helpful hand, pulled
himself upright, and looked about him. He did not see the little girl
behind him.

"Where's the cat?" he asked anxiously.

The unexpected happened then. With a sobbing cry the little girl flung
herself upon him, cat and all.

"Here, right here," she choked. "And it was you who saved her--my
Juliette! And I'll love you, love you, love you always for it!"

"There, there, Jill," interposed the man a little hurriedly. "Suppose
we first show our gratitude by seeing if we can't do something to make
our young warrior here more comfortable." And he began to brush off
with his handkerchief some of the accumulated dirt.

"Why can't we take him home, Jack, and clean him up 'fore other folks
see him?" suggested the girl.

The boy turned quickly.

"Did you call him 'Jack'?"

"Yes."

"And he called you, Jill'?"

"Yes."

"The real 'Jack and Jill' that 'went up the hill'?" The man and the
girl laughed; but the girl shook her head as she answered,--

"Not really--though we do go up a hill, all right, every day. But those
aren't even our own names. We just call each other that for fun. Don't
YOU ever call things--for fun?"

David's face lighted up in spite of the dirt, the lump, and the bruise.

"Oh, do you do that?" he breathed. "Say, I just know I'd like to play
to you! You'd understand!"

"Oh, yes, and he plays, too," explained the little girl, turning to the
man rapturously. "On a fiddle, you know, like you."

She had not finished her sentence before David was away, hurrying a
little unsteadily across the lot for his violin. When he came back the
man was looking at him with an anxious frown.

"Suppose you come home with us, boy," he said. "It isn't far--through
the hill pasture, 'cross lots,--and we'll look you over a bit. That
lump over your eye needs attention."

"Thank you," beamed David. "I'd like to go, and--I'm glad you want me!"
He spoke to the man, but he looked at the little red-headed girl, who
still held the gray kitten in her arms.

CHAPTER XII

ANSWERS THAT DID NOT ANSWER

"Jack and Jill," it appeared, were a brother and sister who lived in a
tiny house on a hill directly across the creek from Sunnycrest. Beyond
this David learned little until after bumps and bruises and dirt had
been carefully attended to. He had then, too, some questions to answer
concerning himself.

"And now, if you please," began the man smilingly, as he surveyed the
boy with an eye that could