows, 
 does nobly. Angels could do no more.' " 
 
 " I wish I had never mentioned the subject," 
 pouted Lloyd, as they walked on down the frozen 
 pike. " I simply meant to give you a little advice 
 for yoah own good, and you've gone and made a 
 joke of it. I am suah you'll say or do something 
 befoah the mawning is ovah that will make Gay 
 think you are perfectly dreadful." 
 
 Rob only laughed in answer, leaving her to infer 
 that she had good reason for her fears. As they 
 passed the only store which the Valley boasted, 
 Kitty came rushing out, a bright new tin saucepan 
 dangling at her side like a drum. It was tied by 
 a piece of twine, and she was beating a tattoo upon
 
 A PICNIC IN THE SNOW 165 
 
 it with a long-handled iron spoon. Keith followed, 
 his overcoat pockets bulging with parcels. 
 
 " Are you playing Santa Claus this early ? " cried 
 Betty, as he hurried across to shake hands with 
 them. 
 
 " No; Kitty decided that no social function in 
 the woods was properly a picnic without a fire and 
 some kind of a mess to cook. So we stopped at 
 the store, and she's loaded me down with stuff for 
 fudge. Malcolm and the girls are on ahead in the 
 waiting-room." 
 
 " Where's Ranald ? " asked Lloyd, as they crossed 
 the railroad track and walked along the platform 
 toward the door of the station. 
 
 " He's gone hunting with John Baylor, the boy 
 he brought home from school with him," answered 
 Kitty. " We can't get him within a stone's throw 
 of Gay. I teased him so unmercifully in my letters 
 about the girl who had asked for his picture to put 
 in her group of heroes that he won't even look in 
 her direction." 
 
 As Lloyd greeted Malcolm, whom she had not 
 seen since the close of the summer vacation, and 
 then stood talking with him while Allison intro- 
 duced Rob to her guest, she was conscious that 
 Rob was watching every motion, and making note
 
 1 66 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 of it, to tease her afterward. A few moments later, 
 when they were all discussing a choice of places 
 for the picnic-grounds, he edged over to her. 
 
 " Now I understand what you mean," he said, in 
 a low voice. " Malcolm didn't say anything about 
 that red coat. He just gave a sort of quick, pleased 
 glance at it, as if it had hit him hard, and made 
 some gallant speech about a Kentucky cardinal. I 
 tried my best to follow suit. So when I was intro- 
 duced, I gave the same kind of a glad start when 
 I saw her hair, and was about to make a similar 
 reference to a Texas redbird, when my courage 
 failed me. So I just stood off and fired the 
 name at her in thought till I'm sure she under- 
 stood." 
 
 " You mean thing! " exclaimed Lloyd, under her 
 breath. " Her hair isn't red. It's just a deep, rich, 
 bronzy auburn, and perfectly lovely. I do wish 
 I'd nevah said anything. Now you'll not act nat- 
 ural, and you won't like each othah as I had hoped 
 you would." 
 
 A gayer picnic party never started down the 
 pike than the one that went laughing along the 
 road that winter morning, under barbed-wire fences, 
 through pasture gates, across bare woodlands, and 
 over frozen corn-fields. It was a still gray morning,
 
 A PICNIC IN THE SNOW 167 
 
 with the chill of snow in the air, and presently the 
 snow began to fall in big feathery flakes. 
 
 Gay was delighted. She held up her face to let 
 the cold, star-shaped crystals settle on it. She 
 caught them on her sleeve to marvel over their airy 
 beauty. " It's like frozen thistle-down ! " she cried. 
 " I hope it will snow all day and all night until 
 everything is covered. I never saw a white Christ- 
 mas." 
 
 " This will stop the skating," said Allison, " un- 
 less we had a broom to sweep the ice as it falls." 
 
 Rob offered to go back for one, but they were 
 so far on their way they all protested it would not 
 be worth while. 
 
 "How much farthah is it?" asked Lloyd, pres- 
 ently. For the last half-mile she had had nothing 
 to say, and had fallen behind the others. 
 
 " I'm so tiahed I can hardly take another step." 
 
 Rob looked at her curiously. It seemed strange 
 for Lloyd to admit that she was tired. He had 
 known her to tramp nearly all day after nuts, and 
 then be ready for a horseback ride afterward. 
 
 " We'll stop just over this hill," he replied. 
 " There's a good place to camp. Here ! Catch hold 
 of my skate-strap, and I'll help pull you up." 
 
 " It helps some," she said, clinging to the strap
 
 168 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 swung over his shoulder, " but I don't believe I'll 
 evah get ovah this hill." 
 
 " It looks like a grove of Christmas trees ! " cried 
 Gay, as they started down the other side toward 
 the creek. Little cedars from two to five feet high 
 dotted the hillside, and the snow had drifted across 
 them till the branches drooped with the soft white 
 burden. It began blowing faster, and coming down 
 like a thick white sheet between them and the creek. 
 
 Rob, who had often picnicked here on his hunt- 
 ing trips, led the way farther down the hill to a 
 cavelike opening under an overhanging ledge of 
 rocks. 
 
 "This will keep the wind off your backs," he 
 said. " Huddle down here a few minutes until we 
 build a fire. Then you'll be all right." 
 
 Some charred sticks and ashes between two flat 
 rocks, with an old piece of sheet iron laid on top, 
 marked the spot where many meals had been 
 cooked. The boys began at once foraging for fire- 
 wood. There was plenty of it all around, dead 
 limbs and broken twigs, and soon they had a 
 big heap ready to light. 
 
 " Now if somebody can donate a piece of paper 
 to start a blaze, we'll have you warm in a jiffy," 
 said Rob.
 
 A PICNIC IN THE SNOW 1 69 
 
 Keith slapped his pockets. " I haven't a scrap," 
 he declared. " Malcolm, you might be able to spare 
 that bunch of letters you carry around in your 
 pocket. You've read them enough to know them 
 by heart, I should think." 
 
 "Oh, keep still, can't you?" muttered Malcolm, 
 in an aside. " Don't get funny now." 
 
 " See him get red ! " whispered Keith to Betty. 
 " They're from a girl he met at the first college 
 hop last fall. She's older than he is, but he thinks 
 she's the one and only." 
 
 Then he turned to Malcolm 1 again. " You might 
 at least spare the envelopes when it's to keep us 
 from freezing. It would be a big sacrifice, but to 
 save your own blood and kin, you know " 
 
 Malcolm, stole a quick glance at Lloyd, but she 
 was leaning wearily against the ledge of rocks, pay- 
 ing no attention to Keith's remarks. Kitty solved 
 the difficulty by diving into Keith's pockets after 
 the packages, and emptying the brown sugar and 
 chocolate into the saucepan. She handed the wrap- 
 ping-paper and bag to Rob, saying if that was not 
 enough she would scratch the label off the can of 
 evaporated cream. 
 
 Carefully holding his hat over the pile of twigs 
 tc shield it from the wind, Rob applied a match to
 
 I/O LITTLE COLO NEDS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 the paper. It blazed up and caught the wood at 
 once, and in a few moments a comfortable fire was 
 crackling in front of them. Back in the cavelike 
 hollow, under the rocks, the boys found a big, dry 
 log, which other campers had put there for a seat. 
 They rolled it forward toward the fire. Some flat 
 stones were soon heated for the girls to put their 
 feet on, and, warmed and rested, they began to in- 
 vestigate the contents of the baskets. 
 
 "Oh, Rob!" groaned Lloyd. "What a lunch 
 you did pick up for a wintah day! These slabs 
 of cold pumpkin pie would freeze the teeth of a 
 polah beah, and there's nothing else but pickles and 
 cheese and apples and raw eggs." 
 
 " That's fine ! " exclaimed Allison. " We can 
 roast the eggs in the ashes, and I've brought bacon 
 to broil over the fire on switches. And here's 
 crackers and gingersnaps and salmon " 
 
 " And peanuts," added Kitty, " don't forget them. 
 Or the fudge. We will have that ready in a little 
 while." 
 
 " Now what could be jollier than this ? " cried 
 Gay, as she took the long, pointed switch that Rob 
 cut for her, and held a piece of bacon over the fire 
 to broil. " It's a thousand times nicer than a picnic 
 in the summer, when you get so hot, and the mos-
 
 A PICNIC IN THE SNOW IJl 
 
 quitoes and redbugs and spiders swarm all over 
 you." 
 
 Lloyd, with a sigh of relief, saw that Rob was 
 " acting natural " at last, and he and Gay were 
 showing off to mutual advantage. She was enjoy- 
 ing the novel experience so fully that she was in 
 her brightest spirits, and he was talking to her with 
 the familiar ease with which he talked to Lloyd and 
 Betty, even scolding her with brotherly frankness 
 when she dripped bacon grease around too promis- 
 cuously. 
 
 The eggs were saltless, the bacon smoked and 
 black, because, held in the flame as often as against 
 the embers, nearly every piece caught fire and had 
 to be blown out. Smoke blew in their eyes, and 
 the snow fell thicker and thicker. But, with their 
 feet on the hot stones, their backs to the sheltering 
 ledge of rocks, and the fire crackling in front of 
 them, they sang and laughed and ate with a zest 
 which no summer picnic could have inspired. 
 
 No one had remembered to bring a pail for water, 
 and rather than tramp over another hill to a dis- 
 tant spring, they quenched their thirst with hand- 
 fuls of snow. The fudge boiled over, and more 
 than half of it was lost in the ashes. 
 
 " It's a good thing that it did," Allison declared,
 
 1/2 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 tossing the empty salmon box and a bag of peanut 
 shells into the fire. " Ugh ! The mixture we've 
 already eaten is enough to kill us ! I think we ought 
 to start back home now. I'm sure that I heard the 
 one o'clock train whistle." 
 
 But Kitty protested. They hadn't been out half 
 long enough, she said. If the ice on the creek had 
 been free from snow, they would have skated for 
 hours, and she thought as long as that sport had 
 been spoiled, they ought to do something to make 
 up for it. Gay had never gathered any mistletoe. 
 She thought it would be fun for them all to go 
 around by Stone Hollow, and get some off the big 
 trees that grew in the surrounding pastures. 
 
 Lloyd listened to the ready assent of the others 
 with a sinking heart. She had been leaning back 
 against the rocks for some time, taking no part 
 in the conversation. She had grown so tired that 
 she dreaded the long tramp home, and had been 
 vainly wishing that Tarbaby could suddenly ap- 
 pear on the scene, or some one with a conveyance. 
 Even a wheelbarrow or a go-cart would have been 
 welcome. She could not remember that she had 
 ever felt so exhausted before in all her life. 
 
 " But I won't be the one to hang back and spoil 
 every one's fun," she said to herself, " They
 
 A PIC me IN THE SNOW 173 
 
 wouldn't let me go home the shorter way by myself. 
 It would only break up the pah'ty if I proposed it. 
 But I do not see how I can evah drag myself all 
 the way around by Stone Hollow." 
 
 At another time they might have noticed that she 
 lagged behind, that she had little to say, and that 
 she looked white and tired. But Gay, her spirits 
 rising in the wintry air, was in her most rollicking 
 mood. Even Kitty had never known her to say so 
 many funny things or to tell so many amusing ex- 
 periences. She followed on behind with Lloyd, 
 watching admiringly as Gay's bright face was 
 turned first toward Malcolm, then toward Rob, 
 jubilant to see that her guest was captivating them 
 as she did every one else who fell under the charm 
 of her vivacious manner. 
 
 Betty and Allison were on ahead with Keith, 
 keeping a sharp lookout for mistletoe. Lloyd 
 scarcely heard what any one said. She plodded 
 along like one in a dream. It was an effort just 
 to lift -her feet. Only one thing in life seemed de- 
 sirable just then, that was her warm, soft bed at 
 home. If she could only creep into that and shut 
 her tired eyes and lie there, she wouldn't care if 
 she didn't waken for a month. She felt that it
 
 174 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 would be bliss to sleep through Christmas and the 
 entire vacation. 
 
 The long walk came to an end at last. The round- 
 about route through Stone Hollow led them near 
 Locust, and, with their arms full of mistletoe, the 
 merry picnickers parted from Lloyd and Betty at 
 the gate. Gay exclaimed enthusiastically over the 
 beautiful old avenue, leading under the snow-cov- 
 ered locusts to the house, but to Lloyd's relief her 
 invitation to come in was refused. There were a 
 dozen reasons why they could not stop, but they 
 promised to be over early next morning. 
 
 " It has been the very loveliest picnic I ever went 
 to in my whole life," declared Gay, as they turned 
 away. " I'd like to turn around and do it all over 
 again." 
 
 " So would I," echoed Betty, warmly. " I'm not 
 at all tired." 
 
 Lloyd looked at her in vague wonder as they 
 plodded up the avenue. " I don't know what's the 
 mattah with me," she said, " that I couldn't keep 
 up with you all, unless it's true what Miss Gilmer 
 said. The ice is too thin for holiday dissipations, 
 and this picnic was too great a weight for it." 
 
 Betty glanced at her white face anxiously. " Go
 
 A PICNIC IN THE SNOW 175 
 
 and lie down the rest of the afternoon," she said. 
 " I'll tie up your packages." 
 
 " Oh, if you only would ! " exclaimed Lloyd, 
 gratefully. " But it seems too much to ask of any 
 one. Don't tell mothah that I got so woh'n out. 
 I'll be all right by evening." 
 
 " She hasn't come home yet," said Betty, looking 
 ahead of them at the smooth expanse of newly fallen 
 snow. " There isn't a track either of foot or wheel." 
 
 " Then maybe I'll have time for a nap, and be all 
 rested when she comes," said Lloyd. " I don't want 
 her to get any of Miss Gilmer's notions about me."
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 A PROGRESSIVE CHRISTMAS PARTY 
 
 LLOYD stood at the window in the falling twi- 
 light and looked out across the snow. It had been 
 an ideal Christmas Day. She could feel the chill 
 of the white winter world outside as she leaned 
 against the frosty pane, but in her scarlet dress, 
 with the holly berries at her belt and in her hair, 
 she looked the embodiment of Christmas warmth 
 and cheer, and as if no cold could touch her. 
 
 The candles had not yet been lighted, but the 
 room was filled wth the ruddy glow of the big wood 
 fire. It shone warmly on the frames of the por- 
 traits and the tall gilded harp with its shining 
 strings, and gave a burnishing touch to Betty's 
 brown hair, as she stood by the piano, fingering 
 for the hundredth time the presents she had received 
 that day. Her dress of soft white wool suggested, 
 like Lloyd's, the Yule-tide season, for in the belt 
 and shoulder-knots of dull green velvet were caught 
 clusters of mistletoe, the tiny waxen berries gleam- 
 ing like pearls. 
 
 17*
 
 A PROGRESSIVE CHRISTMAS PARTY Iff 
 
 "Everything is so lovely!" she sighed, happily, 
 picking up her camera to admire it once more. It 
 was her godmother's gift, and the thing she had 
 most longed to own. 
 
 She focussed it on Lloyd, who, in her scarlet 
 dress, stood vividly outlined by the firelight against 
 the curtains. " I took three pictures this morning 
 while Rob was here, all snow scenes. The house, 
 the locust avenue, and a group of little darkies run- 
 ning after your grandfather, calling out, ' Chris'- 
 mus gif ', Colonel ! ' I think I'd better carry my 
 things all up to my room," she added, presently. 
 " There'll be so many people here soon, and so 
 much moving around when the hunt begins, that 
 they'll be in the way." 
 
 "You'll need a wheelbarrow to take them in," 
 answered Lloyd, turning from the window to watch 
 her gather them up. " You'd bettah call Walkahi 
 to help you." 
 
 " Santa Claus certainly was good to me," an- 
 swered Betty, picking up Mr. Sherman's gift, a 
 beautiful mother-of-pearl opera-glass. It was like 
 the one he had given Lloyd, except for the differ- 
 ence in monograms. She rubbed it lovingly with 
 her handkerchief, and laid it beside the camera to 
 be carried up-stairs. There were books from the
 
 1/8 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 old Colonel, an ivory photograph- frame exquisitely 
 carved from Lloyd. Dozens of little articles from 
 the girls at school, and remembrances from nearly 
 every friend in the Valley. There was more than 
 her arms could hold, and, bringing a large tray 
 from the dining-room, she made two trips up and 
 down stairs with it before her treasures were all 
 lodged safely in her room. 
 
 Left alone for the first time that busy day, Lloyd 
 stood a moment longer peering out into the snowy 
 twilight, and then crossed the room to the table 
 where her gifts were spread out. There had never 
 been so many for her since her days of dolls and 
 dishes and woolly lambs. The opera-glasses like 
 Betty's were what she had wished for all year. 
 The purse her grandfather had slipped into the toe 
 of her stocking was the prettiest little affair of gray 
 suede and silver she had ever seen. She had 
 thought of a dozen delightful ways to spend the 
 gold eagle which it held. 
 
 The book-rack which Betty had burnt for her, 
 with her initials on each end, was already nearly 
 filled with the books that different friends had sent 
 her. Rob's gift had been a book. So had Miss 
 Allison's and Mrs. MacTntyre's and the old family 
 doctor's. Malcolm had sent a great bunch of Amer-
 
 A PROGRESSIVE CHRISTMAS PARTY 179 
 
 ican Beauties. She drew the vase toward her and 
 buried her face a moment in the delicious fragrance. 
 Then she nibbled a caramel from Keith's box of 
 candy. The rosebud sachet-bag which Gay made 
 lay in the box of handkerchiefs that good old Mom 
 Beck had given her. 
 
 She patted the thick letter from Joyce that told 
 so much of interest about Ware's Wigwam. She 
 intended to have the water-colour sketch of Squaw's 
 Peak framed to take back to school with her. 
 Mary's fat little fingers had braided the Indian 
 basket which came with Joyce's picture, and Jack 
 himself had killed the wildcat, whose skin he sent 
 to make a rug for her room. Lloyd was proud of 
 that skin. As she stood smoothing the tawny fur, 
 the diamond on her finger flashed like fire, and she 
 stood turning her hand this way and that, that the 
 glow of the flames might fall on her new ring. 
 
 It was a beautifully cut stone in an old-fashioned 
 setting, with the word " Amanthis" engraved in- 
 side; but not for a fortune would Lloyd have had 
 the little circlet changed to a modern setting. For 
 just so had it been slipped on her grandmother's 
 finger at her fifteenth Christmas. She had worn it 
 until her daughter's fifteenth Christmas, and now 
 she, in turn, had given it to Lloyd. All day it had
 
 ISO LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 been a constant joy to her. Aside from the pleasure 
 of possessing such a beautiful ring, she had a feel- 
 ing that in its flashing heart was crystallized a 
 triple happiness, the joy of three Christmas days : 
 hers, her mother's, and the beautiful young girl 
 with the June rose in her hair, who smiled down 
 at her from the portrait over the mantel. 
 
 She smiled up at it now in the same confiding 
 way she had done as a child, saying, in a low tone : 
 " And when you played on the harp, it flashed on 
 yoah hand just as it does on mine." Pleased by the 
 fancy, she crossed the room and struck a few chords 
 on the harp, watching the firelight flash on the ring 
 as she did so. 
 
 ' Sing me the songs that to me were so deah, 
 Long, long ago, long ago ! ' " 
 
 There was a step in the hall, and the portieres 
 were pushed aside as the old Colonel came in. She 
 did not stop, for she knew he loved the old song, 
 and that she was helping to bring back his happy 
 past, when he threw himself into a chair before 
 the fire, and sat looking up at Amanthis. 
 
 When she had finished the song, she perched her- 
 self on the arm of his chair, and began ruffling up 
 his white hair with the little hand which wore the 
 diamond.
 
 A PROGRESSIVE CHRISTMAS PARTY l8l 
 
 " Well, has it been a happy day for grandpa's 
 little Colonel ? " he asked, fondly, passing his arm 
 around her. 
 
 " Oh, yes, grandfathah ! Brim full and running 
 ovah with all sawts of lovely surprises. I'm mighty 
 glad I'm living. And the best of it is, although 
 the day is neahly ovah, the fun isn't. There's still 
 so much to come." 
 
 " What kind of a performance is this one on the 
 programme for to-night? " he asked. " Betty said 
 I had to go the whole round, but I haven't been able 
 to gather a very good idea of what's expected of 
 me." 
 
 " It's just a progressive Christmas pah'ty, grand- 
 fathah," she explained, tweaking his ear as she 
 talked. " We couldn't agree about the celebration 
 this yeah. Judge Moore wanted us all to go to 
 Oaklea. Mrs. Walton thought they had the best 
 right on account of their guests, so we arranged 
 it for everybody to take a turn at entahtaining. At 
 five o'clock they're all to come heah for a Christmas 
 hunt. They ought to be coming now, for it's 
 neahly that time. At half-past six we'll have din- 
 nah at Oaklea. At half-past eight we'll go to The 
 Beeches and finish the evening with a general jolli- 
 fication. Then we'll come home by moonlight."
 
 1 82 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 "What is a Christmas hunt?" asked the Colo- 
 nel. " You'll have to enlighten my ignorance." 
 
 " It's a game that mothah and Betty thought of. 
 Betty has worked like a dawg to get the rhymes 
 ready. She scarcely took time to eat yestahday, and 
 she gave up going to the charade pah'ty that Miss 
 Allison gave for Gay in the aftahnoon. It's this 
 way. We've hidden little gifts all ovah the house, 
 from attic to cellah. When the guests come, each 
 one will be given a card with a rhyme on it, like 
 this." 
 
 Slipping from the arm of the chair, she went 
 out into the hall a moment, and came back with 
 a Christmas stocking, trimmed with holly and hung 
 with tiny sleigh-bells. " Little Elise Walton is to 
 distribute the cards from this. Heah is a sample. 
 Miss Allison happens to be on top." 
 
 Adjusting his eye-glasses the Colonel turned so 
 that the firelight shone on the card, and read aloud : 
 
 " Seek where bygone summers 
 Have dropped their roses fair. 
 A little Christmas package 
 Is waiting for you there." 
 
 " Now where would you look if that cah'd were 
 for you?" she demanded. 
 
 " In the conservatory ? " he replied, inquiringly.
 
 A PROGRESSIVE CHRISTMAS PARTY 183 
 
 " That is what Miss Allison will do, probably," 
 answered Lloyd, her cheeks dimpling at the thought. 
 " But aftah awhile she will remembah the old 
 dragon that mothah always keeps full of rose-leaves 
 just as Grandmothah Amanthis did. See?" 
 
 She lifted the lid of a rare old cloisonne rose- 
 jar that had stood on the end of the mantel for a 
 longer time than Lloyd's memory could reach, and 
 took out a small box. Taking off the cover, she 
 disclosed what appeared to be a ripe cherry with a 
 bee clinging to its side. 
 
 " Take the bee in yoah thumb and fingah and 
 pull," she ordered. "See? It's a cunning little 
 tape-measuah for her work-basket." 
 
 A sound of sleigh-bells jingling rapidly toward 
 the house made her clap the lid on the box and drop 
 it hastily back into the rose-jar. 
 
 " There they come ! " she cried, <c and the candles 
 haven't been lighted. Hurry, grandfathah! We 
 can't wait to call Walkah! Throw open the front 
 doah!" 
 
 Flying to the hall closet for the long taper kept 
 for the purpose, she held it an instant toward the 
 blazing logs, and then darting around the room, 
 passed from one candelabrum to another, till every 
 waxen candle was tipped with its star of light. In
 
 184 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 her scarlet dress arid the holly berries, her cheeks 
 glowing and the taper held above her head as she 
 tiptoed to reach the highest one, she looked like 
 some radiant acolyte of Joy. 
 
 Betty, rushing breathlessly down-stairs at the 
 sound of the sleigh-bells, paused an instant between 
 the portieres at sight of her. " Oh, Lloyd ! " she 
 cried, clasping her hands. " You've given me the 
 loveliest idea! I've only got it by the tail feathers 
 now, but I'll find words for it all some day." Then, 
 without waiting to explain, she ran out to the porch, 
 where, between the tall pillars, the old Colonel 
 waited with elaborate courtesy to receive the com- 
 ing guests. 
 
 As the sleighs glided nearer, Betty looked back 
 through the door swung hospitably open to its wid- 
 est, and saw Lloyd hastily thrusting the taper back 
 into the closet. 
 
 " She lighted it at the Christmas fire," thought 
 Betty, struggling with the tail feathers of her lovely 
 idea, in an effort to grasp all that Lloyd's act sug- 
 gested. " And red is the emblem of joy. It might 
 go this way : ' She touched the Christmas tapers 
 with the Yule log's heart of flame.' No, it ought 
 to start,
 
 A PROGRESSIVE CHRISTMAS PARTY 185 
 
 " Lighting the candles of Christmas joy, 
 With a spark from the Yule log's fire." 
 
 But there was no time for making poetry, with 
 so many voices calling " Merry Christmas," and 
 so many outstretched hands grasping hers. In an- 
 other instant the house seemed filled to overflowing, 
 and the dim old mirrors were flashing back from 
 every side one of the gayest scenes the hospitable 
 old mansion had ever known. 
 
 The hunt began almost immediately. As soon 
 as Elise had emptied the stocking of its contents, 
 up-stairs and down-stairs and in my lady's cham- 
 ber went old and young at the bidding of the 
 rhymes. 
 
 " I feel like a ' goosey gander/ sure enough," 
 said Allison presently. "For I've been all over 
 the house, and there's no place left to wander. 
 Where would you go if you had this card ? " 
 
 She thrust hers out toward Gay, who read : 
 
 " Standing with reluctant feet 
 Where Brooks and Little Rivers meet*' 
 
 Gay puzzled over it a moment, and then suggested 
 that she try the library. " I have," answered Alli- 
 son. " Keith found his package in there, behind 
 the picture of a Holland windmill and canal, but
 
 1 86 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 there is nothing else in the room that suggests 
 water that I have been able to find." 
 
 " Who wrote ' Little Rivers ' ? " 
 
 Allison stood thinking a moment, and then cried 
 out : " Well, of course ! Why didn't I think to 
 look among the books ? " Flying down-stairs, she 
 began glancing along the library shelves until she 
 found the book she sought and Brooks's sermons 
 standing side by side. Between them was wedged 
 a thin package which proved to contain a picture 
 which she had long wanted, a photograph of Mu- 
 rillo's painting of the Madonna. 
 
 To Betty's surprise the Christmas stocking held 
 a card for her. She had supposed her part of the 
 game would be only making the rhymes and helping 
 to hide the gifts. There was no rhyme on her card, 
 simply the statement, " Some little men are keeping 
 it for you." 
 
 Remembering Allison's experience, she ran up- 
 stairs to Lloyd's room, where in a low bookcase 
 were all the juvenile stories that her childhood had 
 held dear. A set of Miss Alcott's books stood first, 
 and, taking out the well-thumbed copy of " Little 
 Men," she shook it gently, fluttering the leaves, 
 and turning it upside down. But the volume held 
 nothing except a four-leaf clover, which Lloyd had
 
 A PROGRESSIVE CHRISTMAS PARTY l8/ 
 
 left there to mark the place one summer day. Betty 
 turned away, as puzzled as any of the others whom 
 she had helped to mystify. 
 
 Then she remembered two little wooden gnomes 
 carved on the Swiss match-box and ash-tray in the 
 Colonel's den. She dashed in there, but the gnomes 
 kept guard over nothing but a few burnt matches. 
 Nearly half an hour went by of bewildered wan- 
 dering from place to place, until she happened to 
 stray into Mr. Sherman's room. She stood by the 
 desk, letting her eyes glance slowly over its hand- 
 some furnishings. Then, with a start of surprise 
 that she had not thought of it before, she bent over 
 a paper-weight. It was a crystal ball supported 
 by two miniature bronze figures. The tiny Grecian 
 athletes were evidently the little men who were 
 keeping something for her, for the toy suit-case 
 standing between them bore a tag on which was 
 printed her initials. 
 
 The suit-case was not more than two inches long. 
 She supposed it contained bonbons. One of the 
 girls had used a dozen like them for place cards 
 at a farewell luncheon just before they went away 
 to school. It did not open at the first pull, and 
 when, at the second, it came forcibly apart, there 
 no shower of pink and white candies, as she
 
 1 88 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 had expected. Only a bit of folded paper fell out. 
 Smoothing it on the desk, Betty read : 
 
 ' Dear little girl, you have helped all the rest 
 To a happy time with your patient hands. 
 Now fly for a week to the Cuckoo's Nest, 
 With godmother's love, for she understands." 
 
 Then Betty was glad that she was all alone in 
 the room when she found the suit-case, for the tears 
 began to brim up into her eyes and spill over on 
 to the paper that had a crisp new greenback pinned 
 to it. The tears were all happy ones, but she hardly 
 knew what they were for. Whether she was hap- 
 pier because her heart's desire was granted, and 
 she could spend her vacation with Davy, or whether 
 it was because of that last line, " With godmother's 
 love, for she understands." 
 
 " Lloyd must have told her what I said that day 
 on the train," she thought. It was the crowning 
 happiness of the day for Betty. She was singing 
 under her breath when she danced out into the hall 
 to join the others. 
 
 Some of the articles were so cleverly hidden that 
 she had to give an occasional hint to the bewildered 
 seekers. In the seats of chairs, over the deer's ant- 
 lers in the hall, high up in the candelabra, strapped
 
 A PROGRESSIVE CHRISTMAS PARTY 189 
 
 inside of umbrellas, poked into glove fingers, all 
 of them were in unexpected places. Yet the direc- 
 tions of the verses seemed so plain when once under- 
 stood that the hunters laughed at their own stu- 
 pidity. 
 
 Even Judge Moore and the old Colonel were 
 swept into the game, and Mrs. Maclntyre's silvery 
 hair bent just as eagerly as Elise's dark curls over 
 each suspected spot and out-of-the-way corner until 
 she found the volume of essays that had been hidden 
 for her. 
 
 By quarter-past six every one's search had been 
 successful except Rob's. " It would take a Chris- 
 topher Columbus to find this place," he said, scowl- 
 ing at his verse. " And I'd be willing to bet any- 
 thing that it isn't the bank that Shakespeare had 
 in mind. Give me a hint, Lloyd." He held out 
 the card: 
 
 " I know a bank where the wild thyme grows. 
 
 Unseen it lies, unsung by bard. 
 Something keeps watch there, no man knows, 
 And over your gift it's standing guard." 
 
 " I haven't the faintest idea what it is," she said. 
 " Betty wrote so many of them yestahday aftah- 
 noon while I was at the pah'ty, and she wouldn't 
 tell me this one. She said she thought you'd suahly
 
 igo LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 guess it, but she didn't want you to have a hint 
 from any one. Come ovah to-morrow, and we'll 
 find it if we have to turn the house upside down." 
 
 The sleighs had made one trip to Oaklea and 
 returned for another load, when Rob finally gave 
 up the search. Lloyd and Gay climbed into the 
 same seat, and, as they cuddled down among the 
 warm robes, Gay caught Lloyd's hand in an im- 
 petuous squeeze. 
 
 "Oh, I'm having such a good time!" she ex- 
 claimed. " I've been in a dizzy whirl ever since 
 five o'clock this morning. I never had a sleigh- 
 ride before to-day. I don't wonder that Betty calls 
 this the House Beautiful. Look back at it now. 
 It's fairy-land ! " A light was streaming from every 
 window, and the snow sparkled like diamonds in 
 the moonlight. 
 
 The drive to Oaklea was so short that the Judge 
 and Mrs. Moore were welcoming them at the door 
 before Gay had fairly begun her account of the 
 day's happening. Dinner was announced almost 
 immediately, and she was ushered into one of the 
 largest dining-rooms she had ever seen, and seated 
 at the long table. Such a large Christmas tree 
 formed the centrepiece that she could catch only 
 an occasional glimpse through its branches of Lloyd,
 
 A PROGRESSIVE CHRISTMAS PARTY 19! 
 
 seated on the other side between Malcolm and John 
 Baylor. 
 
 Gay was between Ranald and Rob. While she 
 kept up a lively chatter, first with one and then the 
 other, a sentence floating across the table now and 
 then made her long to hear what was being said 
 on the other side of the Christmas tree. She heard 
 Malcolm say, in a surprised tone : " Maud Minor ! 
 No, indeed, I didn't! Why, I scarcely mentioned 
 you. Don't you believe " 
 
 A general laugh at one of the old Colonel's sto- 
 ries drowned the rest of the sentence, and left Gay 
 wondering which one of Maud's many tales was not 
 to be believed. 
 
 " I'll ask her after dinner," thought Gay. But 
 it was a long time till all the courses that followed 
 the turkey gave way in slow succession to plum 
 pudding and the trifles on the Christmas tree. Then 
 Gay had no opportunity to ask her question, for 
 Malcolm still stayed by Lloyd's side when the com- 
 pany broke up into little groups in the hall and the 
 adjoining parlours. 
 
 " The children are growing up, Jack," said the 
 old Judge, laying his hand on Mr. Sherman's shoul- 
 der, as several couples passed on their way to the 
 music-room. " There's Rob, now, the young rascal,
 
 1 92 LITTLE COLONS US CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 taller than his father; and it seems only yesterday 
 that he was riding pickaback on my shoulders, and 
 tooting his first Christmas trumpet in my ears. 
 And young Maclntyre there is nearly a full-fledged 
 man. He'll soon be eighteen, he tells me. Why, 
 at his age " 
 
 The Judge rambled off into a series of remi- 
 niscences which would have been very entertaining 
 to the younger man had his eyes not been following 
 Lloyd. He did not like to think that she was grow- 
 ing up. He wanted to keep her a child. In his 
 fond eyes she was always beautiful, but he had never 
 seen her look as well as she did to-night. The scar- 
 let dress and the holly berries gave her unusual 
 colour. He fancied that there was a deeper flush 
 on her face when Malcolm leaned over her chair 
 to say something to her. Then he told himself that 
 it was only fancy. Looking up, Lloyd caught sight 
 of her father in the doorway, and flashed him a 
 smile so open and reassuring that he turned away, 
 thinking, "My honest little Hildegarde! She 
 asked for her yardstick, and I can surely trust her 
 to use it as she promised." 
 
 Presently Malcolm, hunting through his pockets 
 for a programme he was talking about, took out 
 a bunch of letters. As he hastily turned them over,
 
 A PROGRESSIVE CHRISTMAS PARTY 193 
 
 several unmounted photographs fluttered out and 
 fell at Lloyd's feet. An amused smile dimpled her 
 mouth as her hasty glance showed her that they 
 were all of the same girl, evidently kodak shots 
 he had taken himself. Probably that was the girl 
 and these were the letters that Keith had teased 
 him about at the picnic. 
 
 Neither spoke, and he reddened uncomfortably 
 at her amused smile, as he put them back into his 
 pocket. At that moment, Rob turned toward them, 
 holding his new watch in his hand. 
 
 " I have just been showing Ranald the present 
 Daddy gave me," he said to Lloyd. " It reminded 
 me that I hadn't told you, I've put that same old 
 four-leaf clover into the back of this watch that 
 I had in my silver one. I wouldn't lose my luck 
 by losing your hoodoo charm for anything in the 
 world." 
 
 At the sight of the clover Lloyd blushed violently. 
 But it was not the little dried leaf that deepened 
 the quick colour in her cheeks. It was the thought 
 of the last time he had shown it to her, and the 
 scene it recalled at the churchyard stile, when Mal- 
 colm had begged for the tip of a curl to carry with 
 him always as a talisman; as a token that he was 
 really her knight, as he had been in the princess
 
 194 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 play, and that he would come to her on some glad 
 morrow. 
 
 " He'll have a pocket full of such talismans by 
 the time he's through college," she thought, recall- 
 ing the kodak pictures she had just seen. " I'm 
 mighty glad that I didn't give him one." 
 
 Over at The Beeches, Elise and her little friends 
 had arranged to give a Christmas play, so promptly 
 at the hour agreed upon the party " progressed " 
 in Mrs. Walton's wake. There they found the 
 third royal welcome, and the gayest of entertain- 
 ments. It had been an exciting day for all of them, 
 and, as Kitty expressed it, they were all wound 
 up like alarm-clocks. They would go off pretty soon 
 with a br-r-r and a bang, and then run down. 
 
 The play passed off without a hitch in the per- 
 formance, and ended in a blaze of spangles and red 
 light, when the fairy queen, trailing off the stage, 
 went through the audience showering on her guests 
 Christmas roses, supposed to have been called to 
 life by her magic wand, and distributed as souvenirs 
 of her skill. 
 
 Then somebody came up to Gay with her violin. 
 With Allison to play her accompaniments, she chose 
 her sweetest pieces, and threw her whole soul into 
 the rendering of them. She was so grateful to these
 
 A PROGRESSIVE CHRISTMAS PARTY 195 
 
 dear people who had taken her in like one of them- 
 selves, and given her such a happy, happy holiday- 
 time that she did her best, and Gay's best on the 
 violin was a treat even to the musical critics in the 
 company. Kitty was so proud of her she could 
 not help expressing her pleasure aloud, much to 
 Gay's embarrassment. To hide her confusion, she 
 started a merry jig tune, so rollicking and irresist- 
 ible that hands and feet all through the rooms began 
 to pat the time. Keith seized his Aunt Allison 
 around the waist and waltzed her out into the floor. 
 
 " Come on, everybody ! " he cried. 
 
 Lloyd was standing in the doorway, talking to 
 Doctor Shelby, the white-haired physician of the 
 village, one of her oldest and dearest friends. 
 
 " Go on, Miss Holly-berry," he said. " If I 
 wasn't such a stiff old graybeard, I'd be at it myself. 
 There's Ranald wanting to ask you." 
 
 Lloyd waltzed off with Ranald, as light on her 
 feet as a bit of thistle-down, and the old doctor's 
 eyes followed her fondly. 
 
 " She's like Amanthis," he said to himself. 
 " And she will grow more like her as the years go 
 by, so spirited and high-strung. But they'll have 
 to watch her, or she'll wear herself out." 
 
 Presently he missed the flash of the scarlet dress,
 
 196 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 in and out among the others, and he did not see it 
 again until the music had stopped and the revel was 
 ending with the chimes, rung softly on the Bells 
 of Luzon. As he stepped back to allow several 
 guests to pass him on the way up to the dressing- 
 room, he caught sight of Lloyd in an alcove in the 
 back hall. She was attempting to draw a glass of 
 ice-water from the cooler. Her hands shook, and 
 her face was so pale that it startled him. " What's 
 the matter, child?" he exclaimed. 
 
 " Nothing," she answered, trying to force a little 
 laugh. " It's just that I felt for a minute as if I 
 might faint. I nevah did, you know. I reckon it's 
 as Kitty said. We've been wound up all day, and 
 we've run so hah'd we've about run down, and we 
 have to stop whethah we want to or not." 
 
 He looked at her keenly and began counting her 
 pulse. " You are not to get wound up this way 
 any more this winter, young lady," he said, sternly. 
 " Go straight home and go to bed, and stay there 
 until day after to-morrow. The rest cure is what 
 you need." 
 
 "And miss Katie Mallard's pah'ty?" she cried. 
 " Why, I couldn't do it even for you, you bad old 
 ogah." 
 
 She made a saucy mouth at him, and then, with
 
 A PROGRESSIVE CHRISTMAS PARTY H)? 
 
 her most winning smile, held out her hand to say 
 good night, for the guests were beginning to take 
 their departure. " Please, Mistah M^-Doctah," 
 it was the pet name she had given him years ago 
 when she used to ride on his shoulder, " please 
 don't go to putting any notions into Papa Jack's 
 head or mothah's. I'm just ti'ahed. That's all. 
 I'll be all right in the mawning." 
 
 " Come, Lloyd," called Mrs. Sherman. " We're 
 ready to start now." She saw with a sigh of relief 
 that her mother was bringing her coat toward her, 
 so she would not have to climb the stairs for it. 
 She was tired, dreadfully tired, she admitted to 
 herself. But it had been such a happy day it was 
 worth the fatigue. 
 
 As she drove homeward in the sleigh, she slipped 
 her hand out of her muff, and turned it in the moon- 
 light to watch the sparkle of the new ring. She 
 wondered if the two girls who had worn it in turn 
 before her had had half as happy a fifteenth Christ^ 
 mas as she.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE DUNGEON OF DISAPPOINTMENT 
 
 IT was nearly noon when Lloyd wakened next 
 morning. Her head ached, and she wondered dully 
 how anybody could feel lively enough to sing as 
 Aunt Cindy was doing, somewhere back in the 
 servants' quarters. The sound of a squeaking 
 wheelbarrow had wakened her. Alec was trundling 
 it around the house, with the parrot perched on it. 
 The parrot loved to ride, and its silly laugh at every 
 jolt of the squeaking barrow usually amused Lloyd, 
 but to-day its harsh chatter annoyed her. 
 
 " Oh, deah ! " she groaned, sitting up in bed and 
 yawning. " I feel as if I could sleep for a week. 
 I wouldn't get up at all if it wasn't for Katie Mal- 
 lard's pah'ty. I hate this day-aftah-Christmas feel- 
 ing, as if the bottom had dropped out of every- 
 thing." 
 
 She dressed slowly and went down-stairs. 
 
 " Where's mothah, Mom Beck ? " she asked, paus- 
 198
 
 THE DUNGEON OF DISAPPOINTMENT 1QQ 
 
 ing in the dining-room door. The old coloured 
 woman was arranging flowers for the lunch-table. 
 
 " She's done gone ovah to Rollington, honey, 
 with the old Cun'l. Walkah's mothah is sick, and 
 sent for 'em. I'm lookin' for 'em to come home 
 any minute now. Come right along in, honey. 
 I've kep' yoah breakfus' good and hot." 
 
 " I don't want anything to eat. I'm not hungry 
 now. I'd rathah wait till lunch. Where's Betty, 
 Mom Beck?" 
 
 " Now listen to that ! " ejaculated the old woman, 
 sharply. " Don't you remembah ? She went off 
 on the early train this mawning to that place you 
 all calls the Cuckoo's Nest. I packed her satchel 
 befoah daylight." 
 
 " I had forgotten she was going," exclaimed 
 Lloyd, turning to the window with a discontented 
 expression, which only the snowbirds on the lawn 
 could see. She had come down-stairs expecting to 
 talk over all the happenings of the previous day 
 with Betty, and to find her gone gave her a vague 
 sense of injury. She knew the feeling was unrea- 
 sonable, but she could not shake it off. 
 
 The flash of the new ring gave her a momentary 
 pleasure, but she was in a mood that nothing could 
 please her long. When she strolled into the draw-
 
 200 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 ing-room, everything was in spotless order, and 
 so quiet that the stillness was oppressive. Even 
 the fire burned with a steady, noiseless glow, with- 
 out the usual crackle, and the ashes fell on the 
 hearth with velvety softness. 
 
 Some of her new books lay on a side table. She 
 picked them up and glanced through them, catch- 
 ing at a paragraph here and there. But one after 
 another she laid them down. She was not in a 
 mood for reading. Then she took a candied date 
 from the bonbon dish, but it seemed to lack its 
 usual flavour. After nibbling each end, she threw 
 it into the fire. Slipping her new opera-glass from 
 its case, she went to the window and turned the 
 lens on the distant entrance gate. The road in each 
 direction seemed deserted. So she put the glass 
 back in its case, and, after strolling restlessly around 
 the room, walked over to the harp and struck a 
 few chords. 
 
 "It's all out of tune!" she exclaimed, fretfully, 
 thrumming the faulty string with impatient fingers. 
 " Everything seems out of tune this mawning! " 
 
 As she spoke, the string broke with a sudden 
 harsh twang that made her jump. She was so 
 startled that the tears came to her eyes, and so nerv- 
 ous that she flung herself face downward on the
 
 THE DUNGEON OF DISAPPOINTMENT 2OI 
 
 pillows of the long Persian divan, and began sob- 
 bing hysterically. The strain of the last few weeks 
 had been too much for her. Miss Gilmer's proph- 
 ecy had come true. The ice had given away under 
 the extra weight put upon it 
 
 She was sobbing so hard that she did not hear 
 the sound of carriage wheels rolling softly up the 
 avenue through the snow, and when the front door 
 banged shut she started again, and began trerri' 
 bling as she had done when the harp-string broke. 
 She was crying convulsively now, so hard that she 
 could not stop, although she clenched her fists and 
 bit her lips in a strong effort to regain self- 
 control. 
 
 Mrs. Sherman, her face all aglow from the cold 
 drive, and looking almost girlishly fair in her big 
 hat with the plumes, and her dark furs, hurried in 
 to the fire. The Colonel, throwing back his scarlet 
 lined cape, pushed aside the portiere for her to enter. 
 He was the first to catch sight of the shaking form 
 on the divan. 
 
 "Why, Lloyd, child, what's the matter?" he 
 demanded, anxiously. " What's the matter with 
 grandpa's little girl ? " 
 
 Mrs. Sherman, with a frightened expression, hur- 
 ried to her, and, bending over her, tried to get a
 
 2O2 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 glimpse of the tear-swollen face buried so persist- 
 ently in the cushions. 
 
 " Nothing's happened ! No, I'm not sick," came 
 in smothered tones from the depths of the pillows. 
 " It's j-just crying itself, and I I I c-can't 
 stop-p-p ! " 
 
 A long shiver passed over her, and Mrs. Sher- 
 man, stroking her forehead with a soothing hand, 
 waited for her to grow quiet before plying her 
 with questions. But the old Colonel paced impa- 
 tiently back and forth. 
 
 " The child must be sick," he declared. " She'll 
 be coming down with a fever or something if we 
 don't take vigorous measures to prevent it. I shall 
 telephone for Dick Shelby this minute." 
 
 He started toward the hall, but a wild wail from 
 Lloyd stopped him. 
 
 " I won't have the doctah ! I'm not sick, and 
 you sha'n't send for him! I j-just cried because 
 the harp-string b-broke so suddenly that it s-scared 
 me!" 
 
 The Colonel paused and looked at her in amaze- 
 ment. Not since the time when she, a five-year-old 
 child, had flung a handful of mud over his white 
 clothes had she spoken to him in such a defiant tone. 
 He answered soothingly, as if she were still that
 
 THE DUNGEON OF DISAPPOINTMENT 20$ 
 
 little child, to be coaxed into good behaviour. " Oh, 
 yes, you won't mind the doctor's coming if grandpa 
 wants him to. He'll keep you from getting down 
 sick, and spoiling all the rest of your vacation. I'll 
 just ask him to step up and look at you." 
 
 "No, don't!" demanded Lloyd, as he started 
 again toward the hall. " No, you sha'n't ! " she in- 
 sisted, springing up and stamping her foot. " I 
 won't have the old doctah, and I won't take any 
 of his nasty old medicine! He'll make me stay 
 home from Katie's pah'ty this aftahnoon and from 
 the matinee to-morrow and there's nothing the 
 mattah, only I'm cross and nervous, and the moah 
 you bothah me the hah'dah it is to stop crying! " 
 
 Then ashamed of her petulant outburst, she threw 
 her arms around his neck, and sobbed on his shoul- 
 der. In the end she had her own way, for the glass 
 of hot milk which her mother sent for, as soon 
 as she found Lloyd had eaten no breakfast, soothed 
 her overstrung nerves. A brisk walk to the post- 
 office in the bracing December air gave her an appe- 
 tite for luncheon. Then she slept again until time 
 to dress for Katie's party, so that when the old 
 Colonel watched her start off, she looked so bright 
 and was in such buoyant spirits that he wondered 
 vaguely if her crying spell could have been the
 
 204 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 remnant of some childish tantrum instead of the 
 forerunner of an illness. 
 
 He banished the thought instantly from his loyal 
 old heart, ashamed of having applied such a word 
 as tantrum to anything Lloyd might choose to do. 
 Of course she had felt ill, he told himself. So 
 wretched that she hadn't known what she was say- 
 ing when she stormed at him so angrily. He re- 
 solved to watch her closely, and take matters in his 
 own hands if she showed any more alarming symp- 
 toms. 
 
 There was a matinee next day in Louisville, to 
 which Mrs. Sherman took all the girls in the neigh- 
 bourhood. That was the end of the Christmas 
 gaieties for Lloyd. Doctor Shelby was at Locust 
 on her return. He came out of the old Colonel's 
 den, where he had been sitting for several hours, 
 deep in a game of chess, and found her shivering 
 in front of the fire with a nervous chill, sobbing 
 hysterically. 
 
 She stormed at him almost as she had done at 
 her grandfather, protesting that she was only tired 
 and nervous, and that she would be all right as soon 
 as she had had her cry out. But she submitted 
 meekly when he ordered her mother to put her to 
 bed. The old doctor had always indulged her, but
 
 THE DUNGEON OF DISAPPOINTMENT 2O5 
 
 there was a sternness in his manner now that made 
 her obey him. 
 
 He called to see her the next day, and the next. 
 But his visits did not seem like professional ones. 
 There was nothing said about medicine or symp- 
 toms. He only asked her about school and the good 
 times she had been having, and the extra studying 
 she had been doing. Then he sat and joked and 
 talked with her and her mother, as had been his 
 habit ever since Lloyd could remember. The third 
 afternoon she was down in the drawing-room when 
 he came. 
 
 " We'll soon be having Miss Holly-berry back 
 again," he said, playfully pinching her pale cheek. 
 
 " And without taking any nasty old medicine," 
 she answered. " I don't mind doctahs when they 
 can cure people without giving them pills and pow- 
 dahs." 
 
 The Colonel looked up sharply. " What's that ? " 
 he asked. " Haven't you been giving her anything, 
 Dick? It seems to me the child would get along 
 faster if she had a good tonic." 
 
 " I am going to prescribe one this morning," the 
 doctor answered. " That's what I came up for." 
 He laughed at the look of disgust on Lloyd's 
 face.
 
 2O6 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 " It isn't bad," he assured her, with an indulgent 
 smile. " Why, I know dozens of girls who would 
 say that the tonic I am going to prescribe is the 
 most agreeable that could be given. I've even had 
 them beg for it. This is it, simply to lengthen your 
 Christmas vacation. Didn't I hear a certain young 
 lady wishing the other night that she could stretch 
 hers out indefinitely ? " 
 
 Lloyd's dimples deepened. " How much longah 
 will you make it? A week? If I stay out much 
 longah than that, it will be such hah'd work to 
 catch up with my classes that the game won't be 
 worth the candle." 
 
 " But I would make it so long that there would 
 be no necessity of having 1 to catch up, as you call 
 it. You could simply make a fresh start in a new 
 class." 
 
 Lloyd looked up in alarm. "When?" she de- 
 manded. 
 
 " Um well, next fall, let us say," he answered, 
 deliberately. " Yes, surely by that time you'll be 
 well and sound as a new dollar." 
 
 " Next fall ! " she gasped, her face growing white 
 and her eyes strangely big and dark. " You don't 
 mean you couldn't mean that I must leave 
 school."
 
 THE DUNGEON OF DISAPPOINTMENT 2O? 
 
 " Yes, that's exactly what I mean. You are over- 
 taxing yourself and must stop 
 
 " Oh, I can't ! " interrupted Lloyd, speaking very 
 fast. " I won't! It's cruel to ask it when I've 
 worked so hard to keep from falling behind Betty 
 and the girls. Oh, you don't know what it means 
 to me!" 
 
 The old doctor looked up in amazement at this 
 unexpected outburst. 
 
 " No," he answered, slowly, after a moment's 
 silence. " I don't suppose I do. I had no idea it 
 would be a disappointment to you. I would gladly 
 save you from it if I could. But listen to me, my 
 little girl, and try to be reasonable. You are on the 
 verge of a nervous breakdown. Nothing can mean 
 as much to you as your health. What will keeping 
 up with the other girls amount to if the strain and 
 the overtaxing makes an invalid of you for life, per- 
 haps? 
 
 " Mind you, I am not saying that the work itself 
 is too great a tax. Madam Chartley's is one of the 
 best regulated schools I have ever inquired into. 
 Ordinarily a girl ought to be able to take the course 
 with perfect ease. But you see that little spell of 
 la grippe left you weak and unfit for any extra 
 strain, and, instead of easing up a bit, you went
 
 208 LITTLE COLONEVS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 on piling on all that extra load of lessons and Christ- 
 mas preparations and vacation dissipations. It was 
 like trying to walk on a broken foot. The more 
 you tried, the worse it got. The mischief is done 
 now, and there is no remedy but to stop short off." 
 
 Lloyd sat very still for a moment, staring out 
 of the window in a dazed, unseeing way, as if not 
 fully understanding all he said. Then she turned 
 with a piteous appeal in her face to Mrs. Sherman. 
 
 " Mothah, it isn't so, is it? I won't have to give 
 up school now! You wouldn't make me, would 
 you, when you know how I love it? Oh, it will 
 neahly kill me if you do! Please say no, mothah! 
 Please! " 
 
 Mrs. Sherman's eyes were full of tears. " My 
 poor little girl," she exclaimed as Lloyd threw her- 
 self into her arms. " I'm afraid we must do as 
 the doctor says. He would not ask such a sacri- 
 fice if it were not necessary. You know how dearly 
 he has always loved you." 
 
 Without waiting to hear any more, Lloyd sprang 
 up and ran out of the room. Rushing up-stairs, 
 she bolted her door behind her, and threw herself 
 across the bed. 
 
 " It is the first great disappointment she has ever 
 had in her life," said her mother, looking after her
 
 THE DUNGEON OP DISAPPOINTMENT 2OQ 
 
 with a troubled face. " Couldn't you make the 
 sentence a little easier, doctor? Couldn't she go 
 back and take one study, just to be with the girls ? " 
 
 He shook his head. " No, Elizabeth. She is too 
 ambitious and high-strung for that. One study 
 wouldn't satisfy her. She'd chafe at not being able 
 to keep up in everything. She has nothing serious 
 the matter with her now, but it would not take long 
 to make a wreck of her health at the gait she has 
 been going. There must be no more parties, no 
 more regular school work, and even no more music 
 lessons this winter. She must have the simplest 
 kind of a life. Keep her out-of-doors all you can. 
 A little prevention now will be worth pounds of 
 cure after awhile." 
 
 " I suppose you are right, Dick," said the old 
 Colonel, huskily, " but I swear I'd give the only 
 arm the Yankees left me to save her from this dis- 
 appointment." 
 
 Lying across the bed up-stairs, Lloyd cried and 
 sobbed until she was exhausted. The handkerchief 
 clutched in her hand in a damp little ball had wiped 
 away the bitterest tears she had ever shed. In her 
 inmost heart she knew that the doctor was right. 
 It had been weeks since she had felt strong and well. 
 She remembered the way she had lagged behind
 
 2IO LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 at the picnic, and what an effort it had been to talk 
 and make herself agreeable lately. Recalling the 
 last few weeks, it seemed to her that she had been 
 in tears half the time. She admitted to herself 
 that she would rather be dead than to be an invalid 
 for life like her great-aunt Jane. To sit always in 
 a darkened room that smelled of camphor, and to 
 talk in a weak, complaining voice that made every- 
 body tired. Of course if there was danger of her 
 growing to be like her, she would rather leave school 
 than run such a risk. But why, oh, why was she 
 forced to make such a choice? The other girls 
 didn't have to. She had done no more than they 
 to bring about such a state of affairs. 
 
 They could go back to dear old Warwick Hall, 
 but she would have to stay behind. And she would 
 always be behind, for, even if she went back with 
 them another year, it couldn't be the same. They 
 would have done so much in the meantime, gone 
 on so far ahead, made new friends and found new 
 interests, and she would have to drop back in the 
 class below, and never, never stand on the same 
 footing with them again. It was so hard, so cruel, 
 that she should have to face a blighted life at only 
 fifteen. 
 
 She unlocked the door presently at her mother's
 
 THE DUNGEON OF DISAPPOINTMENT 211 
 
 knock, but she didn't want to be comforted. Noth- 
 ing anybody could say could change things, she 
 sobbed, or make the disappointment any easier to 
 bear. So Mrs. Sherman wisely withdrew, and left 
 her to fight it out alone. 
 
 The next time she peeped into the room, Lloyd 
 was asleep, worn out with the violence of her grief, 
 so she tiptoed down-stairs, leaving the door ajar 
 behind her. The Colonel was pacing up and down 
 the library. 
 
 " I declare I can't think of anything but that 
 child's disappointment ! " he exclaimed, as she came 
 in. " I can't read ! I can't settle down to anything. 
 I have been trying to think of some pleasure we 
 could give her to make up for it in a way. A winter 
 in Florida, maybe. Poor baby ! if I could only bear 
 it for her, how glad I would be to do it ! " 
 
 Mrs. Sherman picked up a bit of needlework from 
 the table where she had left it, and, sitting down 
 by the window, began to hemstitch. 
 
 " I don't know, papa," she said, slowly, " but 
 I'm beginning to fear that we have done too much 
 of that for Lloyd ; smoothed the difficulties out of 
 her way too much ; made things too easy. We've 
 fairly held our arms around her to shield her not 
 only from harmful things, but from even trifling
 
 212 LITTLE COLONEUS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 unpleasantness. Maybe if she had had to face the 
 smaller disappointments that most children have 
 to bear, the greater ones would not seem so over- 
 whelming. She could have met this more bravely." 
 
 The Colonel sniffed impatiently. " All foolish- 
 ness, Elizabeth ! All foolishness ! That may be the 
 case with ordinary children, but not with such a 
 sweet, unspoiled nature as Lloyd's." 
 
 It was nearly dark when Lloyd wakened. She 
 heard Kitty's voice down in the hall, asking to see 
 her, and Gay's exclamation of surprise and regret 
 at something her mother said in a low voice. She 
 knew that she was telling them the doctor's decision. 
 Then Mom Beck tapped at the door to ask if she 
 would see the girls awhile, but she sent her away 
 with a mournful shake of the head. She was too 
 miserable even to speak. 
 
 The low murmur of voices went on for some 
 time. It grew loud enough for her to distinguish 
 the words when the girls came out into the hall 
 again to take their departure. Lloyd raised herself 
 on her elbow to listen. Kitty was telling something 
 that had happened that afternoon at the candy-pull 
 from which they were just returning. A wan smile 
 flitted across Lloyd's face, in sympathy with the 
 merry laugh that floated up the stairs. But it faded
 
 THE DUNGEON OF DISAPPOINTMENT 213 
 
 the next instant as she whispered, bitterly : " That's 
 the way it will always be. They will go on having 
 good times without me, and they'll get so they'll 
 nevah even miss me. I'll be left out of everything. 
 There's nothing left to look forward to any moah. 
 Oh, it's all so dah'k and gloomy I know now how 
 Ederyn felt, for I'm just like he was, walled up in 
 a dreadful Dungeon of Disappointment." 
 
 The fancy pleased her so that she went on making 
 herself miserable with it long after the door closed 
 behind Kitty and Gay. Over and over she pictured 
 Warwick Hall, which just then seemed the most 
 desirable place in all the world. She could see the 
 shining river, as she had watched it so many times 
 from her window, flowing past the stately terraces 
 between its willow-fringed banks. She could hear 
 the breezy summons of the hunter's horn, calling 
 the girls to rambles over the wooded hills or through 
 the quaint old garden. She could see the sun stream- 
 ing into the south windows of the English room, 
 with the class gathered around Miss Chilton, eager 
 and interested. All the dear, delightful round of 
 inspiring work and play would go on day after day 
 for the others, but it would go on without her. 
 Henceforth she would be left out of everything 
 pleasant and worth while.
 
 214 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 She would not go down to dinner. She could 
 not take such a puffed, tear-swollen face to the 
 table to make everybody else unhappy, and she 
 couldn't throw off her despondent mood. Maybe 
 in a few days, she thought, she might be able to hide 
 her feelings sufficiently to appear in public, but it 
 would always be with a secret sorrow gnawing at 
 her heart. Just now she shrank from sympathy, 
 and she didn't want any one to cheer her up. It 
 did not seem possible that she could ever smile 
 again, and she wasn't sure that she wanted to. 
 
 Mom Beck brought up the daintiest of dinners 
 on a tray, but carried it back almost untasted. As 
 soon as she was gone, Lloyd undressed and crept 
 into bed. 
 
 Sleep was far from her, however, and she lay 
 with her eyes wide open. The room was full of soft 
 shadows and the flicker of firelight on the furniture. 
 She could think of only one thing, and she brooded 
 over that until it seemed to her feverish, disordered 
 fancy that her disappointment was the greatest that 
 any one had ever been forced to bear. 
 
 " Why couldn't it have happened to some girl 
 who didn't care?" she thought, bitterly. "Some girl 
 like Maud Minor, who doesn't like school, anyhow. 
 It doesn't seem fair when I've tried my best to
 
 THE DUNGEON OF DISAPPOINTMENT 21$ 
 
 do exactly right, to leave a road of the loving hah't 
 in everybody's memory, to keep the tryst " 
 
 That thought brought a fresh reason for grief. 
 There was the string of pearls. Now she could 
 not finish her little white rosary. The fire flared up 
 and shone brilliantly for a few moments, lighting 
 a group of pictures over her bed. They were the 
 photographs she had taken in Arizona. There was 
 Ware's Wigwam. The firelight was not bright 
 enough to enable her to read the lines Joyce had 
 written under it, but she knew the inscription was 
 the Ware family's motto, taken from the " Vicar 
 of Wakefield " : " Let us be inflexible, and fortune 
 will at last change in our favour." A shadow of 
 a smile actually came to her lips as she remembered 
 Mary Ware gravely explaining it. 
 
 " Why, even Norman knows that if you'll swal- 
 low your sobs and stiffen when you bump your 
 head or anything, it doesn't hurt half as bad as 
 if you just let loose and howl." 
 
 And there was the photograph of old Camelback 
 Mountain, bringing back the story of Shapur, left 
 helpless on the sands of the Desert of Waiting, 
 while the caravan passed on without him to the City 
 of his Desire. She remembered that when she hung 
 it over her bed she had thought, " If ever / come
 
 216 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 to such a place, this will help me to bear it pa- 
 tiently." 
 
 Then she thought of Joyce, how bravely and un- 
 complainingly she had met her disappointment. 
 Not only had she left school and given up her 
 ambition to be an artist, but she had had to give 
 up the old home she loved, all her friends, and 
 everything that made her girlhood bright, to go 
 out into the lonely desert and work like a squaw. 
 
 The thought of Joyce brought back all the les- 
 sons she had learned in the School of the Bees. 
 But she sighed presently : " Oh, deah, all those 
 things sounded so nice and comforting when they 
 seemed meant for othah people. They don't seem 
 so comforting now that I'm in trouble myself. It's 
 like the poultice Aunt Cindy made for Walkah's 
 toothache. She was disgusted because he didn't 
 stop complaining right away, and said it ought to 
 have cured him if it didn't. But it wasn't such a 
 powahful remedy when she had the toothache her- 
 self. She grumbled moah than Walkah. It's all 
 well enough to say that I'll seal up my troubles as 
 the bees seal up the things that get into the cells 
 to spoil their honey, but now the time is heah, I 
 simply can't! " 
 
 Nevertheless, what the School of the Bees taught
 
 THE DUNGEON OF DISAPPOINTMENT 21? 
 
 did help. So did the sight of the patient old Camel- 
 back Mountain, that had inspired the legend of 
 Shapur. And more than all the little group in front 
 of the Wigwam helped, as she remembered how 
 bravely they had met their troubles. 
 
 One by one her happy Arizona days came back 
 to her. After all, it was something to have lived 
 fifteen beautiful years untouched by trouble. She 
 was thankful for that much, even if the future held 
 nothing more for her. If she couldn't be happy, 
 she could at least take Mary's advice and " not let 
 loose and howl " about it any more. If she couldn't 
 be bright and cheerful, she could " swallow her 
 sobs and stiffen." With the resolution to try Mary's 
 remedy for her woes in the morning, she lay drow- 
 sily watching the firelight flicker across the picture 
 of the Wigwam.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 IN THE ATTIC 
 
 IF the sun had been shining next morning, it 
 would have been easier for Lloyd to keep her reso- 
 lution, and face ' the family bravely at breakfast. 
 But the rain was pouring against the windows ; 
 a slow, monotonous rain that ran in little rivers 
 over the lawn, melting the snow, and turning the 
 white landscape into a dreary scene of mud and 
 bare branches. 
 
 Twice on the way down-stairs she paused, think- 
 ing that she could not possibly sit through the meal 
 without crying, and that it would be better to go 
 back and breakfast alone in her room than to be 
 a damper on the spirits of the family. Even so 
 slight a thing as the tone of sympathy in her grand- 
 father's " good morning " made the tears spring 
 to her eyes, but she winked them back, and answered 
 almost cheerfully his question as to how she felt. 
 
 " Oh, just like the weathah, grandfathah. All 
 
 gray and drippy; but I'll cleah up aftah awhile." 
 218
 
 IN THE ATTIC 2IQ 
 
 She could not smile as she said it, but the effort 
 she made to be cheerful made the next attempt eas- 
 ier, and presently she acknowledged to herself that 
 Mary was right. It did help, to swallow one's sobs. 
 
 After breakfast she stood at the window, watch- 
 ing her father drive away to the station in the rain. 
 As the carriage disappeared and there was nothing 
 more to watch, she wondered dully how she could 
 spend the long morning. 
 
 " Some one wants you at the telephone, Lloyd," 
 called the Colonel, on his way to his den. 
 
 " Oh, good ! I hope it is Kitty," she exclaimed, 
 anticipating a long visit over the wire. 
 
 But it was Malcolm Maclntyre who had rung 
 her up, to bid her good-bye. He and Keith were 
 about to start home. They had intended to go up 
 to Locust, he told her, for a short call before train 
 time, but it was raining too hard. Would she please 
 make their adieus to her mother and the rest of the 
 family. He had heard that she was not going back 
 to school. Was it true? She was in luck. No? 
 She was disappointed? Well, that was too bad. 
 He was awfully sorry. But she mustn't worry over 
 missing a few months of school. It wouldn't 
 amount to much in the long run. For his part, 
 if he were a girl and didn't have to fit himself for
 
 220 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 a profession, he would be glad to have such a post- 
 script added to his Christmas vacation. He'd no- 
 ticed that usually the postscript to a girl's letter 
 had more in it than the letter itself. Possibly it 
 would be that way with her vacation. He hoped so. 
 
 Although it was in the most cordial tone that 
 he expressed his regret at her disappointment, and 
 bade Princess Winsome good-bye until the " good 
 old summer-time," it was with a vague feeling of 
 disappointment that Lloyd hung up the receiver 
 and turned away from the telephone. 
 
 " He doesn't undahstand at all ! " she thought. 
 " He hasn't the faintest idea how much it means 
 to me to give up school. He thinks that, because 
 I'm a girl, I haven't any ambition, and that it doesn't 
 hurt me as it would him. Maybe it wouldn't have 
 sounded quite the same if I could have seen him 
 say it, but ovah the telephone, somehow although 
 he was mighty nice and polite it sounded sawt 
 of patronizing." 
 
 She went into the library to deliver Malcolm's 
 farewell messages to her mother. " He seems so 
 much moah grown up this time than he evah has 
 befoah," she added. " I don't like him half as much 
 that way as the way he used to be." 
 
 Mrs. Sherman was busy about the house all morn-
 
 ONE OF THE BOYS HAD DARED HIM TO CARRY IT
 
 IN THE ATTIC 221 
 
 ing, so Lloyd found entertainment following her 
 from room to room, as she inspected the linen closet, 
 superintended the weekly cleaning of the pantry, 
 and rearranged some of the library shelves to make 
 room for the Christmas books. But in the after- 
 noon she had a number of letters to write, acknowl- 
 edging the gifts which had been sent her by distant 
 friends, and Lloyd was left to her own amusement. 
 
 The doctor did not want her to read long at a 
 time. The rain was pouring too hard for her to 
 venture out-of-doors, and about the middle of the 
 afternoon the silence and loneliness of the big house 
 seemed more than she could endure. 
 
 " I could scream, I'm so nervous and ti'ahed of 
 being by myself," she exclaimed. " If just a piece 
 of a day is so hah'd to drag through as this has 
 been, how can I stand all the rest of the wintah ? " 
 
 She was counting up the weeks ahead of her on 
 the big library calendar, when, through the window, 
 she caught sight of Rob coming toward the house. 
 The rain was running in streams from the bottom 
 of his mackintosh, and from a huge umbrella that 
 spread over him like a tent. It was an enormous 
 advertising umbrella, taken from one of the deliv- 
 ery wagons at the store. One of the boys had 
 dared him to carry it. "Groceries, Dry Goods,
 
 222 LITTLE COLONEDS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 Boots and " appeared in black letters on the yellow 
 side turned toward Lloyd. " Shoes. Jayne's Em- 
 porium," she called, supplying the rest of the famil- 
 iar advertisement from memory. 
 
 " What on earth are you doing with that wagon- 
 top ovah you?" she asked from the front door, 
 where she stood watching his approach. He was 
 striding along whistling as cheerily as if it were 
 a midsummer day. He looked up and smiled in 
 response to her call, and twirled the umbrella till 
 the rain-drops flew in every direction in a fine spray. 
 Lloyd felt as if the sun had suddenly come out from 
 behind the clouds. 
 
 " I've come to finish my Christmas hunt," he said, 
 as he stepped up on the porch and shook himself 
 like a great water-spaniel. 
 
 "Oh," cried Lloyd, "I intended to ask Betty 
 befoah she went away where she had hidden yoah 
 present, and she left next mawning so early that 
 I was still asleep. Maybe mothah knows." 
 
 But Mrs. Sherman, busy with her letters, shook 
 her head. " I haven't the faintest idea," she an- 
 swered. " But I remember she said something 
 about Rob's being the hardest one of all to find, 
 so you'll probably be kept busy the rest of the day. 
 Don't you children bother either Mom Beck or
 
 IN THE ATTIC 22$ 
 
 Cindy to help you hunt," she called after them. 
 " They have all they can attend to to-day." 
 
 " Let's see that verse again, Rob," said Lloyd, as 
 they went out of the library into the drawing-room. 
 He fumbled in several pockets and finally produced 
 the card. 
 
 " I know a bank where the wild thyme grows. 
 
 Unseen it lies, unsung by bard. 
 Something keeps watch there, no man knows, 
 And over your gift it's standing guard." 
 
 As on Christmas Day, the only bank the verse 
 suggested was in the conservatory, a long, narrow 
 ledge of ferns and maidenhair, green with over- 
 hanging vines and graceful fronds. For nearly 
 half an hour they poked around in it, lifting the 
 ferns from the warm, moist earth to see if any- 
 thing lay hidden at their roots. It was like April 
 in the conservatory, steamy and warm, and the 
 fragrance of hyacinths and white violets made it 
 a delightful place in which to linger. 
 
 " Bank bank- " repeated Lloyd, puzzling over 
 the verse again, when they had given up the search 
 in the conservatory and gone back to the drawing- 
 room. " It might mean a savings-bank, but there 
 hasn't been one in the house since that little red 
 tin one of mine that you dropped into the well with
 
 224 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 my three precious dimes in it. I've felt all these 
 yeahs that you owed me thirty cents." 
 
 " Now, Lloyd Sherman, there's no use in bring- 
 ing up that old quarrel again," he laughed. " You 
 know we were playing that robbers were coming, 
 and we had to lower our gold and jewels into the 
 well, and you tied the fishing-line around the bank 
 your own self. So I am not to blame if the knot 
 came untied at the very first jerk. We've wasted 
 enough breath arguing that point to start a small 
 cyclone." 
 
 They laughed again over the recollection of their 
 old quarrel, then Rob read the verse once more. 
 Presently he stopped drumming on the table with 
 his thumbs, and said, slowly, as if trying to recall 
 something long forgotten : " Don't you remember, 
 it seems ages before we dropped your red bank 
 in the well, that I had a remarkable penny sav- 
 ings-bank ? It was some sort of a slot machine in 
 the shape of a little iron dog. Daddy brought it to 
 me from New York. There was some kind of an 
 indicator on the side of it that looked like the face 
 of a watch. That was my introduction to puns, 
 for Daddy said it was a watch dog, made to guard 
 my pennies. Surely you haven't forgotten old 
 Watch, for after the indicator was broken I brought
 
 IN THE ATTIC 23$ 
 
 the safe over here, and we kept it on the door-mat 
 in front of your playhouse, to guard the prem- 
 ises." 
 
 " I should say I do remembah ! " answered Lloyd. 
 " Probably it's up in the attic now. But what has 
 that to do with the rhyme?" 
 
 " Don't you see ? That must be the ' bank ' 
 where the wild thyme grows. I don't know whether 
 Betty refers to the wild time we used to have play- 
 ing in the attic, or the wild time that the watch 
 kept. But I'm certain that that is the bank she 
 means." 
 
 " Come on, then," cried Lloyd. " Let's go up 
 to the attic and hunt for it. I haven't been up there 
 for ovah a yeah." 
 
 Rob led the way to the upper hall, and then up 
 the attic stairs, taking the steep steps two at a time 
 in long leaps. 
 
 "That isn't the way you used to climb these 
 stairs," laughed Lloyd. " Don't you know you 
 had to weah little long-sleeved aprons when you 
 came ovah to play with me, to keep yoahself clean ? 
 You always stepped on the front of them and stum- 
 bled going up these steps." 
 
 A headless and tailless hobby-horse of Rob's, on 
 which they had ridden many imaginary miles, stood
 
 226 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 in one corner, and he crossed over to examine it, 
 with an amused smile. 
 
 " It certainly didn't take much to amuse us in 
 those days," he said, touching the rockers with his 
 foot, and starting the disabled beast to bobbing 
 back and forth. " How long has it been since we 
 used to ride this thing? Is my hair white? I de- 
 clare I never had anything make me feel so ancient 
 as the sight of this old hobby-horse. I feel older 
 tfian grandfather." 
 
 Lloyd had opened a dilapidated hair-covered 
 trunk, and was bending over a family of dolls 
 stowed away inside. " Heah is old Belinda ! " she 
 exclaimed. " And Carrie Belle May, and Rosalie, 
 the Prairie Flowah ! And, oh, Rob ! Look at poah 
 Nelly Ely, all wah-paint and feathahs, just as you 
 fixed her up for a squaw that day we had an Indian 
 massacre in the grape arbour. I had forgotten that 
 we left her in such a fix ! " 
 
 "I'll never forget that day," answered Rob. 
 " Don't you remember how sore I made my arm, 
 trying to tattoo an anchor on it with a darning- 
 needle and clothes bluing? What else have you 
 buried in that old trunk ? " 
 
 Despite his six feet and seventeen years, Rob 
 dropped down on a roll of carpet beside the trunk,
 
 IN THE ATTIC 22J 
 
 and watched with interest as Lloyd lifted out one 
 article after another over which they had quarrelled, 
 or in whose pleasure they had shared in what now 
 seemed a dim and far-away playtime. Don't you 
 remember this? Don't you remember that? they 
 asked each other, finding so many things to laugh 
 over and recall that they quite forgot the object 
 of their search. 
 
 Lloyd was sitting with her back against the 
 warm chimney, which ran up through the middle 
 of the attic, but presently she began to feel chilly, 
 and sent Rob over to a chest, away back under the 
 eaves, for something to put around her. It was 
 packed full of old finery they had used on various 
 occasions for tableaux and plays. The first thing 
 he pulled out was a gorgeous red velvet cloak cov- 
 ered with spangles. 
 
 " That will do," she said, as he held it up in- 
 quiringly. " It's good and warm." 
 
 He pushed the chest back into place. Then, 
 straightening up, his glance fell on the discarded 
 playhouse, standing back in a dim corner. With 
 a whoop he pounced upon it. 
 
 " Here's old Watch ! " he exclaimed, holding up 
 the little iron dog. " And he is the bank where the 
 wild time grows, for here is the gift he is standing
 
 228 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 guard over." Throwing the spangled cloak over 
 Lloyd's shoulders, he seated himself again on the 
 roll of carpet, and began to untie the little package 
 fastened to the dog's neck with a bit of ribbon. In- 
 side many layers of tissue-paper, he came at last 
 to a memorandum-book, small enough to fit in his 
 vest-pocket. It was bound in soft gray kid, and 
 on the back Betty had burned in old English let- 
 ters, with her pyrography-needle, the motto of 
 Warwick Hall : " I keep the tryst." Over it was 
 the crest, a heart, out of which rose a mailed arm, 
 grasping a spear. 
 
 " Betty did that," said Lloyd. " She traced the 
 letters on first with tracmg-papah, and then burnt 
 them. I remembah now, she made it a few days 
 befoah we came home. She thought we would 
 have our usual tree, and she intended to hang this 
 on it for you. Then when we had the hunt in- 
 stead of a tree, she took this way of giving it to 
 you. That is an appropriate motto for a memo- 
 randum-book, isn't it? You'll appreciate it moah 
 when she tells you the story about it. Miss Chilton 
 read it to the English class one day, and had us 
 write it from memory for the next lesson." 
 
 " Then what's the matter with your telling it 
 to me?" asked Rob, eying the mailed hand and
 
 IN THE ATTIC 22<) 
 
 the spear with interest. " I'll be gone before Betty 
 gets back. Go on and tell it. This is an ideal time 
 and place for story-telling." 
 
 He leaned comfortably back against the warm 
 chimney and half-closed his eyes. The patter of 
 the rain on the roof made him drowsy. 
 
 " Well," assented Lloyd, " I can't tell it with 
 as many frills and flourishes as Betty could, but 
 I remembah it bettah than most stories, because I 
 had to write it from memory." Drawing the 
 glittering cloak closer around her, she began as 
 if she were reading it, in the very words of the 
 green and gold volume: 
 
 " ' Now there was a troubadour in the kingdom 
 of Arthur, who, strolling through the land with only 
 his minstrelsy to win him a way, found in every 
 baron's hall and cotter's hut a ready welcome/ " 
 
 Here and there she stumbled over some part of 
 it, or told it hesitatingly in her own words, but 
 at last she ended it as well as Betty herself could 
 have done: 
 
 " So Ederyn won his sovereign's favour, and, 
 by his sovereign's grace permitted, went back to
 
 230 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 woo the maiden and win her for his bride. Then 
 henceforth blazoned on his shield and helmet he 
 bore the crest, a heart with hand that grasped a 
 spear, and, underneath, the words, * I keep the 
 tryst* " 
 
 " That's a corking- good motto," said Rob as she 
 paused. " I like that story, Lloyd, and I'll remem- 
 ber it when I keep the engagements that I put down 
 in this little book." 
 
 He sat a moment, flipping the leaves and whis- 
 tling a bar from " The Old Oaken Bucket." 
 
 " Stop! " commanded Lloyd, suddenly, clapping 
 her hands over her ears, and making a wry face. 
 " You're off the key. Haven't I told you a thou- 
 sand times that it doesn't go that way? This 
 is it." 
 
 Puckering up her lips, she whistled the tune 
 correctly, and he joined in. At the end of the 
 chorus he looked at his watch!. 
 
 "It's been like old times this afternoon," he 
 said. " I'll tell you what, Lloyd, let's come up 
 here once a year after this, just to keep tryst with 
 our old playtimes. I'll put that down as the first 
 engagement in my memorandum-book. A year 
 from to-day we'll take another look at these things."
 
 IN THE ATTIC 2$l 
 
 "All right," assented Lloyd, cheerfully. Then 
 a wistful expression crept into her eyes as she 
 peered through the tiny attic window. Twilight 
 was falling early on account of the rain. A deep 
 gloom began to settle over her spirits also. 
 
 " Rob," she said, slowly, " I haven't told you 
 yet. I didn't want to spoil our aftahnoon by think- 
 ing about it any moah than I could help, and you 
 made me almost forget it for a little while. I 
 couldn't talk about it when you first came without 
 crying, this yeah is going to be such a long, hah'd 
 one. They aren't going to let me go back to school 
 aftah the holidays. The doctah says I am not 
 strong enough, and it is such an awful Dungeon 
 of Disappointment that it just breaks my hah't to 
 think about it." 
 
 To Rob's consternation she laid her head down 
 on old Belinda, who still lay limply across her lap, 
 and began to sob. He sat in embarrassed silence 
 for a moment, scarcely knowing her for the same 
 little companion whom he had taught to meet hurts 
 like a boy. He remembered the many times she 
 had winked back the tears over the bruises and 
 bumps and cuts she had encountered in following 
 his lead. He was bewildered by the unfamiliar 
 mood, and it hurt him to see her so grieved.
 
 232 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 " There ! there ! Don't cry, Lloyd ! " he begged, 
 hurt by the sight of the fair head bowed so dis- 
 mally over the old doll. " I know how it would 
 knock me out to have to stop now, just when I've 
 got into the swing of things, so I know just how 
 you feel. I'm mighty sorry." 
 
 Then, as the sobs continued : " I'd go off and 
 whip somebody if it would do any good, but it 
 won't. You'll have to brace up as Ederyn did, and 
 you'll get out of your dungeon all right." 
 
 There was no answer. School was so very dear, 
 and the disappointment so very bitter. It had all 
 surged over her again in a great wave. He tried 
 again. 
 
 " It's tough, I know, but it will be easier if you 
 take it as all the Lloyds have taken their troubles, 
 with your teeth set and your head up. Somehow, 
 that's the way I've always thought you would take 
 things. Don't cry, Lloyd. Don't! It breaks me 
 all up to see you this way, when you've always been 
 so game." 
 
 She straightened up and wiped her eyes, announc- 
 ing- suddenly : " And I'm going to be game now. 
 If there's one thing I nevah could beah, it was for 
 you to think I was a coward, and I can't have you 
 1 thinking it now. It's a sawt of tryst I've kept all
 
 IN THE ATTIC 2$$ 
 
 these yeahs, unconsciously, I suppose. Ever since 
 I was a little thing, if I thought ' Bobby expects it 
 of me,' I'd do it, no mattah what it was, from jump- 
 ing a fence to climbing on the chimney. I've lived 
 up to yoah expectations many a time at the risk 
 of killing myself." 
 
 " Indeed you have," he answered, in a tone of 
 hearty admiration. There was a tender light in 
 his gray eyes which she did not see, she was so 
 busy wiping her own. 
 
 " I'm done crying now," she announced, spring- 
 ing to her feet and thrusting Belinda back into the 
 trunk. " Come on, let's go down and pop some 
 cawn ovah the library fiah. Put this cloak away 
 first." 
 
 He pushed the chest back to its place under the 
 eaves and started after her, pulling out his hand- 
 kerchief as he went, to wipe away a stray cobweb 
 into which he had thrust his hand. It reminded him 
 of the story. 
 
 " You know," he suggested', consolingly, " there's 
 bound to be some way out of your dungeon. I'll 
 spend all the rest of the vacation helping you twist 
 cobwebs for your rope, if you like." 
 
 She made no answer then to his offer of assist- 
 ance. She felt that she could not steady her voice
 
 234 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 if she tried to speak her appreciation of his sym- 
 pathy. 
 
 So she called out, as she dashed past him : "As 
 Joyce used to say at the house pah'ty, ' the last one 
 down is a jibbering Ornithorhynchus ! ' ' 
 
 Away they went in a mad race, whose noisy 
 clatter made it seem to the old Colonel in his den 
 that the rafters were falling in. But on the land- 
 ing she paused an instant. 
 
 " It it helps a lot, Rob," she said, wistfully, 
 " to have you undahstand, to know that you 
 know how it hurts." 
 
 " I wish I could really help you," he answered, 
 earnestly. " You're a game little chum ! " 
 
 She flashed back a grateful smile from under her 
 wet eyelashes, and led the race on down the next 
 flight of stairs.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 HUMDRUM DAYS 
 
 ALL through the rest of that week, and through 
 New Year's Day, Lloyd managed to keep her reso- 
 lution bravely. Even when the time came for the 
 girls to go back to school without her, she went 
 through the farewells like a little Spartan, driving 
 down to the station with tearful Betty, who grieved 
 over Lloyd's disappointment as if it had been her 
 own. 
 
 When the train pulled out, with the four girls 
 on the rear platform, she stood waving her hand- 
 kerchief cheerily as long as she could see an an- 
 swering flutter. Then she turned away, catching 
 her breath in a deep indrawn sob, that might have 
 been followed by others if Rob had not been with 
 her. He saw her clench her hands and set her 
 teeth together hard, and knew what a fight she was 
 making to choke back the tears, but he wisely gave 
 no sign that he saw and sympathized. He only 
 235
 
 2$6 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 proposed a walk over to the blacksmith shop to see 
 the red fox that Billy Kerr had trapped and caged. 
 But a little later, when she had regained her self- 
 control and was poking a stick between the slats 
 of the coop where the fox was confined, to make 
 it stretch itself, he said, suddenly : 
 
 " By cricky, you were game, Lloyd ! If it had 
 been me, I couldn't have gone to the station and 
 watched the fellows go off without me, and joke 
 about it the way you did." 
 
 Lloyd went on rattling the stick between the slats 
 and made no answer, but Rob's approval brightened 
 her spirits wonderfully. It was not until the next 
 day, when he, too, went back to school, that she 
 fully realized how lonely her winter was going to 
 be. She strolled into her mother's room, and threw 
 herself listlessly into a chair by the window. 
 
 " What can I do, mothah ? I mustn't read long, 
 I mustn't study, Tarbaby is lame, so I can't ride, 
 and I've walked as far as I care to this mawning." 
 
 " What would you like to do? " asked Mrs. Sher- 
 man, who was dressing to go out. 
 
 " Nothing but things that I can't do," was the 
 fretful answer. " It would be lots of fun if I could 
 go out in the kitchen and beat eggs, and make cus- 
 tah'd pies and biscuits and things. I'd love to cook.
 
 HUMDRUM DAYS 237 
 
 I haven't had a chance since I was at Ware's Wig- 
 wam. But Aunt Cindy scolds and grumbles if any- 
 body so much as looks into the kitchen. She says 
 she won't have me messing around in her way." 
 
 " I know," sighed Mrs. Sherman. " Cindy is 
 getting more fussy and exacting every year. But 
 she has cooked for the family so long that she seems 
 to think the kitchen is hers. If she were not such 
 a superior cook, I wouldn't put up with her whims, 
 but in these days, when everybody is having so 
 much trouble with servants, we'll have to humour 
 her. She's a faithful old creature. You might cook 
 on the chafing-dish in the dining-room. There are 
 all sorts of things you could make on that." 
 
 Lloyd shrugged her shoulders impatiently. " But 
 not bread and pies and things you do with a rolling- 
 pin. That's the pah't I like." 
 
 She sat a moment, swinging her foot in silence, 
 and then broke out: 
 
 " If I were a girl in a story-book, this disappoint- 
 ment would turn me into such a saintly, helpful 
 creatuah that I'd be called "The Angel of the 
 Home.' I've read about such girls. They keep 
 things in ordah, and mend and dust and put flowahs 
 about, and make the house so bright and cheerful 
 that people wondah how they evah got along with-
 
 238 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 out them. Every time they turn around, there are 
 lovely, helpful things for them to do. But what 
 can / do in a big house like this moah than I've 
 always tried to do? I've tried to be considerate of 
 everybody's comfo't evah since I stah'ted out to 
 build a road of the loving hah't in everybody's 
 memory. The servants do everything heah, ancl 
 don't want to be interfered with. I wish we were 
 dead poah, and lived in a plain little cottage and 
 did our own work. Then I wouldn't have time 
 to get lonesome. I'd be lots happiah. 
 
 " One day, when Miss Gilmer and I were talking 
 about Ederyn in his Dungeon of Disappointment, 
 she said that we could always get out of our troubles 
 the same way that he did; that the cobwebs he 
 twisted into ropes were disagreeable to touch. No- 
 body likes to put their hands into dusty cobwebs, 
 and that they represent the disagreeable little tasks 
 that lie in wait for everybody. She said that, if 
 we'll just grapple the things that we dislike most 
 to do, the little homely every-day duties, and busy 
 ourselves with them, they'll help us to rise above 
 our discontent. I've been trying all mawning to 
 think of some such cobwebs for me to take hold 
 of, and there isn't a single one." 
 
 Mrs. Sherman smiled at the wobegone face
 
 HUMDRUM DAYS 239 
 
 turned toward her. "Fancy any one being mis- 
 erable over such a state of affairs as that ! " she 
 laughed. " Actually complaining because there's 
 nothing disagreeable for her to do! Well, we'll 
 have to look for some cobwebs to occupy you. 
 Maybe if you can't find them at home, you can 
 do like the old woman who was tossed up in a 
 basket, seventy times as high as the moon. Don't 
 you remember how Mom Beck used to sing it to 
 you? 
 
 * Old woman ! Old woman ! Old woman, said I, 
 O whither, O whither, O whither so high? 
 To sweep the cobwebs out of the sfyr, 
 But I'll be back again, by and by. 1 " 
 
 She trilled it gaily as she fastened her belt, and 
 took out her hat and gloves. 
 
 " Fate must have given her just such a cobweb- 
 less home as you have, and she had to soar high 
 to rise above her troubles. Come on, little girl, get 
 your hat and coat, and we'll go in search of some- 
 thing disagreeable for you to do; but I hope your 
 quest won't take you seventy times as high as the 
 moon." 
 
 They drove down to the store to attend to the 
 day's marketing. While Mrs. Sherman was order- 
 ing her groceries, Lloyd went to the back of the
 
 240 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 store, where one of the clerks was teaching tricks 
 to a bright little fox-terrier. She was so interested 
 in the performance that she did not know when 
 Miss Allison came in, or how long she and her 
 mother stood discussing her. 
 
 " Yes," said Mrs. Sherman, " she has been brave 
 about it. She never complained but once, and that 
 to me this morning. But we know how unhappy 
 she is. Jack and papa worry about her all the time. 
 They want me to take her to Florida. They think 
 she must be given some pleasure that will compen- 
 sate in a way for this disappointment. But it is not 
 at all convenient for me to leave home now, and 
 I feel that for her own good she should learn to 
 meet such things for herself. It would be far easier, 
 I acknowledge, if there was anything at home to 
 occupy her, but I cannot allow her to interfere with 
 Mom Beck's work, or Cindy's. They resent her 
 doing anything." She repeated the conversation 
 they had had that morning. 
 
 " Loan her to me for the rest of the day," said 
 Miss Allison. " I can show her plenty of cobwebs, 
 the kind she is pining for." 
 
 So it happened that a little later, when Miss 
 Allison crossed the road to the post-office, and 
 started up the path toward home, Lloyd was with
 
 HUMDRUM DAYS 24! 
 
 her, smiling happily over the prospect of spending 
 the day with the patron saint of all the Valley's 
 merrymakings. From Lloyd's earliest recollection, 
 Miss Allison had been the life of every party and 
 picnic in the neighbourhood. She was everybody's 
 confidante. Like Shapur, who gathered something 
 from the heart of every rose to fill his crystal vase, 
 so she had distilled from all these disclosures the 
 precious attar of sympathy, whose sweetness won 
 for her a way, and gained for her a welcome, wher- 
 ever she went. 
 
 As they turned in at the gate, Lloyd looked wist- 
 fully across at The Beeches, and her eyes filled with 
 tears. Miss Allison slipped her arm around her 
 and drew her close with a sympathetic clasp, as they 
 walked around the circle of the driveway leading 
 to the house. 
 
 " I know just how you feel, dear. Like the little 
 lame boy in that story of the ' Pied Piper of Hame- 
 lin.' Because he couldn't keep up with the others 
 when they followed the piper's tune, he had to sit 
 and watch them dance away without him, and dis- 
 appear into the mountainside. He was the only 
 child left in the whole town of Hamelin. It is 
 lonely for you, I know, with all the boys and girls 
 of your own age away at school. But think how
 
 242 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 much lonelier Hamelin would have been without 
 that child. You'll find out that old people can play, 
 too, though, if you'll take a hand in their games. 
 I want to teach you one after awhile, which I used 
 to enjoy very much, and still take pleasure in." 
 
 Miss Allison led the way up-stairs to her own 
 room. As they passed the door leading to the north 
 wing, Lloyd exclaimed : " I'll nevah forget that 
 time, the night of the Valentine pah'ty, when Gin- 
 gah and I went into the blue room, and the beah 
 that Malcolm and Keith had tied to the bed-post 
 rose up out of the dah'k and frightened us neahly 
 to death." 
 
 " We had some lively times that winter with 
 Virginia and the boys," answered Miss Allison. 
 " I kept a record of some of their sorriest mishaps. 
 Wait a minute until I speak to the housemaid, and 
 I'll see if I can find it." 
 
 Miss Allison had been wondering how she could 
 best entertain Lloyd, but the problem was solved 
 when she found the journal, in which she had writ- 
 ten the history of the eventful winter when her sis- 
 ter's little daughter Virginia and her brother's two 
 boys had been left in her charge. Lloyd had taken 
 part in many of the mischievous adventures, and she 
 sat smiling over the novelty of hearing herself de-
 
 HUMDRUM DAYS 243 
 
 scribed with all the imperious ways, naughty tem- 
 per, and winning charm that had been hers at the 
 age of eight. 
 
 " It is like looking at an old photograph of one- 
 self," she said, after awhile. " It seems so strange 
 to be one of the characters in a book, and listen to 
 stories about oneself." 
 
 " That reminds me of the game I spoke of," said 
 Miss Allison. " I invented it when I was about 
 your age. I had just read ' Cranford,' and the story 
 of life in that simple little village seemed so charm- 
 ing to me that I wished with all my heart I could 
 step into the book and be one of the characters, 
 and meet all the people that lived between its covers. 
 Then I heard some one say that there were more 
 interesting happenings and queer characters in 
 Lloydsboro Valley than in Cranford. So I began 
 to look around for them. I pretended that I was 
 the heroine of a book called ' Lloydsboro Valley,' 
 and all that summer I looked upon the people I 
 met as characters in the same story. 
 
 " It happened that all my young friends were 
 away that summer, and it would have been very 
 lonely but for my new game. The organist went 
 away, and, although I was only fifteen, I took her 
 place and played the little cabinet organ we used
 
 244 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 then in church and Sunday school. That threw me 
 much with the older people, for I had to go to 
 choir-practice to play the organ, and also attend 
 the missionary teas. Gradually they drew me into 
 a sewing-circle that was in existence then, and a 
 reading club. I found it was true that my own 
 little village really had far more interesting people 
 in it than any I had read about, and I learned to 
 love all the dear, cranky, gossipy old characters in 
 it, because I studied them so closely that I found 
 how good at heart they were despite their peculiari- 
 ties and foibles. 
 
 " That's what I want you to do this winter, 
 Lloyd. Join the little choir, and meet with the 
 King's Daughters, and learn to know these inter- 
 esting neighbours of yours. And," she added, smil- 
 ing, " I promise you that you'll find all the col> 
 webs you need to help haul you out of your dun- 
 geon." 
 
 " Oh, Miss Allison ! " exclaimed Lloyd, looking 
 horrified at the thought. "I couldn't sing in the 
 choir and join the King's Daughtahs and all that. 
 They're all at least twice as old as I am, and some 
 of them even moah." 
 
 " Yes, you can," insisted Miss Allison. " We 
 need your voice in the choir, and you need the new
 
 HUMDRUM DAYS 245 
 
 interest these things would bring into your life. So 
 don't say no until after you've given my game a 
 trial. The King's Daughters' Circle is to meet here 
 this afternoon, and I want you to help me. I'm 
 going to serve hot chocolate and wafers, and, as 
 long as it is such a cold, blowy day, I believe I'll 
 add some nut sandwiches to make the refreshments 
 a little more substantial." 
 
 Privately, Lloyd looked forward to the afternoon 
 as something stupid which she must face cheerfully 
 for Miss Allison's sake, but she found her interest 
 aroused with the first arrival. It was Libbie Simms, 
 whom she had known all her life, in a way, for she 
 could scarcely recall a Sabbath when she had not 
 looked across at the dull, homely face in the oppo- 
 site pew, and pitied her because of her queer nose 
 and mouse-coloured hair. In the same way she had 
 known Miss McGill, who came with Libbie. She 
 had simply been one of the congregation who had 
 claimed her attention for a moment each week, as 
 she minced down the aisle like an animated rainbow. 
 All she knew about Miss McGill was that she usu- 
 ally wore so many shades of purple and pink and 
 blue that the clashing colours set one's teeth on 
 edge. 
 
 But in five minutes Lloyd had forgotten their
 
 246 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 peculiarities of feature and dress, and was listening 
 with interest to their account of a call they had just 
 made in Rollington. They had been to see a poor 
 washerwoman who had five children to support. 
 The youngest, a baby who had fits, was very ill, 
 about to die. At the mention of Mrs. Crisp, Lloyd 
 recalled the forlorn little woman in a wispy crepe 
 veil, who had enlisted her sympathy to such an 
 extent one Thanksgiving Day that she and Betty 
 had walked over to Rollington from the Seminary 
 to carry the greater part of the turkey and fruit 
 that had been sent them in their box of Thanksgiv- 
 ing goodies. 
 
 There was so little poverty in the Valley that, 
 when any real case of suffering was discovered, it 
 was taken up with enthusiasm. Lloyd wondered 
 how she could have thought Libbie Simms so hope- 
 lessly ugly, when she saw her face light up with 
 unselfish interest in her poor neighbours, and heard 
 her suggestions for their relief. And her conscience 
 pricked her for making fun of Miss McGill's taste 
 when she saw how generous she was, and listened 
 to her humourous description of several things that 
 had happened in the Valley. She was certainly 
 entertaining, and looked at life through spectacles 
 as rose-coloured as her necktie.
 
 HUMDRUM DAYS 2tf 
 
 The library rilled rapidly, and soon a score of 
 needles were at work on the flannel garments in- 
 tended for the Crisp family. Lloyd, on a stool 
 between Katherine Marks and Mrs. Walton, sewed 
 industriously, interested in the buzz of conversation 
 all around her. 
 
 " This is not malicious gossip," explained Mrs. 
 Walton, in an amused undertone, smiling with 
 Lloyd and Katherine at a remark which uninten- 
 tionally reached their ears. " But in a little com- 
 munity like this, where little happens, and our in- 
 terests are bound so closely together, the smallest 
 details of our neighbours' affairs necessarily enter- 
 tain us. It is interesting to know that Mr. Rawles 
 and his great-aunt are not on speaking terms, and 
 it is positively exciting to hear that Mr. Wolf and 
 Mrs. Cayne quarrelled over the leaflets used in 
 Sunday school, and that she told him to his face 
 that he was a hypocrite and no better than an infidel. 
 It doesn't make us love these good people any the 
 less to know that they are human like ourselves, 
 and have their tempers and their spites and feuds. 
 We know their good side, too. Wait till calamity 
 or sickness touches some one of us, and, see how 
 kind and sympathetic and tender they all are ; every 
 one of them."
 
 248 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 " You'll hear more gossip here in one afternoon 
 than at all the Cranford tea-tables put together," 
 said Katherine Marks. " But it is a mild sort, 
 like the kir\d going on behind us." 
 
 Miss McGill, with her head close to Abby Car- 
 ter's, was saying : " Oh, but, my dear, he gets more 
 suspicious and foxy every day of his life. I don't 
 see how Emma Belle puts up with such a cranky 
 old father." 
 
 " I know," responded Abby. " They say he 
 drives the cook nearly distracted, going into the 
 kitchen every day and lifting the lids off all the 
 pots and pans to smell what's cooking for dinner. 
 Then he makes a fuss if it's not to his liking." 
 
 "Yes," responded Miss McGill, "but that isn't 
 a circumstance to some of his ways. I ran in there 
 last night a few minutes, to show Emma Belle a 
 pattern she wanted. He got it into his head we 
 were hiding something from him, and he actually 
 climbed up on the dining-room table and peeped 
 through the transom at us. I nearly fainted when 
 I happened to look up and saw that old monkey- 
 like face, with its dense, gloomy whiskers, looking 
 down at me. I just screamed and sat jibbering and 
 pointing at the transom. I couldn't help it. He 
 gave me such a turn, I didn't get over it all night.
 
 "'I NEARLY FAINTED WHEN I HAPPENED TO LOOK UP "
 
 HUMDRUM DAYS $4$ 
 
 Emma Belle was so mortified she didn't know what 
 to do. It isn't as if he was crazy. He's just mean. 
 That girl has the patience of a saint." 
 
 Before the afternoon was over, Lloyd decided 
 that Miss Allison was right. The Valley held a 
 number of interesting characters, whose acquaint- 
 ance was well worth cultivating if she wanted to 
 be entertained. Part of the time, while the needles 
 were flying, Mrs. Maclntyre read aloud. Miss Alli- 
 son called Lloyd into the dining-room when it was 
 time to serve the refreshments. 
 
 " I'm going to ask a favour of you, dear," she 
 said. " I want you to sing for us presently. No, 
 wait a minute," she added, hurriedly, as Lloyd drew 
 back with an exclamation of dismay. " Don't 
 refuse till you have heard why I ask it. It is on 
 account of Agnes Waring. These meetings are 
 the great social events of the winter to her. She 
 never gets to go anywhere else except to church. 
 She's passionately fond of music, and I always make 
 it a point to prepare a regular programme when 
 the Circle meets here. But all my musicians failed 
 me this time, and I cannot bear to disappoint her. 
 I know you are timid about singing before older 
 people, but this is one of the cobwebs I promised 
 to find for you. It will be disagreeable, but I have
 
 2 SO LITTLE COL6MEDS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 a good reason for thinking that you will find it 
 the first strand of the rope that is to lift you out 
 of your dungeon. I'll tell you some things about 
 Agnes after awhile that will make you glad you 
 have had such an opportunity." 
 
 When Lloyd went back to the library, bearing 
 a pile of snowy napkins, she stole several glances 
 at Agnes Waring in her journey around the room 
 to distribute them. All that she knew of her was 
 that she was the youngest of three sisters who 
 sewed for their living. She was almost as slim and 
 girlish in figure as Lloyd, although she was nearly 
 twice as old. She had kept the timid, shrinking 
 manner that she had when a child. That and her 
 appealing big blue eyes, and almost babyish com- 
 plexion, made her seem much younger than she 
 was. It was a sensitive, refined face that Lloyd 
 kept glancing at, one that would have been re- 
 markably pretty had it not been so sad. 
 
 Lloyd had sung in public several times, but al- 
 ways in some play, when the costume which she 
 wore seemed to change her to the character she 
 personated. That made it easier. It was one of 
 the hardest things she had ever done, to stand up 
 before these twenty ladies who had been exchang- 
 ing criticisms so freely all afternoon, on every sub-
 
 HUMDR UM DAYS 2$l 
 
 ject mentioned, and sing- the songs which Miss 
 Allison chose for her from the Princess play : The 
 Dove Song, with its high, sweet trills of " Flutter 
 and fly," and the one beginning: 
 
 rt My godmother bids me spin, 
 That my heart may not be sad. 
 Sing and spin for my brother's sake, 
 And the spinning makes me glad." 
 
 It was with a very red face that she slipped into 
 her seat after it was over, surprised and pleased 
 by the applause she received. They were all so 
 cordial in their appreciation, that presently she was 
 persuaded into doing what Miss Allison had sug- 
 gested. When the circle broke up she had con- 
 sented to join the choir, and to meet with them the 
 next Friday night, when they went to the Mallards' 
 to practise. 
 
 The carriage came for her soon after the last 
 guest departed, and Miss Allison stepped in beside 
 her to take the finished garments over to Rolling- 
 ton. It was the quaintest of little villages, settled 
 entirely by Irish families. Only one lone street 
 straggled over the hill, but it was a long one with 
 little whitewashed cabins and cottages thickly set 
 along each side. Mrs. Crisp's was the first one on 
 the street, after they left the Lloydsboro pike. It
 
 2$2 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 was clean, but not half so large or comfortable as 
 the negro servants' quarters at Locust. 
 
 It was so late that Miss Allison did not go in, 
 only stopped at the door to leave the bundle and 
 inquire about the baby, promising to come again 
 next morning. Lloyd had a glimpse of the two 
 children next in age to the baby. They were play- 
 ing on the floor with a doll made of a corn-cob 
 wrapped in a towel, and a box of empty spools. 
 
 " Just think ! " she exclaimed as she climbed 
 into the carriage again. " A cawn-cob doll ! And 
 the attic at home is full of toys that I don't care 
 for! I'm going to pick out a basketful to-morrow 
 and bring them down to these children. And did 
 you see that poah little Minnie Crisp? Only eight 
 yeahs old, and doing the work of a grown woman. 
 She was getting suppah while her mothah tended 
 to the sick baby. Oh, I wondah," she cried, her 
 face lighting up with the thought. " I wondah if 
 Mrs. Crisp would mind if I'd come down to-mor- 
 row and cook dinnah for them. That's what I've 
 been crazy to do, to cook. I could bring eggs 
 and sugah and all the materials, and make lemon pie 
 and oystah soup and potato croquettes. I know 
 how to make lots of things. Oh, do you suppose 
 she would be offended? "
 
 HUMDRUM DAYS 2$3 
 
 " Not in the least," responded Miss Allison, 
 heartily. " She is a very sensible little woman 
 who is nearly worn out in her struggle with poverty 
 and sickness. She has been too proud and brave 
 to accept help before, when she was able to stagger 
 along under her own burden, but now she will 
 be very grateful. And the children will look upon 
 you as a wonderful mixture of Santa Claus, fairy 
 godmother, and Aladdin's lamp." 
 
 Then she turned to peer into the happy face 
 beside her. 
 
 " Here are your cobwebs ! " she exclaimed, gaily. 
 " A whole skyful, and you can sweep away to your 
 heart's content. You need have no more humdrum 
 days unless you choose." 
 
 Lloyd looked back at the cottage where four 
 towheads at the window watched the departing 
 carriage. Then with a smile she leaned out and 
 waved her hand.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF AMANTHIS 
 
 LLOYD hurried down the road to the post-office, 
 her cheeks almost as red as her coat from her brisk 
 walk in the wintry air. It was too cold to saunter, 
 or she would have made the errand last as long as 
 possible. There would be nothing to do after she 
 had called for the mail. The day before she had 
 had her visit to Mrs. Crisp to fill the morning. It 
 brought a pleasant thrill now to think of the little 
 woman's gratitude and the children's pleasure in 
 the dinner she had cooked in the clean bare kitchen. 
 She wished she could go every day and repeat the 
 performance, but her family would not allow it. 
 They said it was just as injurious for her to waste 
 her strength in charity as it was in study, and she 
 must be more temperate in her enthusiasms. 
 
 She wished that Miss Mattie would invite her 
 into the tiny office behind the rows of pigeonholes 
 and letter-boxes, and let her sit by the window 
 2 54
 
 IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF AM AN THIS 2$$ 
 
 awhile. Just watching people pass would be some 
 amusement, more than she could find at home. 
 
 She was passing the Bisbee place as she made 
 the wish. It was a white frame house standing 
 near the road, and commanding a view of both 
 station and store, as well as the approach to the 
 post-office. To her surprise, some one tapped on 
 the pane of an up-stairs window. Then the sash' 
 flew up, and Mrs. Bisbee called in her thin, flutter- 
 ing voice: "Lloyd! Lloyd Sherman! If you're 
 going to the post-office, I wish you'd ask if there 
 is anything for me. I don't dare set foot out-of- 
 doors this cold weather." 
 
 Then, fearful of draughts, she banged the win- 
 dow down without waiting for a reply. Lloyd 
 smiled and nodded, glad of an opportunity to be 
 of service. As she hurried on, she remembered 
 that Miss Allison had spoken of this gentle little 
 old lady, with her fluttering voice and placid smile, 
 as one of the most interesting and " Cranfordy " 
 characters in the Valley, and that, while she never 
 went out in the winter, and seldom in the summer, 
 except to church, she kept such a sharp eye on the 
 neighbourhood happenings from the watch-tower 
 of her window that Mrs. Walton laughingly called 
 it the " Window in Thrums,"
 
 2$6 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 It was with the feeling that she was stepping 
 into a story that Lloyd opened the gate five min- 
 utes later and started up the path. A vigorous tap- 
 ping on the window above, and a beckoning hand 
 motioned her to come up-stairs. Hesitating an in- 
 stant on the porch, she opened the front door and 
 stepped into the hall. 
 
 " Do come up ! " called the old lady, plaintively, 
 from the head of the stairs. " I've been wishing 
 so hard for company that I believe my wishing 
 must have drawn you. Now that daughter is mar- 
 ried and gone, I get so lonesome, with Mr. Bisbee 
 in town all day, that I often find myself talking 
 to myself just for the sake of sociability. Not a 
 soul has been in for the last two days, and usually 
 I have callers from morning till night. This is such 
 a good dropping-in place, you know. So central 
 that I see and hear everything." 
 
 She ushered Lloyd into a room gay with big- 
 flowered chintz curtains, and quaint with old-fash- 
 ioned carved furniture. There was a high four- 
 poster bed in one corner, with a chintz valance 
 around it, and pink silk quilled into the tester. The 
 only modern thing in the room was a tiled grate, 
 piled full of blazing coals. ' It threw out such a 
 summer-like heat that Lloyd amost gasped. She
 
 IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF AMANTHIS 2$7 
 
 was glad to accept Mrs. Bisbee's invitation to take 
 off her coat and gloves. She moved her chair back 
 as far as possible into the bay-window. 
 
 " I reckon you feel it's pretty warm in here," 
 said Mrs. Bisbee. " I have to keep it that way 
 so that I can sit over here against the window with- 
 out catching cold. I couldn't afford to miss all 
 that's going on in the street. It's my only amuse- 
 ment" 
 
 She drew her work-basket toward her and picked 
 up the quilt pieces she had laid down when she 
 went to welcome Lloyd. She was making a silk 
 quilt of the tea-chest pattern, and the basket was 
 full of bright silk scraps and pieces of ribbon. 
 
 "It's like a panorama, I tell Mr. Bisbee. Oh, 
 by the way, I've been aching to find out. Where 
 did you all go that day just before Christmas when 
 you started off, a whole party of you, traipsing 
 down the road with a new saucepan and baskets 
 and things ? I heard you had a picnic in the snow. 
 Is that so? " 
 
 Lloyd really gasped this time, but not from the 
 heat. She was so surprised that Mrs. Bisbee should 
 have taken such an interest in her affairs, or in 
 any of the unimportant doings of their set, as to 
 remember them longer than the passing moment.
 
 258 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 Mrs. Bisbee was associated in Lloyd's mind with 
 solemn churchly things, like the Gothic-backed pul- 
 pit chairs or the sombre brown pews. Lloyd had 
 never seen her before, except when she was singing 
 hymns, or sitting with meekly folded hands through 
 sermon-time. It was almost as surprising to find 
 that she was inquisitive and interested in human 
 happenings as it would have been to discover that 
 the ivy-covered belfry kept an eye on her. 
 
 In the midst of her description of the picnic, 
 Mrs. Bisbee leaned forward and peered eagerly out 
 of the window over her spectacles. 
 
 " I don't want to interrupt you," she said ; " I 
 just wanted to make sure that that was Caleb Co- 
 burn out again. He has been house-bound with 
 rheumatism ever since Thanksgiving." 
 
 Lloyd looked out in time to see a tall, stoop- 
 shouldered man with a bushy beard go slowly 
 across the road. He was buttoned up in a heavy 
 overcoat, and limped along with the aid of two 
 canes. 
 
 " He's the queerest old fellow," commented Mrs. 
 Bisbee, looking after him, with a gentle shake of 
 the head. " Lately he has taken to knitting, to 
 pass the time."
 
 IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF AMANTtfIS 2$$ 
 
 " To knitting ! " echoed Lloyd, in amazement. 
 "That big man?" 
 
 " Yes. He calls it hooking. He has a needle 
 made out of a ham bone. Fancy now! Daughter 
 said it was the funniest thing in life to see him 
 propped up in bed with a striped skull-cap on, hook- 
 ing his wife a shawl." 
 
 Lloyd laughed, but she followed the stooped 
 figure with a glance of sympathy. She knew from 
 experience how hard it was to spend the time in 
 enforced idleness. Old Mr. Coburn had always 
 been a familiar figure to her. She recognized him 
 on the road as she did the trees and the houses 
 which she passed daily, but he had never aroused 
 her interest any more than they. Now the knowl- 
 edge that he was lonely like herself, so lonely that, 
 big, bearded man as he was, he had learned to knit 
 in order to occupy the dull days, seemed to put 
 them on a common footing. 
 
 Lloyd took a long step forward out of her child- 
 hood that morning when she wakened to the fact 
 that some things are as hard to bear at fifty as at 
 fifteen. With a dawning interest she watched the 
 people of the Valley go by, one by one, people 
 whom she had passed heretofore as she had passed 
 the fence-posts on the road. It could never be so
 
 26O LITTLE COLONEL 'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 again, for henceforth she would see them in a new 
 light, the light of understanding and sympathy 
 shed on them by Mrs. Bisbee's choice bits of gossip 
 or scraps of personal history. 
 
 She had watched the procession for nearly an 
 hour, when Agnes Waring suddenly turned the 
 corner, and went into the store with a bundle in 
 her arms. Mrs. Bisbee, pausing in the act of 
 threading a needle, looked out again over her spec- 
 tacles. 
 
 " There goes a girl I'm certainly sorry for. She 
 is a born lady, and comes of as good a family as 
 anybody in the Valley, but she has to work harder 
 than any darkey in Lloydsboro. She's up at four 
 o'clock these winter mornings, milks the cow, chops 
 wood, gets breakfast, and maybe walks two or 
 three miles with a big bundle like that, taking home 
 sewing, or going out to fit a dress for somebody." 
 
 Miss Allison had already awakened Lloyd's in- 
 terest in Agnes, and she leaned forward to watch 
 her, while Mrs. Bisbee went on. 
 
 " She's never had any of the pleasures that most 
 girls have. To my certain knowledge she's never 
 had a beau or been to a big party or travelled far- 
 ther than Louisville. I suppose you could count 
 on the fingers of one hand the times she has been
 
 IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF AMANTHIS 26 1 
 
 on a train. She's wild about music, but she's never 
 had any advantages. By the way, she was in here 
 the day after the King's Daughters met at Allison 
 Maclntyre's, to fit a wrapper on me. Knowing 
 how few outings she has, I encouraged her to talk 
 it all over, as I knew she was glad to do. I declare 
 she made as much of it as if it had been the gov- 
 ernor's ball. She told me how much she enjoyed 
 your singing. She said that, if there was any one 
 person in the world whom she envied more than 
 another, it was Lloyd Sherman. Not for your looks 
 or the handsome things you have (for the Valley 
 is full of pretty girls, and many of them are 
 wealthy), but for the advantages you have had in 
 the way of music and travel. 
 
 " They have an old piano, about all that was 
 saved out of the wreck when their father lost his 
 fortune. She'd give her eyes to be able to play 
 on it. But she wasn't much more than a baby 
 when her father died, so she missed the advantages 
 the older girls had. You see she is twenty years 
 younger than Marietta, and nearly twenty-five 
 years younger than Sarah. Poor Agnes! I sup- 
 pose she will never know anything but work and 
 poverty. It's too bad, such a sweet, refined girl, 
 and as proud as she is poor."
 
 262 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 Lloyd echoed Mrs. Bisbee's sympathetic sigh, 
 as she looked after the hurrying figure in its worn 
 jacket and shabby shoes. She was just coming out 
 of the store again. 
 
 " I feel so sorry for her sistahs, too," she ven- 
 tured. " I nevah knew till the othah day that Miss 
 Marietta has been an invalid so long. Miss Alli- 
 son told me she had been in bed for fifteen yeahs ! 
 It's awful ! Why, that is as long as my whole life- 
 time has been." 
 
 " She was to have been married," began Mrs. 
 Bisbee, pouring out the romance at which Miss 
 Allison had only hinted. " She was engaged to 
 Murray Cathright, one of the finest young lawyers 
 I ever knew, steady as a meeting-house. He had 
 the respect and confidence of everybody. Well, 
 Marietta had her trousseau all ready, and a beautiful 
 one it was. Her father had sent to Paris for the 
 wedding-gown, and all her linen was hand-em- 
 broidered by the nuns in some French convent. 
 
 " They certainly had all that heart could wish 
 in those days. It is a pity that Agnes was too 
 young to enjoy her share of luxuries. Well, just 
 a week before the time set for the wedding, Murray 
 Cathright mysteriously disappeared. He had gone 
 away on a short business trip. His family traced
 
 tJV THE FOOTSTEPS OF AMANTHIS 26$ 
 
 him to a hotel in Pittsburg, and then lost all clue, 
 except that just before leaving the hotel he had 
 asked the clerk for the time-tables of an Eastern 
 railroad. There was a terrible wreck on that road 
 that same night. The entire train went through 
 a bridge into the river, and they thought he must 
 have been swept away with the unidentified dead. 
 But it was months before Marietta would believe 
 it. 
 
 " She acted as if her mind were a little touched 
 all that summer. Used to dress up every evening 
 in the clothes he had liked best, with a flower in 
 her hair, and go down to the honeysuckle arbour 
 to wait for him. She'd sit there and wait and wait 
 all alone, until her father'd go down and lead her 
 in. The next day she'd go through the same per- 
 formance. It ended in a spell of brain fever. She 
 came out of that with her mind all right, but she 
 never was strong again. After all the rest of their 
 troubles came, she had a stroke of paralysis. It's 
 left her so she can't walk. But she can lie there 
 and make buttonholes and pull basting threads. 
 She's a perfect marvel, she's so patient and cheerful. 
 People like to go there just on that account. You'd 
 never know she had a trouble to hear her talk. But 
 I know what she's suffered, and I know that she
 
 264 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 still keeps the wedding-gown. It's laid away in 
 rose leaves for her to be buried in." 
 
 Mrs. Bisbee paused and spread out the finished 
 quilt-piece on her knee, patting it approvingly be- 
 fore choosing the scraps for another block. Then 
 she wiped her spectacles. " Sometimes I don't 
 know which I'm the sorriest for, Marietta, who had 
 such a good man for a lover as Murray Cathright 
 was, and lost him, or Agnes, who's never had any- 
 thing." 
 
 " Why don't people invite her out and give her 
 a good time? " asked Lloyd. " Her being a seam- 
 stress oughtn't to make any difference to old family 
 friends, when she's such a lady." 
 
 " It doesn't," answered Mrs. Bisbee. " People 
 used to be nice to those girls, and they were always 
 invited everywhere at first. But after awhile there 
 was Marietta always in bed, and Agnes a mere 
 baby, and poor Miss Sarah with the burden of their 
 support. She had only her needle to keep the wolf 
 from the door. She couldn't accept invitations 
 then. There was no time. Gradually people 
 stopped asking her. She dropped out of the social 
 life of the Valley so completely that Agnes grew 
 up without any knowledge of it. All she has 
 known has been hard work. Miss Allison has tried
 
 IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF AMANTHIS 26$ 
 
 to draw her into things, but the older sisters are 
 proud, as I said. Agnes cannot dress suitably, and 
 they can make no return of hospitalities, so she 
 has never ventured into anything more than the 
 King's Daughters' Circle." 
 
 "There's Alec with the carriage!" exclaimed 
 Lloyd. " He's stopping at the stoah. If I hurry, 
 I can ride back home. I've stayed so long that 
 mothah will wondah what has become of me." 
 
 "Don't go! " begged Mrs. Bisbee, as Lloyd be- 
 gan drawing on her coat. "1 don't know when 
 I've enjoyed a morning so much. Since daughter's 
 married and gone I miss her young friends so 
 much. She used to have the house full of them 
 from morning till night. Now I fairly pine for 
 the sight of a fresh young face sometimes. You've 
 livened me up more than you can know. Do come 
 again ! " 
 
 Lloyd went away highly pleased by her cordial 
 reception. She had enjoyed being talked to as if 
 she were grown, and these glimpses into the lives 
 of her neighbours were more interesting than any 
 her books could give her. When she passed the 
 lane leading up to the house where the three sis- 
 ters lived, she wished that she could turn over a 
 leaf and read more about them. She wondered
 
 266 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 if Miss Marietta ever took out the beautiful wed- 
 ding-dress that was to be her shroud. She mused 
 over the newly discovered romance all the way 
 home. 
 
 If it had not been for that morning's call, and 
 the interest it aroused in her neighbours, several 
 things might not have happened, which afterward 
 'followed each other like links in a chain. Probably 
 Miss Sarah would have walked up to Locust just 
 the same, to take home a wrapper she had finished, 
 and not finding Mrs. Sherman at home would have 
 stepped inside the door a moment to warm by the 
 dining-room fire; and Lloyd, with the courtesy 
 that never failed her, would have been as graciously 
 polite as her mother could have been. But if it 
 had not been for the interest in her that Mrs. Bis- 
 bee's story gave, several other happenings might 
 not have followed. 
 
 As Lloyd looked at the gray-haired woman on 
 whom toil and poverty and care had left their 
 marks, and remembered there had been a time when 
 Miss Sarah had been as tenderly cared for as her- 
 self, a sudden pity surged up into her heart. She 
 longed to lighten her load in some way, and to 
 give back to her for a moment at least the comforts 
 she had lost. With a quick gesture she motioned
 
 IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF AMANTHIS 267 
 
 her away fom the dining-room door. " No, come 
 in heah ! " she exclaimed, leading the way into the 
 drawing-room, and pushing a big armchair toward 
 the fire. 
 
 Blue and cold from her long walk against the 
 wind, Miss Sarah sank down among the soft cush- 
 ions and leaned back luxuriously. 
 
 " It's so ti'ahsome walking against the wind," 
 exclaimed the Little Colonel. " When I came in 
 awhile ago, I was puffing and blowing. I'm going 
 to make you a cup of hot tea. That's what mothah 
 always takes. No! It won't be any trouble" she 
 exclaimed, as Miss Sarah protested. " It will be 
 the biggest kind of a pleasuah. It will give me a 
 chance to use mothah's little tea-ball. I deahly 
 love to wiggle it around in the cup and see the 
 watah po'ah out of all the little holes. I've been 
 wishing somebody would come, or that I had some- 
 thing to do. Now you have granted both wishes. 
 I can have a regulah little tea-pah'ty. Excuse me 
 just a minute, please." 
 
 Left to herself, Miss Sarah sat looking around 
 at the handsome furnishings : the thick Persian 
 rugs, the old portraits, the tall, burnished harp in 
 the corner, the bowl of hothouse violets on the 
 table at her elbow, until Lloyd returned, bearing a
 
 268 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 toasting fork and a plate of thinly sliced bread. 
 Miss Sarah turned toward her with wistful eyes. 
 
 " I have always loved this old room," she said. 
 " This is the first time I have been in it for twenty 
 years. It is an old friend. I have spent many 
 happy hours here in your grandmother's day. She 
 was always entertaining the young people of the 
 Valley. Sometimes that time seems so far away 
 that I wonder if it was not all a dream. It was 
 a very beautiful dream, at any rate. I often wish 
 Agnes could have had a share in it. She has missed 
 so much in not having her friendship." 
 
 She nodded toward the portrait over the mantel. 
 " Amanthis Lloyd was my ideal woman when I was 
 a young girl like yourself," she added, softly, with 
 her eyes on the beautiful features above her. 
 
 " I have missed so much, too," said Lloyd, fol- 
 lowing Miss Sarah's gaze. " And yet it seems to 
 me I must have known her. The portrait has al- 
 ways seemed alive to me. I used to talk to it 
 sometimes when I was a little thing, and I nevah 
 could beah to look at it when I had been naughty. 
 I wish you would tell me about her." 
 
 She knelt on the hearth-rug as she spoke, and 
 held the long toasting-fork toward the fire. 
 " Mothah and grand fathah often talk about her,
 
 IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF AMANTHIS 269 
 
 but they don't tell the same things that one outside 
 of 'the family might." 
 
 By the time the toast was delicately browned 
 and buttered, Mom Beck came in with the tea- 
 tray, and placed it on the table beside the bowl of 
 violets. 
 
 " Good ! " exclaimed Lloyd, seating herself on 
 the other side of the table as the old woman left 
 the room. " I didn't think to tell her to bring cold 
 turkey and strawberry preserves and fruit cake, but 
 she remembered that I didn't eat much lunch, and 
 she is always trying to tempt my appetite. She's 
 the best old soul that evah was. Oh, Miss Sarah, 
 I'm so glad you came. I haven't had a pah'ty like 
 this for ages. Heah! I'll let you wiggle the tea- 
 ball in yoah own cup, so that you can make it as 
 strong as you like, because you're company." 
 
 The dimples deepened playfully in her cheeks 
 as she passed the tea-ball across the table. Miss 
 Sarah smiled, although her eyes felt misty. " You 
 dear child ! " she exclaimed. " That was Amanthis 
 Lloyd all over again. She never reached out and 
 gave pleasure to other people as if she were bestow- 
 ing a favour. She always made it seem as if it 
 were only her own pleasure which you were enhanc- 
 ing by sharing. You don't know what an interest
 
 2/O LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 I have taken in you for her sake, as I've watched 
 you growing up here in the Valley. I used to hear 
 remarks about your temper and your imperious 
 ways, and day after day, as I've watched you ride 
 past the house beside your grandfather, sitting up 
 in the same straight, haughty way, I've thought 
 she's well named. She's the Colonel over again. 
 
 " But to-day, in this old room, you are startlingly 
 like her in some way, I can hardly tell what." She 
 glanced up again at the portrait. " Your eyes look 
 at me in the same understanding sort of way. They 
 almost unseal the silence of twenty years. I have 
 never said this to any one else. But I used to look 
 at her sometimes and think that George Eliot must 
 have meant her when she wrote in her ' Choir 
 Invisible ' of one who could ' be to other souls the 
 cup of strength in some great agony.' She was 
 that to me. People always used to go to her with 
 their troubles." 
 
 Lloyd bent over her cup, her face flushing. 
 " Then I'm so glad you think I'm even a little bit 
 like her," she said, softly. " Nobody evah told 
 me that befoah. I've always wanted to be." 
 
 The thought gave her a glow of pleasure all 
 through the meal. Long after Miss Sarah went 
 away, warmed and quickened in heart as well as
 
 IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF AMANTHIS 2JI 
 
 body, it lingered with her. Afterward it prompted 
 her to pause before the portrait with a questioning 
 glance into the clear eyes above her. 
 
 " ' The cup of strength to other souls in some 
 great agony/ " she repeated. " And you were that ! 
 Oh, I would love to be, too, if I didn't have to 
 suffer too much first to learn how to sympathize and 
 comfort. Maybe that is what I am to learn from 
 this wintah's disappointment, a way to help 
 othah people beah their disappointments. If I 
 could do that," she whispered, looking wistfully 
 at the face above her, "if only one person in the 
 world could remembah me as Miss Sarah remem- 
 bahs you, you beautiful Grandmothah Amanthis, 
 it would be worth all the misahable time I have 
 had." 
 
 Then she turned suddenly and went into the 
 library to look for the poem Miss Sarah had quoted. 
 She had never taken the volume from the shelves 
 before. She did not care for poetry as Betty did, 
 and it took her some time to find the lines she was 
 looking for. But when she found them, she took 
 the book back to the drawing-room, and read the 
 page again and again, with a quick bounding of 
 the pulses as she realized that here in words was 
 the ambition which she had often felt vaguely stir-
 
 2/2 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 ring within her. Even if she could not reach the 
 highest ones, and be " the cup of strength," or 
 " make undying music in the world," she could at 
 least attempt the other aims it held forth. She 
 could at least try " to ease the burden of the world." 
 She could live " in scorn for miserable aims that 
 end with self." 
 
 With the book open on her lap, and her hands 
 clasped around her knees, she sat looking steadily 
 into the fire. She did not know what a long, long 
 step she was taking out of childhood that afternoon, 
 nor that the sweet seriousness of her new purpose 
 shone in her upturned face. But when the old 
 Colonel came into the room and found her sitting 
 there in the firelight, he paused and then glanced 
 up at the portrait. He was almost startled by the 
 striking resemblance, a likeness of expression 
 that he had never noticed before.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 LLOYD sat on the window-seat of the stair-land- 
 ing, looking out on the bare February landscape. 
 She was thinking of the poem she had learned three 
 weeks before, on the afternoon of Miss Sarah's 
 visit, and it made her dissatisfied. When one was 
 all a-tingle, as she had been, with a high purpose 
 to help ease the burden of the world and make un- 
 dying music in it, and when one longed to do big, 
 heroic deeds and had ambitions high enough to 
 reach the stars, it was hard to be content with the 
 commonplace opportunities that came her way. 
 
 The things she had been doing seemed so paltry. 
 To carry a glass of jelly to the Crisps, a pot of 
 pink hyacinths to Miss Marietta, to write a letter 
 for Aunt Cindy, to sit for an hour with Mrs. Bis- 
 bee, these all were so trivial and pitifully small 
 that she felt a sense of disgust with herself and 
 her efforts. Yawning and swinging her foot, she 
 sat in the window-seat several minutes longer, then 
 273
 
 2/4 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 started aimlessly up-stairs to her room. In the 
 upper hall the door leading into the attic stairway 
 stood open, and for no reason save that she had 
 nothing else to do, she began to mount the steps. 
 She had not been up in the attic since Christmas 
 week, when she and Rob had gone to finish his 
 Christmas hunt. 
 
 She stood looking around her an instant, then, 
 moved by some unaccountable impulse, drew out 
 the chest containing the fancy-dress costumes they 
 had used in so many plays and tableaux. One by 
 one she shook them out and hung them over Rob's 
 headless hobby-horse, when she had finished ex- 
 amining them. There were the velvet knickerbock- 
 ers and blouse she had worn as Little Boy Blue at 
 the Hallowe'en party at the Seminary. There was 
 Betty's Dresden Shepherdess dress, and the god- 
 mother's gown, and the long trailing robe of the 
 Princess Winsome. Even the little tulle dress she 
 had worn as the Queen of Hearts at Ginger's Val- 
 entine party, years ago, came out of the chest as 
 she dived deeper into its contents, and a star-span- 
 gled costume of red, white, and blue, in which she 
 had fluttered as the Goddess of Liberty one Fourth 
 of July. 
 
 Slippers and buckles and plumes, fans and gloves
 
 CINDERELLA " 2/5 
 
 and artificial flowers, were piled up all around her. 
 The hobby-horse was hidden under a drapery of 
 velvet and lace and silk. Still the chest held a num- 
 ber of old party gowns that had never been cut 
 down to fit their childish revels. 
 
 As Lloyd shook them out, thinking of the gay 
 scenes they had been a part of, the picture of Agnes 
 Waring in her worn jacket and shabby shoes 
 flashed across her mind, followed by Mrs. Bisbee's 
 remark : " She's never had any of the pleasures 
 that most girls have. Twenty-five years old, and 
 to my certain knowledge she's never had a beau 
 or been to a big party, or travelled farther than 
 Louisville." 
 
 Lloyd pressed her lips together and stood staring 
 at the old finery around her, thinking hard. A 
 sudden vision had come to her of this modern Cin- 
 derella, and of herself as the fairy godmother. Her 
 eyes shone and her cheeks grew pink as she stood 
 pondering. If she could only make an occasion, 
 it would be easy enough to provide the coach and 
 the costume, even the glass slippers. There lay a 
 pair of white satin ones, beaded in tiny crystal 
 beads that shone like dewdrops. Suppose she 
 should play godmother and send Agnes to a ball. 
 Suppose the shy, timid girl should look so fine in
 
 276 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 her fine feathers that people would stare at her and 
 wonder who that beautiful creature was. Suppose 
 a prince should be there who never would have 
 noticed her but for the magic glass slippers, and 
 then suppose 
 
 Lloyd did not put the rest of the delightful day- 
 dream into words, but just stood thinking about 
 it a long time, until her expression grew very sweet 
 and tender over a little romance which she dreamed 
 might grow out of her plan to give Agnes pleasure. 
 
 " If I only had thought of it in time to have had 
 a Valentine pah'ty," she exclaimed aloud, " that 
 would have been the very thing. But it is too late 
 now. This is the seventeenth." Then she clasped 
 her hands delightedly as that date suggested an- 
 other. " It is five days till Washington's Birthday. 
 Maybe there will be time to get up a Martha Wash- 
 ington affair. I'll ask Miss Allison about it this 
 very night at choir practice. She always has so 
 many new ideas." 
 
 Tumbling the costumes back into the trunk, 
 helter-skelter, she danced down the stairs, impa- 
 tient to tell her mother about it. But there were 
 guests in the library who had been invited to spend 
 the afternoon and stay to dinner, and Lloyd had 
 no opportunity to speak of the subject that was
 
 " CINDERELLA " 2// 
 
 uppermost in her thoughts. Immediately after din- 
 ner she excused herself, to slip into her red coat 
 and furs, while Mom Beck lighted the lantern they 
 were to carry. 
 
 It was only a short distance to the Mallard place, 
 where the choir was to meet that week, so they did 
 not need Alec's escort this time. The wind flared 
 their lantern as they went along the quiet country 
 road. They could see other lights bobbing along 
 toward them, and, as they neared the gate, Lloyd 
 recognized Mrs. Walton's voice. She and Miss 
 Allison were coming up with their brother Harry. 
 
 " Is that you, Lloyd ? " called Mrs. Walton, as 
 they drew nearer. " I hoped you would come early, 
 for I have a letter from the girls that I know you 
 will want to read. They are full of preparations 
 for a grand affair to be given on the twenty-second, 
 a Martha Washington reception. As usual, 
 Kitty wants to depart from the accustomed order 
 of things, and have a costume in George's honour, 
 instead of Martha's. She says why not, as long 
 as it is his birthday. She's painted a picture of 
 the dress she has concocted for the occasion. It 
 is green tarlatan dotted all over with little silver 
 paper hatchets, and trimmed with garlands and 
 bunches of artificial cherries."
 
 2/8 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 " Oh, I'm so glad you brought the pictuah with 
 you to-night!" exclaimed Lloyd. "And I'm wild 
 to see the lettah. Kitty always writes such funny 
 ones. And I'm glad I met you out heah befoah 
 the choir practice begins. I want to ask you about 
 a celebration I have been planning. It's for Agnes 
 Waring," she explained, catching step with them 
 as they turned in at the gate. " So of co'se I can't 
 talk about it befoah all the othah people. 
 
 " I happened to be looking ovah a chest of old 
 costumes to-day, thinking of all the fun we'd had 
 in them, when I remembahed her and what Mrs. 
 Bisbee had told me about her nevah having good 
 times like othah girls. She said she'd nevah had 
 any attention, and nevah been to a big pah'ty. I 
 thought I'd like to give her one on the twenty- 
 second, because I could offah her a costume then 
 without hurting her feelings. I was suah that you 
 and Miss Allison could suggest something moah 
 than I had thought of. I don't know exactly how 
 to begin. People will think it strange, and Agnes 
 might, too, if I gave a pah'ty just for her, when all 
 her friends whom' I would want to invite are so 
 much oldah than I." 
 
 Miss Allison and her sister exchanged glances 
 in the lantern-light, then Mrs. Walton said, hesi-
 
 " CINDERELLA " 2/9 
 
 tatingly: "Why I don't know I'm sorry, 
 Lloyd, that we didn't know before. We've already 
 made plans which I am afraid will interfere with 
 yours. The King's Daughters' Circle has arranged 
 to have an oyster supper at my house on the after- 
 noon and evening of the twenty-second. Most of 
 the people you would want to ask will be busy there, 
 for everybody in the Valley lends a hand at these 
 entertainments." 
 
 They could not see the disappointment that shad- 
 owed Lloyd's face as she listened to this announce- 
 ment in silence. But Miss Allison knew it was 
 there, and, as they walked on up the path together, 
 she slipped her arm around Lloyd's waist. 
 
 " Never mind, dear," she said. " You shall not 
 have your beautiful plan spoiled by the old oyster 
 supper. We'll combine forces. As Agnes is a 
 member of the Circle, maybe you can bring about 
 what you want more naturally and easily this way 
 than in any other. The girls who are to wait on 
 the table are to powder their hair and wear white 
 kerchiefs and Martha Washington caps. But we 
 had intended to ask you to take charge of the fancy- 
 work table, as you have more time for getting up 
 elaborate costumes. We wanted to ask you to 
 dress in as handsome a costume of that period as
 
 280 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 you could find. We remember what lovely brocade 
 gowns and quilted petticoats and old-fashioned fol- 
 de-rols used to be laid away in your grandmother's 
 attic that belonged to her grandmother. If you 
 like, you may give your place to Agnes, and let 
 her be the belle of the ball." 
 
 Lloyd returned the pressure of the arm about 
 her with an impulsive hug. " Oh, I knew you'd 
 think of something perfectly lovely," she cried. 
 " That would be much the best way, for she is so 
 timid and quiet you couldn't keep her from being 
 a wall-flowah at an ordinary pah'ty. But this way 
 she will have something to do, and she'll have to 
 talk when people come to buy things. I wish it 
 were not so long till to-morrow! I want to tell 
 her about it this minute." 
 
 Usually the choir practice was a bore to Lloyd. 
 She was one of the few members who sang by note, 
 and Mrs. Walton, the leader, had to take them 
 through the simple anthems over and over again, 
 until they caught the tune by ear. Lloyd, knowing 
 that her strong young voice was needed, sang duti- 
 fully through the tiresome repetitions, but some- 
 times she wanted to put her fingers in her ears to 
 shut out the sound. To-night she did not chafe 
 inwardly at the false starts and the monotonous
 
 "CINDERELLA" 28 1 
 
 chant, " Oh, be thankful ! Oh, be thankful ! " which 
 had to be sung over numberless times in order that 
 the bass and alto singers might learn to come in 
 at the proper places with their responsive refrain. 
 She was so absorbed in thinking of the pleasure in 
 store for Agnes, and imagining what she would 
 say, that she sang the three measures over and over, 
 unheeding how long the choir stuck there, or un- 
 caring how many times they seesawed up and down 
 on the same tiresome notes. 
 
 .The excitement began for Agnes next day, when 
 Lloyd delivered Miss Allison's invitation, and bore 
 her away in the carriage to search through the attic 
 for a costume. She had never been farther than the 
 door at Locust. Her journeys thither had been to 
 carry home some finished garment. But many an 
 hour of patient sewing had been brightened by her 
 sisters' tales of the place. Both Miss Sarah and 
 Miss Marietta remembered it affectionately, for the 
 sake of the woman who had welcomed them there 
 on so many happy occasions in the past. 
 
 Agnes thought she knew just how the interior 
 of Locust would look, especially the stately old 
 drawing-room, with its portraits and candles, its 
 harp and the faint odour of rose-leaves ; and really 
 there was something familiar to her in its appear-
 
 282 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 ance as she caught a glimpse of it on her way up- 
 stairs to Lloyd's room. But she had never imag- 
 ined such a dainty rose of a room as the pink and 
 white bower Lloyd led her into. There might have 
 been a throb of resentment that all such beauty and 
 luxury had been left out of her life, if there had 
 been time for her to look around and compare it 
 with her own scantily furnished room at home. 
 
 Lloyd hurried over to the bed, eager to display 
 a gorgeous brocade gown of rose and silver laid 
 out there, which Mrs. Sherman had brought down 
 from the attic in her absence, and from which Mom 
 Beck had pressed all the wrinkles. 
 
 " It's as good as new," said Lloyd. " I'm glad 
 that mothah wouldn't let us cut it up last yeah, 
 when we wanted to make it fit Katie. There are 
 pink slippahs to match, but I hoped you'd rathah 
 weah these. They make me think of Cinderella's 
 glass ones, and they're twice as pretty." 
 
 She tossed the crystal beaded slippers over to 
 Agnes for her inspection. " Try them on," she 
 urged. " I want to see how you'll look." 
 
 In a few moments the shabby shoes and the old 
 brown dress lay in a heap on the floor like a dis- 
 carded chrysalis, and Agnes stepped out, a dazzled 
 butterfly, in her gorgeous robes of rose and silver.
 
 "CINDERELLA" 283 
 
 Lloyd clasped her hands ecstatically. " Oh, 
 Agnes, it's lovely I And it's almost a perfect fit. 
 If Miss Sarah can just take it up a little on the 
 shouldahs, and change the collah a tiny bit, it will 
 look as if it were made for you. When yoah hair 
 is powdahed and you have this little bunch of 
 plumes in it, you'll be simply perfect. It doesn't 
 mattah if the slippahs do pinch a little. They look 
 so pretty you can stand a little thing like that for 
 one evening." 
 
 Lloyd walked around and around her, till she 
 had admired her to her heart's content, and then 
 led her away to show to Mrs. Sherman. " You 
 ought to 1 carry yoah head that way all the time," 
 she said. " It's becoming to you to ' walk proud/ 
 as old Mammy Easter used to say." 
 
 It was with the air of a duchess that Agnes sailed 
 into the drawing-room, and with the feeling that 
 at last she had come into her own. On every side 
 the dim old mirrors flashed back the reflection of 
 the slender figure with its head proudly high. She 
 looked at it curiously, scarcely recognizing the deli- 
 cate, high-bred features for her own. There was 
 colour in her face for one thing. The dull browns 
 and grays, which she wore for economy's sake, were 
 apt to make her look sallow. But this wonderful
 
 284 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 rose-pink lent a glow to her cheeks, and pleasure 
 and expectancy brightened her eyes, and left her 
 a-tingle with these new sensations. 
 
 "You'll be the feature of the occasion," Mrs. 
 Sherman assured her. " Come up to lunch with 
 us Thursday. We'll powder your hair and help 
 you dress, and take you down in the carriage with 
 us. Tell your sisters that we'll see that you get 
 home safely that night." 
 
 So to the other pleasures of the twenty-sec- 
 ond was added the undreamed-of delight of be- 
 ing invited out to lunch, and forgetting for 
 awhile that there were such tiresome things in the 
 world as sewing-machines and endless ruffling for 
 other people. Although she wore her old brown 
 dress, darned at the elbows, and, with her usual 
 timidity, scarcely ventured a remark at the table 
 unless directly questioned, she was all aglow with 
 the new experience. 
 
 Afterward it was easy to talk and laugh with 
 Lloyd, as they went through the conservatory cut- 
 ting the flowers which were to decorate the tables 
 at The Beeches. Hyacinths and lilies-of-the-valley 
 made a spring-time of their own under the sheltering 
 skylight. Agnes bent over them with a cry of de- 
 light. " They make you forget the calendar, don't
 
 CINDERELLA " 285 
 
 they ? " she said, looking shyly up at Lloyd. She 
 wanted to add, " And so do you. You make me 
 forget that I am ten years older than you. It seems 
 only pussy-willow time by my feelings to-day." 
 But their friendship was too new as yet for such 
 personal speeches. 
 
 As they went back to the drawing-room with 
 a basket piled full of hothouse Viooms, Mrs. Sher- 
 man called to Lloyd that she needed her up-stairs 
 a few moments. Hastily excusing herself, she left 
 Agnes with a new magazine for her entertainment. 
 When she came down later, the magazine was lying 
 uncut on the table, and Agnes, seated in front of 
 the piano, was fingering the keys with light touches 
 which made no sound, they pressed the ivory so 
 gently. She started guiltily as Lloyd came in. 
 
 " I couldn't help it ! " she stammered. " It drew 
 me over here like a magnet. It has been the dream 
 of my life to know how to play, but it is all such 
 a mystery. I've puzzled over the music in the 
 hymn-book many a time, the little notes flying up 
 and down like birds through a fence, and then 
 watched Miss Allison's fingers on the organ keys, 
 going up and down the same way." 
 
 " It is just as easy as reading the alphabet," said
 
 286 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 Lloyd. " I'll show you. Wait till I find my old 
 music primer. It is somewhere in this cabinet." 
 
 Hastily turning over the exercise books and worn 
 sheets of music that filled one of the lower shelves, 
 she dragged out an old dog-eared instruction book, 
 which she propped up on the rack in front of Agnes. 
 
 " Heah," she slid, pointing to a note. " When 
 one of those little birds, as you call them,, perches 
 on this place on the fence, then you're to strike 
 the A key on the piano. If it lights on the line 
 just above it, then you strike the next key, B. 
 See?" She ran her fingers lightly up the octavo 
 and began again with A. Agnes leaned hungrily 
 over the page, reading the printed directions below 
 each simple measure, where the fingering was 
 plainly marked. 
 
 " Oh, I could learn to do it by studying this ! " 
 she cried, her face all alight. " I am sure I could. 
 I don't mean that I could ever learn to play as you 
 do, or Miss Allison, but I could learn simple things 
 and the accompaniments to old songs that Marietta 
 loves. It would be almost as great a joy to her 
 and sister Sarah as it would to me, for my learn- 
 ing to play has always been one of our favourite 
 air-castles. If you could loan me this instruction 
 book for awhile " She hesitated.
 
 " CINDERELLA n 287 
 
 " Of co'se ! " cried Lloyd, thrilled by the eager- 
 ness of the eyes which met hers. " I'll give you 
 a lesson right now, if you like. I'll teach you 
 a set of chords you can use for an accompaniment. 
 They are so easy you can learn them befoah you 
 go home, and you can surprise Miss Marietta by 
 singing and playing for her. They fit evah so many 
 of the ballads." 
 
 Turning the leaves of the instructor, she found 
 the simple chords of " Annie Laurie," and wrote 
 beside each note the letters that would enable Agnes 
 to find them on the keyboard. " This isn't the 
 right way to begin," she said, with a laugh, " but 
 we'll take this short cut just to surprise Miss Mari- 
 etta. You can come back aftahward and learn 
 about time and all the othah things that ought to 
 come first. I'll give you a lesson every week for 
 awhile, if you like." 
 
 The eyes that met hers now were brimming with 
 happy tears. 
 
 " If I like," Agnes repeated, with a tremulous 
 catch of the voice. " As if I wouldn't jump at the 
 chance to have the key to paradise put into my 
 hands. It's the happiest thing that ever happened 
 to me." 
 
 With her heart as well as her whole attention
 
 288 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 given to the effort, it was not long before Agnes 
 found. her fingers falling naturally into place, and 
 she played the chords over and over, humming the 
 tune softly, with a pleasure that was pathetic to 
 Lloyd. 
 
 "Oh, I could keep on all day and all night!" 
 exclaimed Agnes, when Mrs. Sherman called to 
 them that it was time to dress. " I've never been 
 so happy in all my life! You don't know what it 
 means to me!" she cried, turning a radiant face 
 to Lloyd's. " You've lifted me clear off the earth. 
 I wish I could run home before the reception begins 
 and play this for Marietta. I want to see her face 
 when I open the old piano." 
 
 Lloyd followed her up the stairs, wondering at 
 the girl's uplifted mood. She did not see how such 
 a trifle could bring about such a transformation 
 in any one's spirits, not realizing that this bit of 
 knowledge which Agnes had picked up was to her 
 a veritable key which would open the door she had 
 longed for years to enter. 
 
 ' When Agnes swept into the house at The 
 Beeches, she was in such high spirits that people 
 looked twice to be sure that they knew the radiant 
 girl presiding so gaily over the fancy-work table. 
 
 " She is actually talking," Miss McGill whis-
 
 CINDERELLA 2 89 
 
 pered to Libbie Simms. " Talking and laughing 
 and making jokes like other girls. Somebody has 
 surely worked a hoodoo charm on her." 
 
 But happiness was the only hoodoo, and, under 
 its expanding influence, she fairly bloomed that 
 night. Lloyd, hovering near her, jubilant over the 
 success of her popular Cinderella, beamed and dim- 
 pled with pleasure, and stored away the many com- 
 pliments she overheard, to repeat to Agnes next 
 day. Once she darted into the butler's pantry, 
 where Miss Allison was slicing cake, to announce, 
 in an excited whisper : " Agnes has actually had 
 three invitations to suppah. She's gone in now 
 with Mistah John Bond. I must run back and take 
 charge of the sales, but I just had to tell you. Do 
 peep in and see her there at the cawnah table, eat- 
 ing ice-cream and talking away as if she'd been 
 used to such attentions all her life. Isn't it great? 
 .Now people can't shake their heads and say poah 
 girl, she's nevah had any attentions like othah girls. 
 Nobody takes any interest in her." 
 
 Miss Allison turned to give Lloyd's cheek a play- 
 ful pinch. " You dear little fairy godmother ! All 
 Cranford will take an interest in her, now that she 
 has blossomed out so unexpectedly. Even old Mr. 
 Wade, who never says nice things about any one,
 
 2QO LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 asked me who our distinguished-looking guest was, 
 and, when I told him Agnes Waring, he fairly 
 gasped and dropped his eye-glasses. Then he gave 
 his usual contemptuous sniff that always makes 
 me want to shake him, and walked away, saying: 
 * Who'd have thought it! Well, well, fine feathers 
 certainly do make fine birds ! ' ' 
 
 Lloyd hurried back to her place behind the fancy- 
 work table. Nearly every one was out in the room 
 where supper was being served, and except for an 
 occasional question from some one who strolled by 
 to ask the price of a laundry-bag or a hemstitched 
 centrepiece, no one disturbed her. To the music 
 of mandolin, guitar, and piano, played softly behind 
 the palms in one corner, she went on with her pleas- 
 ing day-dreams for Agnes. She would make other 
 opportunities for her next week, take her in town 
 to a concert or a matinee. She wished she could 
 offer her clothes, but she dared not take that step. 
 There would be the Waring pride to reckon with 
 if she did. 
 
 In the midst of this reverie, Agnes came up all 
 a-flutter, saying, shyly : " Lloyd, would you mind 
 if I didn't go back in the carriage with you? Your 
 mother wouldn't think it strange, would she? It 
 was because I had no other way to get home that
 
 " CINDERELLA " 29 1 
 
 she invited me. But Mr. Bond has asked to take 
 me home behind his new team. He wants me to 
 see what fine travellers his horses are." 
 
 "Of co'se mothah wouldn't think it strange ! " 
 exclaimed Lloyd. " Especially if it is Mistah Bond 
 who wants to take you. She and Papa Jack are 
 so fond of him." 
 
 " He wants me to join the choir," Agnes went 
 on, in a lower tone, as a group of people crowded 
 around the table. " Mrs. Walton and Mrs. Mal- 
 lard and Miss Flora Marks have asked me also. 
 I've pinched myself black and blue this evening, 
 trying to make sure that I am awake. Oh, Lloyd, 
 you'll never, never know how I have enjoyed it 
 all." 
 
 There was no time for further conversation then. 
 People were beginning to leave, and were crowding 
 around the table to claim the articles they had pur- 
 chased earlier in the evening. But it was not neces- 
 sary for Agnes to repeat that she was radiantly 
 happy. It showed in every word and laugh and 
 gesture. Lloyd went home that night nearer to 
 the Castle of Content than she had been for many 
 weeks.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 A HARD - EARNED PEARL 
 
 THE reaction came next day, however, when a 
 budget of letters from the girls turned her thoughts 
 back to all that she was missing. Betty was room- 
 ing with Juliet Lynn now, and they were writing 
 a play together in spare minutes. Allison had had 
 honourable mention three times in the Studio Bulle- 
 tin, and a number of her sketches had been chosen 
 for display on the studio walls. Kitty had sur- 
 prised them all by the interest she had suddenly 
 taken in French, and had translated a poem so 
 cleverly that Monsieur Blanc had sent it home for 
 publication in a Paris paper. The work was so 
 interesting now, Betty wrote, and the time so full, 
 Warwick Hall grew daily more inspiring and more 
 dear. 
 
 The old ache came back to Lloyd as she read. 
 She felt that she had fallen hopelessly behind the 
 others. She was so utterly left out of all their
 
 A HARD-EARNED PEARL 2Q3 
 
 successes. The little efforts she had made to fill 
 her days with things worth while suddenly shriv- 
 elled into nothing, and she sat with the letters in 
 her lap, staring moodily into vacancy. 
 
 "What's the use?" she sobbed. "All that I 
 can do heah doesn't amount to a row of pins. I 
 am out of it." 
 
 Thinking of Warwick Hall and the girls and 
 all that she was missing, she sat pitying herself 
 until the tears began to come. She let them trickle 
 slowly down her face without attempting to wipe 
 them away or fight them back. Nobody was there 
 to see, and she could be as miserable as she chose. 
 In the midst of her gloomy reverie she heard the 
 door-bell ring. 
 
 Dabbing her handkerchief over her eyes, she 
 started across the room to make her escape up- 
 stairs before Mom Beck could open the front door. 
 But she was too late. As she pushed aside the por- 
 tieres, she hear Agnes Waring ask if she were at 
 home, and Mom Beck immediately ushered her in. 
 
 " I came to bring the costume back," she began, 
 hurriedly. " No, I must not sit down, thank you. 
 I am on my way to Mrs. Moore's to fit a lining. 
 But I just had to stop by and tell you what a lovely 
 time I had yesterday and last night. You should
 
 294 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 have seen Marietta's face this morning when I 
 opened the piano and played and sang for her. 
 The tears just rolled down her face, but it was 
 because we were so happy. 
 
 " She said she had been afraid that I would grow 
 morose and bitter because I had so few pleasures, 
 and she is so glad about the music lessons and my 
 joining the choir. Mr. Bond is going to come by 
 for me next Friday night. Sister Sarah said she 
 had no idea that colours could make such a differ- 
 ence in one till she saw me in that costume. She 
 has been looking over the silk quilt pieces your 
 mother sent Marietta, and she recognized two pieces 
 that are parts of dresses your grandmother used 
 to wear. One is a deep rich red, a regular garnet 
 colour, and the other is sapphire blue. She said 
 that if they had belonged to any one else but Aman- 
 this Lloyd she couldn't do it, but instead of cut- 
 ting them up into quilt pieces she she is going 
 to make them into shirt-waists for me." 
 
 The colour deepened in Agnes's face as she made 
 the confession, with an unconscious lifting of the 
 head that made Lloyd remember Mrs. Bisbee's re- 
 mark about the Waring pride. She hastened to 
 say something to cover the awkward pause that 
 followed.
 
 A HARD-EARNED PEARL 295 
 
 " Grandmothah Amanthis and Miss Sarah were 
 such good friends, even if there was so much dif- 
 ference in their ages. I know she would be glad 
 for you to use the silk that way. Looking pretty 
 in it and having good times in it seems a bettah 
 way to use it as a remembrance of her than putting 
 it into a quilt, doesn't it?" 
 
 Then, to change the subject, which disconcerted 
 her more than it did Agnes, she held up the pack- 
 age of letters. 
 
 " I heard from the girls to-day, and they are all 
 getting on so beautifully, and making such good 
 records, that it neahly breaks my hah't to think 
 I can't be with them." She laughed nervously. 
 " I suppose you wondahed what made my eyes so 
 red, when you came in. I've been regularly howl- 
 ing. I couldn't help it. I sat heah thinking about 
 deah old Warwick Hall, and all that I had to give 
 up, till I was so misahable I had to cry." 
 
 Agnes, turning toward the window so that her 
 face could not be seen, looked out at the bare 
 branches of the locusts. 
 
 "I wonder," she began, slowly, "if it would 
 make any difference to you if it would make your 
 disappointment any easier to bear to know how 
 much your being in the Valley this winter has
 
 296 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 meant to me. Fifty years from now one term more 
 or less in your studies won't amount to much. It 
 will not count much then that you've solved a few 
 more problems in algebra, or learned a little more 
 French, or fallen behind the others in a few credit 
 marks, but it will make all the difference in the 
 world to me that you were here to open a door 
 for me. 
 
 " If you've done nothing more than give me that 
 one music lesson, it has showed me the possibility 
 of all that I may accomplish, and started me on the 
 road to my heart's desire. If you've done no more 
 than prove to me that I can conquer my timidity 
 and be like other girls, and accept the little pleas- 
 ures just at hand for the taking, don't you see that 
 you have opened up a way for me that I never could 
 have found alone? And to do that for any one, 
 why, it's like teaching him a song that he will teach 
 to some one else, and that one will go on repeating, 
 and the next and the next, until you've started some- 
 thing that never stops. If I were making up the 
 accounts in the Hereafter, I am very sure I'd count 
 it more to your credit, the unselfish way you are 
 helping people than all the lessons you could learn 
 in a term at school. I am not saying half what I 
 feel. I couldn't It is too deep down. But, oh,
 
 A HARD -EARNED PEARL 2C)J 
 
 I do want you to know that your disappointment 
 has not all been in vain." 
 
 The voice that uttered the last sentence was 
 tremulous with feeling. Tears were very near the 
 surface now. Before Lloyd could think of any 
 reply to her impetuous speech, she had started 
 toward the door. 
 
 " Mrs. Moore will wonder what is keeping me," 
 she said, as she turned the knob. " Good-bye ! " 
 
 With a lighter heart than Lloyd could have be- 
 lieved possible half an hour earlier, she went up to 
 her room. Dropping the damp little ball of a hand- 
 kerchief into her laundry-bag, she opened a drawer 
 for a fresh one. By mistake she drew out, not 
 her handkerchief-box, but one that in some pre- 
 vious haste had been pushed into its place, the 
 sandalwood box containing the pearl beads. She 
 took up the uncompleted rosary and began slipping 
 the beads back and forth over the string, the 
 string that would have been two-thirds full by this 
 time if she could have gone on with school work. 
 Suddenly she looked at it with widening eyes. 
 
 " I wondah," she said aloud, " I wondah if I 
 couldn't slip one moah on for yestahday. She said 
 herself that it ought to count for moah than school 
 work. In a way she said it was like making ' un-
 
 298 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 dying music in the world.' And what was it old 
 Bishop Chartley said at the carol service?" She 
 stood with a little pucker on her forehead, trying 
 to recall his words about keeping the White 
 Feast. 
 
 " So may we offer our pearls, days unstained by 
 selfishness." That was it. She could go on with 
 her rosary then, and, instead of perfect lessons at 
 school, she could fill the string in token of days 
 spent unselfishly at home. Days not stained by 
 regrets and tears and idle repining for what could 
 not be helped. 
 
 With a deep sigh of satisfaction, she slipped one 
 more pearl bead down the string, and laid it back 
 in the box. 
 
 "That is for yestahday. I can't count to-day, 
 for I sat for an houah thinking about my troubles 
 and pitying myself and making myself just as mis- 
 ahable as possible." 
 
 So the little string began to grow again, and, 
 though she was half-ashamed of the childish pleas- 
 ure it gave her, it did help when she could see every 
 night a visible token that she had tried to live that 
 day through unselfishly and well, that she had 
 kept tryst with the duty of cheerfulness which we 
 all owe the world.
 
 SHE RODE OVER TO ROLLINGTON
 
 A HARD-EARNED PEARL 299 
 
 But not all her pearls were earned as easily as 
 the one that marked her efforts for Agnes. One 
 day, when she rode over to Rollington with some 
 illustrated magazines for the Crisp children, she 
 was met by an announcement from Minnie, the 
 oldest one, who had charge of the family in her 
 mother's absence. 
 
 " Mis' Perkins said I was to tell you she didn't 
 see why folks passed her by when she liked wine 
 jelly and good things just as well as some other 
 people she knew." 
 
 "Who is Mrs. Perkins?" asked Lloyd, aston- 
 ished by such a message. 
 
 Minnie nodded her towhead toward a weather- 
 beaten house of two rooms across the street. " She 
 lives over there. She's sick most of the time. She 
 saw you cooking in our kitchen that day that you 
 came and got dinner, and ma sent her over a piece 
 of the pie you made, and she's been sort of sniffy 
 ever since, because nobody does such things for 
 her." 
 
 Minnie seemed so anxious that Lloyd should 
 include Mrs. Perkins in her visit that finally Lloyd 
 agreed to be escorted over to see her. Wrapping 
 the baby in a shawl, and staggering along under 
 its weight, Minnie ordered the other children to
 
 300 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 stay where they were, and led the way across the 
 street. 
 
 The tilt of Lloyd's dainty nose, as she went in, 
 said more plainly than words, " Poah white trash ! " 
 For the house had a stuffy smell of liniment and 
 bacon grease. An old woman came forward to 
 meet them in her stocking feet and a dirty woollen 
 wrapper. Her uncombed gray hair straggled 
 around her ears, and her wrinkled face was un- 
 washed and grimy. Lloyd was thankful that she 
 did not offer to shake hands. She sat down on 
 the edge of a chair, breathing the stuffy air as 
 sparingly as possible. 
 
 She had always been taught that old age must 
 be respected, no matter how unlovely, and as Mrs. 
 Perkins counted her aches and pains in a weak, 
 whining voice, pity got the better of Lloyd's dis- 
 gust. She began to feel sorry for this poor old 
 creature, for whom no one else seemed to have any 
 sympathy. She complained bitterly of her neigh- 
 bours and the church-members who professed to 
 be so charitable, but who left her to suffer. 
 
 Then she praised the lemon pie that Lloyd had 
 made, until Lloyd gladly promised to make one 
 for her. " I'll bring it down the last of the week," 
 she promised, later, when she rose to go, and Mrs.
 
 A HARD-EARNED PEARL 30* 
 
 Perkins introduced the subject again. But that 
 was not what the old woman wanted. 
 
 " Why can't you come down here and make it 
 in my kitchen ? " she whined, " same as you did 
 in Mrs. Crisp's. I get dreadful lonesome setting 
 here, and it would be so much company to see you 
 whisking around beating eggs and rolling out 
 the crust. Then I could smell it baking, and eat 
 it hot out of the oven. It's been many a long day 
 since I've done a thing like that. It makes my 
 mouth water, just thinking of it." 
 
 " Certainly I could do it heah, if you would 
 like it bettah," promised Lloyd, rashly. " Is there 
 anything I can do for you befoah I go ? " 
 
 " Yes, there is," was the ready answer. " I 
 didn't eat much dinner, and I'm that weak and 
 faint I'd like if you'd make me a cup of tea." 
 
 " Certainly," answered Lloyd again. " If you'll 
 just tell me where to find things." 
 
 " I'll be going on," said Minnie Crisp, begin- 
 ning to wrap the baby up in its shawl again. 
 " Those kids will be turning the house upside 
 down if I'm not there to watch them." 
 
 Nobody paid any attention to her departure, for 
 Lloyd, hanging her coat over the back of a dusty
 
 302 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 chair, had gone into the kitchen before Minnie 
 finished making a woollen mummy of the baby. 
 
 " The tea is in a paper bag in the corner cup- 
 board," called Mrs. Perkins. " Mrs. Moore sent 
 it to me. It's green tea, and I never did care for 
 any kind but black. I'd pretty nigh as soon have 
 none as green. You might poach me an egg, too, 
 if you feel like it, and make a bit of toast." 
 
 With a shiver of disgust, Lloyd looked around 
 her. Everything was dirty. She wished she dared 
 run across the street and prepare the lunch in Mrs. 
 Crisp's immaculate kitchen. There everything 
 shone from repeated scrubbings with soft soap and 
 sand. She enjoyed cooking over there. As she 
 opened the cupboard door a roach ran out, and 
 she jumped aside with another shiver of disgust. 
 She wanted a pan in which to poach the egg, but 
 nothing looked clean enough to use. Finally she 
 chose a battered saucepan, but dropped it when 
 she discovered that a spider had woven a web in- 
 side. 
 
 Spiders had always been an abomination to 
 Lloyd. It made her feel cold and creepy to touch 
 a cobweb. But the story of Ederyn flashed through 
 her thoughts, and she grasped the pan, determined 
 to use it or die in the effort. She had started and
 
 A HARD-EARNED PEARL 303 
 
 she would not turn back. It was plainly her duty 
 to minister to the wants of this complaining old 
 invalid whom others neglected, and she would keep 
 tryst at any cost. With many an inward shudder 
 she went on with her task. As the water in the 
 kettle was already steaming, it was not long before 
 the lunch was ready, and she carried it in. 
 
 " It's simply impossible for me to come and make 
 the pie in this dirty kitchen," thought Lloyd, " and 
 I can't tell her so. Maybe I could ask Mrs. Crisp 
 to invite her ovah and she could see it done 
 there." 
 
 While she worried over the problem of introduc- 
 ing the subject tactfully, Mrs. Perkins herself 
 opened the way. She hadn't been well enough to 
 do any cleaning for several weeks, she said. If 
 she could get a little stronger, she intended to do 
 two things : to slick up the place a bit, and to go 
 on a visit to Jane O'Grady's up near the black 
 bridge. She had been wanting to spend the day 
 with Jane all winter, but didn't have any way to 
 get there. It was too far to walk. Lloyd saw her 
 opportunity and seized it. 
 
 " Why, mothah will send the carriage for you, 
 Mrs. Perkins, any day you set. She'd be glad to. 
 Alec can drive you ovah early in the mawning,
 
 304 LITTLE COLONEUS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 when he is out for the marketing, and go for you 
 befoah dah'k." 
 
 "Then you may send to-morrow," said Mrs. 
 Perkins, ungraciously. " I don't want to risk put- 
 ting it off. Folks usually forget such promises 
 overnight. So I'd best make sure of it." 
 
 Lloyd flushed angrily, but the next instant ex- 
 cused the old woman's rudeness on the score of 
 her ill health. She had a plan that she was anxious 
 to carry out, and she hurried home to begin, all 
 a-tingle with her charitable impulses. She was sur- 
 prised that her mother should treat it so lightly. 
 
 " Of course you can have the carriage," said 
 Mrs. Sherman. " But, my good little Samaritan, 
 I must warn you. That old woman is a pauper in 
 spirit. She hasn't a particle of proper pride. Peo- 
 ple have done too much for her. She'll take all 
 she can get, and grumble because it isn't more. So 
 you mustn't be disappointed if, instead of thanks, 
 you get only criticism." 
 
 But Lloyd, full of the zeal of a true reformer, 
 danced down to the servants' quarters to find May 
 Lily, one of the cook's grandchildren. May Lily, 
 a neat-looking coloured girl of seventeen, had been 
 one of Lloyd's most loyal followers since they made 
 mud pies together on the Colonel's white door-steps,
 
 A HARD-EARNED PEARL 305 
 
 and the readiness to serve her now was prompted 
 not so much by the promised dollar as the desire to 
 still follow her lead. So next morning, soon after 
 Mrs. Perkins's departure in the Sherman carriage, 
 a mighty revolution began in the house she left 
 behind her. 
 
 May Lily, strong and willing, went to work like 
 a small cyclone. Under Lloyd's direction, she 
 swept and scrubbed and scoured. The bed was 
 aired, the stove was blacked, the windows washed, 
 the tins polished till they shone like new. By four 
 o'clock not a cobweb or a speck of dust was to 
 be seen in either room. Lloyd sat down to wait 
 for Mrs. Perkins's return. She felt that it was 
 safe to breathe now, and she did not have to sit 
 gingerly on the edge of the chair. Every piece of 
 furniture had been washed and rubbed. She could 
 keep her promise about the pie very comfortably 
 now. Everything smelled so clean and wholesome 
 to her that she was sure that Mrs. Perkins would 
 notice the change at once and be pleased. 
 
 Mrs. Perkins did notice the change the moment 
 she entered the door, but it was with a displeased 
 face. "Hm! Hm !" she sniffed. " Smells might- 
 ily of soft soap in here. What have you been do-
 
 306 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 ing? I never could bear the smell of soft soap or 
 lye. Hm! Hm!" 
 
 Then she turned accusingly on Lloyd. " Didn't 
 you know better than to put stove-blacking on that 
 stove? When it gets het up, it will smoke to fare- 
 ye-well, and start my asthma to going again full tilt. 
 Some folks are mighty thoughtless, never have no 
 consideration for other people." 
 
 Lloyd shrank back, almost overcome by such a 
 reception. It was like a dash of cold water in her 
 face. She was angry and indignant. 
 
 "Well," continued Mrs. Perkins, still sniffing 
 around the room, as she put her bonnet and shawl 
 away. " Now you're here I'd like it if you would 
 put on the teakettle and make me a good strong 
 cup of coffee. Jane O'Grady gave me a pound, 
 all parched and ground. I haven't had any before 
 to-day for weeks. I'm plumb tuckered out with the 
 visit." 
 
 Lloyd hurried to build up the fire, thankful that 
 May Lily had spent much time scouring the old 
 coffee-pot. Otherwise she could not have brought 
 herself to touch it. It shone like new now. As 
 she poured the water into it, three tiny streams 
 spurted out of the side, hissing and sputtering over 
 the stove.
 
 A HARD-EARNED PEARL 307 
 
 "Now just see what you done!" scolded Mrs. 
 Perkins. " You hadn't ought to have scoured that 
 coffee-pot so. You'd ought to have let well enough 
 be, for you might have known you'd rub holes in 
 it and make it leak." 
 
 " I'll get you a new one in place of it at once," 
 said Lloyd, stiffly, her indignation rising till she 
 could hardly speak calmly. " I'll go this minute." 
 
 There was a small grocery store farther up the 
 hill, where a little of everything was kept in stock, 
 and Lloyd dashed out bareheaded, glad of an excuse 
 to cool her temper. By the time she had made the 
 coffee in the new pot, Alec drove up to the door 
 for her. 
 
 " You'll come again to-morrow to make that 
 lemon pie, won't you ? " asked Mrs. Perkins, anx- 
 iously. 
 
 " No, I can't come till the day aftah." 
 
 "What? Thursday?" was the impatient an- 
 swer. " Time drags awful slow for a body that 
 can only sit and wait." 
 
 " I have an engagement to-morrow," said Lloyd, 
 stiffly, remembering it was the day for Agnes War- 
 ing's music lesson. " But you can depend on me 
 Thursday." 
 
 Mrs. Sherman only laughed when Lloyd repeated
 
 308 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 her day's adventure at home, but the old Colonel 
 fairly snorted with indignation. 
 
 " Poor white trash ! " he exclaimed. " Don't go 
 near her again ! " 
 
 " But I promised," answered Lloyd, dolefully. 
 " I must keep my promise." 
 
 " Then tell Cindy to make a pie, and let Alec 
 take it down," he suggested. 
 
 " No, she said she wanted to smell it cooking, 
 and to eat it hot out of the oven, and I promised 
 her she might." 
 
 The Colonel glared savagely at the fire. " Beg- 
 gars shouldn't be choosers," he muttered, then 
 turned to Mrs. Sherman. " Little daughter, are 
 you going to let that poor child of yours be im- 
 posed on by that creature?" 
 
 " I can't interfere with her promise, papa," she 
 answered. " It may be a disagreeable experience, 
 but it will not hurt her any more than it hurt the 
 old woman to sweep the cobwebs out of the sky. 
 Hers was a thankless job, too, but no doubt she 
 was better for the exercise, and she must have 
 learned a great deal on such a trip." 
 
 It was in the same spirit in which Ederyn cried, 
 " Oh, heart and hand of mine, keep tryst ! Keep 
 tryst or die ! " that Lloyd gathered up the necessary
 
 A HARD-EARNED PEARL 309 
 
 materials and started off on Thursday to Mrs. Per- 
 kins's cottage. This time there was no admiring 
 audience of little towheads tiptoeing around the 
 table, as there had been at Mrs. Crisp's. But every- 
 thing was clean, and, with her recipe spread out 
 before her, Lloyd followed directions to the letter. 
 
 Mrs. Perkins, watching the beating of eggs and 
 stirring of the golden filling, the deft mixing of 
 pastry, grew cheerful and entertaining. She forgot 
 to complain of her neighbours, and was surprised 
 into the telling of some of her girlish experiences 
 that actually brought an amused twinkle to her 
 sharp old eyes. Lloyd was vastly entertained. She 
 had, too, a virtuous feeling that in keeping her 
 promise she had given pleasure to one who rarely 
 met kindness. It gave her a warm inward glow 
 of satisfaction. 
 
 To her mortification, when she finally drew the 
 pie from the oven, the meringue, which had been 
 like a snowdrift a moment before, and which should 
 have come out with just a golden glow on it from 
 its short contact with the heat, was all shrivelled 
 and brown. 
 
 "The nasty little oven was too hot!" cried 
 Lloyd, in disgust. 
 
 "Just my luck," whined Mrs. Perkins. "I
 
 3IO LITTLE COLONEL 'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 might have known that I'd never get anything I 
 set my heart on. But you can scrape off the me- 
 ringue, and I'll try and make out with the plain 
 pie." 
 
 Although she ate generously, she ate grum- 
 blingly, disappointed because of the scorched me- 
 ringue, and it wasn't as sweet as she liked. 
 
 That night, Lloyd, mortified over her failure, 
 stood long with the white rosary in her hand. 
 " Maybe I ought to count the poah pie as I would 
 an imperfect lesson," she thought, hesitating, with 
 a bead in her fingers. Then she said, defiantly: 
 " But I did my best, and the day has certainly been 
 disagreeable enough to deserve two pearls." 
 
 After another moment of conscientious weighing 
 of the matter, she slipped the bead slowly down 
 the string. "There!" she exclaimed. "I suahly 
 went through the black watahs of Kilgore to get 
 that one." 
 
 Next day when she stopped in Rollington to pay 
 for the coffee-pot, and drove by the Crisps' to ask 
 about the baby, Minnie Crisp told her several 
 things. Mrs. Perkins was sick all night, and had 
 told her ma that it was the lemon pie that was the 
 cause of the trouble; that it would have made a
 
 A HARD-EARNED PEARL 31! 
 
 dog- sick. " Them was her words," said Minnie, 
 solemnly. 
 
 " I don't wondah ! " cried Lloyd. " The greedy 
 old thing ! There was enough for foah people, and 
 it was very rich, and she ate it all." 
 
 " And she didn't like it because you had May 
 Lily scrub and clean while she was gone," added 
 Minnie, with childlike lack of tact. " She talked 
 about you dreadful after you went away. Didn't 
 she, ma?" 
 
 " Shoo, Minnie! " answered Mrs. Crisp, with a 
 wave of her apron. " Don't tell all you know." 
 
 " I didn't," answered the child. " I didn't say 
 a word about the names she called her, meddle- 
 some Matty, and all that." 
 
 Lloyd took her leave presently, with a flushed 
 face and a sore heart. On the way home she 
 stopped at The Beeches, and Mrs. Walton, who saw 
 at a glance that something was wrong, soon drew 
 out the story of her grievance. 
 
 "Don't pay any attention to that old creature," 
 she said, laughing heartily, " and forgive my laugh- 
 ing. Everybody in the Valley has had a similar 
 experience. The King's Daughters long ago gave 
 her up in disgust. She's one of those people who 
 doesn't want to be reformed and won't stay helped.
 
 312 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 Her house will be just as dirty next week as when 
 you first went there." 
 
 " I didn't suppose there were such people in the 
 world," said Lloyd, in disgust. 
 
 " You'll find out all sorts of disagreeable things 
 as you get older," sighed Mrs. Walton. " It is one 
 of the penalties of growing up. But still it is good 
 to have such experiences, for the wiser we grow 
 the better we know how to ' ease the burden of the 
 world,' and that is what we are here for." 
 
 Lloyd's eyes widened with surprise. Here was 
 another person quoting from the poem she had 
 learned. She was glad now that she had committed 
 it to memory, since on three occasions it had made 
 people's meaning clearer to her. 
 
 " Yes," she answered, the dimples stealing into 
 her smile. " But the next time I'll find out first 
 if they really want their burden eased, and if that 
 burden is dirt, like Mrs. Perkins's, I'll suahly let 
 it alone."
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE red coat Lloyd wore that winter was long 
 remembered in the Valley, for wherever it went 
 it carried a bright face above it, a cheery greeting, 
 and some pleasant word that made the day seem 
 better for its passing. 
 
 Mrs. Bisbee and the little Crisps were not the 
 only ones who learned to watch for it. As all the 
 lonely town of Hamelin must have felt toward the 
 one child left to it after the Pied Piper had passed 
 through its streets, so all the Valley turned with 
 tender regard to the young girl left in its midst. 
 Mothers, whose daughters were away at school, 
 stopped to talk to her with affectionate interest. 
 The old ladies whom she regularly visited wel- 
 comed her as if she were a part of their vanished 
 youth. The young ladies took her under their 
 wing, glad to have her in the choir and the King's 
 Daughters' Circle, for she was bubbling over with 
 girlish enthusiasm and a sincere desire to help. 
 313
 
 314 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 So she found the cobwebs in the neighbourhood 
 sky, and disagreeable enough they were at times, 
 even more disagreeable than her experience with 
 Mrs. Perkins. But she swept away with praise- 
 worthy energy, till gradually she found that the 
 accumulation of outside interests, like the cobweb 
 strands which Ederyn twisted, made a rope strong 
 enough to lift her out of herself and her dungeon 
 of disappointment. 
 
 After the novelty of giving music lessons had 
 worn off, it grew to be a bore. Not the lessons 
 themselves, for Agnec's delight in them never 
 flagged. It was the tied-up feeling it gave her to 
 remember that those afternoons were not her own. 
 It happened so often that the afternoons devoted 
 to Agnes were the ones which of all the week she 
 wanted to have free, and she had to give up many 
 small pleasures on account of them. 
 
 It grew to be a bore, also, calling on some of 
 the people who claimed a weekly visit. She never 
 tired of Mrs. Bisbee's lively comments on her neigh- 
 bours and her interesting tales about them. But 
 there was old Mr. and Mrs. Apwall, who, with 
 nothing to do but sit on opposite sides of the fire 
 and look at each other, were said to quarrel like 
 cat and dog. It mortified Lloyd dreadfully to have
 
 ' SWEE T SIXTEEN " 3 I $ 
 
 them quarrel in her presence, and have them pour 
 out their grievances for her to decide which was 
 in the wrong. 
 
 She always rose to go at that juncture, flushed 
 and embarrassed, and vowing inwardly she would 
 never visit them again. But they always managed 
 to extract a promise before she got to the door 
 that she would drop in again the next time she 
 was passing. 
 
 " Somehow you seem to get husband's mind off 
 himself," Mrs. Apwall would whisper at parting. 
 " He isn't half so touchy when you've cheered him 
 up a spell." 
 
 And Mr. Apwall would follow her out through 
 the chilly hall to open the front door, and say, 
 huskily : " Come again, daughter. Come again. 
 Your visits seem tc do the madam a world of good. 
 They give her something to talk about beside my 
 fancied failings." 
 
 So inwardly groaning, Lloyd would go again, 
 painfully alert to keep the conversation away from 
 subjects that invariably led to disputes. And in- 
 wardly groaning, she went dutifully to the Coburns' 
 at their repeated requests. The first few times the 
 garrulous old couple were interesting, but the most 
 thrilling tale grows tiresome when one has heard
 
 3l6 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 it a dozen times. She could scarcely keep from 
 fidgeting in her chair when the inevitable story of 
 their feud with the Cayn family was begun. They 
 never left out a single petty detail. 
 
 No one will ever know how often the thought 
 of the little rosary in the sandalwood box helped 
 Lloyd to listen patiently, and to keep tryst with the 
 expectations of those about her, so that at night- 
 fall there might be another pearl to slip on the 
 silken cord, in token of another day unstained by 
 selfishness. 
 
 There was rarely time for envying the girls at 
 school now. The days were too full. Almost be- 
 fore it seemed possible, the locusts were in bloom 
 and it was mid-May by the calendar. In that time 
 perfect health had come back to her. There were 
 no more crying spells now, no wore hours of nerv- 
 ous exhaustion, of fretful impatience over trifles. 
 She went singing about the house, with a colour 
 in her cheeks that rivalled the pink of the apple 
 blossoms. 
 
 " Spring has come indoors as well as out," said 
 Mrs. Sherman one morning. " I think that we 
 may safely count that your Christmas vacation is 
 over, and you may go back to your music lessons 
 whenever you choose."
 
 " SWEE T SIXTEEN " 317 
 
 The night before her birthday, Lloyd sat with 
 her elbows on her dressing-table, peering into the 
 mirror with a very serious face. 
 
 " You'll be sixteen yeahs old in the mawning, 
 Lloyd Sherman," she told the girl in the glass. 
 " ' Sweet sixteen ! ' You've come to the end of 
 lots of things, and to-morrow it will be like going 
 through a gate that you've seen ahead of you for 
 a long, long time. A big, wide gate that you have 
 looked forward to for yeahs, and things are bound 
 to be different on the othah side." 
 
 Next morning, just in fun, she trailed down to 
 breakfast in one of her mother's white dresses, with 
 her hair piled on the top of her head. It was very 
 becoming so, but it made her look so tall and 
 womanly that she was sure her grandfather would 
 object to it. 
 
 " He'll nevah let me grow up if he can help it," 
 she said, half-pouting, as she gave a final glance 
 over her shoulder at the mirror, vastly pleased with 
 her young ladylike appearance. " He'll say, ' Tut, 
 tut! That's not grandpa's Little Colonel.' But I 
 can't stay his Little Colonel always." 
 
 She was standing by the window looking down 
 the locust avenue when he came in to breakfast, so 
 she did not see his start of surprise at sight of her.
 
 318 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 But his half-whispered exclamation, "Amanthis!" 
 
 told her why he failed to make the speech she ex- 
 pected to hear. With her hair done high, show- 
 ing the beautiful curve of her head and throat as 
 she stood half-turned toward him, he had caught 
 another glimpse of her startling resemblance to the 
 portrait. He could not regret losing his Little 
 Colonel if that loss were to give him a living re- 
 minder of a beloved memory. 
 
 After breakfast, when an armful of birthday gifts 
 had been duly admired and the donors thanked, 
 and she had spent nearly an hour enjoying them, 
 she strolled down the avenue, feeling very much 
 grown up with the long dress trailing behind her. 
 She wandered down to the entrance gate, hoping 
 to meet Alec, who had gone for the mail. She was 
 sure there would be a letter from Betty, for Betty 
 never forgot people's birthdays. Then she trailed 
 back again under the white arch of fragrant locust 
 blooms. At the half-way seat she sat down and 
 tucked a spray of the blossoms into her hair and 
 fastened another at her belt. She had not long 
 to wait there, enjoying the freshness of the sweet 
 May morning, for in a few minutes Alec came 
 up the avenue with a handful of letters and papers.
 
 "SWEET SIXTEEN" 319 
 
 She sorted out her own eagerly, six letters and a 
 package. 
 
 She opened Betty's first. It was a long one, end- 
 ing with a birthday greeting in rhyme, and enclos- 
 ing a handkerchief which she had made herself, 
 sheer and fine and daintily hemstitched, with her 
 initials embroidered in one corner in the smallest 
 letters possible. 
 
 The letters from Allison and Kitty were pro- 
 fusely illustrated all around the margins, and by 
 the time Lloyd had read them, and Gay's ridiculous 
 summary of school news, she felt as if she had been 
 on a visit to Warwick Hall, and had seen all the 
 girls. The next letter was from Joyce, a good 
 thick one. But before she read it, curiosity im- 
 pelled her to open the package, which was a flat 
 one, bearing a foreign postmark and several Italian 
 stamps. There were two photographs inside. She 
 slipped the uppermost one from its envelope. 
 
 " Why, it is Eugenia Forbes ! " she exclaimed 
 aloud. " But how she has changed ! " 
 
 The picture was not at all like the Eugenia whom 
 Lloyd remembered, the thin slip of a girl who had 
 raced up and down the avenue five years before 
 at her house-party. She had blossomed into a beau- 
 tiful young woman.
 
 320 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 "A regulah Spanish beauty!" Lloyd thought, 
 as she looked at the picture, long and admiringly, 
 the picture of a patrician face with great dark 
 eyes and a wealth of dusky hair. The old self- 
 conscious, dissatisfied expression was gone. It was 
 a happy face that smiled back at her. It had been 
 nearly a year since Lloyd had had a letter from 
 Eugenia. She had written from the school near 
 Paris that her father was on his way over from 
 America to join her and take her home immediately 
 after her graduation. Lloyd had sent a reply ad- 
 dressed to her cousin Carl's office, but had heard 
 nothing more. 
 
 Thinking that the other photograph was her 
 cousin Carl's, Lloyd unwrapped it, wondering if 
 he had changed as much as Eugenia. To her sur- 
 prise, it was not a middle-aged man she saw, with 
 gray moustache and kindly tired eyes. It was the 
 handsome boyish face of a stranger, yet so start- 
 fingly familiar that she looked at it with a puzzled 
 frown. 
 
 " Why should Eugenia be sending me this? " she 
 thought. " Arid where have I seen that man be- 
 foah ? " Then, " Phil Tremont ! " she exclaimed 
 aloud the next instant. " That's who it reminds
 
 - SWEET SIXTEEN" $21 
 
 me of. It is almost exactly like him, only it is oldah- 
 looking, and the nose isn't quite like his." 
 
 She turned the picture over. There on the back 
 was written in Eugenia's hand the word Venice, 
 and a date underneath the name, Stuart Tremont. 
 
 " Phil's brother ! " gasped Lloyd, in astonish- 
 ment. " How strange that she should know him ! " 
 
 Tearing open the envelope lying on the bench 
 beside her, Lloyd -infolded a twenty-page letter 
 from Eugenia, written on thin blue foreign corre- 
 spondence paper. Before her glance had travelled 
 half-way down the second page, she gave another 
 gasp, and sat staring at an underscored sentence 
 in open-mouthed amazement. Then, never waiting 
 to gather up the other letters which fluttered into 
 the grass at her feet, as she sprang up, she rushed 
 off toward the house as hard as she could go, wav- 
 ing Eugenia's letter in one hand and the photo- 
 graphs in the other. 
 
 "Mothah!" she called, as she reached the end 
 of the avenue. She was tripping over her long 
 skirt, and scattering hairpins at every step, as her 
 reckless flight sent her hair tumbling down over 
 her shoulders. 
 
 " Mothah ! " she shrieked again, as she stumbled 
 up the porch steps.
 
 322 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 " Here in my room, dear," came the answer from 
 an upper window. Falling all over herself in her 
 undignified haste, Lloyd tore up the stairs. A final 
 tangling of skirts sent her headlong into her moth- 
 er^ room, where she half-fell in a breathless, laugh- 
 ing heap, and sat at Mrs. Sherman's feet with her 
 hair almost hiding her eager face. 
 
 " Guess what's happened ! " she demanded, 
 breathlessly. "Eugenia is engaged! And to Phil 
 Tremont's brother Stuart ! " 
 
 Then she sat enjoying her mother's surprise, 
 which was almost as great as her own. " And she 
 isn't much moah than eighteen," Lloyd exclaimed, 
 rocking back and forth on the floor, with her arms 
 clasped around her knees, while her mother ex- 
 amined the pictures. 
 
 " She looks twenty at least in this picture," an- 
 swered Mrs. Sherman, " even more than that. 
 Eugenia was always old for her years. If you 
 remember, she was wearing long dresses when we 
 left her the summer we were in Europe together." 
 
 " Yes, but it doesn't seem possible that Eugenia 
 is old enough to be married" insisted Lloyd. " I 
 can hardly believe it is true." 
 
 She sat staring dreamily out of the window until 
 a slight breeze fluttering the sheets of paper still
 
 "SWEET SIXTEEN" 323 
 
 clutched in her fingers reminded her that she had 
 read only two of the twenty pages. 
 
 " Heah is what she says about it," began Lloyd, 
 reading slowly, for the closely written sheets were 
 hard to decipher. 
 
 " ' I know you are going to wonder how it all 
 came about, so I'll begin at the beginning. Last 
 summer papa came on to Paris in time for Com- 
 mencement. He was so pleased because I took 
 first honours, when he hadn't expected me to take 
 any, that he said he would do as fathers sometimes 
 did in fairy-tales, grant me three wishes, any- 
 thing in reason; for he had had an unusually suc- 
 cessful year and could well afford it. 
 
 " ' Well, I thought and thought, but I couldn't 
 think of anything I really wanted, as I just had 
 an entire new outfit in clothes, so I told him finally 
 I'd like to itop in London long enough to have a 
 tailor make me a riding-habit, and I'd think of the 
 other two wishes sometime during the year. So 
 we went to London. Papa is such an old darling, 
 and we've grown to be real chums. After the 
 tailor had taken my measure, we drove to our bank- 
 er's for the mail, and who should papa meet there 
 but Doctor Tremont, an American physician whom
 
 324 LITTLE COLQNEUS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 he knew years ago when they were young men. 
 They belonged to the same college fraternity. 
 
 " ' They forgot all about poor little me, sitting 
 over in the corner of the office, and stood and talked 
 about old times, and asked each other about Tom, 
 Dick, and Harry, until I was thoroughly tired of 
 waiting. But after awhile the handsomest young 
 man came into the room, and Doctor Tremont 
 introduced him to papa as his oldest son, Stuart. 
 Then they remembered my humble existence, and 
 papa brought them both over to me. In about two 
 minutes we all felt as if we had known each other 
 always. 
 
 " ' Doctor Tremont said he had had a very hard 
 winter in Berlin, making some study of microbes 
 with a noted scientist, I forget his name. He 
 said Stuart had been closely confined also (he was 
 taking a medical course), and they were off on 
 a hard-earned holiday. They were going coaching 
 up in the lake regions, first in England, then in 
 Scotland, and maybe later would go over to the 
 Isle of Skye. 
 
 " ' Would you believe it, before we left the bank, 
 Doctor Tremont had persuaded papa that he needed 
 a vacation also, and almost in no time it was ar- 
 ranged that we should join them on their coaching
 
 "SWEET SIXTEEN" $2$ 
 
 trip. We had a perfectly ideal time, and Stuart 
 and I got to be th'e best of friends. We corre- 
 sponded all summer and fall after that. I didn't 
 expect to see him again for two years, because he 
 intended to stay abroad until he had finished his 
 medical course. But along in the winter papa's 
 health broke down, and th'e doctor told him he must 
 keep away from business for a year, and ordered 
 him to Baden-Baden for the water. 
 
 " ' He was horribly ill after we got there, and 
 I was so frightened and inexperienced that I 
 thought he was going to die, and I telegraphed 
 for Doctor Tremont. It isn't far from Berlin, you 
 know, as we Americans count distances. But the 
 doctor had gone to Paris for several weeks, and 
 Stuart came at once in his place. Of course he 
 wasn't an experienced physician like his father, but 
 he was such a comfort, for he cheered papa up so 
 much, and assured us that the doctor in charge was 
 doing everything that his father could do. And 
 he helped nurse papa, and boosted up my spirits 
 mightily, and was so dear and thoughtful and con- 
 siderate that, when he went away, I felt as if the 
 bottom had dropped out of everything. You can't 
 imagine how kind and lovely he was all that week. 
 Papa fairly swore by him.
 
 326 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 " ' We wrote to each other every week after he 
 went back to Berlin. Early this March papa and 
 I went down into Italy. We shifted about from 
 place to place, Naples, Sorrento, Rome, Flor- 
 ence, and finally to Venice. I don't know why I 
 never wrote to you those days. You were often 
 in my thoughts, but you know how it is when one 
 is constantly on the wing. 
 
 " ' I used to wish daily that Stuart could be with 
 us. He is the most satisfactory of travelling com- 
 panions, but I didn't know how very much I wished 
 it until one day in Venice. Papa was asleep at the 
 hotel, and I was so lonely that I started out by 
 myself to explore. I left a message with the clerk 
 that I had gone to vespers at Saint Mark's Cathe- 
 dral. There was a crowd of tourists in the square 
 in front of the cathedral, feeding the pigeons. 
 Hearing their English speech after so many months 
 of nothing but foreign tongues made me homesick. 
 In the whole plaza, no one but myself seemed to be 
 alone. They were walking in groups or couples, 
 and everybody seemed so gay and happy that I 
 was glad to cross over to the cathedral to get out 
 of sight. 
 
 " ' The vesper service had just begun, and I 
 stood inside the door listening to the chanting of
 
 " SWEET SIXTEEN 327 
 
 the monks' voices, and getting more homesick every 
 moment. Just as the tears were ready to brim over, 
 I looked up, and there in the dim light beside me 
 stood Stuart. I thought I must be dreaming, but 
 it was a very happy dream, for I felt that I could 
 never be homesick or unhappy again when he 
 looked down and smiled. 
 
 " ' I couldn't believe that I was awake and that 
 he was really there, until we got outside the cathe- 
 dral and he began to tiJk. Then he told me that 
 he had gone to the hotel, and they had given him 
 the message I had left for papa. It never occurred 
 to me to wonder why he had come to Venice. It 
 just seemed so natural and lovely that he should 
 be there that I never even asked him why. He 
 called a gondola, and we got in and went drifting 
 down the canals under the bridges and past the 
 old palaces, with the sunset turning everything 
 around us to rose-colour and gold. Oh, I can't 
 begin to tell you how perfectly heavenly it all was. 
 There was a new moon in the sky when we turned 
 back to the hotel, and, though Stuart hadn't pro- 
 posed in the same way that Laurie did to Amy in 
 "Little Women," he had told me why he came 
 so far to find me, and I liked his way a great deal 
 better than Laurie's.
 
 328 LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 "'Wasn't it all romantic? Papa was awfully 
 surprised to see him, and nearly as glad as I, and 
 I told him that now I'd claim the other wishes 
 he had promised me at Commencement, and take 
 the two in one. I wished that he would say yes 
 to the question Stuart had come to ask him. Dear 
 old dad, he always keeps his promises, so he said 
 yes after awhile. After Stuart had explained that 
 he didn't intend to ask him f o give me up. When 
 he finishes his medical course here next year, he 
 has a position waiting for him near New York City. 
 We're to have a little home on the Hudson, and 
 papa is to live with us. So is Doctor Tremont, 
 when he gets through with his microbe business. 
 We are done with hotels for ever. 
 
 " ' I cannot remember ever having had a home, 
 Lloyd. I have always lived either in a hotel or at 
 boarding-school. And Stuart says the only one he 
 can remember distinctly was the one presided over 
 by his great-aunt Patricia, and she never did under- 
 stand boys. This summer I shall spend with papa 
 in Switzerland. He is about well now. Then in 
 the fall, when he goes back to New York, I am 
 going to a delightful school near Berlin which I 
 have just heard of. It is a school where none but 
 the daughters of the German nobility are received,
 
 "SWEET SIXTEEN* 329 
 
 as a rule. They make an exception sometimes in 
 the case of Americans like myself. There they are 
 taught all the housewifely arts that delight a good 
 frau's soul. Don't laugh at me, Lloyd. I'm going 
 to learn how to broil and brew and conduct a well- 
 regulated establishment from attic to cellar. 
 
 " ' A year from this June, Cousin Jack and 
 Cousin Elizabeth are to bring you arid Betty on 
 to New York to be my bridesmaids. I'd love to 
 have Joyce, too, if it were possible for her to leave 
 home. She has been so good to Stuart's brother 
 Phil. Isn't it strange that we should all be so 
 linked together? I'd like to have all of you girls 
 that I met at your never-to-be-forgotten house- 
 party. That was where I had my first taste of a 
 real home, and found out that there is something 
 to live for besides the things that money can buy. 
 
 " ' I have looked so often lately at my little Tusi- 
 tala ring. I have been a better girl because of that 
 ring, Lloyd, and I intend it shall be the inspiration 
 of all my married life, to help me leave a road 
 of the loving heart in the memory of every one 
 around me. 
 
 " ' I wish everybody in the world could be as 
 happy as I am. I am sending Stuart's picture, 
 so that you can see for yourself what a fine, splen-
 
 33O LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 did fellow you are to have for a cousin some day. 
 Give my love to your father and mother and Betty, 
 and do write soon and tell me that you are glad. 
 " ' Your loving cousin, 
 
 " ' EUGENIA.' " 
 
 Lloyd looked up from the reading of the letter, 
 wondering what sort of an expression she would 
 find on her mother's face. To her surprise, it was 
 one of approval, and there were tears in her eyes. 
 
 " Poor motherless child ! " said Mrs. Sherman, 
 softly. " I shall write to her to-day. I don't ap- 
 prove of early marriages, but Eugenia has always 
 been more mature than most girls of her age, and 
 she does need a home sadly. The care and pleasure 
 of one will develop her character in a way that 
 nothing else will. Let me see. She will be nearly 
 twenty next June. Yes, I have no doubt but that, 
 with this next year's training in housekeeping 
 which she intends to take, she will be far better 
 fitted for home-making than many an older 
 woman." 
 
 " And may Betty and I be bridesmaids ? " inter- 
 rupted Lloyd, eagerly, a starlike expectancy shin- 
 ing in her eyes. 
 
 Mrs. Sherman considered a moment, then an-
 
 - SWEE T SIXTEEN 331 
 
 swered, slowly : " There is no reason why you 
 should not be, so long as you are willing to go as 
 little maids, and not young ladies. I am very jeal- 
 ous for your girlhood, Lloyd dear. I must guard 
 against anything that would shorten it in the least. 
 Mother's baby must not grow up too fast." 
 
 " I don't want to grow up fast, honestly ! " cried 
 Lloyd, scrambling to her feet and tripping over the 
 long skirts again as she threw her arms around her 
 mother's neck. " I'm not dignified enough yet to 
 fit yoah dresses, and my hair simply won't stay up. 
 Sweet sixteen doesn't seem half as old when you 
 really get there as you think that it is going to. 
 I'll do my hair down and weah short skirts as long 
 as you want me to, but, oh, I'm so glad that I'm 
 going to be a bridesmaid! It will be such fun. 
 I must write to Betty this minute to tell her that 
 you are willing." 
 
 That night Lloyd sat before her dressing-table 
 again, this time with the new photographs propped 
 up in front of her. Stuart's picture almost seemed 
 to bring Phil before her eyes, and for a moment, 
 instead of the familiar walls of her room, she saw 
 the moonlighted desert, and smelled the orange- 
 blossoms, and heard a strong young voice ringing 
 out across the silence of the sandy cactus plains:
 
 332 LITTLE COLONELS CHRISTMAS VACATION 
 
 " Till the sun grows cold, 
 And the stars are old, 
 And the leaves of the Judgment 
 Book unfold." 
 
 " Wouldn't it be strange," she thought, " if he 
 were really the one written for me in the stars, 
 as Betty said in the beginning, and that we should 
 meet at Eugenia's wedding again, and that some 
 day, a long time after, I should find that he is the 
 prince ? But it couldn't be Phil," she said to herself 
 after another glance. " He doesn't measuah up to 
 Papa Jack's yardstick. Neithah does Malcolm now, 
 for that mattah," she mused, with her chin in her 
 hand. " Jack Ware might, or Rob, but they seem 
 moah like brothahs than anything else, and would 
 not fit my ideal of a prince at all." 
 
 " ' As the falcon's feathahs fit the falcon/ " she 
 quoted, dreamily. " It would have to be some 
 strangah that I've nevah yet seen, to do that. Or, 
 maybe Mammy Easter's grandmothah was right 
 when she read my fortune in the teacups. Maybe 
 I'll be an old maid. I wish I knew. I wish I 
 knew!" 
 
 She peered wistfully into the mirror, as if she 
 half-expected to see a shadowy hand stretch out 
 of its dim background, and lift the veil of the future
 
 ' ' NO MATTAH WHAT LIES AHEAD . . . I'LL NOT DISAPPOINT THEM '
 
 "SWEET SIXTEEN" 333 
 
 to her eager gaze. " The thoughts of youth are 
 long, long thoughts." Lloyd's flew back to Eu- 
 genia's romance for an instant, then drifted far 
 beyond the two in the gondola, with the Venetian 
 sunset turning all their little world to rose-colour 
 and gold. 
 
 One is a mariner at sixteen, sailing toward an 
 undiscovered country, with seaweed and driftwood 
 on the crest of every wave beginning to whisper, 
 "Land ahead." Toward the dim, outline of that 
 untried shore, Lloyd drifted now in her reverie. 
 
 " I wish I could know what the next sixteen 
 yeahs hold for me," she whimpered. " I hope it 
 will be something bettah than I could choose for 
 myself. Mothah and Papa Jack expect so much 
 of me." 
 
 Then her glance fell on the unfinished rosary, 
 and, picking up the string of tiny pearls, she looped 
 it around her throat, and faced the girl in the 
 mirror with resolute eyes. 
 
 " No mattah what lies ahead," she said, bravely, 
 "I'll not disappoint them. I'll keep the tryst!" 
 
 THE END.
 
 BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 
 THE LITTLE COLONEL BOOKS 
 
 (Trade Mark) 
 
 By ANNIE FELLOWS JOHNSTON 
 Each i vol., large i2mo, cloth decorative, per vol. $1*50 
 
 The Little Colonel Stories. 
 
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 Illustrated. 
 
 Being three " Little Colonel " stories in the Cosy 
 Comer Series, The Little Colonel," " Two Little Knights 
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 single volume. 
 
 The Little Colonel's House Party. 
 
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 Illustrated by Louis Meynell. 
 
 The Little Colonel's Holidays. 
 
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 The Little Colonel's Hero. 
 
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 Illustrated by E. B. Barry. 
 
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 Illustrated by E. B. Barry. 
 
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 Illustrated by E. B. Barry. 
 
 The Little Colonel's Christmas Va- 
 
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 cation. 
 
 Illustrated by E. B. Barry. 
 
 The Little Colonel, Maid of Honour. 
 
 (Trade Mark) 
 
 Illustrated by E. B. Barry.
 
 L. C. PAGE AND COMPANY'S 
 
 The Little Colonel. 
 
 (Trade Mark) 
 
 Two Little Knights of Kentucky. 
 The Giant Scissors. 
 Big Brother. 
 
 Special Holiday Editions 
 
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 " The books are as satisfactory to the small girls, who find 
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 in their influence." Christian Register. 
 
 These four volumes, boxed as a four volume set . $5.00 
 
 In the Desert of Waiting : THE LEGEND 
 
 OF CAMELBACK MOUNTAIN. 
 
 The Three Weavers : A FAIRY TALE FOR 
 
 FATHERS AND MOTHERS AS WELL AS FOR THEIR 
 DAUGHTERS. 
 
 Keeping Tryst. 
 
 The Legend of the Bleeding Heart. 
 
 Each one volume, tall i6mo, cloth decorative . $0.50 
 Paper boards . . . . . . .35 
 
 There has been a constant demand for publication 
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 Joel : A Boy Of Galilee, By ANNIE FEL 
 LOWS JOHNSTON Illustrated by L. J. Bridgman. 
 New illustrated edition, uniform with the Little Colonel 
 Books, i vol., large I2mo, cloth decorative . $1.50 
 A story of the time of Christ, which is one of the 
 
 author's best-known books.
 
 BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 
 
 Asa Holmes J OR, AT THE CROSS-ROADS. A 
 sketch of Country Life and Country Humor. By 
 ANNIE FELLOWS JOHNSTON. With a frontispiece by 
 Ernest Fosbery. 
 
 Large 1 6mo, cloth, gilt top . . . $1.00 
 " ' Asa Holmes ; or, At the Cross-Roads' is the most de- 
 lightful, most sympathetic and wholesome book that has been 
 published in a long while." Boston Times. 
 
 The Rival Campers; OR, THE ADVENTURES 
 OF HENRY BURNS. By RUEL PERLEY SMITH. 
 Square I2mo, cloth decorative, illustrated . $1.50 
 Here is a book which will grip and enthuse every boy reader. 
 It is the story of a party of typical American lads, coura- 
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 island off the Maine coast. 
 
 " The best boys' book since ' Tom Sawyer. ' " San Fran- 
 cisco Examiner. 
 
 The Rival Campers Afloat; OR, THE 
 
 PRIZE YACHT VIKING. By RUEL PERLEY SMITH. 
 Square i2mo, cloth decorative, illustrated . $1.50 
 This book is a continuation of the adventures of "The 
 Rival Campers " on their prize yacht Viking. An accidental 
 collision results in a series of exciting adventures, culminat- 
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 its recapture by means of their old yacht, Surprise. 
 
 The Rival Campers Ashore. B y RUEL 
 
 PERLEY SMITH, author of " The Rival Campers," 
 
 " The Rival Campers Afloat," etc. 
 
 Square izmo, cloth decorative, illustrated . $1.50 
 
 " The Rival Campers Ashore " deals with the adventures 
 of the campers and their friends in and around the town of 
 Benton. Mr. Smith introduces a new character, a girl, 
 who shows them the way to an old* mill, around which the 
 mystery of the story revolves. The girl is an admirable ac- 
 quisition, proving as daring and resourceful as the campers 
 themselves,
 
 Z. C. PAGE AND COMPANY'S 
 
 The Young Section -Hand ; OR, THE AD- 
 VENTURES OF ALLAN WEST. By BURTON E. STE- 
 VENSON, author of " The Marathon Mystery," etc. 
 Square I2mo, cloth decorative, illustrated by L. J. 
 
 Bridgman $l<5O 
 
 Mr. Stevenson's hero is a manly lad of sixteen, who is given 
 a chance as a section-hand on a big Western railroad, and 
 whose experiences are as real as they are thrilling. 
 
 The Young Train Dispatcher. By BUR- 
 TON E. STEVENSON, author of " The Young Section- 
 hand," etc. 
 
 Square I2mo, cloth decorative, illustrated . $1-50 
 The young hero has many chances to prove his manliness 
 
 and courage in the exciting adventures which befall him in the 
 
 discharge of his duty. 
 
 Captain Jack Lorimer. By WINN STAN- 
 DISH. 
 
 Square i2mo, cloth decorative, illustrated by A. B. 
 Shute |i.50 
 
 Jack is a fine example of the all-around American high- 
 school boy. He has the sturdy qualities boys admire, and 
 his fondness for clean, honest sport of all kinds will strike a 
 chord of sympathy among athletic youths. 
 
 Jack Lorimer's Champions; or, sport* 
 
 on Land and Lake. By WINN STANDISH, author ol 
 
 " Captain Jack Lorimer," etc. 
 
 Square I2mo, cloth decorative, illustrated $1-50 
 
 All boys and girls who take an interest in school athletics 
 will wish to read of the exploits of the Millvale High School 
 students, under the leadership of Captain Jack Lorimer. 
 
 Captain Jack's Champions play quite as good ball as do 
 some of the teams on the large leagues, and they put all 
 opponents to good hard work in other summer sports. 
 
 Jack Lorimer and his friends stand out as the finest ex- 
 amples of all-round American high school boys and girls.
 
 BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 
 
 Beautiful Joe's Paradise ; OR, THE ISLAND 
 
 OF BROTHERLY LOVE. A sequel to " Beautiful Joe." 
 By MARSHALL SAUNDERS, author of " Beautiful Joe." 
 One vol., library I2mo, cloth, illustrated . $ 1.50 
 
 " This book revives the spirit of ' Beautiful Joe ' capitally. 
 It is fairly riotous with fun, and as a whole is about as unusual 
 as anything in the animal book line that has seen the light. It 
 is a book for j uveniles old and young. " Philadelphia Item. 
 
 'Tilda Jane. By MARSHALL SAUNDERS. 
 
 One vol., 1 2mo, fully illustrated, cloth decorative, $ i .50 
 
 " It is one of those exquisitely simple and truthful books 
 that win and charm the reader, and I did not put it down 
 until I had finished it honest 1 And I am sure that every 
 one, young or old, who reads will be proud and happy to 
 make the acquaintance of the delicious waif. 
 
 " I cannot think of any better book for children than this. 
 I commend it unreservedly." Cyrus Townsend Brady. 
 
 The Story of the Qraveleys. By MAR- 
 
 SHALL SAUNDERS, author of " Beautiful Joe's Para- 
 dise," " 'Tilda Jane," etc. 
 
 Library i2mo, cloth decorative, illustrated by E. B. 
 Barry $1.50 
 
 Here we have the haps and mishaps, the trials and triumphs, 
 of a delightful New England family, of whose devotion and 
 sturdiness it will do the reader good to hear. 
 
 Bom to the Blue. By FLORENCE KIMBALL 
 RUSSEL. 
 1 2 mo, cloth decorative, illustrated . . $1.25 
 
 The atmosphere of army life on the plains breathes on 
 every page of this delightful tale. The boy is the son of a 
 captain of U. S. cavalry stationed at a frontier post in the 
 days when oar regulars earned the gratitude of a natioa.
 
 Z. C. PAGE AND COMPANY'S 
 
 In West Point Gray. By FLORENCE KIM- 
 BALL RUSSEL. 
 
 i2mo, cloth decorative, illustrated . . $1.25 
 West Point forms the background for the second volume 
 
 in this series, and gives us the adventures of Jack as a cadet. 
 
 Here the training of his childhood days in the frontier army 
 
 post stands him in good stead ; and he quickly becomes the 
 
 central figure of the West Point life. 
 
 The Sandman; His Farm Stories. 
 
 By WILLIAM J. HOPKINS. With fifty illustrations by 
 
 Ada Clendenin Williamson. 
 
 Large 1 2mo, decorative cover . . . $1.50 
 
 " An amusing, original book, written for the benefit of very 
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 press. 
 
 The Sandman : More Farm Stories. 
 
 By WILLIAM J. HOPKINS. 
 
 Large I2mo, decorative cover, fully illustrated $1.50 
 
 Mr. Hopkins's first essay at bedtime stories met with such 
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 issued for scores of eager children. Life on the farm, and 
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 The Sandman: His Ship Stories. 
 
 By WILLIAM J. HOPKINS, author of " The Sandman : 
 
 His Farm Stories," etc. 
 
 Large 12010, decorative cover, fully illustrated $1.50 
 
 " Mothers and fathers and kind elder sisters who put the 
 little ones to bed, and rack their brains for stories, will find 
 this book a treasure." Cleveland Leader . 
 
 " Children call for these stories over and over again." 
 Ckitago Evening Post.
 
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 Pussy-Cat Town. By MARION AMES TAG- 
 
 GART. 
 
 Small quarto, cloth decorative, illustrated and deco- 
 rated in colors ...... $1.00 
 
 " Pussy-Cat Town " is a most unusual delightful cat story. 
 Ban-Ban, a pure Maltese who belonged to Rob, Kiku-san, 
 Lois's beautiful snow-white pet, and their neighbors Bedelia 
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 The Roses of Saint Elizabeth. By JANE 
 
 SCOTT WOODRUFF, author of " The Little Christmas 
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 Small quarto, cloth decorative, illustrated and deco- 
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 This is a charming little story of a child whose father was 
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 Elizabeth once had her home. 
 
 Gabriel and the Hour Book. ByEvA- 
 
 LEEN STEIN. 
 
 Small quarto, cloth decorative, illustrated and deco- 
 rated in colors by Adelaide Everhart . $1.00 
 
 Gabriel was a loving, patient, little French lad, who assisted 
 the monks in the long ago days, when all the books were 
 written and illuminated by hand, in the monasteries. 
 
 The Enchanted Automobile. Trans- 
 lated from the French by MARY J. SAFFORD. 
 Small quarto, cloth decorative, illustrated and deco- 
 rated in colors by Edna M. Sawyer . . $1.00 
 
 The enchanted automobile was sent by the fairy god- 
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 take them to fairyland, where they might visit their story- 
 book favorites.
 
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 The Red Feathers. By THEODORE ROBERTS, 
 author of " Brothers of Peril," etc. 
 Cloth decorative, illustrated . . . $1.50 
 " The Red Feathers" tells of the remarkable adventures of 
 an Indian boy who lived in the Stone Age, many years ago, 
 when the world was young, and when fairies and magicians 
 did wonderful things for their friends and enemies. 
 
 The Wreck of the Ocean Queen. By 
 
 James Otis, author of " Larry Hudson's Ambition," 
 
 etc. 
 
 Cloth decorative, illustrated . . . $1.50 
 
 This story takes its readers on a sea voyage around the 
 world ; gives them a trip on a treasure ship ; an exciting ex- 
 perience in a terrific gale; and finally a shipwreck, with a 
 mutineering crew determined to take the treasure to compli- 
 cate matters. 
 
 But only the mutineers will come to serious harm, and 
 after the reader has known the thrilling excitement of lack of 
 food and water, of attacks by night and day, and of a hand-to- 
 hand fight, he is rescued and brought safely home again, 
 to realize that it's only a story, but a stirring and realistic 
 one. 
 
 Little White Indians. By FANNIE E. 
 
 OSTRANDER. 
 
 Cloth decorative, illustrated . . . $1.25 
 The " Little White Indians " were two families of children 
 
 who " played Indian " all one long summer vacation. They 
 
 built wigwams and made camps ; they went hunting and 
 
 fought fierce battles on the war-trail. 
 
 A bright, interesting story which will appeal strongly to 
 
 the " make-believe " instinct in children, and will give them a 
 
 healthy, active interest in " the simple life."
 
 BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 
 
 PHYLLIS' FIELD FRIENDS SERIES 
 
 By LENORE . MULETS 
 Six vols., cloth decorative, illustrated by Sophie 
 Schneider. Sold separately, or as a set. 
 
 Per volume fl.oo 
 
 Per set 6.00 
 
 Insect Stories. 
 
 Stories of Little Animals. 
 
 Flower Stories. 
 
 Bird Stories. 
 
 Tree Stories. 
 
 Stories of Little Fishes. 
 
 In this series of six little Nature books, it is the author's in- 
 tention so to present to the child reader the facts about each 
 particular flower, insect, bird, or animal, in story form, as to 
 make delightful reading. Classical legends, myths, poems, 
 and songs are so introduced as to correlate fully with these 
 lessons, to which the excellent illustrations are no little help. 
 
 THE WOODRANGER TALES 
 
 By G. WALDO BROWNE 
 
 The Wood ranger. 
 The Young Qunbearen 
 The Hero of the Hills. 
 With Rogers' Rangers. 
 
 Each I vol., large I2mo, cloth, decorative cover, illus- 
 trated, per volume ...... $1.25 
 
 Four vols., boxed, per set .... S.oo 
 
 " The Woodranger Tales," like the " Pathfinder Tales " of 
 J. Fenimore Cooper, combine historical information relating 
 to early pioneer days in America with interesting adventures 
 hi the backwoods. Although the same characters are con- 
 tinued throughout the series, each book is complete in itself, 
 and, while based strictly on historical facts, is an interesting 
 and exciting tale of adventure.
 
 THE LITTLE COUSIN SERIES 
 
 The most delightful and interesting accounts possible 
 of child life in other lands, filled with quaint sayings, 
 doings, and adventures. 
 
 Each one vol., 1 2mo, decorative cover, cloth, with six or more 
 full-page illustrations in color. 
 
 Price per volume ....... $0.60 
 
 By MARY HAZELTON WADE (unless otherwise 
 indicated) 
 
 Our Little African Cousin Our Little Irish Cousin 
 Our Little Alaskan Cousin Our Little Italian Cousin 
 By Mary F. Nixon - Roulet Qur Uttle Japane , e Cou . in 
 
 _ . . . . . _ . Our Little Korean Cousin 
 
 Our Little Armenian Cousin By H Lee M . Pike 
 
 Our Little Brown Cousin Qur UtUc Mexican Co usin 
 Our Little Canadian Cousin By Edward C. Butler 
 
 By Elizabeth R. Macdonald Qur Uttle Norwegian Cousin 
 
 Our Little Chinese Cousin Our Utt , e Panama CoU8 ; n 
 
 By Isaac Taylor Headland By H Lee M. Pike 
 
 Our Little Cuban Cousin Our Uttle Phi Hppi ne Cousin 
 
 Our Little Dutch Cousin Our Little Porto Rican Cousin 
 
 By Blanche McManus ^ 
 
 ^ t i p i. t / - Our Li" 16 Ruan Cousin 
 
 Our Little English Cousin __ , _ , _ 
 
 By Blanche McManus Our Little Scotch Cousin 
 
 _ By Blanche McManus 
 
 Our Little Eskimo Cousin , ' 
 
 _ , _ Our Little Siamese Cousin 
 
 Our Little French Cousin _ 
 
 By Blanche McManas Our Little Spanish Cousin 
 
 . ' By Mary F. Nixon -Roulet 
 
 Our Little German Cousin 
 
 Our Little Swedish Cousin 
 Our Little Hawaiian Cousin By Claire M C oburn
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 Hi. JAN1 
 JRN221987 
 
 Form L9-25m-9,'47(A5618)444 
 
 THE r,n?RARY
 
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