ng again, never
giving up. And she told herself that the son was the same sort. That
hard set of the jaw, those firm lips, would know no flinching. He might
suffer, but he would be strong. Subconsciously her mind was also swiftly
contrasting him with Chilly Lusk: the same spare lithe frame but set off
by light skin, brown hair and hazel eyes; the two faces, alike sharply
and clearly chiseled, but this one purged of the lazy scorn, the
satiety, and reckless indulgence.

Half unconsciously she spoke her thought aloud: "You look like your
father, do you not?"

"Yes," he replied, "there's a strong likeness. I have a photograph which
I'll show you sometime. But how did you know?"

"Perhaps I only guessed," she said in some confusion. To cover this she
stooped by the pebbly marge and held out her hand to the bronze ducks
that pushed and gobbled about her fingers. "What have you named them?"
she asked.

"Nothing. _You_ christen them."

"Very well. The light one shall be Peezletree and the dark one
Pilgarlic. I got the names from John Jasper--he was Virginia's famous
negro preacher. I once heard him hold forth when he read from one of the
Psalms--the one about the harp and the psaltery--and he called it
peezletree."

"Speaking of ducks," said the major, tweaking his gray imperial,
"reminds me of Judge Chalmers' white mallard. He had a pair that were so
much in love they did nothing but loaf around honey-cafuddling with
their wings over each other's backs. It was a lesson in domesticity for
the community, sah. Well, the drake got shot for a wild one, and if
you'll believe it, the poor little duck was that inconsolable it would
have brought tears to your eyes. The whole Chalmers family were
affected."

Shirley had put one hand over her mouth to repress a smile. "Major,
Major!" she murmured reprovingly. But his guilty glance avoided her.

"Yes, sah, nothing would console her. So at last Chalmers got another
drake, the handsomest he could find, and trotted him out to please her.
What do you reckon that little white duck did? She looked at the judge
once reproachfully and then waddled down to a black muck-bed and lay
down in it. She came out with as fine a suit of mourning as you ever
saw. And believe it or not, sah, but she wouldn't go in the water for
ten days!"

Valiant's laugh rang out over the lake--to be answered by a sudden sharp
screech from the terrace, where the peacock strutted, a blaze of
spangled purple and