"It wasn't very satisfactory, though, and I'll be glad to try it again." Such a flush had spread over the Little Colonel's face that Mrs.Sherman noticed it.

"I am afraid you have ridden too far in this noonday heat, little daughter," she said.

"You'd better go up-stairs and bathe your face." The boys took their leave, and Lloyd escaped from her mother's watchful eyes to follow her advice.

When she came down to lunch, the flush was gone from her cheeks, but there was an uncomfortable pricking of her conscience that stayed with her all that afternoon, and deepened steadily after Miss Allison's arrival..