He had never seen his own little daughter in such a plight as this, and she had never been allowed to step outside of her own room without her shoes and stockings.
"What does your mother mean," he cried, savagely, "by letting you run barefooted around the country just like poor white trash?
An' what are you playing with low-flung niggers for?
Haven't you ever been taught any better?
I suppose it's some of your father's miserable Yankee notions." May Lilly, peeping around the corner of the house, rolled her frightened eyes from one angry face to the other.

The same temper that glared from the face of the man, sitting erect in his saddle, seemed to be burning in the eyes of the child, who stood so defiantly before him.

The same kind of scowl drew their eyebrows together darkly.
"Don't you talk that way to me," cried the Little Colonel, trembling with a wrath she did not know how to express.
Suddenly she stooped, and snatching both hands full of mud from the overturned pie, flung it wildly over the spotless white coat.
Colonel Lloyd gasped with astonishment.

It was the first time in his life he had ever been openly defied.

The next moment his anger gave way to amusement.
"By George!" he chuckled, admiringly.