mbering contritely how his mother had said he must be kind to
little Lizzie on the way home and, above all things, not to make her
cry.

Elizabeth received her treasures with averted face. "I wish you'd go
back home and leave me alone," she wailed, as she wiped away her tears
with the muddy skirt of her pinafore.

"Well, I'd like to," said Charles Stuart honestly; "but mother said I'd
got to see you home. Hurrah, Lizzie! Aw, come on, I won't tease you
any more."

So Elizabeth rose, not without much of the dignity of a broken heart in
her attitude, and walked forward in a very stately fashion indeed.

Charles Stuart did his best to make amends. He pointed out the
oriole's little cradle that swung from the elm bough high above their
heads. He showed her the ground-hogs' hole beside the hollow stump and
the wasps' nest in the fence corner, until at last friendly relations
were once more established.

They walked along side-by-side: he, splashing through the blue
rainpools; she, envious and proper, stepping over the soft, wet grass.
She was slightly disconcerted, too; for a Charles Stuart that walked
beside you on the public highway, and did not run and hide nor throw
stones, nor even pull your hair, was something to raise even more
apprehension than when he behaved naturally.

But the young man was really trying to atone for his sins, for a reason
Elizabeth could never have guessed, and he now sidled up to her holding
something in his hand.

"Say, Lizzie?"

"What?"

"Don't you want this?" He handed her, with an embarrassed attempt at
nonchalance, a very sticky little candy tablet. It was pretty and pink
and had some red printing on it. Elizabeth took it, quite overwhelmed
with surprise and gratitude. She was just about to put it into her
mouth when she thought of Jamie. The little brother loved sweeties so.
Of course she had saved her cake of maple sugar for him, all but one
tiny bite; but a pink candy was ever so much better. With a hasty
"thanks," she slipped it into her pinafore with her other treasures.

Charles Stuart looked disappointed. He picked up some stones, shied
one at the telegraph wires, and another at the green glass fixture at
the top of the pole. This last proceeding caused Elizabeth to scream
and beseech him to stop. For Malcolm had said that a dreadful man
would come out from town and put you in jail if you committed this
crime. Charles Stuart, having accomplished his purpose