“From your throne on my knee,
The pigs in the bean-patch see,
The cows in the clover meet,
The horses in the oat field eat.
The ducks in the water pass
The calves scamper through the grass.
They love the baby on my knee
And none there are as sweet as she.”
CHAPTER XVII—LIBERTY BANNERS
Nathalie’s eyes dilated with terror, and her heart pounded with such leaping beats that it almost choked her. She attempted to run, but alas, her limbs seemed tied with ropes, and then she remembered the gun!
Just an instant and she had raised it, and with trembling hands was pointing it at the enemy, who by this time had lightly vaulted the wooden fence and was coming towards her. Nathalie’s hand was feeling for the trigger when, “Oh, don’t shoot!” cried a voice in serio-comic tone, “I surrender!” Up went two hands in pretended subjugation.
The girl gasped, dropped the gun, and then broke into hysterical laughter as she cried, “Oh—is—that you?”
“Yes, it is I; Fred Tyson in the flesh!” rejoined the supposed murderer coolly, as with a stride he was at her side and, stooping picked up the gun.
The reaction was so great that for a moment Nathalie feared she was going to cry, but controlling herself by a strong effort she exclaimed, “Oh, I was sure you were a tramp,” with a nervous giggle, “or a murderer intent on killing me, and then hiding my body in the thicket yonder.” She shuddered.
“Great guns!” Fred exclaimed as he looked the gun over. “It is lucky this thing didn’t go off. By the Lord Harry, how did you come to be carrying it?”