it,' said Mrs.
King sorrowfully.

'He's been loitering after some mischief,' exclaimed Alfred. 'Taking his
pleasure--and I must stay all this time in pain! Serve him right to send
him back to Elbury.'

Mrs. King had a great mind to have done so; but when she looked at the
torrents of rain that streamed against the window, and thought how wet
Harold must be already, and of the fatal illnesses that had been begun by
being exposed to such weather, she was afraid to venture a boy with such
a family constitution, and turning back to Alfred, she said, 'I am very
sorry, Alfred, but it can't be helped; I can't send Harold out in the
rain again, or we shall have him ill too.'

Poor Alfred! it was no trifle to have suffered all day, and to be told
the pain must go on all night. His patience and all his better thoughts
were quite worn away, and he burst into tears of anger and cried out that
it was very hard--his mother cared for Harold more than for him, and
nobody minded it, if he lay in such pain all night.

'You know better than that, dear,' said his poor mother, sadly grieved,
but bearing it meekly. 'Harold shall go as soon as can be to-morrow.'

'And what good will that be to-night?' grumbled Alfred. 'But you always
did put Harold before me. However, I shall soon be dead and out of your
way, that's all!'

Mrs. King would not make any answer to this speech, knowing it only made
him worse. She went down to see about Harold, an additional offence to
Alfred, who muttered something about 'Mother and her darling.'

'How can you, Alfred, speak so to Mother?' cried Ellen.

'I'm sure every one is cross enough to me,' returned Alfred.

'Not Mother,' said Ellen. 'She couldn't help it.'

'She won't send Harold out again, though; I'm sure I'd have gone for
him.'

'You don't know what the rain was,' said Ellen.

'Well, he should have minded; but you're all against me.'

'You'll be sorry by-and-by, Alfred; this isn't like the way you talk
sometimes.'

'Some one else had need to be sorry, not me.'

Perhaps, in the midst of his captious state, Alfred was somewhat pacified
by hearing sounds below that made him certain that Harold was not
escaping without some strong words from his mother.

They were not properly taken. Harold was in no mood of repentance, and
the consciousness that he had been behaving most unkindly, only made him
more rough and self-justifying.

'I can't help it! I can't be a slave to run about