unblinded."

"Oh! it is a boy," replied Reuben. "Me know it is a boy, and a large
boy. Yes, it is a large boy."

"That is enough, is it not?" asked Marten, looking round, "surely
that's enough;" and he unbound Reuben, telling; the child he had done
very well.

No one seemed inclined to dispute the point, for all saw the child was
too young to play with them; and William Stewart, the boy caught, and
who was desirous of being blindfolded, was quite pleased to have the
handkerchief tied round his head, and now the play became more
boisterous than ever, owing to the cessation before, and probably all
would have gone on well if little Reuben, elated by his brother's
telling him he had done very well, had not chosen to join in the play,
saying over and over again to any one who would listen to him, "Me knew
it was a boy--a large boy--me knew it was a boy--me said a large
boy--yes, me felt his coat--me knew it was a large boy." This too might
have passed, and the child might have repeated his story over and over
again without much harm if he could have got a listener, or he even
might have been content without one, if he had not fancied he understood
the game as well as the oldest present, so he entered into it with all
his little spirit, and intruded his small person where others could not
go--now here, now there, till excited and heated and confused by those
around him flying in all directions, he was thrown down, and as he did
not fall alone, the poor little fellow was rather severely hurt. And now
in that one moment of downfall was assembled all the troubles of the
day,--weary, excited, hurt, and overfed, he began to cry, and that so
violently, that those who lifted him up trusted to his being not really
injured by the very noise he made in his distress. Marten and Mary ran
to him, but they were as strangers to him, for his eyes were dimmed by
tears, and his ears closed by his own wailings; and luckily for all
three one of the servants, for, as I said before, they had come to see
the young people at play, and who was a motherly kind of woman, advanced
into the room and offered to take the charge of the child and comfort
him before she put him to bed. Marten was most thankful for this offer,
and you may be sure Mary was not sorry to part with the sobbing boy, and
thus Marten put it out of his own power to keep his voluntary boast to
Nurse at home about sleeping with his brother, for when the riotous
evening closed, for