CHAPTER V.


Summer lingers long among the Kentucky hills. Each passing day seemed
fairer than the last to the Little Colonel, who had never before known
anything of country life.

Roses climbed up and almost hid the small white cottage. Red birds
sang in the woodbine. Squirrels chattered in the beeches. She was
out-of-doors all day long.

Sometimes she spent hours watching the ants carry away the sugar she
sprinkled for them. Sometimes she caught flies for an old spider that
had his den under the porch steps. "He is an ogah" (ogre), she explained
to Fritz. "He's bewitched me so's I have to kill whole families of flies
for him to eat."

She was always busy and always happy.

Before June was half over it got to be a common occurrence for Walker
to ride up to the gate on the Colonel's horse. The excuse was always to
have a passing word with Mom Beck. But before he rode away, the Little
Colonel was generally mounted in front of him. It was not long before
she felt almost as much at home at Locust as she did at the cottage.

The neighbours began to comment on it after awhile. "He will surely make