y well," said Mr. Reed, smiling down upon the little midget. "You
probably will find Donald and Dorothy in the garret."

[Illustration: THE GARRET BEFORE FANDY'S ARRIVAL.]

"Yes, sir!" and off went Fandy with nimble dignity through the hall;
then soberly, but still lightly, up the stairs to the landing at the
first turn; then rapidly and somewhat noisily across the great square
hall on the second story, to the door of the enclosed stair-way, and,
finally, with a shrill "whoop!" leaping up two steps at a time, he found
himself in the open garret, in the presence of--the family cat!

No Donald or Dorothy was to be seen. Only the cat; and she glared at
him with green eyes. Everything up there was as still as death; grim
shadows lurked in the recesses and far corners; the window was shaded by
some limp garments hanging near it, and now stirring drearily Fandy
could chase angry cattle and frighten dogs away from his little sisters,
but lonely garrets were quite another matter. Almost any dreadful object
could stalk out from behind things in a lonely garret! The boy looked
about him in an awe-struck way for an instant, then tore, at break-neck
speed, down the stairs, into the broad hall, where Donald, armed like a
knight, or so it seemed to the child, met him with a hearty, "Ho, is
that you, Fandy Danby? Thought I heard somebody falling. Come right into
my room. Dorry and I are practising."

"Praxin' what?" panted the relieved Fandy, hurrying in as he spoke, and
looking about him with a delighted, "Oh my!"

Dorothy was a pretty girl at any time, but she certainly looked very
pretty indeed as she turned toward the visitor--her bright hair tumbled,
her face flushed with exercise, her eyes sparkling merrily. She held a
fencing-mask in one hand, and a foil, lightly upraised, in the other.

"Oh, Fandy!" she said, "you are just the one we want. Don is teaching me
to fence, and I can't half see how he does it, because I have to wear
the mask. Here, let me put it on you--that's a good boy," and she suited
the action to the word, laughing at the astonished little face which
Fandy displayed through the wire network.

"Now, take the foil!--No, no. In your right hand, so." Then, addressing
Donald, she added: "Now he's ready! Fall to, young man!"

"Yes! fall to-o!" shouted Fandy, striking an attitude and catching the
spirit of the moment, like the quick little fellow he was. "Fall to-o!"

Donald laughingly parried the small child'