held whole volumes.

Her father nodded.

"I think I'd die," she said, dropping upon a settee as though the very
suggestion had deprived her of strength.

Her father's forehead puckered into a perplexed frown. If Peggy were
sent to boarding school the choice of one would be a nice question.

"Well, what SHALL I do with you?" demanded the poor man in desperation.

"Leave me right where I am. Compadre will see that I'm not quite an
ignoramus, Harrison keeps me decently clad and properly lectured, and
Mammy looks to my feeding when I'm well and dosing when I'm not, which,
thank goodness, isn't often. Why Daddy, I'm so happy. So perfectly
happy. Please, please don't spoil it," and Peggy rose to slip her arm
within her father's and "pace the deck" as he called it.

"But you haven't a single companion of your own age or station," he
protested.

"Do I look the maiden all forlorn as the result?" she asked, laughing up
at him.

"You look--you look--exactly like your mother, and to me she was the
most beautiful woman I have ever seen," and Peggy found herself in an
embrace which threatened to smother her. She blushed with pleasure. To
be like her mother whom she scarcely remembered, for eight years had
passed since that beautiful mother slipped out of her life, was the