"Like me!" fairly gasped the Colonel. "How are you like me?"

"Oh, I'm got such a vile tempah, an' I stamps my foot when I gets mad,
an' gets all red in the face. An' I hollahs at folks, an' looks jus' zis
way."

She drew her face down and puckered her lips into such a sullen pout
that it looked as if a thunder-storm had passed over it. The next
instant she smiled up at him serenely. The Colonel laughed. "What makes
you think I am like that?" he said. "You never saw me before."

"Yes, I have too," she persisted. "You's a-hangin' in a gold frame over
ou' mantel."

Just then a clear, high voice was heard calling out in the road.

The child started up in alarm. "Oh, deah," she exclaimed in dismay, at
sight of the stains on her white dress, where she had been kneeling on
the fruit, "that's Mom Beck. Now I'll be tied up, and maybe put to bed
for runnin' away again. But the berries is mighty nice," she added,
politely. "Good mawnin', suh. Fritz, we mus' be goin' now."

The voice was coming nearer.

"I'll walk down to the gate with you," said the Colonel, anxious to
learn something more about his little guest. "Oh, you'd bettah not,
suh!" she cried in alarm. "Mom Beck doesn't like you a bit. She just
hates you! She's goin' to give you a piece of her mind the next time she
sees you. I heard her tell Aunt Nervy so."