t, for instance?"

"Watching me. It wasn't fair."

"Oh, I liked your dancing; that was all."

"Oh!"

An "Oh" let fall with certain intonations is a serious impediment to
conversation. The young gentleman seemed unable at this crucial instant
to think of a fitting reply. Finding himself unequal to a response in
her own key he merely said:--

"I'm sorry. I really didn't mean to. I came over here to sit on the
fence and watch the party."

"Watch it! Why don't you go in and dance?"

He glanced down as though to suggest that if Phil were to scrutinize his
raiment she might very readily understand why, instead of being among
the dancers, he contented himself with watching them from a convenient
fence corner. He carried a crumpled coat on his arm; the collar of his
flannel shirt was turned up round his throat. His hat was of battered
felt with a rent in the creased crown.

"My brother and sister are giving the party. I'm not in it."

"I suppose your invitation got lost in the mail," suggested Phil, this
being a form of explanation frequently proffered by local humorists for
their failure to appear at Montgomery functions.

"Nothing like that! I didn't expect to be here to-day. In fact, I've
been off trying to borrow a team of horses; one of mine went lame. I've
just brought them home, and I'm wondering how long I've got to wait
before the rumpus is over and those folks get out of there and give the
horses a chance. It's going to rain before morning."

Phil had heard the same prognostication from her father, and it was in
the young man's favor that he was wise in weather lore. The musicians
had begun to play a popular barn dance, and the two spectators watched
the dancers catch step to it. Then Phil, having by this time drawn a
trifle closer to the fence and been reassured by her observations of the
clean-shaven face of the young man, became personal.

"Are you Charlie Holton?"

"No; Fred. Charlie's my brother."

"And your sister's name is Ethel."

"O. K. I'm trying to figure you out. If you weren't so tall I'd guess
you were Phyllis Kirkwood."

"That's all of my name," replied Phil. "I remember you now, but you must
have been away a long time. I hadn't heard that anybody was living over
there."

"The family haven't been here much since I was a kid. They have moved
out their things. What's left is mine."

Mr. Frederick Holton turned and extended the hand that held his hat with
a comprehensive gesture. Th