e emigrant. Then he swung himself to Horace's side. His
face was stretched with laughter, and he playfully shook his prisoner.
"Come----come----come. What dashed nonsense is this? Run away, hey?
Run away?" Whereupon the child's long-tried spirit found vent in
howls.

"Come, come," said Stickney, busily. "Never mind now, never mind. You
just come along with me. It'll be all right. I'll fix it. Never you
mind."

Five minutes later the butcher, with a great ulster over his apron,
was leading the boy homeward.

At the very threshold, Horace raised his last flag of pride.
"No----no," he sobbed. "I don't want to. I don't want to go in there."
He braced his foot against the step and made a very respectable
resistance.

"Now, Horace," cried the butcher. He thrust open the door with a bang.
"Hello there!" Across the dark kitchen the door to the living-room
opened and Aunt Martha appeared. "You've found him!" she screamed.

"We've come to make a call," roared the butcher. At the entrance to
the living-room a silence fell upon them all. Upon a couch Horace saw
his mother lying limp, pale as death, her eyes gleaming with pain.
There was an electric pause before she swung a waxen hand towards
Horace. "My child," she murmured, tremulously. Whereupon the sinister
person addressed, with a prolonged wail of grief and joy, ran to her
with speed. "Mam-ma! Mam-ma! Oh, mam-ma!" She was not able to speak in
a known tongue as she folded him in her weak arms.

[Illustration: "'Mam-ma! Mam-ma! Oh, mam-ma!'"]

Aunt Martha turned defiantly upon the butcher because her face
betrayed her. She was crying. She made a gesture half military, half
feminine. "Won't you have a glass of our root-beer, Mr. Stickney? We
make it ourselves."

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MONSTER AND OTHER STORIES***

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