and that's what was the trouble," sighed I David. "She
didn't wave, you know."

The needle in Miss Holbrook's fingers stopped short in mid-air, the
thread half-drawn.

"Didn't--wave!" she stammered. "What do you--mean?"

"Nothing," laughed the boy, turning away from the window. "I forgot
that you didn't know the story."

"But maybe I do--that is--what was the story?" asked Miss Holbrook,
wetting her lips as if they had grown suddenly very dry.

"Oh, do you? I wonder now! It wasn't 'The PRINCE and the Pauper,' but
the PRINCESS and the Pauper," cited David; "and they used to wave
signals, and answer with flags. Do you know the story?"

There was no answer. Miss Holbrook was putting away her work,
hurriedly, and with hands that shook. David noticed that she even
pricked herself in her anxiety to get the needle tucked away. Then she
drew him to a low stool at her side.

"David, I want you to tell me that story, please," she said, "just as
Mr. Jack told it to you. Now, be careful and put it all in, because
I--I want to hear it," she finished, with an odd little laugh that
seemed to bring two bright red spots to her cheeks.

"Oh, do you want to hear it? Then I will tell it," cried David
joyfully. To David, almost as delightful as to hear a story was to tell
one himself. "You see, first--" And he plunged headlong into the
introduction.

David knew it well--that story: and there was, perhaps, little that he
forgot. It might not have been always told in Mr. Jack's language; but
his meaning was there, and very intently Miss Holbrook listened while
David told of the boy and the girl, the wavings, and the flags that
were blue, black, and red. She laughed once,--that was at the little
joke with the bells that the girl played,--but she did not speak until
sometime later when David was telling of the first home-coming of the
Princess, and of the time when the boy on his tiny piazza watched and
watched in vain for a waving white signal from the tower.

"Do you mean to say," interposed Miss Holbrook then, almost starting to
her feet, "that that boy expected--" She stopped suddenly, and fell
back in her chair. The two red spots on her cheeks had become a rosy
glow now, all over her face.

"Expected what?" asked David.

"N--nothing. Go on. I was so--so interested," explained Miss Holbrook
faintly. "Go on."

And David did go on; nor did the story lose by his telling. It gained,
indeed, something, for now it had woven throu