Raccoon calls and practised different kinds of wood signals and ate
the things we had saved from supper, with Mamie Sue to keep them
company, also Lovelace Peyton, who slept part of the time with his
head on Tony's knees, but waked up if any stray refreshments
threatened to get past him. We all hushed at the edge of town, for the
Colonel said it was after midnight, and he unpacked each one at his or
her own front door so softly that not even a dog barked. He put me out
at the cottage because he didn't want to stop the wagon in front of
our house on account of disturbing Mother, and I went in to unfasten
Roxanne's dress and to get mine done likewise, then I could slip home
through the garden, which is always so lovely with the moonlight
making ghost flowers of Roxanne's ancestral blossoms.

I wish I didn't have to write you, leather Louise, what happened next,
at the same time as the birthday, but I can't sleep unless I do. Would
God be so cruel to me as to let me get just this one little taste of
being happy and then take it away from me? I won't believe it!

This is what happened, set down in black and white, and I can draw no
conclusions from it. I refuse! As Roxanne and I stood in the living
hall, under the stern old Byrd grandmother, giggling and having a
good, girl time like I have just been learning to do, suddenly the
door opened and the Idol stood in the light we had lighted, with his
face so pale I thought he was going to faint.

"Roxy," he said, not seeming to notice me, "you haven't been in my
shed working with my bottles, have you? Or could Lovey have got in? I
have the key and the window is barred, as I always keep it."

"Oh, no, Douglass, I haven't been near the shed this week. My key is