nd with his mother's
black eyes. Guinea introduced me to him, and at once I felt that I
should like to win his friendship. The old man explained my presence
there. "And now," said he, "I want you to go over to old Perdue's with
him after dinner and see if any arrangements can be made. He's goin' to
board with us, and I want to tell you right now that he is from good
stock; his grandaddy was the captain of the company that my daddy fit in
durin' the Creek war, and from what I learn I don't reckon there was
ever sich fightin' before nor since. What are they doin' over at the
General's?"

"Nothing much," Alf answered. "They started to plow this morning, but it
is still most too wet."

"Was Millie at home?" Guinea asked.

"I think so, but I suppose you know that Chid isn't."

"Never mind that," the old man spoke up. "Leave all cuttin' and slashin'
to folks that ain't no kin to each other. You've been to dinner, have
you, Alf? Well, hitch the mare to the buckboard and go with this
gentleman over to old Perdue's."

CHAPTER IV.

At the end of the passage, facing the ravine, I stood and talked to
Guinea, while Alf was hitching the mare to the buck-board. The sun was
well over to the west, pouring upon us, and in the strong light I noted
the clear, health-hue of her complexion. A guinea chicken, swift and
graceful, ran round the corner of the house, and, nodding toward the
fowl, I said: "I am talking to her namesake and she is jealous."

I thought that the shadow of a pout crossed her lips, but she smiled and
replied: "If my real name were not so ugly I'd insist upon people
calling me by it. I hate nicknames."

"But sometimes they are appropriate," I rejoined.

"But when they are," she said, laughing, "they never stick. It's the
disagreeable nickname that remains with us."

"Is that the philosophy you learned at Raleigh?" I asked.

She shrugged her shapely shoulders, laughed low in her throat and
answered: "I haven't learned philosophy at all. It doesn't take much of
a stock of learning for a girl who lives away out here."

"But she might strive to learn in order to be fitted for a better life,
believing that it will surely come."

"How encouraging you are, Mr. Hawes. After a while you may persuade me
that I am really glad that you came."

"You have already made me glad," I replied.

"Have I? Then mind that I don't make you sorry. Alf's waiting for you."

As we drove toward Perdue's I wondered what co