er
neck, and kissed her as before, and said: "Mamma, Mr. Fowler, the
Phrenologist, says you can tell all about a boy, by the bumps on his
head. I think I must have a prodigious bump of liking to have stories
read or told to me. I have thought all day about Beppo and the hateful
old griffin; but I have not said any thing or teased you--have I, mamma?
I have been as quiet as a drum with a hole in it--haven't I, mamma?"

"It hardly needs a tongue to understand you, my dear boy, your eyes
talk so fast; and as to the bumps, there is one very large one of loving
me, I am certain; for you are a good, thoughtful child, but rather a
small one for wanting to scamper and frolic in the open air. Come, I
will make the same bargain as yesterday; half an hour's exercise, and
then the story."

"Certainly," said Willie, with a pleasant laugh; "if you asked me to
stand on my head, I would do it, mamma--or try, any way. I wish your
ladyship good afternoon for half an hour," and Willie put his feet
together, turning out his toes, and made such a very low and polite bow
to his mother, that he nearly tumbled on his nose, and then ran out on
the lawn.

As his mother watched him, she smiled, and sighed, and said to herself,
"If my little Willie were only stronger, every desire of my heart would
be fulfilled;" and then she repeated to herself those pleasant words of
Willis:--

"There's something in a noble boy--
A brave, free-hearted, careless one,
With his unchecked, unbidden joy--
His dread of books, and love of fun--
And in his clear and ready smile,
Unshaded by a thought of guile,
And unrepressed by sadness--
Which brings me to my childhood back,
As if I trod its very track,
And felt its very gladness."

When the half hour was over she called Willie, and he came bounding
in--his cheeks flushed and his eyes sparkling; and it did not take long,
let me tell you, to arrange his bench and sit close beside his mother,
ready for the fine treat she had promised him.

"Where did I leave off, Willie?"

"Where the dog bade good-bye to the griffin, and came out in the
moonlight," said Willie, whose memory was excellent.

"Yes. Well, Beppo now curled his tail, in the very last fashion, over
his leg, and trotted off in fine style to the cat's house. When he was
within sight of it, he stopped to take a drink and a bath in a pond near
by; and who should be there, to be sure, but the old