went together down the winding path to the box maze which was sprinkled
with tender green, a squirrel, darting out of one of the latticed
arbours, stopped motionless in the walk and sat looking up at us with a
pair of bright, suspicious eyes.

"I reckon I could make him skeet, if I wanted to," I remarked,
embarrassed rather than malevolent.

Her glance dwelt on me thoughtfully for a moment, while she stood there,
kicking a pebble with the toe of a red shoe.

"An' I reckon I could make _you_ skeet, if I wanted to," she replied
with composure.

Since the parade of mere masculinity had failed to impress her, I
resorted to subtler measures, and kneeling among the small spring
flowers which powdered the lower terrace, I began laboriously erecting a
palace of moss and stones.

"I make one every evening, but when the ghosts come out and walk up an'
down, they scatter them," observed Sally, hanging attentively upon the
work.

"Are there ghosts here really an' have you seen 'em?" I asked.

Stretching out her hand, she swept it in a circle over the growing
palace. "They are all around here--everywhere," she answered. "I saw
them one night when I was running away from my father. Mamma and I hid
in that big box bush down there, an' the ghosts came and walked all
about us. Do you have to run away from your father, too?"

For an instant I hesitated; then my pride triumphed magnificently over
my truthfulness. "I ran clear out to the hill an' all the way down it,"
I rejoined.

"Is his face red and awful?"

"As red as--as an apple."

"An apple ain't awful."

"But he is. I wish you could see him."

"Would he kill you if he caught you?"

"He--he'd eat me," I panted.

She sighed gravely. "I wonder if all fathers are like that?" she said.
"Anyway, I don't believe yours is as bad as mine."

"I'd like to know why he ain't?" I protested indignantly.

Her lips quivered and went upward at the corners with a trick of
expression which I found irresistible even then.

"It's a pity that it's time for you to go home," she observed politely.

"I reckon I can stay a little while longer," I returned.

She shook her head, but I had already gone back to the unfinished
palace, and as the work progressed, she forgot her hint of dismissal in
watching the fairy towers. We were still absorbed in the building when
her mother came down the curving stairway and into the maze of box.

"It's time for you to run home now, pretty blue eyes,