A Romance of Billy-Goat Hill

ts and impossible fruitions. A glamour of tender new green enveloped the world, and the air was sweet with the odor of young and growing things. The brown riv

and the flotsam and jetsam of the adjacent city were gradually being deposited at its

remaining fortress against the city's invasion. Sagging cornices and discolored walls had not dispelled the atmosphere of contentment that enveloped the place, an effect heightened by the wide front porch which ran straigh

en its smokehouse, now groaning under a pile of lumber, sheltered shoulders of pork, and sides of bacon, and long lines of juicy, sugar-cured hams; when the cellar quartered battalions of cobwebby bottles that stood at attention on the low hangi

cking chair, was weather-beaten, and of a slightly mahogany hue. His features, having long ago given up the struggle against encroaching flesh, were now merely slight indentures, and mild protuberances, with the e

he sugar at the bottom of his tall glass; then, resting the concoction on the broad ar

mps

l direction of the negro cabins whose roofs could be seen through

mps

his obliterated features, clasped his fat hands with some difficulty about his ample girth, and slept. When he awoke he began exac

ng of feet was heard in the hall, and a small, alert old negro pr

r of great injury at the tops of the locust trees, cla

r the culprit had suffere

ervously. He had evidently reh

ns," insisted the Colon

, but Car

ger?" persisted the

but you see

ted the Colonel, "been taking a mint jule

, I was a

is own house, to bring him a small piece of ice?" The Colonel's sense of injury was becoming so overpo

bright, tumbled hair. Her eyes were dark, and round like those of a child, and they danced from object to object as if eager to

ing on the threshold. "Mad again?" The Colonel's h

mpson 'til he finds my gloves. I

ed the diversion. "I'll find 'em je

t, won't you, Dad

Colonel eyed each other, th

ack," Jimpson whispered reassuringly

ste as she perched herself on the arm of her father

hing, Dad?

two-loop bow-knot. "Noah Wicker and I are goin

I'm goin

good. Wh

Don Mo

uring this conversation contracted suddenly, leavin

here anyhow; why don't he go o

ad. "Why, he's staying over to the Wickers' while he looks around for a farm. Here's a gray hai

he could find something better to do with his time than hanging around here. For two weeks I haven't been able

the ears, and turned his

rd with a nod. "He likes horses and dogs and me, and I l

to be beguiled by

because he is a city fellow, he can take a daughter of

ourself almost every Sunday? And don't I go w

u can't g

ack to town to-night, and he may go abroa

are a hang where he goes. It's you we are talking about. Y

t w

el argued feebly, "b

e was a contraction of her lips that might have passed for a co

on't promise

f the chair, and he looked as if he had e

nday," went on Miss Lady, "it's wrong for you to g

tackle, lying ready for action on the top step, then

ant to stay at home this glorious afternoon, neither do I! Now

h her father. His subjection had begun on that morning now nearly twenty years ago, when she had been

e might not like his choice, held him back from a final decision. In the meanwhile she was "The Little Lady," then "Lady," and finally through the negroes it got to be "Miss Lady." So the Colonel weakly compromised in the matter by deciding to wai

or dared to wade the farthest into the stream. All through the summer days her little bare legs raced beside Noah's sturdier brown ones. She could handle a fishi

veral young and pretty governesses, all of whom had succumbed to the charms of neighboring country swains, and abandoned their young charge,

nd clever, and lovable, oh, yes! And at this point usually followed a number of stories of her generosity and impulsive kindness; "but," the conclusion alway

puffs on her head, and heels on her shoes, and whalebones about her waist. That she didn't care whether X plus Y equaled Z, or not, and that going to church and saying the same thing a

education. She usually fought out her mathematical battles down by the river, using a stick on the sand for her calculations;

own as the library. Its only possible excuse for the name was its one piece of furniture, a battered secret

publication. Later she had discovered that some of the ladies had jokes on their backs, or rather pieces of jokes, the rest of which she hunted up in the old magazines. It was an easy

mell and its sense of old, forgotten things and people, she would tuck h

amount of pleasure out of each passing day. For the thing that differentiated Miss Lady from the rest of her fellow kind was that she was usually glad. She liked to get up in the morning and to go to bed at night, a pecul

ul. She was too satisfying a sight with her shining hair and eyes, and lithe, supple figure, every motion of which be

s awkwardness, however manifest to others, was evidently a matter of small moment to him. He had apparently accepted the companionship of unmanageable arms and legs without question, and without embarr

eared the Colonel tur

ung fellow over at your

es deliberately. "Why, he's a

he Colonel paused for a moment to digest this fact, then he went on: "He

orm of a question, Noah

t Noah was noncommittal. "When a fellow gets to be twenty-three years old and can't find anything better to do than to run around

s been re

"You can't learn farming out of a bo

h grinned ambiguously. "You and I coul

he sh

it a bar

ned the last drops from his tumbler,

do you like th

up in surprise. "Why, ev

fiercely. "Here he comes now

ed sorrel, rashly took a fence where gate there was none, and ca

s that spoke little contrition. "Slipped my trolley as usual and g

tuckian may commit murder and still be a gentleman, but to

ll be out presently," he ann

y, stooping to pat the dog; "didn't mean to

t from a fringe of wiry hair, expressed his appreciation of th

and forehead, and tossing his hair back. "If I weren't going to town to-night

nvention of the Colonel's, something he had been working on for a

y. "If that isn't the cleverest thing I ever saw. This little screw reg

Colonel, nattered in spite of himself. "Took me th

e very ardent look that leapt into his face, and the alacrity with which he sprang up, it

ere was an unmistakable flush under the smooth tan of her

he said, tossing a small package to each;

" asked the Colonel, having ha

him from the rear, slipping an arm about his neck as he knelt on the porch to collect

l leaned back upon his kn

ly from strangulation, a

not! That colt's hardly broken to th

pson. Please, Dadd

lling me about," said Morley, "we are c

his knees where he knelt on t

you mean

once, am a member. From all I can hear

orse before I taught her to walk. Handle him? Of course she can handle