head to his duck uniform, for the Severndale servants wore the uniforms
of the mess-hall rather than the usual household livery. Neil Stewart
could not abide "cit's rigs." Moreover, in spite of the long absences of
the master, everything about the place was kept up in ship-shape order;
Harrison and Mammy Lucy cooperated with Jerome in looking well to this.

"Now, Daddy," cried Peggy happily when luncheon ended, "come out to the
stables and paddock; I've a hundred things to show you."

"A stable and a paddock for an old salt like me," laughed her father. "I
wonder if I shall know a horse's hock from his withers? Yet it DOES seem
good to see them, and smell the grass and woods and know it's all mine
and that YOU are mine," he cried, slipping his arm through hers and
pacing off with her. "Some day," he added, "I am coming here to settle
down with you to enjoy it all, and when I do I mean to let four legs
carry me whenever there is the least excuse for so doing. My own have
done enough pacing of the quarter-deck to have earned that indulgence."

"And won't it be just--paradise," cried Peggy rapturously.

They were now nearing the paddock. To one side was a long row of little
cottages occupied by the stable hands' families. Mr. Stewart paused and
smiled, for out of each popped a funny little black woolly head to catch
a glimpse of "Massa Captain," as all the darkies on the place called
him.

"Good Lord, where DO they all come from, Peggy? Have they all been born
since my last visit? There were not so many here then."

"Not quite all," answered Peggy laughing. "Most of them were here before