waiting in a sort of
stern patience for a whiff of air. It was a very close evening. The sun
was red in the low west, but a heaving sea of mist was rising over the
lowlands.

Sarah sat down opposite Daniel. "Close, ain't it?" said she. She began
knitting her lace edging.

"Pretty close," replied Daniel. He spoke with an effect of forced
politeness. Although he had such a horror of extreme heat, he was always
chary of boldly expressing his mind concerning it, for he had a feeling
that he might be guilty of blasphemy, since he regarded the weather as
being due to an Almighty mandate. Therefore, although he suffered, he
was extremely polite.

"It is awful up-stairs in little Dan'l's room," said Sarah. "I have got
all the windows open except the one that's right on the bed, and I told
her she needn't keep more than the sheet and one comfortable over her."

Daniel looked anxious. "Children ain't ever overcome when they are in
bed, in the house, are they?"

"Land, no! I never heard of such a thing. And, anyway, little Dan'l's so
thin it ain't likely she feels the heat as much as some."

"I hope she don't."

Daniel continued to sit hunched up on himself, gazing with a sort of
mournful irritation out of the window upon the landscape over which the
misty shadows vaguely wavered.

Sarah knitted. She could knit in the dark. After a while she rose and
said she guessed she would go to bed, as to-morrow was her sweeping-day.

Sarah went, and Daniel sat alone.

Presently a little pale figure stole to him through the dusk--the child,
in her straight white nightgown, padding softly on tiny naked feet.

"Is that you, Dan'l?"

"Yes, Uncle Dan'l."

"Is it too hot to sleep up in your room?"

"I didn't feel so very hot, Uncle Dan'l, but skeeters were biting me,
and a great big black thing just flew in my window!"

"A bat, most likely."

"A bat!" Little Dan'l shuddered. She began a little stifled wail. "I'm
afeard of bats," she lamented.

Daniel gathered the tiny creature up. "You can jest set here with Uncle
Dan'l," said he. "It is jest a little cooler here, I guess. Once in a
while there comes a little whiff of wind."

"Won't any bats come?"

"Lord, no! Your Uncle Dan'l won't let any bats come within a gun-shot."

The little creature settled down contentedly in the old man's lap. Her
fair, thin locks fell over his shirt-sleeved arm, her upturned profile
was sweetly pure and clear even in the dusk. She was so delic