"Wasn't it?" he said. "Wasn't it, Apple Blossom? Then, tell me,
why DID you write it?"
"But I don't want to tell you," and Patty pouted one of her very
prettiest pouts.
"But you shall tell me! If you don't,"--Bill came a step nearer,--
"I'll pick you up and toss you up into the top branches of that
biggest pine tree over there!"
"Pooh! Who's afraid?"
Patty's saucy smile was too much for Bill, and, catching her up,
he cradled her in his strong arms, and swung her back and forth,
as if preparatory to pitching her into the tree.
"Here you go!" he said, laughing at her surprised face. "One,--
two--"
"Mr. Farnsworth!" exclaimed a shocked voice, and Aunt Adelaide
came hastening toward them.
Bill set Patty down, not hastily, but very deliberately, and then
said, with an anxious air:
"How did it go, Mrs. Parsons? We're practising for our great scene
in the Pageant--the Spirit of the Sea, tossed by old Father
Neptune. I do my part all right, but Miss Fairfield needs more
practice, don't you think so?"
Aunt Adelaide looked scrutinisingly at the young man, but his
expression was so earnest that she couldn't doubt him.
"Patty looked scared to death," she said, with reminiscent
criticism.
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