"Well--you see--that is--of course it's a secret," he ended lamely, with a furtive look toward a dim white figure beneath the trees. "As I said before--it's like this----Oh!--plague--take it!--to-night I asked Miss Worth to marry me, and she said she would if she could; but that she couldn't unless you promised to come immediately with us to Lexington and make your home with us--so you see where the whole thing hinges. Will you do me this favor, Belle-Ann?" he pressed anxiously. Belle-Ann could not restrain herself and laughed outright. "Don't look so solemn, Grandpa--go tell Miss Worth I said to marry you by all means--I'll do my part." There was a boyish ring in the Colonel's laugh as he picked his hat up off the grass and with Belle-Ann's arm through his, started toward the porch. "But--Grandpa," protested Belle-Ann, as her lovely face suddenly sobered, and a grave note crept into her voice, "I must go up to Moon mountain before I think of anything else--some hearts up thah are beating against my return--but I'll promise to come back heah, in three days, Grandpa." Colonel Tennytown stopped short on the path. "Ah!--now we have it," he exclaimed. "I know all about those folks. Tell me, my dear, plainly--do you love that boy, Lem?" Belle-Ann's cheeks turned visibly crimson in the moonlight as she looked up quickly upon this unexpected query. "I might--might learn to--Grandpa," she murmured grudgingly. "Now," said the Colonel decisively, "you shall start up there Monday morning--and you tell that Lem Lutts for me that I want a good, steady, dependable man. I'll give him charge of my entire stock farm--seven hundred acres--and three hundred head of the best horse-blood on the face of the earth. I'll train Lem and make him manager. If he will, he can go to school and polish himself up first. And that little Buddy Lutts--you tell him I'll give him a pony all for his own, and keep him in clothes and spending money if he'll come down to Lexington and go to school once in awhile." "Now, I want to ask you, Belle-Ann--about that old negro chap, Slab. Is the lobe of his left ear missing?" "Oh, yes--yes!" exclaimed the mystified girl. "And is he a very long, narrow gentleman?" "Surely--he's quite tall----" "Did you ever hear him sing 'Kitty Wells'?" Belle-Ann clapped her hands in childish glee. "I've heard that song every night all my life, Grandpa; how did you-all know Slab, Grandpa?"