girl.

She hurried over her charing, and took the boy home for his father to
see before sunset. As the matter seemed important, and she did not
wish people in the street to notice anything strange, they rode back
in an omnibus. They might have spared their haste, however, as the
cab-driver did not reach home till supper-time, and then it was found
that in the light of a candle, even when stuck inside a
carriage-lamp, their son cast just an ordinary shadow. But next
morning at sunrise they woke him up and carried him to the house-top,
where the sunlight slanted between the chimney-stacks: and the shadow
was that of a little girl.

The father scratched his head. "There's money in this, wife. We'll
keep the thing close; and in a year or two he'll be fit to go round
in a show and earn money to support our declining years."

With that the poor little one's misfortunes began. For they shut him
in his room, nor allowed him to play with the other children in the
alley--there was no knowing what harm might come to his precious
shadow. On dark nights his father walked him out along the streets;
and the boy saw many curious things under the gas-lamps, but never
the little girl who inhabited his shadow. So that by degrees he
forgot all about her. And his father kept silence.

Yet all the while she grew side by side with him, keeping pace with
his years. And on his fifteenth birthday, when his parents took him
out into the country and, in the sunshine there, revealed his secret,
she was indeed a companion to be proud of--neat of figure, trim of
ankle, with masses of waving hair; but whether blonde or brunette
could not be told; and, alas! she had no eyes to look into.

"My son," said they, "the world lies before you. Only do not forget
your parents, who conferred on you this remarkable shadow."

The youth promised, and went off to a showman. The showman gladly
hired him; for, of course, a magic shadow was a rarity, though not so
well paying as the Strong Man or the Fat Woman, for these were worth
seeing every day, whereas for weeks at a time, in dull weather or
foggy, our hero had no shadow at all. But he earned enough to keep
himself and help the parents at home; and was considered a success.

One day, after five years of this, he sought the Strong Man, and
sighed. For they had become close friends.

"I am in love," he confessed.

"With your shadow?"

"No."

"Not with the Fat Woman!" the Strong Man e