The Little Colonel's Knight Comes Riding

orward from the doctor's buggy, to look down the locust avenue. Lloyd was coming toward the gate, sw

posing, sir

g out, asking eagerly, "Is it

ng in the Lindsey woods. Miss Marks asked me to meet her there at eleven o'cloc

s up to Uncle, I could drive you over as well as not. It would detain you ten min

Lloyd gratefully, looking down the long hot

etch of road. I'll just sit heah in the shade and wait." Laying the hunter's horn on the

pring?" he asked as he cl

x-spinnah's maiden. Miss Marks is always illustrating some old fairy-tale. She wanted me to bring grand

p the reins. "I saw him over at Clovercroft yesterday morning, setting up a tr

and Alex's emphatic answer seemed to confirm her misgivings. If that were the case she felt that she could not possibly go. He had made such a point of avoiding her that night at the Cabin, that even Betty had noticed it, and she was very sure she didn't want to have her picture taken with a man who had showed his aversion to her s

e her self-conscious. Of course he couldn't possibly know that she had lain awake, looking at the stars, picturing herself as a sort of guardian angel, who should lead him to great heights of achievement (as Gay had assured her she could do). But she felt that he must have divined her intentions toward him, and was secretly am

ng along towards the stone bench where she sat. But the little ant, intent on its

o you," she added, with a shrug of the shoulders. Then she laughed, fo

se I'm going to profit by yoah example from now on. Heah me? I'm going to quit worrying over what people may think of me and go along about my business j

on its eager way again, she watched it disappear, and t

one that could give me gorgeous dresses whenevah I repeated the charm, but one that would sawt of clothe my mind-put me into su

face, as a sudden recollection seemed to illumina

rious within. Her clothing is of wrought gold.'" Sentences from Miss Allison's earnest little talk of long ago began coming back to Lloyd like fragments of forgotten music. Some

tow to one befitting her royal station, she had on

eet sake, in m

deck me, l

ken it back to school with her in her Senior year, for she felt that she had outgrown its childish symbolism. She could "keep tryst" with life's obligations now without the visible reminder of a little white bead, slipped daily over a silken cord. Still, it had helped her to remember, so many times in th

her neck. "But I don't care, if it will only help me to remembah not to be snippy and sensitive and to go ab

glanced at her curiously. "You look as if you had heard good ne

you. I'm the Princess Olga, and I've gotten rid of my gown of tow, and I'm so re

ple coming and going as she laughed. It was a pleasure just to sit and watch her, while she rattled on in her inimitable way about

ith Gay for a victim. Stretched out on the rocks of the creek bank, with her hands lying in the shallow water and her h

r lying there so limp and still. But the next instant Leland's voice sounded somewhere up among the bushes: "That's great, Pug. Try to keep the pose a little lon

The sun on my wet face is burning it to a blister, and the rocks are cutting

from the rocks in embarrassed haste, and when she caught sight of Alex, fled away into the bushes to gather up her dishevelled hair and otherwise put herself to rights. Sh

care how ridiculous I looked. Anything to break the

e touch of the little necklace recalled her resolve. "I'll not be snippy and sensitive," she repeated to herself, cl

f relief that Gay left them to the discussion of poses and costumes, and turned to Alex, who was about to take his departure. The one word, picnic, was enough to s

ght, and spread the contents out on a great flat rock. Then while the water boiled for the co

in," she told him. "And bring them up here where I can keep an eye on what is g

hey had brought gave quite the effect they wanted, so f

d. "So take Miss Sherman just as she is, and I'l

UP OF HER W

The last little basket was made and filled with berries before Leland came back, dragging his wheel up the ravine. Gay and Alex, having finished their preparati

tically. "How is this pose?" He dropped gracefully to on

smiled up at her, with its quick flashing smile that she found so peculiar

will be served immediately." It was an attractive table she led them to, the red berries shining in luscious heaps in their littl

queried Alex as he fished an ant out of

ck to the kitchen in red-hot wrath. He

the June woods," su

e world and all outdoors wouldn't make a half-baked potato fit f

around in the woods, as he calls it. He made so much fun of it that Lucy went driving with him instea

of Midas touch that will turn everything disagreeable, like ants a

ay to keep it in good working order is to give it

r to that old English garden that I discovered, to ta

y were to wait for Kitty's return for that picture. His taking it for

's, don't you, Miss Sherman?" h

n to join them, she was more complimented by that invitation than any other of that school term, and envied them their apparent enjoyment of what to her was a tangle of vague meanings. Now when, she saw Leland take a well worn copy from his pocket and flip over the leaves to find the place, with an ease that showed long familiarity with it,

e garden she

such a short

· ·

ide of the

her robe's edge

paused in her

oth on the milk

ried Miss Marks enthusiastically. "I

better one," he adde

she stopped at

doubt, as sett

me with pride

eandering S

! Was it lo

asleep or so

Spanish one

slow, sweet

at the place where he laid i

e. Speech half-asleep or song half-awake-' It must have been something exquisitely beautiful or

underscored lines. She read the

d her not, be

ollow her b

ethod to tell

e since she's bre

y it for us, Leland. Say it in Spa

ted the line with an emphasis which made it altogether personal. Of course she could not understand it, but the words were like bird-notes, and there was no mistaking the language o

parent concern. But an exultant little thrill flashed over her. He liked her. She was sure of it, and it made her glad, so glad that it amazed

ire attention was absorbed in an argument with Alex as to the exact meaning of the quotation, whether twice June meant a lengthening of the calendar or an inte

," he said in his masterful way which seemed to leave her no choice in the matter. "An hour a day wouldn't take much of your time, an

" she answered lightly, with a shrug that seemed to

ed authoritatively. "You've

e most unexpected moments. She saw it on the way home with Alex, all the time she was laughingly recounting some of her Warwick Hall escapades. It came between her and her book when she tried to read herself to sleep that after