HAPPY HOLLOW FARM 33 



in our laps, sitting on the ground around an 

 open campfire. 



There were six of us: Laura, and my 

 mother, and Dorothy, our daughter of fifteen, 

 and Louis, who was twelve, and little Peggy, 

 not yet three, and I, coming forty-two in the 

 summer. Oh, yes, and there was Lee. I wish 

 you might have known Lee. I don't know 

 how old he was ; but he was a pronounced bru- 

 nette with a trick of showing the whites of his 

 eyes and his shining white teeth when anything 

 tickled him. Something was always tickling 

 him. We'd found him in Kansas and had 

 brought him with us to Arkansas. Truly, he 

 was a jolly soul. He's doing a life sentence in 

 the Kansas penitentiary now, poor chap. I'll 

 tell you more about Lee as we go along. It 

 turned out that he was just no good at all for 

 work; but while he lasted he was the Br'er 

 Bones of our enterprise. 



While I live I shan't forget that first night 

 at Happy Hollow. We dawdled over supper, 

 talking and laughing, making happy jests at 

 our own madness. Then the dusk came on, 

 and slowly the darkness settled about us and 

 shut us in. Somehow that darkness subdued 

 our merriment, quieted us, set us to listening. 



