"Make a light," blustered the Colonel; "you mustn't sit around in the
dark like this, you know. Where's my pipe?"

She sprang up and found the missing article, and with a great show of
cheerfulness lit the lamp and held the match out for him to light his
pipe.

"What's the matter?" asked the Colonel; "sort of trembly, ain't you?"

"Me? Watch me!" She held the match very straight and very tight, then
as it wavered, blew it out and dropped it down his sleeve. "There's
some mail over there on the table for you, Daddy dear. Noah brought it
down from town in his buggy."

She said it very carelessly, and even enumerated the contents as she
handed it to him:

"Two circulars, a letter from the seed man, the _Confederate Veteran_
and the newspapers."

"Nothing for you?"

"Nothing."

Under his scrutiny Miss Lady's eyes fell, and she turned abruptly to
the window, while the Colonel, mouth open, pipe in hand, watched her.

He had never seen his girl like this in her life! What business had
her lip to tremble in the middle of a sentence, or her eyes to brim
with sudden tears, making her turn her back on her adoring Dad, and