them. Naturally his master would let him know when to expect him,
he thought, and was greatly surprised one morning when a station hack
drove into the yard, and the Colonel entered the house looking years
older than when he went away.

With him was a little girl, three years old or more, clinging to his
hand as if in fear. Her garments were all coarse and old-fashioned,
except the scarlet merino cloak. The hood was drawn over her head, and
from it there looked out a pair of eyes, which, had Peter ever heard of
the word, he would have said were uncanny, they were so large, and
bright, and moved so rapidly from one object to another. She dropped the
hood from her head, and began tugging at the ribbons of her cloak, while
her lip quivered as if she were about to cry. It came at last, not like
anything Peter had ever heard, and was more like a howl than a cry, for
"Shaky; me wants Shaky."

It was loud, and shrill, and penetrated to all parts of the house,
bringing Sally, the cook, Jane, the chambermaid, and Sam, the coachman,
all into the hall, where they stood appalled at what they saw.

"Shaky, Shaky," the child wailed on, frightened by the strange faces
around her, and as he did not come she threw herself upon the floor, and
began to bump her head up and down, her last resort when her paroxysms
were at their height.

The Colonel had borne a good deal since leaving Savannah, and had more
than once been tempted to turn back and either bring Shaky, or leave the
child with him. She had cried for him till she was purple in the face,
and the stewardess had struck her on her back to make her catch her
breath, and then taken her in her arms, and tried to comfort her.
Perhaps it was owing to her color that the child took to her so readily
that the Colonel said to her, "Keep her quiet, if you can, and I do not
care what I pay you."

After that the little girl staid mostly with the stewardess, and was
comparatively happy. Judy was a great comfort to her, and she kept it
hugged to her bosom through the day, and slept with it at night, and
when she reached the Crompton House it was in the inside pocket of her
cloak. Becoming detached from the pocket as she rolled on the floor it
fell at Peter's feet, making him start, it was so unlike anything he had
seen in years.

"Great guns!" he exclaimed, spurning it with his foot, and sending it
near the child, who snatched it up with a cry of "Judy, Judy, my Judy."

"Who is she, and wh