lightly from the wagon, just touching his hand by way of greeting as
she went, "if you ain't the spryest ever I see!"

"Good-by, Eben, and thank you ever so much," said the child. "Good-by,
Jerry."

"Come down an' see us, Mel'dy!" Eben called after her, as she turned
toward-the house with unfaltering step. "T'would do Mandy a sight o'
good. Come down and stop to supper. You ain't took a meal o' victuals
with us I don't know when."

Melody promised to come soon, and took her way up the grassy path,
while the countryman gazed after her with a look of wondering
admiration.

"That child knows more than most folks that hev their sight!" he
soliloquized. "What's she doin' now? Oh, stoppin' to pick a posy, for
the child, likely. Now they'll all swaller her alive. Yes; thar they
come. Look at the way she takes that child up, now, will ye? He's e'en
a'most as big as she is; but you'd say she was his mother ten times
over, from the way she handles him. Look at her set down on the
doorstep, tellin' him a story, I'll bet. I tell ye! hear that little
feller laugh, and he was cryin' all last night, Mandy says. I wouldn't
mind hearin' that story myself. Faculty, that gal has; that's the name
for it, sir. Git up, Jerry! this won't buy the child a cake;" and with
many a glance over his shoulder, the good man drove on.