n' anything. But her heart isn't broke any moah'n my neck
is."

The positive words and the decided toss Mom Beck gave her head settled
the matter for the Little Colonel. She wiped her eyes and stood up much
relieved.

"Don't you nevah go to worryin' 'bout what you heahs," continued the
woman. "I tell you p'intedly you cyarnt nevah b'lieve what you heahs."

"Why doesn't gran'fathah love my mothah?" asked the child, as they came
in sight of the cottage. She had puzzled over the knotty problem all the
way home. "How can papas not love their little girls?"

"'Cause he's stubbo'n," was the unsatisfactory answer. "All the Lloyds
is. Yo' mamma's stubbo'n, an' you's stubbo'n--"

"I'm not!" shrieked the Little Colonel, stamping her foot. "You sha'n't
call me names!"

Then she saw a familiar white hand waving to her from the hammock, and
she broke away from Mom Beck with very red cheeks and very bright eyes.

Cuddled close in her mother's arms, she had a queer feeling that she had
grown a great deal older in that short afternoon.

Maybe she had. For the first time in her little life she kept her
troubles to herself, and did not once mention the thought that was
uppermost in her mind.

"Yo' great-aunt Sally Tylah is comin' this mawnin'," said Mom Beck, the
day after their visit to the hotel. "Do fo' goodness' sake keep yo'self
clean. I'se got too many spring chickens to dress to think 'bout
dressin' you up again."

"Did I evah see her befo'?" questioned the Little Colonel.

"Why, yes, the day we moved heah. Don't you know she came and stayed so
long, and the rockah broke off the little white rockin'-chair when she
sat down in it?"

"Oh, now I know!" laughed the child. "She's the big fat one with curls
hangin' round her yeahs like shavin's. I don't like her, Mom Beck. She
keeps a-kissin' me all the time, an' a-'queezin' me, an' tellin' me to
sit on her lap an' be a little lady. Mom Beck, I de'pise to be a little
lady."

There was no answer to her last remark. Mom Beck had stepped into the
pantry for more eggs for the cake she was making.

"Fritz," said the Little Colonel, "yo' great-aunt Sally Tylah's comin'
this mawnin', an' if you don't want to say 'howdy' to her you'll have to
come with me."

A few minutes later a resolute little figure squeezed between the
palings of the garden fence down by the gooseberry bushes.

"Now walk on your tiptoes, Fritz!" commanded the Little Colonel, "else
somebody will call us