gan to count from the
wagon-wheel he walked slowly past the teams and smudges, and across a
strip of backfire beyond, to the high, dry grass, where he lay on his
back for the rest of the evening, looking sadly up at the stars.

The little girl sought a hiding-place, too, behind a hay-stack on the
other side of the house. The colonel's son had seen her run that way,
and as he sounded the final challenge his voice had a victorious ring.
He began a second mock hunt. But it was a short one, for, fearful that
he might stumble upon one of the Dutchman's younger brood, he first
penetrated the outer darkness to find a boy, and then ran round the
house in the direction taken by the little girl.

He came upon her unexpectedly as he circled a stack. She was crouching
in plain sight against the hay, her face still hidden in the recesses
of the bonnet. He rushed up to her and took her by the shoulders. "I've
got you!" he said, but so low that the neighbor woman's daughter, who
was just a few steps away behind a fanning-mill, could scarcely hear
him.

"Y-e-e-s," stammered the little girl. She drew back and looked down, all
her assurance supplanted by a wild desire to get away.

"Going to let me have my forfeit?" he whispered, shaking her a little.

The sunbonnet drooped until its wide cape stood up stiffly above her
curls. "I hate that old French boy," she said.

The colonel's son moved closer, and a wisp of brittle grass in her hands
crackled in a double grasp. She glanced up at him swiftly, as she felt
his touch, and this time there was a nearing of the white frock to the
suit of blue. "Well,--if--if--you've got t'," she added.

But the colonel's son, as he bent over her with all the gallantry of his
nine years, had to learn by experience what "Frenchy's" brother had
divined at a glance: the sunbonnet was in the way.

He was equal to the emergency, however, and hesitated only for a moment.
Then he put his hand into his trousers pocket and took out his
clasp-knife. He could hear some one at the goal calling him, and there
was a rattle of dishes in the house, where the music had ceased for a
moment, that told him the plates were being passed for supper. He knew
that in a moment either the chaplain or the boys would be searching for
him.

She heard the calls and clatter, too; yet she did not move except to
raise her head until the bonnet strings were in plain sight under her
dimpled chin. When he saw them, he straightened hi