"Now, there is _Schatz_," went on Friedrich, sipping his egg-nog placidly, but keeping a wary eye upon the bit of pink cheek that was still within his range of vision. "I like to think of you as _Schatz_,"--there was a danger-betokening movement of the glowing head,--"because you are such a treasure to your grandmother." He paused a moment, but there was no reply. "And _Perle_--it is a pretty word, _Perle_--it makes you to think of the r-radiance of the moon, so pure, so soft. Yes," he went on, hastily, "_Perle_ r-rhymes with _Erle_--that means an alder-tree--and that r-reminds me of you." "I must say I fail to see the resemblance," came an injured voice from behind the chair. "Not see? Oh, Miss Sydney, surely--with your cleverness! Listen to this, then; perhaps you like it better that I call you my--I mean _a_--_Rose_." "That's because my hair is red." "It is a white r-rose that always figures in my mind. A beautiful white r-rose with a heart of gold." By a dexterous touch upon one wheel he whirled his chair about so that he saw her downcast face. "A heart full of goodness to others is it, and of courage, and of love." He was leaning eagerly towards her. She lifted her eyes with an effort, and met his. Then he remembered. "Yes," he continued, hurriedly, "full of love for the poor and the desolate." Sydney rose. "Your pretty figures do me too much honor," she said, unsteadily, and went into the house with lingering tread and look. Friedrich gazed after her. "God knows I would be counted among the poor and the desolate," he cried, softly, to himself. "But I must not speak again of this until I am more worthy to stand before her--if ever that can be!" XIV The Fourth of July That the settle-_ment_ celebrated the Fourth of July was not due to an exuberance of patriotism, but to the mercantile spirit of Uncle Jimmy's son, Pete. Pete was married, and lived in one of the cottages on the Oakwood estate, where he worked intermittently, sandwiching between thin slices of manual labor thick layers of less legitimate emprise. Independence Day, as the anniversary of the birth of our country's liberty, is not celebrated with enthusiasm in the South. It meets with more cordial acceptance when regarded as another opportunity for knocking off work. Pete's plan catered to all conditions of conscience, from the seared commodity that asked no excuse for playing to the scrupulous article that considered justification necessary, and found it in the infrequency of such amusement. He advertised far and wide, by placards in the scattered stores and post-offices that cling near the railway stations and dot the Haywood Road on the other side of the river, a-- GANDER PULIN FORTH OF JULY AT 5 OCLOCK. FRADYS FEILD.