t little birch was too strong
to be resisted.

"He's so near white, anyway," she said to herself, "dat it's a pity not
to finish him."

So off she hobbled with a tin cup full of whitewash and a small brush to
adorn the little birch-tree, leaving her cabin in the charge of Holly
Thomas.

Holly, whose whole name was Hollywood Cemetery Thomas, was a little
black girl, between two and five years old. Sometimes she seemed nearly
five, and sometimes not more than two. Her parents intended christening
her Minerva, but hearing the name of the well-known Hollywood Cemetery
in Richmond, they thought it so pretty that they gave it to their little
daughter, without the slightest idea, however, that it was the name of a
grave-yard.

Holly had come over to pay a morning visit to Aunt Matilda, and she had
brought her only child, a wooden doll, which she was trying to teach to
walk, by dragging it head foremost by a long string tied around its
neck.

"Now den, you Holly, you stay h'yar and mind de house while I's gone,"
said Aunt Matilda, as she departed.

"All yite," said the little darkey, and she sat down on the floor to
prepare her child for a coat of whitewash; but she had not yet succeeded
in convincing the doll of the importance of the operation when her
attention was aroused by a dog just outside of the door.

It was Kate's little woolly white dog, Blinks, who often used to come to
the cabin with her, and who sometimes, when he got a chance to run away,
used to come alone, as he did this morning.

"Go 'way dar, litty dog," said Miss Holly, "yer can't come in; dere's
nobody home. Yun 'long, now, d'yer y'ear!"

But Blinks either did not hear or did not care, for he stuck his head in
at the door.

"Go 'way, dere!" shouted Holly. "Aunt Tillum ain't home. Go 'way now,
and tum bat in half an hour. Aunt Tillum'll be bat den. Don't yer hear
now, go _'way_!"

But, instead of going away, Blinks trotted in, as bold as a four-pound
lion.

"Go 'way, go 'way!" screamed Holly, squeezing herself up against the
wall in her terror, and then Blinks barked at her. He had never seen a
little black girl behave so, in the whole course of his life, and it was
quite right in him to bark and let her know what he thought of her
conduct. Then Holly, in her fright, dropped her doll, and when Blinks
approached to examine it, she screamed louder and louder, and Blinks
barked more and more, and there was quite a hubbub. In the midst of it a