ack, had been
sequestered with her. But one morning, as Johnny was bringing his wood
from the stack behind the house, he saw, to his intense delight, a
picket of the road fence slipped aside by a small red hand, and a moment
after Florry squeezed herself through the narrow opening. Her round
cheeks were slightly flushed, and there was a scrap of red flannel
around her plump throat that heightened the whiteness of her skin.

"My!" said Johnny, with half-real, half-affected admiration, "how
splendiferous!"

"Sore froat," said Florry, in a whisper, trying to insert her two chubby
fingers between the bandage and her chin. "I mussent go outer the garden
patch! I mussent play in the woods, for I'll be seed! I mussent stay
long, for they'll ketch me outer bed!"

"Outer bed?" repeated Johnny, with intense admiration, as he perceived
for the first time that Florry was in a flannel nightgown, with bare
legs and feet.

"Ess."

Whereupon these two delightful imps chuckled and wagged their heads with
a sincere enjoyment that this mere world could not give! Johnny slipped
off his shoes and stockings and hurriedly put them on the infant Florry,
securing them from falling off with a thick cord. This added to their
enjoyment.

"We can play cubby house in the stone heap," whispered Florry.

"Hol' on till I tote in this wood," said Johnny. "You hide till I come
back."

Johnny swiftly delivered his load with an alacrity he had never shown
before. Then they played "cubby house"--not fifty feet from the cabin,
with a hushed but guilty satisfaction. But presently it palled. Their
domain was too circumscribed for variety. "Robinson Crusoe up the tree"
was impossible, as being visible from the house windows. Johnny was at
his wits' end. Florry was fretful and fastidious. Then a great thought
struck him and left him cold. "If I show you a show, you won't tell?" he
said suddenly.

"No."

"Wish yer-ma-die?"

"Ess."

"Got any penny?"

"No."

"Got any slate pencil?"

"No."

"Ain't got any pins nor nuthin'? You kin go in for a pin."

But Florry had none of childhood's fluctuating currency with her,
having, so to speak, no pockets.

"Well," said Johnny, brightening up, "ye kin go in for luv."

The child clipped him with her small arms and smiled, and, Johnny
leading the way, they crept on all fours through the thick ferns until
they paused before a deep fissure in the soil half overgrown with
bramble. In its depths they co