bout that.

"I guess I'll call him Blackdrop, wouldn't you, though?"

The little girls thought it was a queer name, but they said:

"Oh, yes, if you want to call him Blackdrop, I would."

"It won't do any hurt," added Flaxie encouragingly.

I wish Blackdrop could have known how happy he made the whole family.
Milly didn't say much, but her eyes shone as she patted his neck, Julia
sang every time she saw him, Phil "hugged him grizzly," and Grandma
Gray who was very timid about horses, said she wasn't any more afraid of
him than if he had been a Newfoundland dog.

It was the funniest thing, but really and truly, before many days that
dear old lady used to step into the pony carriage and let little Flaxie
drive her all around the town! Everybody nodded and smiled as the couple
passed by, and said it was "the cunningest sight," for grandma wasn't so
very much bigger than Flaxie, and they looked like two little girls
riding out, only grandma's hair was silver-white, and Flaxie's spun
gold.

Through the whole summer Preston's eyes grew worse and worse. It was all
twilight to him now, or, as somebody calls it, "the edge of the dark."
He still took care of Blackdrop, by the help of Henry, but he could not
ride out unless somebody else held the reins.

"But then this sort of thing won't last always," said he to his
particular friend, Bert Abbott. "Just wait a year or two, sir, and I
shall be as good as anybody."

CHAPTER XI.

FLAXIE A COMFORT.

The days went on, and still Preston's eyes were not "ready." Winter
came, then spring, and Milly paid another visit to Laurel Grove. She was
one of those quiet, happy little girls, who make hardly any more noise
than a sunbeam; but everybody likes to see a sunbeam, and everybody was
glad to see Milly.

She was even more welcome than usual at Laurel Grove just now, for by
this time Preston's eyes were "ready," and his father was about taking
him to New York.

There were four grown people left in the house, and five children beside
Milly; still it seemed lonesome, for everybody was thinking about
Preston, and wondering if the doctor would hurt him very much.

"He can't see _what_ the doctor is doing to him," said Flaxie to Milly;
"I shouldn't think God would let my brother be blind, my _good_ brother
Preston!"

"God knows what is best," replied Milly, meekly.

"Yes, but, oh dear, I feel so bad! Let's go out in the kitchen and see
what Dodo is doing."

Grandma,