There didn't seem to be much "peart up" in the woman, who began at once
to cry. Instantly Mandy Ann started up and wiped her face, and settled
her cap, and taking the trumpet screamed into it that she was to behave
herself and speak to the gemman.

"Dory's dead," she moaned, and subsided into her shawl and cap, with a
faint kind of cry.

"Dory's dead," was repeated, in a voice very different from that of the
old woman--a child's clear, sweet voice--and turning, Mr. Mason saw a
little dark-haired, dark-eyed girl standing by Mandy Ann.

Mr. Mason was fond of children, and stooping down he kissed the child,
who drew back and hid behind Jake.

"Me 'fraid," she said, covering her face with her hands, and looking
with her bright eyes through her fingers at the stranger.

Something in her eyes attracted and fascinated, and at the same time
troubled Mr. Mason, he scarcely knew why. The old grandmother was
certainly demented. The landlord had said Eudora and the whole family
were queer. Was the child going to be queer, too, and did she show it in
her eyes? They were very large and beautiful, and the long, curling
lashes, when she closed them, fell on her cheeks like those of her dead
mother, whom she resembled. She seemed out of place in her surroundings,
but he could not talk to her then. The people in the next room were
beginning to get restless, and to talk in low tones of their crops and
the weather, and the big alligator caught near the hotel. It was time to
begin, and taking the little girl in his arms, Jake motioned to Mr.
Mason. In the door between the two rooms was a stand covered with a