"A bat!" Little Dan'l shuddered. She began a
little stifled wail. "I'm afeard of bats," she la-
mented.

Daniel gathered the tiny creature up. "You can
jest set here with Uncle Dan'l," said he. "It is jest
a little cooler here, I guess. Once in a while there
comes a little whiff of wind."

"Won't any bats come?"

"Lord, no! Your Uncle Dan'l won't let any bats
come within a gun-shot."

The little creature settled down contentedly in the
old man's lap. Her fair, thin locks fell over his
shirt-sleeved arm, her upturned profile was sweetly
pure and clear even in the dusk. She was so deli-
cately small that he might have been holding a fairy,
from the slight roundness of the childish limbs and
figure. Poor little girl! -- Dan'1 was much too small
and thin. Old man Daniel gazed down at her
anxiously.

"Jest as soon as the nice fall weather comes,"
said he, "uncle is going to take you down to the
village real often, and you can get acquainted with
some other nice little girls and play with them, and
that will do uncle's little Dan'l good."