"My conscience! what a great girl you're getting to be. Stand up and let me
look at you."

Patty Fairfield, with two twists and a spring, brought herself to her feet,
and stood awaiting her father's inspection.

He saw a slender, graceful girl, a Southern blonde of the purest type. Her
pretty golden hair would gladly have hung in curly masses, but it was only
allowed to have its own sweet will around her temples and at the end of a
long thick braid. Her eyes were blue, deep and twinkly, and the rest of her
face was as pretty and sweet as soft girlish contours and a perfect
complexion could make it.

But best of all was the gentle expression and frank, good-natured smile
which so often broke into mischievous dimples.

It did on this occasion, and Patty laughed merrily at her father's grave
consideration of her.

"What is it, papa?" she asked. "Did you think I was still an infant, and
were you going to buy me a new dolls' house? Or were you going to take me
to the circus? I'm not a bit too old for the circus."

"Aren't you? Then I will take you, but what is on my mind at present is a
much more serious matter. Sit down again, Puss, and I'll tell you all about
it.

"You know for years I've looked forward to the time when you should grow up
to be old enough to keep house for me. And I thought then we'd go back
North and settle down among my people and your mother's relatives. I