heek and splashed on to the bunch of
crimson berries she was holding.

"Don't tell us, Una, if you would rather not," said Norah softly.

"Oh, yes," said Una, "I do want to tell you--only I thought of papa
then, and just how he used to look. His face looked always so tired,
Norah, so very tired; and his voice used to get tired too, and then he
would shut his eyes and go to sleep again. But he told me so many
things, I don't know where to begin."

The little girl was silent for some moments.

"I know! I will begin about the man in the garden!" she said suddenly.
"You remember the black-haired young man whom we found under the
ash-tree, the day 'Snoozy' was lost?"

"Yes, I remember," said Tom.

"Oh, yes, Una!" chimed in Norah. "Can you tell us now what he told
you? It was a secret then, you know."

"Yes," said Una. "I couldn't tell you then, because it was part of
papa's secret, you know. But now it doesn't matter, it isn't a secret
any more--not papa's, I mean.

"Isn't it? Are you sure, Una?" asked Norah.

"Quite sure. I said to papa: 'Is it a secret?' And he said: 'Not when
I'm gone, little one.' So you see I may tell you now," said Una sadly.

"Will you tell us who the man was, then, Una?" asked Tom after a little
pause.

"He was a Russian," said Una. "So was papa; and that sad country, a
long, long way off, which he told me about, was Russia. Do you
remember?"

"Yes, the country where the little children are sometimes quite sad and
miserable because their fathers are taken away from them, and their
homes are taken away from them too," said Norah.

"Yes," said Una. "Well, that man had done all he could to try and make
the people who look after the country be kinder to the poor people, and
it would have been all right if he could have gone to the King
himself--no, I don't mean the King, I mean the----"

"I know," exclaimed Dan. "You mean the Czar. It's the 'Czar' of
Russia, and the 'King' of England, and the 'Emperor' of Germany,
and----"

"Don't, Dan! Let Una go on," said Tom impatiently. "Why didn't the
man go to the Czar himself, Una?"

"Because there are a lot of men--noblemen, and people like that--who do
the Czar's business for him, only they don't do it well at all; many of
them are bad, wicked men, really, and they only think about what they
can do for themselves, and don't mind a bit about the poor people being
in trouble and being treated badly--and when they found that t