The Little Colonel: Maid of Honor

had not yet worn off. The Locusts had never looked so beautiful to them as it did this vacation, a

ntil after lunch, Lloyd chafed at the delay at first. Then she consoled herself with the thought that

on, "and he will be as sweet and lovely as a May mawning. And he'll have on a fresh white suit

dress of yoahs that I like so much. Mom Beck will stand in the doahway behind you all just like a pictuah of an old-time South'n welcome. Of co'se Joyce has seen it all

he is the little dreamer that I was the best time will not be the arrival, but early candle-lighting time, when you are playing on your harp. I used to sit on a foot-stool at

time, till I have grown so tall that I could pick you up and carry you off, little godmother. I am going to do it some day soon,

est work will be. Think how the shy little Elizabeth of twelve has blossomed into the stately El

rm of the old Colonel's chair, "they are lost to all else in the world. So while we have this mo

ty no one but Lloyd had ever dared take with the dignified old Co

it on you that you're not to indulge in any reminiscence of my past while she is heah. You mustn't tell any of my youthful misdemeanahs that you are fond of telling-how I threw mud on yoah coat, in one of my awful tempahs, and smashed yoah shaving-mug with a walk

sternly, although his eyes, smiling fondly on her, plainly spoke c

as she liberated his ears and darted away. "Ask Colonel

of having been caught up into a gay whirl of some kind. It gave them an excited thrill which presaged all sorts of delightful things about to happen. The courtly bows of the old Colonel, standing betwee

rattlesnakes, or washing dishes in the hot little kitchen of the Wigwam. Here in the soft light shed from many waxen tapers in the silver candelabra, surrounded by fine old ancestral portraits, and fur

ee the tiled walls, the fine ample towels with their embroidered monograms, the dainty soaps, and the cut-glass bottles of toilet-water, with their faint odor as of distant violets. Then she wondered if Mom Beck

ers. Afterward she was glad that she had done so, for Mom Beck was a practised hair-dresser, and made the most of Mary's thin locks. She so brushed and fluffed a

the table made it seem quite like the dinner-parties she had read about in novels, and the talk that circled around of the latest books and the new op

sily did she fall in with the ways about her, that one would have thought her alwa

said, though to be sure only half of her guests had arrived, the two young army officers, George Logan and Robert Stanley. Allison and Kitty were with them, a

pictured in her stories of the first house-party. This one had long dresses, and her curly hair was tucked up on her head in such a bewitchingly young-ladified way that Mary was in awe of her at first. She was not disappointed in her now, however, and no longer in awe, since B

way, that Mary found it difficult to decide which group to attach herself to. She did not want to lose a word that any one was sayi

s expected to do the agreeable to visitors (and they do it), obliged to give up their quarters at a moment's notice, take the duties nobody else wants, be cheerful under all conditions, and ready for anything. It is an exception when a second lieutenant is not de

RWARD IN HIS CHAIR

she heard enough to make her take a second look at Lieutenant Logan. He was leaning forward in his chair, talking to Joyce with an air of flattering

girls and boys at Plainsville. It would be fine if things would turn out so that Joyce liked an army man. If she married one and lived at a post she'd invite me to visit her.

he alert happy look in her eyes showed that she was all a-tingle with the unusual pleasure the evening was affording her. She laughed and looked and listened, sure that the scene

our over everything and made it seem that the pretty girls and the young lieutenants were only portraits out of a beautiful old past who had stepped down from their frames for a little while. Yet when Mary glanc

question, as his gaze also rested admiringly on it. "Yes, this is the same harp

ny voices, took her place beside the harp below the picture, and struck a few deep, rich chords. Then

d fly, flut

my heart

more beautiful. She had not thought how the white sleeves would fall back from the round white arms

ty. She was having another good time, thinking it all over. She thought scornfully of the woman on the sleeping-car who had told her that distance lends enchantment, and that she must not expect t

led one pleasant incident after another, she thought, "Now this is life! No wonder L