leaning
on the trellised bench, and looking up into that young lady's eyes.

"You look so pretty!" he said, after a silence of some moments, "so
nice and pretty, Redbud!"

"Do I?" said Redbud, smiling and blushing.

"And so good."

"Oh, no--I am not!"

"Not good?"

"Far from it, Verty."

"Hum!" said Verty, "I should like to know how! I might be better if
you were at Apple Orchard again."

"Better?"

"Yes, yes--why can't you live at Apple Orchard, where we were so
happy?"

Redbud smiled.

"You know I am growing up now," she said.

"Growing up?"

"Yes; and I must learn my lessons--those lessons which cousin Lavinia
can't teach me!"

"What lessons are they?"

"Music, and dancing, and singing, and all."

Verty reflected.

"Are they better than the Bible?" he said, at length.

Redbud looked shocked, and replied to the young savage:

"Oh no, no!--I hardly think they are important at all; but I suppose
every young lady learns them. It is necessary," added the little
maiden, primly.

"Ah, indeed? well, I suppose it is," Verty replied, thoughtfully; "a
real lady could'nt get along without knowing the minuet, and all that.
But I'm mighty sorry you had to go. I've lost _my_ teacher by your
going."

Redbud returned his frank look, and said:

"I'm very sorry, Verty; but never mind--you read your Bible, don't
you?"

"Yes," Verty replied, "I promised you; and I read all about Joseph,
and Nimrod, who was a hunter, and other people."

"Don't you ever read in the New Testament?" Redbud said. "I wish you
would read in that, too, Verty."

And Redbud, with all the laughter gone away from her countenance,
regarded Verty with her tender, earnest eyes, full of kindness and
sincerity.

"I do," Verty replied, "and I like it better. But I'm very bad. I
don't think I'm so good when you are away, Redbud. I don't do what
you tell me. The fact is, I believe I'm a wild Indian; but I'll grow
better as I grow older."

"I know you will," said the kind eyes, plainly, and Verty smiled.

"I'm coming to see you very often here," he said, smiling, "and I'm
going to do my work down at the office--that old lady will let me come
to see you, I know."

Redbud looked dubious.

"I don't know whether cousin Lavinia would think it was right," she
said.

And her head drooped, the long dusky lashes covering her eyes and
reposing on her cheek. It was hard for Redbud thus to forbid her
boy-playmate, but she felt that she ou