come from
the country happier, merrier, and fresher than ever, having still, as it
were, about him the fragrant breath of the wood-violets, the purity of
the unvitiated air, the freedom of the broad, green fields, the fragrant
atmosphere of all the delightful things with which he had been so
recently in contact.

One morning, not long after his coming, the cross girl who put Harry to
bed at night, marshalled him and his brother out (as was her wont in
fine weather) for a dreary promenade, which usually agreeable exercise
consisted in the present instance in marching down a dusty stone
pavement, by a long, unbroken line of brick buildings, up one street,
and down another (for they always went the same way), until they came to
a huge, dreary-looking schoolhouse, where they left Charley, and came
back more drearily than they went. Well, on this particular morning,
Charley had forgotten his slate, and he and the girl returning to search
for it left Harry at the gate to await their return. The little urchin,
just at that precise moment, spying Harry solus, and impelled by the
agreeable prospect of a playfellow, rushed across the street, at the
imminent danger of being run over, to scrape acquaintance.

'Come, and play with me,' cried the little fellow, bounding up to Harry
in all the ardor of a glowing anticipation, eagerly folding one thin
hand in both his dimpled ones, and flashing a whole flood of sunlight
into the sad young eyes that so timidly met his sunny ones. 'Come, and
play with me, _do!_ and we'll play at horse and build mud houses, and
ma'll give us lots of candy and raisins, and a great big doughnut, ever
so big, as big as my hands and your hands, and all our hands put
together.'

'I can't,' said Harry, sadly resigning all thought of these rare
dainties. 'Betty'll scold so!'

'We'll sit on the bank under the willow at the back of the house,'
pursued the tempter, folding the hand he held still tighter within his
own, 'where she can't see us; and when she comes to take you away, I'll
bite her.'

The youthful pleader had unconsciously used the most potent argument
possible. Harry wavered. To sit on a green bank under a willow, with
such a sunny-faced companion as that, and listen to the birds singing in
the branches, and the rustling of the leaves--to look up through the
green, and see patches of blue sky through breaks in the foliage--and
then, too, oh, blessed hope! to see the lady whom he regarded with suc