A Man of Honor

k makes a Go

e first was a sound which puzzled him more than a little. It was a steady, monotonous scraping of a most unaccountable kind-somewhat like the sound of a carpenter's plane and somewhat like that of a saw. Had it been out of doors he would have thought nothing of it; but clearly it was in the house, and not only so, but in every part of the house except the bedrooms. Scrape, scrape, scrape, scrape, scrape. What it meant he could not guess. As he lay there wondering about it he heard another sound, greatly more musical, at which he jumped out of bed and began dressing, wondering at this sound, too, quite as much as at the other, though he knew perfectly well that this was nothing more than a human voice-Miss Sudie's, to wit. He wondered if there ever was such a voice before or ever would be again. Not that the young woman was singing, for she was doing nothing of th

ybody else who hears it for the first time. Dry "pine tags" (which is Virginian for the needles of the pine) were scattered all over the floors, and several negro women were busy polishing the hard white pl

the little woman, coming out of the dining-room an

dare say he would have been greatly interested in it but for the fact that t

, but never mind; only be careful, or you'll slip

ason they are scatt

. Up North you wax your f

like, I believe, but c

summer t

ertainly,

rs up soon in the spring, and nev

ueer use of the word "soon," but sa

is! How I should like to r

ide with you?" aske

estion, Co

at least of questionable construction, and so not at all like Mr. Pagebrook's usage. But the demoralizi

de, I'll have the horses br

ou wit

if I

be more t

e Patty for me and Graybeard for your Mas' Robert. Do you

ed the lack he had of experience in the rougher riding of Virginia on the less perfectly trained horses in use there. He was a stalwart fellow, with shapely limbs and perfect ease of movement, so that on horseback he was a very agreeable young gentleman to look at, a fact of which Miss Sudie speedily became conscious. Her rides were chiefly without a cavalier, as they were usually taken early in the morning before her cousin Billy thought of getting up; and naturally enough she enjoyed the presence of so agreeable a young gentleman as Mr. Rob certainly was, and her enjoyment of his company-she being a woman-was not diminished in the least by the discovery that to his intellectual a

spoken to each other at all. When they mounted their horses that morning they were almost strangers, and they might have remained only half acquaintances for a week or a fort