THE GONE-AWAY LADY


Proud business for David! Sitting on the edge of the seat of the
buggy, he was holding the reins very tight. One must always do
that if he does not want the horse to kick and run away. Not
knowing that the horse was tied to the hitching-post, David was
fulfilling his mission with ceremony, and when Dr. Redfield
appeared from the door of a drug shop across the way, the little
boy called to him gayly:--

"He didn't run away, did he? I held him all right, didn't I?"

Dr. Redfield had been absent long enough to use the telephone in
notifying Miss Eastman, whom David knew only by the sweeter name
of Mother, that her little boy had been waylaid and would
probably not be home to luncheon. She was not permitted to know
that the pretty rogue had run away, but the man himself strongly
suspected the truth. For some time, though, he charitably
refrained from speaking of the matter. In fact, three important
events in David's life took place before the painful subject was
broached.

To eat at the Doctor's table, and wholly without the assistance
of a high chair--that was one of the events; another was a
hair-cut, and the third--Everybody, salute! David is in trouvers!

He and his big friend both admired them immensely, and it was in
the little shabby, out-at-the-elbow doctor's office that David
had been helped to put them on. After he had strutted for a