Judy

elf Judy was hav

it," had been Anne's

had been, "I'll go, b

wasn't

to little jaunts with the children of the neighborhood, and an occasional Sunday-school gathering. The Judge had lived his lonely life in his

dowdy little country girls, one of whom was, in Judy's opinion, exceedingly pert, and the other exasperatingly placid; the laughter and the light-heartedness, the beauty of

rywhere was the aromatic fragrance of the forest. Now and then there was a flutter of wings as a nesting bird swooped by with scarcely a note of song. A pair of redbirds cam

he chatter of gay voices in the distance, w

hung over the water, were dangling their lines and watching the corks that bobbed on the surface. The Judge, with a big ha

utside of Judy's circle of pines, a brisk little fire sent up its p

carried himself with a lazy grace, and in spite of his old co

iron pan over the coals, and dropped i

d, "I'll be back in a minute," a

losed her eyes, with

uncelot, a half-do

ened he

at you?"

and help me cook?" He was s

's voice was cold. She

gainst a tree to d

t hate it. It's rather

k," murmured Jud

you, lit

hat. "I'm fourte

h a contagious laugh,

corners of h

t like to have me call you 'little girl.

pon

" she sai

auncelot. "Oh, by Jov

back in

e fish in a corn-mealed symmetrical row in the hot fat, he

asked, as

ed young lady. "Judy is my pet na

gave a lon

lk like this to

e wh

ht from the should

e is my

"You can't have Anne for a

y n

my frie

shoulders and shut her eyes ag

and then Launcelot said:

te fi

ick wild

, before she recognized its untruth. "Well, I don't wan

not going t

y n

to help me co

won

you will.

f you won't

a tired droop to her slender young figure. "No, I am not going t

d at him,

she b

o something. You just think and think and th

And the sympathy combined with a hitherto unmet masterfulness conquered Judy

said shyly, then slipped p

her, she was ben

ncelot turned the fish, and they lay a

auncelot, smiling a little as h

dy fried more bacon, and they s

rown as yours did," s

nough," was Launcelot's sugge

going to look light brown instead

e was abstracted. He was measuring the c

oment it seemed to die down, then suddenly the big blac

, and little burnt bits of co

shielded her face with her hand, as she hel

elot dropped t

f, take them

upraised, stared at

she sta

the pan fr

cried, and turned th

s down to the very tips of