"As well as he likes any child girls. I think he likes them better when they are big enough to play whist. But you could listen, all the same."
"I get tired of just listening. I like the children because they are alive and can laugh and talk. The other people who have been dead so long—"
"But you liked Captain John Smith, and the Froissart men who were so brave. And King Arthur—"
"But Grandfather Floyd said there never was any such King Arthur, nor Merlin, nor ever so many other people."
"Grandfather is wrong about some things. And it isn't polite to contradict him, because he is an old man. Oh, do come!"
"Annis! Annis!" called two or three eager baby voices.
"Oh, yes, I would rather be with them. And when we get home you may tell me all these things. They'll sound so much better than in grandpapa's voice. It sometimes gets shaky and seems cold, while yours is soft and sweet and fine when you come to the grand places."
That mollified the boy, who certainly had become grandfather's favorite, and was pronounced sensible.
CHAPTER X.
A CHRISTMAS AUGURY.
The slaves at the Pineries were kept with a rather strict hand. Very few were sold off the plantation, and then for the gravest misconduct, when whipping had ceased to be efficacious. But they had increased largely, and were often hired out, those for the year at Christmas or the beginning of the year. Christmas Eve there was a general gathering, and they were allowed a sort of ball in the great kitchen, where most of the rough work was done. There were music and song singing, charms were tried, and they ended with dancing. All the autumn it was looked forward to eagerly.