nd you see that not yet do I disdain cushions. The down of that
pr-rovident bird, the eider duck, makes a substitute for the flesh that
ought to pad my poor bones. Thank you, Uncle Yimmy," to the old negro,
who had just set down the tea-tray, "thank you, yes, one more pillow
behind my shoulders."

"You'll have tea?"

"May I have tea? Is it possible that I r-return in one same day to two
examples of independence? I walk abr-road alone, and I say again to my
dear Mrs. Carroll, 'I thank you. It does me pleasure to accept a cup of
tea from your hands.'" He held up his own hand against the sun. "A
little worse for the wear, my hand, eh? But still of use."

A slight change of position brought into view the field at the foot of
the knoll upon whose top they were. Friedrich sat upright in his chair,
while a flush tinged his worn cheeks.

"What makes Miss Sydney down there?" he cried.

"Sydney? Oh, she is breaking some of the colts; teaching them to jump,
I think she said, to-day."

Mrs. Carroll adjusted her eye-glasses. Two negro grooms were setting up
a low hurdle with wings, while two small black boys dangled joyously
from the halters of a couple of young horses, and a third bore Sydney's
saddle upon his head.

"Is it Bob Mor-rgan with Miss Sydney?" asked Friedrich, wistfully, as
the girl walked across the field beside a man who was leading a tall
gray, already saddled.

"Yes, that's Bob. A huge fellow, isn't he?"

"And fear you not that Miss Sydney should ride those so wild colts?"

"Not now. I used to be frightened to death, but I've seen her and Bob
down there doing that for so many years that I've learned not to be
afraid. She rides really very well, you know, and Bob is careful of
her."

"He would be."

Von Rittenheim sighed, and leaned back with closed eyes. He wished with
all his soul that it were he down in the field fitting the saddle--that
_dear_ side-saddle--to that dancing creature; that it were he who was
responsible for the safety of Sydney.

"Bob gives her a lead over, you see, on his horse, which is a
well-trained animal."

Friedrich opened his eyes in time to see the gray take off neatly.
Sydney followed, and lifted her mount so cleverly that he had leaped
his first hurdle before he knew what he was doing. The watchers on the
knoll could see Bob, sitting on his horse at one side, clap his hands
in approval, while the pickaninnies turned cartwheels in the grass.

"She does r-ride most beaut