| Katy dropped her head on his shoulder again | [Frontispiece] |
| FACING PAGE | |
| “Take them upstairs and put them on my dressin’-table” | [4] |
| “Each guest had a candle alight” | [84] |
| And so the picture was begun | [104] |
| “Promise me that you will stop the whole business” | [172] |
| “It is all her doing, Phil” | [205] |
COLONEL CARTER’S
CHRISTMAS
I
“What am I gwine to do wid dese yere barkers, Colonel?” asked Chad, picking up his master’s case of duelling pistols from the mantel. “I ain’t tetched der moufs since I iled ’em up for dat Klutchem man.”
“Take them upstairs, Chad, and put them away,” answered the Colonel with an indignant wave of the hand.
“No chance o’ pickin’ him, I s’pose? Done got away fo’ sho, ain’t he?”
The Colonel nodded his head and kept on looking into the fire. The subject was evidently an unpleasant one.
“Couldn’t Major Yancey an’ de Jedge do nuffin?” persisted the old servant, lifting one of the pistols from the case and squinting into its polished barrel.