rear, between this house and the next, and a
gate opened from the sidewalk into this passage. Freddie and Toby went
through this gate and crept quietly to the backyard of Freddie's house.
The kitchen-door was locked, but Toby found a window which was
unfastened. He raised it noiselessly, and helped Freddie to climb in.
With a whispered good-night the Little Boy left his friend and tiptoed
into the house and up the back stairs in the dark to his own room.

His bed was there in its old place, and the covers were turned down. He
did not stop to say his prayers. He yawned and stretched his arms. He
wanted nothing now but to lie snug and safe under the cool sheets. He
threw off his clothes and left them on the floor. He knew where his
night-gown was. He crept into bed; he pulled the covers up to his ears;
he nestled his head into the pillow, and breathed a deep sigh.

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE OLD TOBACCO SHOP

The next morning, when Freddie awoke, his mother and father were
standing over his bed.

"I think he had better not go there anymore," his father was saying.

"Oh, I don't think it will do him any harm now," said his mother.

"It all comes of his staying away so long," said his father. "I always
told him to hurry back, and just see how long he stayed this time. If he
can't come back in less than six months or six years or heaven knows how
long, he'd better not go at all."

"Oh," said his mother, "I'm sure he'll come back promptly after this."

"I couldn't," said Freddie. "It took such a long time to get to the
Island, and there was all the trouble with the pirates, and it was a
terrible long journey before we got to the palace, and of course we
couldn't run away from the queen after we'd gone all that long way with
her, and the queen's children didn't want me to go anyway, and there
wasn't any way to get back, except for finding out how to get to the top
of the tower, and maybe I wouldn't have got back at all if I hadn't met
the Old Man of the Mountain, and got sick and cured again by Mr. Punch's
father, and I might have got drowned when the ship disappeared, or I
might have had my head cut off by the pirates, and then you wouldn't
have seen me any more, and you'd have been sorry."

His father looked at his mother, and nodded his head.

"He'd better stay in bed today," said he. "We won't talk to him about it
until tomorrow."

"Yes," said his mother, "that will be much better. Poor little Freddie!"

Fr