Page:Pratt portraits - sketched in a New England suburb (IA prattportraitssk00full).pdf/288

 "No; I took a friend."

Dick's manner as he said this was so needlessly innocent that his father's wise resolution vanished, and before he could stop himself, he had said:

"H'm! He left his bonnet behind him."

Dick followed the direction of his father's eyes, and looked out of the window. He flushed crimson. There was a shout from John and a titter from the girls, and Dick, pushing back his chair, rushed from the table, and seizing his hat, dashed out to the barn. There they could see him berating the indiscreet groom, who vainly tried to conceal his enjoyment of the situation.

Poor Dick! It was no laughing matter to him. He sternly ordered the man to "let that buggy alone and harness Golddust." He backed the horse into the shafts himself, made fast the straps, and in five minutes after his hasty exit, his family beheld him driving out of the yard, the wheels of the buggy still dripping wet, and the bonnet waving like a banner from the top. A more defiant and indignant heart never beat under any flag.

Once fairly out of sight of the dining-room windows, Dick took the bonnet from its unworthy position and laid it reverently upon the seat beside him, first spreading his snowy pocket-handkerchief beneath it. Then he covered it over with the light lap-robe.

He was a curious study at that moment, in the