ppin' Si for tellin' the folks at home about
the teacher and you takin' long walks at noon out to the honeysuckle
patch. I've a great mind to go in and tell it all to Si right before
that feller. Then your cake'll all be dough. Don't git too uppish with
me, young lady. Gi' me that plate and let me take it in."

The cakes on the griddles burned while Maria watched through the door
what she mentally described as the "arts and manuvers o' that sassy
little piece." She was gratified to see that Shorty's eyes kept glancing
at the door for her own reappearance. She carried in the next plate of
cakes herself, and though they were a little scorched, Shorty ate them
with more zest than any of their predecessors.

Si announced, as he shoved back from the table:

"Well, we've got to go right off. We must ketch that accommodation and
git back to Bean Blossom Crick. I want to say good-by to the folks,
and then strike out for Jeffersonville. I've reported that I'm able
for dooty agin, and there's orders at home for me and Shorty to go to
Jeffersonville and git a gang o' recruits that's bin gethered there, and
bring 'em to the rijimint."

Shorty had been in hopes that Si would dally for a day or so in these
pleasant pastures, but then he reflected that where Annabel was was
likely to be much more attractive to Si than where she was not.

"No need o' my goin' back with you," he ventured to suggest, speaking
for the first time. "I might take the train goin' East, and git things
in shape at Jeffersonville by the time you come."

Then his face grew hot with the thought that everyone saw through his
transparent scheme to get an hour or two more with Maria.

"No," said Si, decisively. "You'll go back with me. Father and mother
and 'Mandy are all anxious to see you, and they'll never forgive me if I
don't bring you back with me. Le's start."

If, at parting. Shorty had mustered up courage enough to look Maria
squarely in the eyes, he might have read something there to encourage
him, but no deeply-smitten man ever can do this. There is where the
"light o' loves" have the great advantage. He could only grip her hand
convulsively for an instant, and then turn and follow Si.

At the Deacon's home Shorty found the same quiet, warm welcome, with too
much tact on the part of anyone except little Sammy Woggles to make any
comment on the circumstances of his disappearance. Sammy was clearly of
the opinion that Si had run down Shorty and brou