"
"Thank you, Barn; here's your dollar," said the voice of Tom Bannister when
the song was ended. "You may go now."
And while Colonel Sommerton stood amazed, the young man came clown the
veranda steps with Phyllis on his arm. They stopped when they reached the
ground.
"Good--night, dear. I'll win you to-morrow or my name is not Tom Bannister.
I'll win you, and Sommerton Place too." And when they parted he came right
down the walk between the trees, to run almost against Colonel Sommerton.
"Why, good-evening, Colonel," he said, with a cordial, liberal spirit in
his voice. "I have been waiting in hopes of seeing you."
"You'll get enough of me to-morrow to last you a lifetime, sah," promptly
responded the old man, marching straight on into the house. Nothing could
express more concentrated and yet comprehensive contempt than Colonel
Sommerton's manner.
"The impudent young scamp," he growled. "I'll show
him!"
Phyllis sprang from ambush behind a vine, and covered her father's face
with warm kisses, then broke away before he could say a word, and ran up to
her room.
In the distant kitchen Barnaby was singing:
"Kick so high I broke my neck,
An' fling my right foot off'm my leg
Went to work mos' awful quick,
An' mended 'em wid er wooden peg.
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