oy." Then he put his arm around Arthur's neck, and
kissed him. A minute after, Arthur was standing by himself before the
drawing-room fire; and when presently he heard the carriage roll away, and
the sounds became gradually fainter and fainter in the distance, he felt
that he was all alone.

Indeed, he hardy knew what he felt. There seemed to be a sudden quiet hush
within him, and as he looked outside the window where the carriage had
just stood, and the bustle of going away had just ceased, the quiet of
every thing seemed very still and deep. Only the little birds were just
the same, singing gaily as if nothing had happened, and the morning breeze
was brushing the myrtle trees as they did every spring morning when the
sun was making the country look glad.

Presently he heard steps outside the door, and as they came nearer and
nearer, Arthur felt as if he would like to run away; for he was afraid his
aunt might talk about his father and mother, and he felt as if he could
not talk of anything just then. But he need not have been afraid, Mrs.
Estcourt was wiser than that, and she only said kindly--

"Would you like to go out and look about you a little, Arthur dear? It
will not rain just yet, I think; and you may go where you like; at least,
that is, if you are accustomed to go by yourself."

"I should think I am, indeed," said Arthur; "why I have done that ever
since I was eight."

"You won't lose your way?" asked his aunt anxiously.

"If I do, I shall have to find it again, you know, aunt," said Arthur.

"You are a funny little fellow," said Mrs. Estcourt. "Well, if you get
hungry before luncheon-time, you must come and tell me."

Arthur thought of Hector, and how pleasant it would be if his old friend
would come bounding in answer to his whistle; then he looked at the sleepy
white-haired creature lying on the hearth-rug.

"Aunt Daisy," he said, "would you like me to take out that white fellow?"

"What, dear?" said Mrs. Estcourt. "Oh, I don't know, Arthur; I think,
perhaps, not just yet; not until you are more accustomed to it."

"Very well," said Arthur, as he went away; and he said to himself, "I
would quite as soon not."

Arthur felt, as he stood outside the hall door, as if all the world was
before him, to choose where he would go. He thought he would first examine
the garden, which encircled the house on all sides. A gap in the myrtle
bushes led him down a narrow path into a large space, which the fruit