Looking at Wonnell sternly in the face, Meshach hissed, "You miserable
vagrant! Nature meant you to go bareheaded. Beware when you speak to me
again!"
"I was afraid of him," said Jack Wonnell, afterwards. "He seemed to have
a loaded pistol in each eye."
No other incident, beyond indiscriminate ridicule, was recorded of this
hat, except once, when a group of little children in front of Judge
Custis's house began to whisper and titter, and one, bolder than the
rest, the Judge's daughter, gravely walked up to the unsocial man; it
was the first of May, and he was in his best suit:
"Sir," she said, "may I put a rose in your old hat?"
The harsh man looked down at the little queenly child, standing straight
and slender, with an expression on her face of composure and courtesy.
Then he looked up and over the Judge's residence to see if any
mischievous or presuming person had prompted this act. No one was in
sight, and the other children had run away.
"Why do you offer me a flower?" he said, but with no tenderness.
"Because I thought such a very old hat might improve with a rose."
He hesitated a minute. The little girl, as if well-born, received his
strong stare steadily. He took off the venerable old head-gear, and put
it in the pretty maid's hand. She fixed a white rose to it, and then he
placed the hat and rose again on his head and took a small piece of gold
from his pocket.
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