xity. "Friends?" he
said. "I--I think I never saw you before. I may have seen your
picture. Yours, I mean. Not the--the lady's. And I'm not sure I know
your right name. If you'd tell me, and if--if the lady would take her
mask off----"

But Father Time interrupted him. In a solemn voice he said,
"Everychild, I have come to bid you leave all that has been closest to
you and set forth upon a strange journey."

At this Everychild was deeply awed. Perhaps he was a little
frightened. "All that has been closest?" he repeated. "My mother and
father--it is they who have always been closest."

"Everychild must bid farewell to father and mother," declared Father
Time.

And now Everychild was indeed dismayed. "Bid farewell to them?" he
echoed. "Oh, please . . . and shall I never see them again?" He
wished very much to approach Father Time and plead with him; but Father
Time held up an arresting hand and spoke again, almost as if he were a
minister in church.

"It is not given to Everychild to know what the future holds," he said.
And then he again made a polite gesture toward the Masked Lady. "Only
she can tell what the end of the journey shall be," he said.

It was now that Everychild looked earnestly at the Masked Lady. If she
would only take her mask off! With a great effort he asked--"And
she--will she befriend me when I have gone from my father and mother?"

With the deepest assurance Father Time replied, "Give her your
affection and she will befriend you in every hour of loss and pain,
clear to the end of your journey--and beyond."

"But," said Everychild, "she--she doesn't look very--she looks
rather--rather fearful, doesn't she?"

"She is beautiful only to those who love her," said Father Time.

This seemed reassuring; and now Everychild ventured to address the
Masked Lady directly. "And--and will you go with me?" he asked timidly.

She replied with great earnestness: "Everychild, go where you will, you
have only to desire me greatly and I shall be with you."

Then it seemed to Everychild that it would not be a very terrible thing
to go away, after all.

It was plain that Father Time and the Masked Lady were waiting for him
to go; and so without any more ado he boldly approached the door which
opened out upon the street. But his heart failed him again. He drew
back from the door and cried out--"No, no! I cannot. I cannot go out
that way. Is there no other way for me to go?"

It seem