didn't know its tail was loose, did I?"

"I don't think you did, Billy," said Wesley.

Billy stared into Margaret's cold face. "Sometimes at night, Belle sits
on the floor, and I lay my head in her lap. I could pull up a chair and
lay my head in your lap. Like this, I mean." Billy pulled up a chair,
climbed on it and laid his head on Margaret's lap. Then he shut his eyes
again. Margaret could have looked little more repulsed if he had been a
snake. Billy was soon up.

"My, but your lap is hard," he said. "And you are a good deal fatter 'an
Belle, too!" He slid from the chair and came back to the middle of the
room.

"Oh but I wisht he wasn't dead!" he cried. The flood broke and Billy
screamed in desperation.

Out of the night a soft, warm young figure flashed through the door and
with a swoop caught him in her arms. She dropped into a chair, nestled
him closely, drooped her fragrant brown head over his little bullet-eyed
red one, and rocked softly while she crooned over him--

"Billy, boy, where have you been?
Oh, I have been to seek a wife,
She's the joy of my life,
But then she's a young thing and she can't leave her mammy!"

Billy clung to her frantically. Elnora wiped his eyes, kissed his face,
swayed and sang.