ll it now. If you'll speak to me same as ever I'll let you pull it
as much as you like--pull it out if you like. But I know if Harry came
and stood by and made you do it I'd cry."

So the two children sealed the compact with a kiss, and Black Sheep's
heart was cheered within him, and by extreme caution and careful
avoidance of Harry he acquired virtue and was allowed to read
undisturbed for a week. Uncle Harry took him for walks and consoled
him with rough tenderness, never calling him Black Sheep. "It's good
for you, I suppose, Punch," he used to say. "Let us sit down. I'm
getting tired." His steps led him now not to the beach, but to the
Cemetery of Rocklington, amid the potato-fields. For hours the gray
man would sit on a tombstone, while Black Sheep read epitaphs, and
then with a sigh would stump home again.

"I shall lie there soon," said he to Black Sheep; one winter evening,
when his face showed white as a worn silver coin under the lights of
the chapel-lodge. "You need n't tell Aunty Rosa."

A month later, he turned sharp round, ere half a morning walk was
completed, and stumped back to the house. "Put me to bed, Rosa," he
muttered. "I've walked my last. The wadding has found me out."

They put him to bed, and for a fortnight the shadow of his sickness
lay upon the house, and Black Sheep went to and fro unobserved. Papa
had sent him some new books, and he was told to keep quiet. He retired
into his own world, and was perfectly happy. Even at night his
felicity was unbroken. He could lie in bed and string himself tales of
travel and adventure while Harry was downstairs.

"Uncle Harry's going to die," said Judy, who now lived almost entirely
with Aunty Rosa.

"I'm very sorry," said Black Sheep soberly. "He told me that a long
time ago."

Aunty Rosa heard the conversation. "Will nothing check your wicked
tongue?" she said angrily. There were blue circles round her eyes.

Black Sheep retreated to the nursery and read "Cometh up as a Flower"
with deep and uncomprehending interest. He had been forbidden to read
it on account of its "sinfulness," but the bonds of the Universe were
crumbling, and Aunty Rosa was in great grief.

"I'm glad," said Black Sheep. "She 's unhappy now. It was n't a lie,
though. I knew. He told me not to tell."

That night Black Sheep woke with a start. Harry was not in the room,
and there was a sound of sobbing on the next floor. Then the voice of
Uncle Harry, singing the song of th