Uncle Cliff watched her from the pasture, a chuckle of satisfaction escaping him at this evidence of untamed tomboyism. He met her as she came up flushed and breathless.
"Getting mighty dignified since you turned sixteen, aren't you?"
Her laughing face peered at him over the rough old logs. "Not so you'd notice it!"
"I reckon I ought to thump you sixteen times and one to grow on. But that would make it necessary to climb the fence. How would you like kisses instead?"
"Give me the big one to grow on, anyway." She held up her lips. "And now I must run in to Grandmother,—she must have the next."
She found the Señora waiting for her in the living-room.
"I'm so glad you're alone, Grandmother. I wanted you all to myself for a minute or two." She went straight into the arms Grandmother held out to her, was folded close for a moment and received a second kiss "to grow on."
"IT WAS AN EXQUISITE MINIATURE, PAINTED ON IVORY."
"While we're alone I want to tell you something," Blue Bonnet said earnestly, "—about this last year, I mean. I never have said just what I've felt. It has been the best of all years, Grandmother, and the best of all the good things it has brought me—is you."
