."

"Oh, ride the boundaries?"

"Yaas, suh."

"Oh, very well. What time does he start?"

"'Bout noontide, suh."

The old man strove to straighten my short queue, but found it hopeless,
so tied it close and dusted on the French powder.

"Curly head, curly head," he muttered to himself. "Dess lak yo'
pap's!... an' Miss Dorry's. Law's sakes, dishyere hair wuf mo'n
eight dollar."

"You think my hair worth more than eight dollars?" I asked, amused.

"H'it sho'ly am, suh."

"But why eight dollars, Cato?"

"Das what the redcoats say; eight dollars fo' one rebel scalp, suh."

I sat up, horrified. "Who told you that?" I demanded.

"All de gemmen done say so--Mars' Varick, Mars' Johnsing, Cap'in
Butler."

"Bah! they said it to plague you, Cato," I muttered; but as I said it I
saw the old slave's eyes and knew that he had told the truth.

Sobered, I dressed me in my forest dress, absently lacing the
hunting-shirt and tying knee-points, while the old man polished hatchet
and knife and slipped them into the beaded scabbards swinging on
either hip.

Then I went out, noiselessly descending the stairway, and came all
unawares upon the young folk and the children gathered on the sunny
porch, busy with their morning tasks.

They neither saw nor heard me; I leaned against the doorway to see the
pretty picture at my ease. The children, Sam and Benny, sat all hunched
up, scowling over their books.

Close to a fluted pillar, Dorothy Varick reclined in a chair,
embroidering her initials on a pair of white silk hose, using the
Rosemary stitch. And as her delicate fingers flew, her gold thimble
flashed like a fire-fly in the sun.

At her feet, cross-legged, sat Cecile Butler, velvet eyes intent on a
silken petticoat which she was embroidering with pale sprays of flowers.

Ruyven and Harry, near by, dipped their brushes into pans of brilliant
French colors, the one to paint marvellous birds on a silken fan, the
other to decorate a pair of white satin shoes with little pink blossoms
nodding on a vine.

Loath to disturb them, I stood smiling, silent; and presently Dorothy,
without raising her eyes, called on Samuel to read his morning lesson,
and he began, breathing heavily:

"I know that God is wroth at me
For I was born in sin;
My heart is so exceeding vile
Damnation dwells therein;
Awake I sin, asleep I sin,
I sin with every breath,
When Adam fell he went to hell
A