The Little Colonel | Page 8

a laugh. "Maggie Boy might object and
throw us all off."
Hugging her basket of flowers close in her arms, she leaned her head
against him contentedly as they cantered down the avenue.
"Look!" whispered all the locusts, waving their hands to each other
excitedly. "Look! The master has his own again. The dear old times are
coming back to us."
"How the trees blow!" exclaimed the child, looking up at the green arch
overhead. "See! They's all a-noddin' to each othah." "We'll have to get
my shoes an' 'tockin's," she said, presently, when they were nearly
home. "They're in that fence cawnah behin' a log."
The Colonel obediently got down and handed them to her. As he
mounted again he saw a carriage coming toward them. He recognized
one of his nearest neighbours. Striking the astonished Maggie Boy with
his spur, he turned her across the railroad track, down the steep
embankment, and into an unfrequented lane.
"This road is just back of your garden," he said. "Can you get through
the fence if I take you there?"
"That's the way we came out," was the answer. "See that hole where the
palin's are off?"
Just as he was about to lift her down, she put one arm around his neck,
and kissed him softly on the cheek. "Good-bye, gran'fatha'," she said, in
her most winning way. "I've had a mighty nice time." Then she added,
in a lower tone, "'Kuse me fo' throwin' mud on yo' coat."
He held her close a moment, thinking nothing had ever before been half
so sweet as the way she called him grandfather.
From that moment his heart went out to her as it had to little Tom and
Elizabeth. It made no difference if her mother had forfeited his love. It
made no difference if Jack Sherman was her father, and that the two

men heartily hated each other.
It was his own little grandchild he held in his arms.
She had sealed the relationship with a trusting kiss.
"Child," he said, huskily, "you will come and see me again, won't you,
no matter if they do tell you not to? You shall have all the flowers and
berries you want, and you can ride Maggie Boy as often as you please."
She looked up into his face. It was very familiar to her. She had looked
at his portrait often, unconsciously recognizing a kindred spirit that she
longed to know.
Her ideas of grandfathers, gained from stories and observation, led her
to class them with fairy godmothers. She had always wished for one.
The day they moved to Lloydsborough, Locust had been pointed out to
her as her grandfather's home. From that time on she slipped away with
Fritz on every possible occasion to peer through the gate, hoping for a
glimpse of him.
"Yes, I'll come suah!" she promised. "I likes you just lots, gran'fathah!"
He watched her scramble through the hole in the fence. Then he turned
his horse's head slowly homeward.
A scrap of white lying on the grass attracted his attention as he neared
the gate.
"It's the lost sunbonnet," he said, with a smile. He carried it into the
house, and hung it on the hat-rack in the wide front hall.
"Ole marse is crosser'n two sticks," growled Walker to the cook at
dinner. "There ain't no livin' with him. What do you s'pose is the
mattah?"

CHAPTER IV.

Mom Beck was busy putting lunch on the table when the Little Colonel
looked in at the kitchen door.
So she did not see a little tramp, carrying her shoes in one hand, and a
basket in the other, who paused there a moment. But when she took up
the pan of beaten biscuit she was puzzled to find that several were
missing.
"It beats my time," she said, aloud. "The parrot couldn't have reached
them, an' Lloyd an' the dog have been in the pa'lah all mawnin'.
Somethin' has jus' natch'ly done sperrited 'em away."
Fritz was gravely licking his lips, and the Little Colonel had her mouth
full, when they suddenly made their appearance on the front porch.
Aunt Sally Tyler gave a little shriek, and stopped rocking.
"Why, Lloyd Sherman!" gasped her mother, in dismay. "Where have
you been? I thought you were with Becky all the time. I was sure I
heard you singing out there a little while ago."
"I've been to see my gran'fathah," said the child, speaking very fast. "I
made mud pies on his front 'teps, an' we both of us got mad, an' I
throwed mud on him, an' he gave me some 'trawberries an' all these
flowers, an' brought me home on Maggie Boy."
She stopped out of breath. Mrs. Tyler and her niece exchanged
astonished glances.