books on one of the long green
benches. Then she seated herself in a rocking chair and untied her
sunbonnet.

"I wa'n't by myself," she said. "A boy was with me."

"A boy? Where is he?"

"He ran away."

The general's great head went back, and he shook with laughter. "Bless
my soul! What did he mean by that? What boy was it, daughter?"

Eugenia sat upright in the high rocker, fanning her heated face with her
sunbonnet.

"The Burr boy," she answered.

The general gasped for breath, and turned towards the hall.

"Come out here, Chris!" he called. "Here's Eugie been walking home with
the Burr boy!"

In a moment Miss Chris's large figure appeared in the doorway, and she
handed a brimming mint julep to the general.

"I don't know what Eugie can be made of," she remarked. "Amos Burr was
overseer for the Carringtons before he got that place of his own, and I
remember just as well as if it were yesterday old Mr. Phil Carrington
telling me once, when I was on a visit there, that the more his man Burr
worked the less he accomplished. But, as for Eugenia, that isn't the
worst about her. Just the other morning, when I was looking out of the
storeroom window, I saw her with her arm round the neck of Aunt
Verbeny's little Suke. I declare I was so upset I let the quart pot fall
into the potato bin!"

"But there isn't anybody else, Aunt Chris," protested Eugenia, looking
up from her father's julep, which she was tasting. "And I'm 'bliged to
have a bosom friend."

The general shook until his face was purple and the ice jingled in the
glass.

"Bosom friend, you puss!" he roared. "Why can't you choose a bosom
friend of your own colour? What do you want with a bosom friend as black
as the ace of spades?"

"O papa, she ain't black; she's jes' yellow-brown."

"You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Eugie," said Miss Chris severely.
"Now go upstairs and wash your face and hands before dinner. It is
almost ready. I wonder where Bernard is!"

"Can't I wait twell the bell rings?" Eugenia asked; but Miss Chris shook
her head decisively.

"Eugenia, will you never stop talking like a darkey?" she demanded. "How
often must I tell you that there's no such word as 'twell'? Now, go
right straight upstairs."

Eugenia rose obediently and went into the hall. She had learned from her
father and the servants not to dispute the authority of Miss Chris,
though she yielded to it with a mild surprise at her own docility.

"She don't real