blankly. It seemed so terrible to think of
going home and finding no mother or father there.

"Who's going to look after us, and everything?" asked Dan.

"Kate is going to look after the house, and I'm to look after
you--mother said so," said Tom importantly.

But the next morning Master Tom forgot his charge, and went off on some
expedition of his own; and Norah and Dan were left on their own devices
once more.

"I am glad father is coming back this evening," said Norah, as she
pushed Dan's wheelchair through the wood on their way to see Una.

"So am I," said Dan; "but I do wish mother was coming too."

A low laugh sounded from somewhere close at hand, and Norah stopped
wheeling the chair and looked about her.

"Norah, do you think it's fairies?" whispered Dan.

He had hardly said the words when a little girl sprang suddenly into
the path in front of them. She was dressed in some soft, thick, white
material, and had a long gauzy white shawl thrown over her head and
shoulders.

"It's Una!" said Norah, and her little brother gave a sigh of
disappointment. He had really almost thought that the little girl
might be a fairy as she danced lightly on the path before them.

"I thought I would come and meet you to-day," said Una, "so I came
through the--what do you call it?--the gap; and then when I heard you
coming, I hid. I thought it might be someone I did not know, and Marie
does not like me to be out alone."

"Is Marie your nurse?" asked Norah.

"Yes," said the little girl; "my very good nurse from the country of
France."

"Are you a little French girl, then?" asked Dan.

Una looked at him gravely.

"No," she said. "I am cos--cos--it is such a very long word that I
always forget it--cos-mo-pol-i-tan," she said slowly.

"Oh," said Norah, "that is a long word. And is that the name of the
country where you come from?"

"I don't know," said Una. "Papa told me to tell anyone who asked me
that I was cosmo--, you know, the long word again; and I think it means
belonging to lots of different countries. Papa said it meant something
like that when I asked him once; and we have lived in so many countries
that I can't remember all the names."

"How nice to have lived in lots of different countries," said Dan.
"When I'm a man I mean to be an explorer and go to every country in the
world."

Norah looked a little unhappy. She always felt sad when Dan talked
about all he meant to do when he was grown up,