"Jes lissen at her, jes as mighty as you please," she muttered to him, and then quite loudly, "some folks suttenly is hard to please; yuh praises dem, dey got nutten to say; yuh praises de beau an' dey looks mad!" "Never mind!" cried Frances, "never mind! I'm not going to bring you any tobacco next time I come!" "La! Miss Frances, what mattah long yuh now--yuh know--hyar, chile, lemme pull yuh some dese hyar flowers; de fros' done totch dem anyhow!" But Frances was not listening; she was off fast as her horse would trot, the chickens squawking indignantly, and Roxie by her zinnias and marigolds gazing in open-mouthed astonishment. Lawson was shaking with laughter. He was even with her he felt, and perhaps a little ahead. He was sure he was ahead when, just outside the University gate, one of the chickens, freed after much straining, fluttered under the edge of Frances' skirt and shrieked a loud and triumphant squawk. Frances sprang to her feet; but for Lawson she would have been out and under the wheel. There was no laughter about that young man for one swift instant, when he threw his arm out, pulled her back into the seat and snatched the falling reins. The danger past, he caught the offending fowl, fluttering now in the dash-board, handed it gravely to Frances and then, without a word of excuse, leaned back and laughed until the tears were in his eyes. As for Frances, she was white, she was cold. She had been frightened for the first time in her life into a silly deed. She was mad through and through, but it was useless. Under that ringing laugh all else gave way; she must join in it. "Never mind," she declared, when Lawson drew rein outside the quadrangle and lifted her out impressively. "I shall have that chicken for supper." "I'm coming to help eat him!" "Come on!" she called gayly, as she disappeared along the walk to the campus. II Frances lingered in the dining-room after dinner was done. She pretended to be rearranging the flowers on the table; in reality she was thinking what to say to the little, spare, bent colored woman who was busily clearing away the dishes. "Susan," she began, "I think I'll make a cake this afternoon." "Dyar's half a one hyar now," grumbled Susan with a flash out of her dark eyes that were like live coals in the wrinkled face. "And--ah--I thought I'd make some floating island." "La! chile, what yah gwine pester roun' de kitchen for ter-day?" Susan had taught Frances the mysteries of cooking and was inordinately proud of her pupil's skill, but she wanted it practised when it suited her; and that afternoon had a vision of rest and mending. "And," went on Frances, to finish now that the subject was broached, "I got those chickens right out the coop. Roxie says they are nice and fat. That Dominico now, how would it do to have it smothered?" Susan wheeled on her. "You's gwine hab company to suppah?" "Y--e--s!"