me over here thinking you wanted to
be nice and cheerful like you always used to be. All by your dear old
lonesome you'd never think of talking to me like this; I've a good
notion to muss you up!"

The thought of being mussed was clearly disturbing. He rose hastily and
retreated to the barred window, with the table between them.

"Oh, you're guilty! I always know when they've been putting you up to
something. Come along now and sit down like a good old uncle and tell me
what new idea has struck those foolish females. Sit down right there in
your little chair, Amy; I'll let you off from that mussing if you tell
the truth."

"You see, Phil," he began earnestly, "you've grown up. You're not a kid
any more to chase cats and dogs through the court-house square, and flip
on the interurbans, but a grown woman, and you've got to begin acting
like one. And you've got to begin right now. Just look at your shoes;
look at that hat! What kind of clothes is that sailor boy's suit you're
wearing? You've got to dress like a decent white girl that's had some
bringing-up, and you've got to--you've got--" Amzi coughed as though
afraid of the intended conclusion of his sentence. Phil's eyes were bent
upon him with disconcerting gravity. He hoped that Phil would interrupt
with one of her usual impertinences; but with the suspicion of laughter
in her eyes she waited, so that he perforce blurted it out. "You've got
to go into society; that's what's the matter!"

Phil moved her head slightly to one side, and her lips parted. A faraway
look came into her eyes for an instant only. Amzi was watching her
keenly. He was taken aback by her abrupt change of manner; her sudden
sobriety baffled him. Something very sweet and wistful came into her
face; something that he had not seen there before, and he was touched by
it.

"I suppose I must change my ways, Uncle Amy. I do act like a wild
zebra,--I know that. But I'm sorry. Of course it's silly for a girl
who's nearly nineteen to be as skittish as I am. And they tell me I'm a
bad example to my cousins and the whole town. It's tough to be a bad
example. What's this they're going to do to me?"

"Oh, you've got to be brought out; you've got to have a party; they want
me to have it in my house."

"All right," said Phil tamely. She seemed, indeed, to be thinking of
something else. Her manner continued to puzzle him; he was even troubled
by it. He relighted his cigar and watched the smoke of the exting