The word was cut in two by a scream. A large and very handsome snake was gliding gracefully across her path. The like of it for size and brilliancy, she had never seen before.

"O, how boo-ful!" cried Katie, darting after it. Horace held her back.

Dotty trembled violently.

"Kill it," she screamed; "throw stones at it; take me away! take me away!"

"Poh, Dotty; nothing but an innocent snake; he's more afraid of you than you are of him."

"You told him take you away two times," exclaimed Katie, "and he didn't, and he didn't."

"I never knew you had such awful things out West," said Dotty shuddering. "And I don't think _now_ there's _any_ difference in boy-cousins! They never take you away, nor do anything you ask 'em to--so there!"

"Why, Dotty, he was hurrying as fast as he could to get out of our sight; there was no need of taking you away."

"She needn't be 'fraid," observed Flyaway, soothingly; "if I had a sidders, I could ha' cutted him in two."

By this time the rest of the party had arrived. Grace and Ca.s.sy walked together very confidentially under the same umbrella which had sheltered them years ago--a black one marked with white paint, "Stolen from H.S.

Clifford." "Bold thieves" Horace called them; but they deigned no notice of his remark.

"I'll get an answer," murmured Horace, repeating aloud,--

"'Hey for the apple and ho for the pear, But give me the girl with the red hair.'"

At this Grace turned around sharply, and shook her bare head, which gleamed in the sun like burnt gold.

"Panoria Swan has red hair," said she,--"fire-red; but mine is auburn."

"O, I only wanted to make you speak, Grace; that will do."

"Here we are at the woods," said Mr. Clifford. He had once owned a neighboring lot, and his pecan trees had been fenced around to protect them from the impertinent swine; but now the party were going into the heart of the forest.

The pecan trees were tall, somewhat like maples, with the nuts growing on them in shucks, after the manner of walnuts. These shucks, if left till the coming of frost, would have opened of themselves, and scattered the nuts to the ground; but our friends preferred to gather a few bushels before they were perfectly ripened, rather than lose them altogether.

As the easiest method, Mr. Clifford said they might as well fell a tree, for he had a right to do so. He had brought an axe in his carriage; and Mr. Parlin, whose good right arm had never been injured in the war, soon brought a n.o.ble tree to the ground.

Then there was a scrambling to see which should break off the most shucks. Dotty sat down on a log, half afraid there might be a snake lurking under it, and picked with all her might.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GOING NUTTING.--Page 131.]

"We don't have any pecans at Deering's Oaks," she thought, "and nothing but sh.e.l.ls at the Islands. I only wish Prudy was here. Prudy would think I had a little temper at Horace just now; I wonder if he did. I will show him I am sorry; for he _is_ a good boy, and a great deal more 'style' and polite than Percy."

"What makes our little darling look so dismal?" said Ca.s.sy, taking a seat beside Dotty Dimple.

"O, I was thinking a great _many_ things! I'm so far off, Ca.s.sy! When I think of that, I want to scream right out. Prudy's at home, and I'm here! I don't want to be so far off".

"But only think, dear, how much you will have to tell when you get home; and in such a little while too."

Dotty was instantly consoled, for a crowd of recollections rushed into her mind of wonderful events which had occurred since she parted from Prudy. The "far off" feeling left her as she thought of the stories she should have to tell to admiring listeners one of these days.

When it was time for dinner, Mrs. Clifford spread a table-cloth on the ground, and covered it with the nice food she had brought. It was a delightful entertainment. Flyaway was so nearly wild with the new experience of eating in the woods, among the toads and squirrels, that she required constant watching to keep her within bounds. She wanted to run after all the little creeping things she saw, and give them part of her dinner. Horace gladly a.s.sumed the care of her. He did not mean that his mother should regret having brought little Topknot.

CHAPTER X.

SURPRISES.

After a very happy day in the woods, the Cliffords started for home with as many nuts as they could carry.

Dotty said she had had a nice time; but for some reason she could not go to sleep that night. There was a burning sensation in her right side, and she had a horrible fancy that a snake had bitten her. She could not endure the thought of lying and listening to the strokes of the clock.

"I'll go find my father," thought she, with that "far-off" feeling at her heart again.

But which way to go? She had not yet learned the plan of the house, but had no doubt she could find her father's room. She pattered about the chambers with her little bare feet, and at last waked Horace by overturning a chair near his bed.

"Why, who is there? And what's wanted?"

"It's me, and I want my father."

By this time Aunt Maria, hearing a noise, had come in with a light.

"Are you sick, dear child?"

"No, auntie; I don't know what's the matter; I 'spect it's the blues. I had 'em you know, when the beer came to an end--I mean the world--I mean that night Polly Whiting called me up."

Horace used all his self-control to keep from laughing.

"Well, Cousin Dotty, you do look blue, I declare; as blue as the skimmiest milk of the cheatiest milkman. Mother, isn't there something in the medicine chest that is good for the blues?"

"They are in my side--I mean _it_," said Dotty, dismally. "I'm afraid it's a--snake?"

Mrs. Clifford took the afflicted child in her arms, and began to question her with regard to the exact spot where she felt the "blues,"

a.s.suring her that some relief might be afforded if the nature of the trouble could only be discovered.

"O, ho," cried Horace, suddenly; "I know what it is; it's a jigger."

Upon reflection, it was decided that Horace might be right. A little creature called the _chegre_, had perhaps made its way out of some decayed log and crept in under Dotty's skin, causing all this heat and irritation. There was a small, hard swelling on her side, which appeared to move. Her father asked her if she was willing to have him cut it out with his penknife.

Dotty hesitated; her nerves quivered at sight of the sharp blade.

"But that cruel little _chegre_ is drinking your blood, my daughter. The more he drinks, the larger he will grow, and the harder it will be to cut him out."

"That's so," said Horace. "I could preach, with jigger for a text. Ahem!

He is like sin--the more you let him stay, the more you'll wish you hadn't. Come, Dotty, be brave, and out with him!"

"You can talk to _me_," said Dotty, bitterly; "but if it was _your_ side that had a _jiggle_ in, perhaps you'd feel as bad's I do."