promised. "I likes you just lots,
gran'fathah!" He watched her scramble through the hole in the fence.
Then he turned his horse's head slowly homeward.

A scrap of white lying on the grass attracted his attention as he neared
the gate.

"It's the lost sunbonnet," he said, with a smile. He carried it into the
house, and hung it on the hat-rack in the wide front hall.

"Ole marse is crosser'n two sticks," growled Walker to the cook at
dinner. "There ain't no livin' with him. What do you s'pose is the
mattah?"

CHAPTER IV.

Mom Beck was busy putting lunch on the table when the Little Colonel
looked in at the kitchen door.

So she did not see a little tramp, carrying her shoes in one hand, and a
basket in the other, who paused there a moment. But when she took up the
pan of beaten biscuit she was puzzled to find that several were missing.

"It beats my time," she said, aloud. "The parrot couldn't have reached
them, an' Lloyd an' the dog have been in the pa'lah all mawnin'.
Somethin' has jus' natch'ly done sperrited 'em away."

Fritz was gravely licking his lips, and the Little Colonel had her mouth
full, when they suddenly made their appearance on the front porch.

Aunt Sally Tyler gave a little shriek, and stopped rocking.

"Why, Lloyd Sherman!" gasped her mother, in dismay. "Where have you
been? I thought you were with Becky all the time. I was sure I heard you
singing out there a little while ago."

"I've been to see my gran'fathah," said the child, speaking very fast.
"I made mud pies on his front 'teps, an' we both of us got mad, an'
I throwed mud on him, an' he gave me some 'trawberries an' all these
flowers, an' brought me home on Maggie Boy."

She stopped out of breath. Mrs. Tyler and her niece exchanged astonished
glances.

"But, baby, how could you disgrace mother so by going up there looking
like a dirty little beggar?"

"He didn't care," replied Lloyd, calmly. "He made me promise to come
again, no mattah if you all did tell me not to."

Just then Becky announced that lunch was ready, and carried the child
away to make her presentable.

To Lloyd's great surprise she was not put to bed, but was allowed to go
to the table as soon as she was dressed. It was not long until she had
told every detail of the morning's experience.

While she was taking her afternoon nap, the two ladies sat out on the
porch, gravely discussing all she had told them.

"It doesn't seem right for me to allow h