Ole Mammy's Torment

colored lanterns were strung all about the grounds, and a stage for outdoor tableaux

cook, but his curiosity kept him standing open-mout

etty Girls sa

; another was mending the gold lace on a velvet coat, and the others were busy with the various costumes which they were to wear in the tableaux. Now and then a ga

that lovely brocaded satin of her grandmother's, and Raleigh Stanford does the cavalier to perfection in that farewell

arrying a pasteboard shield which she had just finished covering with tinfoil. John Jay's mo

for them to admire the effect. Then she dropped down on the ste

s needed to complete your cavalier tableau. Call him over here and tell him that he must come to-night." Just then the boy turned and started on a trot to the kitchen. "Why, it's John Jay!" exclaimed Hallie. "Old

and get him to talk for us. I know he'll be

he library and beckoning the girls to follow. "See! I found this mandolin in my chair when I went to the breakfast-table this morning, and this watch was under my napkin. This tennis-

both hi

t never said a word in answer to the eager question

like an excited little whirlwind. The lid of the basket flopped up and down, in time to the motion of his scampering feet. At the foot of the hill he began calling "Mammy!" and kept it up until he reache

ily see that her services might be desired in the kitchen, but it puzzled her to know what anybody coul

other. Now he came up with a bit of rope with which to play h

n't no hawse. I'se goin' to a buthday-pa'ty to-nigh

with me an' Ivy?" a

along with me, an' I'll tell you what all Miss Hallie got for her buthday. I r

his eyes in

for you." After much searching through his pockets, John Jay handed out a big chocolate cream that had been mashe

path in Indian file, he ventured a question that he had pondered

, tramping on ahead with her skirt

s?" he asked,

had never known the exact date, "I'm nevah ve'y p'tick'lah 'bout i

hewed log. When they had crossed in careful silenc

s she began counting on her fingers, her skirts slipped lower and lo

nine next Satiddy. A week from to-day is yoah buthday. Pity it hadn't a-happened to be the s

ted now, hanging like strings of stars around the porches, and from tree to tree. Violins played softly, somewhere out of sight, and everywhere on the night air was the breath of myriads of roses. Handsomely dressed people passed in and out of the house, and across the lawn. The light, the mu

now seemed bewitched. It was no longer a flow of sparkling water, but of splashing rainbo

ns. He knew nothing of the tinsel and flour and red lights which produced the effect. He stood about as Miss Hallie told him: he held a horse in one tableau, and posed as a bron

hey passed by. "Oh, there's that funny little fellow that was here this morning!" she said. "We tri

young man suddenly in his

tell what he knew; but just at that moment he could remember only one thing in all the wide world. Every other bit of informati

y that her young cavalier made

g. You didn't know that I am a sort of birthday Santa Claus, did you? Just look out for me next Saturday. If I'm not there by breakfast-time, wai

iss Sally Lou, moving off toward

tiful things, did not think it at all queer that such an unheard-of person as a birthday

ckles on his shoes, an' a sword on, an' a long white feathah in his hat. Cricky! An' it was his hawse

as telling Sheba how beautiful Miss Hallie's birthday cake looked at dinner, with its nineteen little wax candles all aflame. That was the l

the toll-gate. He was so sleepy that he staggered up against her every few steps, and he would hav

and John Jay leaned up against the well-shed. The rumbling of the windlass and the fall of the bucket against the wate

ving been out so late at night before, and he had never seen the sky so full of stars. They made him think of something that Aunt Susan had told him. She said that if he

ting to each star with his little black forefinge

ght, sta

ar I've se

ay and I w

come true I

fore going to sleep. He hurried into the house, glad that Mammy was so occupied with her company that she could pay no attention to him. She stood in th

that burned in his little heart was a very earnes