ily
suffering and mental suffering. His whipping, severe as it had been, was
over and done, and all but forgotten. But this sorrow--! "Gee!" he
breathed, marveling; "how it sticks!"

No; he had not realized when Cis left how hard it would be to stay on at
the flat without her. And ahead of him were how many days like this one?
He seemed there to stay for a time that was all but forever!

That night it was Boof who shared the mattress with him. He whispered to
the dog for a long while, recounting his troubles. Afterward, he said
over the tenth law, that one having to do with bravery. "Defeat does not
down him" the Handbook had said; and he was not downed. He thought of
every valiant soul he knew--Aladdin, Heywood, Uncas, Jim Hawkins,
Lancelot, Crusoe. He fought the tears. But he felt utterly stricken,
wholly deserted.

--By all save Polaris, now risen above the roofs. "Oh, you can see
ev'rything!" Johnnie said to the star, enviously. "So, please, where is
Father Pat?"

But Polaris only stared back at him. Bright and hard, calm and
unchanging, what difference did it make to so proud a beacon--the woe of
one small boy?

* * * * *

Joy cometh with the morning. This time Joy wore the disguise of a cowboy
who had a black eye, a bag of apples, a newspaper, and two cigars. Also
he carried a couple of businesslike packages, large ones, well wrapped
in thick brown paper and wound with heavy string.

The excitement and happiness that One-Eye roused when he shuffled in
came very nearly being the end of Johnnie, who could not believe his own
eyes, but had to take hold of a shaggy trouser leg in order to convince
himself that this was a real visitor and not just a think.

The Westerner appeared to have changed his mind about Big Tom in much
the same way that Johnnie had changed his (and, doubtless, for the same
reason). Dropping all of his packages, and fishing the cigars from a top
vest-pocket, he stalked boldly into the bedroom. "Say!" he began,
"here's a couple o' flora dee rope. Smoke you' blamed haid off!" Then,
as Barber, grunting, reached a grateful hand for the gift, "An', say!
I've brung the kid some more of all what y' burned up. So tell me--right
now--if y' got any objections."

"No-o-o-o!"--crossly.

"If y' have, spit 'em out!"

"Gimme a match!"

It was a victory!

"That feller's lost his face!" One-Eye confided to Johnnie when the
bedroom door was shut. He winked emphatica