The Copy-Cat [32]
it was hot. However, old Daniel, after his re- covery, insisted on going out of doors with little Dan'l after breakfast. The only concession which he would make to Sarah Dean, who was fairly fran- tic with anxiety, was that he would merely go down the road as far as the big elm-tree, that he would sit down there, and let the child play about within sight. "You'll be brought home agin, sure as preachin'," said Sarah Dean, "and if you're brought home ag'in, you won't get up ag'in." Old Daniel laughed. "Now don't you worry, Sarah," said he. "I'll set down under that big ellum and keep cool." Old Daniel, at Sarah's earnest entreaties, took a palm-leaf fan. But he did not use it. He sat peace- fully under the cool trail of the great elm all the forenoon, while little Dan'l played with her doll. The child was rather languid after her shock of the day before, and not disposed to run about. Also, she had a great sense of responsibility about the old man. Sarah Dean had privately charged her not to let Uncle Daniel get "overhet." She continually glanced up at him with loving, anxious, baby eyes. "Be you overhet. Uncle Dan'l?" she would ask. "No, little Dan'l, uncle ain't a mite overhet," the old man would assure her. Now and then little Dan'l left her doll, climbed into the old man's lap, and waved the palm-leaf fan before his face. Old Daniel Wise loved her so that he seemed, to himself, fairly alight with happiness. He made up his mind that he would find some little girl in the village to come now and then and play with little Dan'l. In the cool of that evening he stole out of the back door, covertly, lest Sarah Dean discover him, and walked slowly to the rector's house in the village. The rector's wife was sitting on her cool, vine-shaded veranda. She was alone, and Daniel was glad. He asked her if the little girl who had come to live with her, Content Adams, could not come the next after- noon and see little Dan'l. "Little Dan'l had ought to see other children once in a while, and Sarah Dean makes real nice cookies," he stated, pleadingly. Sally Patterson laughed good-naturedly. "Of course she can, Mr. Wise," she said. The next afternoon Sally herself drove the rec- tor's horse, and brought Content to pay a call on little Dan'l. Sally and Sarah Dean visited in the sitting-room, and left the little girls alone in the parlor with a plate of cookies, to get acquainted. They sat in solemn silence and stared at each other. Neither spoke. Neither ate a cooky. When Sally took her leave, she asked little Dan'l if she had had a nice time with Content, and little Dan'l said, "Yes, ma'am." Sarah insisted upon Content's carrying the cookies home in the dish with a napkin over it. "When can I go again to see that other little girl?" asked Content as she and Sally were jogging home. "Oh, almost any time. I will drive you over -- because it is rather a lonesome walk for you. Did you like the little girl? She is younger than you." "Yes'm." Also little Dan'l inquired of old Daniel when the other little girl was coming again, and nodded em- phatically when asked if she had had a nice time. Evidently both had enjoyed, after the inscrutable fashion of childhood, their silent session with each other. Content came generally once a week, and old Daniel was invited to take little Dan'l to the rector's. On that occasion Lucy Rose was present, and Lily Jennings. The four little girls had tea to- gether at a little table set on the porch, and only Lily Jennings talked. The rector drove old Daniel and the child home, and after they had arrived the child's tongue was loosened and she chattered. She had seen everything there was to be seen at the rec- tor's. She told of it in her little silver pipe of a voice. She had to be checked and put to bed, lest she be tired out. "I never knew that child could talk so much," Sarah said to Daniel, after the little girl had gone up-stairs. "She talks quite some when she's alone with me." "And she seems to see everything." "Ain't much that child don't see," said Daniel, proudly. The summer continued unusually hot, but