The Little Colonel's Knight Comes Riding

ant scenes mirrored in their memory. The fortunate things, the smiling faces, the pleasant happenings were hers, and for

hat the shuttle of her thoughts was shaping her web to fit the shoulders of

were wandering around the shady grounds together, planning some improvements, "I'm afraid those Spanish les

rry, Elizabeth," was his placid answer. "It isn't as if she'd never been used to such devotion. She's never known

sire to please him. Not evident to him, perhaps, but plain enough to me. I've been thinking that it might be a good thing for us to go to the springs for awhile or to the sea-shore or some place where she'd meet other people. In a quiet little country place li

own at his wife with

a lot of romantic day-dreaming probably, but

mperament. I am sure she couldn't be happy with him. She's just at the romantic age now to be very much impressed with that kind of a man. If she were older she would see his

t of view. "Maybe you are right. But," he added wistfully, "I had hoped to keep her home this summer. She has been away at school so l

y quicken her interest in him and make her champion his cause. That would be fatal, and yet it's just as dangerous to wait. Love at that age is like a fog.

experience?" h

s blind and deaf to everything but you. And I'd want Lloyd to be the same," she added hastily, "if you were as unreasonable as papa was then. But the circumstances are too differe

ropped. The next half hour was spent in consultati

ng into Doctor Shelby's buggy, which was drawn up in front of the house. The old doc

at Rollington that needs the attention of her King's Daughters Circle

acations following, it had been a matter of frequent occurrence for the old doctor to take her with him on such errands. Remembering how interested Lloyd had become in many of the cases, Mrs. Sher

be young and well and filled with the same glow that made the summer day a joy was enough, but to feel that some one whose opinion she valued very mu

t had gone to make up the sum of her great content. There was a dreamy, far-away look in her eyes as she listened. The Spanish serenade that Leland Harcourt had sung before he left kept repeating itself over and over, a sort of undercurrent t

"You suahly can't mean that it's Ida Shane who's si

raised when she eloped from the Seminary with Ned, five years ago. But Ned has scarcely drawn a sober breath for the last year. She's sur

loyd wonderingly. The ride

tive about keeping Ned's failings from him. She has never allowed him to find out that his father is a drunkard. She makes a hero of him to the little fellow. Seems to think that he'll blame her for giving him such a

the glimmer of the pearl on Ida's white hand in the moonlight she had been thrilled by her whisper: "He says that's what my life mea

e shy glance of her appealing violet eyes under the long lashes, the bewitching dimple at the corner of her mouth, the flash of her rings, the sweep of her long skirts, the soft

nce existed between them. "But under the circumstances it will be the best thing I can do. I'll go in first and prepare her for the

lace. The whitewash had long ago dropped in scales from the rough walls. The window-panes were broken, the shutters sagging, half the pickets off the fence. Not a spear of grass ventured up in the

with a shudder of disgust. That Ida, dainty beauty-loving Ida, who scorned everything that w

in front of her, regarding her curiously. The wagon made so much noise that she had not heard his bare feet pattering around the house. She gave a little start of surprise, then smiled at him, for he was an attractive little fellow

o mistaking the likeness of those violet eyes and the dimple that came at the corner of his cupid's bo

m up and kissed him, he was such a dear little thing, with a thatch of short golden curls. But her fastidious dislike of touching anything dirty made her draw back. It was well for the furtherance of their acquaintance that she did

nd-pile to your

her attractions. "But I have a red and green bird that can talk, and a little black pony named 'Tarbaby.' It's so litt

h to ride it," he

said in a low tone. "She's due on the next train. Keep her as quiet as possible. Of course you'll have to

almost stumbled over the cot on which Ned Bannon lay in a drunken stupor, and her first glance at the bed beyond made her draw back in d

nto a faded, care-worn woman. She had been crying ever since she was taken sick, and now

tried so long to hide what we've come to. But I'm glad you've come, for

ory of her married life, her miserable failure to reform Ned. Lloyd tried to stop her present

e broke out desperately. "I know he has inherited Ned's awful appetite. I must stay and help him fight it, for it's all my fault. I gave him such a father. A father that he can never be proud of! A father that will be only a disgrace to him! Oh, why didn't so

rose from her chair to call one of the neighbours. But she could not bre

"I'll kill him with my own hands first, while he is little and good. God would understand, wouldn't he? He couldn't blame me for trying to save

on the bed beside his mother, stroked her face with his dirty little dimpled hand. The soft

o just anybody, Lloyd. The neighbours have been good and kind, but I'm afraid he might find out fro

ok in her eyes was a prayer that Lloyd could not resist, and she

you're better," she

eyes again. She was so weak

p to anybody but you." Then seeing the frightened look that crept into the child's face as he listen

mother's dearest friend for awhile. She'll take care of you while the good docto

eagerly, anxious to clear away the troubled pucker on

nd on Ida's hot cheek to compel her attention. It was a gesture she loved, and she kissed his fingers passionately as he said w

of the neighbourhood visits he had made, and he accepte

d," he exclaimed, wriggling down

weet way in which he gave her the title "Dearest Friend." That was what his mother had called her, an

o we'll be all ready when the buggy comes back," she said, h

he shield of her mother-love around him in every way possible. There was no mark of poverty here. She had cut up her own clothes, relics of a happier time, to make the little linen

rected her mistakes, and laughed when she made a play of the buttonholes being hungry mouths, that swallowed the buttons in a hurry. Never in her life had she exerted herself so much to be entertaining, for she wanted to ta

ears, "Oh, be good to him! Be good to him!" a great tenderness sprang up in her heart for the child who put his hand in hers so trustingly, and trotted away beside her obediently at his mother's bidding.

sk her a question. The touch brought the tears to her eyes, it was so confiding, and she was still so shaken by the scene she had just witnessed. In

of her sudden caress. Then he cuddled his head against her shoulder in a

her mother, and she was to stay a week alone with her grandfather, who did not know how to sing her to sleep and kiss her eye-lids down so she wouldn't be afraid of the black shadows in the corners. Here by this very gate she had stood, assailed by such a great ache

hat Wardo should not have the same experience if any effort of hers could prevent it. She would devote her time to him night and day and keep him so happi

ghtfall itself would make Wardo homesick, that she began to provide for his

D GREEN BIRD WAS ON

find the parrot right away for Wardo

hed it, wide-eyed and absorbed, Lloyd gave an excited and tearful account of her visit to Ida. The old Colonel said something about the f

dy!" she added. "I'll take care of him eve

oughts diverted from home, and then heard her giving orders to Walker about her old high chair and l

h lessons, Jack. We won't have to go away to