"
"Thank you, I mean to keep my mouth shut, but would you mind--"
"Git in!" interrupted the old man eagerly. "Hyeh she comes." His
kind old face creased into a welcoming smile, and between the logs
of the mill Hale, inside, could see an old sorrel horse slowly
coming through the lights and shadows down the road. On its back
was a sack of corn and perched on the sack was a little girl with
her bare feet in the hollows behind the old nag's withers. She was
looking sidewise, quite hidden by a scarlet poke-bonnet, and at
the old man's shout she turned the smiling face of little June.
With an answering cry, she struck the old nag with a switch and
before the old man could rise to help her down, slipped lightly to
the ground.
"Why, honey," he said, "I don't know whut I'm goin' to do 'bout
yo' corn. Shaft's broke an' I can't do no grindin' till to-
morrow."
"Well, Uncle Billy, we ain't got a pint o' meal in the house," she
said. "You jes' got to LEND me some."
"All right, honey," said the old man, and he cleared his throat as
a signal for Hale.
The little girl was pushing her bonnet back when Hale stepped into
sight and, unstartled, unsmiling, unspeaking, she looked steadily
at him--one hand motionless for a moment on her bronze heap of
hair and then slipping down past her cheek to clench the other
tightly.
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