f it had been anybody but Ruby Ann, I'd turned her from the
room. I thought she had more sense,--upon my soul, I did! What did she
get out of you?"

"Nothing much but some old clothes and shoes and a boot-jack; she
thought a good deal of that," Peter said, and with a sniff of contempt
the Colonel replied, "Old clothes and a boot-jack; and what is Mrs. Amy
sending? Half the attic, I should think from the noise they make up
there."

Hesitating a moment Peter said, "She is giving the fancy gowns she used
to wear, with the tops of the waists and bottoms of the sleeves cut off.
She says they are hateful to her."

The Colonel guessed what she meant, and replied, "Quite right; Rummage
and rag-bags good places for them; but I say, Peter, I won't have them
strung up with warming-pans and quill wheels and my trousers. You must
stop it. Do you hear?"

"I didn't know your trousers were going," Peter suggested, and the
Colonel answered curtly, "Who said they were, you blockhead? They are
not going unless Ruby gets them in the night. Upon my soul, she is equal
to it. I think I shall put them under my pillow. It is Mrs. Amy's
dresses I mean. What else is she going to send?"

"You remember the doll house you bought her when she was a little girl?"
Peter said.

"Good thunder, yes! Will she give that away?" the Colonel asked, with
something in his tone which was more than surprise.

It hurt him that Amy should be willing to part with the doll house. She
must be queerer than usual, and he thought of the Harris blood. Suddenly
he remembered Mandy Ann and Judy, and asked if she was going to give
them to the Rummage.

"She means to. Yes, sir. They go with the doll house, one as mistress,
the other as maid. I heard her say so. They are downstairs now," was
Peter's reply.

The Colonel's countenance fell, and there was an awful twinge in his
foot, but he didn't mind it. His thoughts flew back to the palmetto
clearing, where he first saw the little girl and Judy. Then they
travelled on to Savannah and the store where he bought Mandy Ann, and so
on through the different phases of Amy's childhood, and he was surprised
to find how unwilling he was to part with what had been so intimately
associated with years which, on the whole, had been happy, although at
times a little stormy. And Amy was going to send them to a Rummage Sale!

"I may be a weak old fool, but I won't have them sold down there with
quill wheels and warming-pans!" he th