A Romance of Billy-Goat Hill

								

“Like him?” Noah looked up in surprise. “Why, everybody likes Don
Morley.”
“I don't,” said the Colonel fiercely. “Here he comes now. I wish you'd
look at that!”
A headlong young man in model riding costume, astride a bob-tailed
sorrel, rashly took a fence where gate there was none, and came
cantering across the Colonel's favorite stretch of blue grass.
“Awfully sorry to have cut across, Colonel!” he called out in tones that
spoke little contrition. “Slipped my trolley as usual and got lost in
the bullrushes. Hope I haven't kept Miss Lady waiting?”
The Colonel rose and extended a hand of welcome. A true Kentuckian may
commit murder and still be a gentleman, but to fail in hospitality is to
forfeit even his own self-respect.
“My daughter, Mr. Morley, will be out presently,” he announced with
great formality.
“And how are you, Mike?” went on young Morley, stooping to pat the dog;
“didn't mean to cut you, old fellow, 'pon my word I didn't.”
The dog, a shaggy beast, with small, plaintive eyes looking out from a
fringe of wiry hair, expressed his appreciation of this attention with
all the emotion a stump of tail would permit.
“It's a bully day!” continued the visitor with enthusiasm, wiping his
wrists and forehead, and tossing his hair back. “If I weren't going to
town to-night I'd ask you to take me fishing, Colonel. Hello! What kind
of a reel is that?”
Now the article which had attracted attention happened to be an
invention of the Colonel's, something he had been working on for a long
time, so he could not resist explaining its unique qualities.
“Well, I'll be hanged!” said Morley, turning it over and over
admiringly. “If that isn't the cleverest thing I ever saw. This little
screw regulates the slack, doesn't it? Does your legal mind get on to
that, Wick?”
“It was a great job to get that to fit,” said the Colonel, nattered in
spite of himself. “Took me the best part of a week to puzzle out that
one point.”
“A week!” exclaimed Morley. “It would have taken me months! Oh! here
she is!” and from the very ardent look that leapt into his face, and the
alacrity with which he sprang up, it might have been doubted whether his
mind had been wholly upon the matter under discussion.
Miss Lady greeted him with almost boyish frankness, but there was an
unmistakable flush under the smooth tan of her cheek that did not escape
the vigilant eye of the Colonel.
“Here you are, Dad! here you are, Noah!” she said, tossing a small
package to each; “sandwiches and hard boiled eggs for two.”
“Put the salt in for the eggs?” asked the Colonel, having had experience
with her lunches.
“I believe I did. Open yours and see, Noah. Say, Daddy darling!” she
swooped down upon him from the rear, slipping an arm about his neck as
he knelt on the porch to collect his hooks and lines, “you are going to
let me ride Prince, just this once, aren't you?”