o white, and she caught her breath again.

Then, just as he bent his eyes upon her and lifted his slender fingers
toward her head, the little girl, giving a sudden scared, angry squirm,
struck the silver dish a resentful, upward blow with one vigorous, white
kid shoe.

The vessel bounded out of the hands of the horrified army chaplain,
overturned upon his immaculate robe, and, empty, fell clattering to the
step at his feet. And while it spun there, top-like, for one terrible
moment, the baptismal party, standing in front of the good bishop, gazed
in agonized, reproachful silence at the little girl, who was looking
back at them defiantly from the shelter of the pulpit.

* * * * *

LATER when the good bishop laid damp fingers upon her hair, she was
christened. But the family at the farm-house always declared that she
did not deserve the long, dignified name chosen for her; and the biggest
brother as often added that, because the amount of water has everything
to do with a baptism, the honor rightfully belonged to the dripping army
chaplain.

III

"LITTLE BOY BLUE"

UP and down the oxen toiled before the plow, licking out their tongues,
as they went along, for wisps of the sweet, new grass which the
mold-board was turning under. After them came the biggest brother,
striving with all his might to keep the beam level and the handles from
dancing as the steel share cut the sod into wide, thick ribbons, damp
and black on one side, on the other green and decked with flowers. And,
following the biggest brother, trotted the little girl, who from time to
time left the cool furrow to run ahead and give the steers a lash of the
gad she carried, or hopped to one side to keep from stepping with her
bare feet upon the fat earthworms that were rolled out into the
sunlight, where they were pounced upon by rivaling blackbirds circling
in the rear.

It was a cloudy morning near the end of May. The spring work on the farm
was long past, and already the fields rippled with corn and wheat,
barley and oats, and blue-flowered flax. But it was not yet time to
begin the yearly onslaught against intruding weeds, so the big brothers
were busying themselves with the erection of a sod smoke-house, which,
at hog-killing time, would receive fresh hams and sides for the winter's
curing.

A strip of prairie land bordering the northern edge of the grain had
been chosen to furnish the building material bec