ne what
likes boys, an'--hi, there!--go it, Bones!" he suddenly shrieked, and
scampered wildly after the dog which had dashed into the bushes by the
side of the road. Ann did not see her young charge again until she had
been home half an hour. He came in at the gate, then, cheerfully
smiling, the dog at his heels.

"Jiminy Christmas!" he exclaimed, "I begun ter think I 'd lost ye, but
I remembered yer last name was the same's Miss Ethel's, an' a
boy--Tommy Green, around the corner--he told me where ye lived. And,
oh, I say, me an' Bones are a-goin' off with him an' Rover after I 've
had somethin' ter eat--'t is mos' grub time, ain't it?" he added
anxiously.

Ann sighed in a discouraged way.

"Yes, I s'pose 't is. I left some beans a-bakin', and dinner'll be
ready pretty quick. You can come upstairs with me, Robert, an' I'll
show ye where yer goin' ter sleep," she finished, with a sinking heart,
as she thought of those ruffled pillow shams.

Bobby followed Miss Wetherby into the dainty chamber. He gave one
look, and puckered up his lips into a long, low whistle.

"Well, I'll be flabbergasted! Oh, I say, now, ye don't expect me ter
stay in all this fuss an' fixin's!" he exclaimed ruefully.

"It--it is the room I calculated fur ye," said Ann, with almost a choke
in her voice.

The boy looked up quickly and something rose within him that he did not
quite understand.

"Oh, well, ye know, it's slick as a whistle an' all that, but I ain't
uster havin' it laid on so thick. I ain't no great shakes, ye know,
but I'll walk the chalk all right this time. Golly! Ain't it squashy,
though!" he exclaimed, as with a run and a skip he landed straight in
the middle of the puffy bed.

With one agitated hand Miss Wetherby rescued her pillow shams, and with
the other, forcibly removed the dog which had lost no time in following
his master into the feathery nest. Then she abruptly left the room;
she could not trust herself to speak.

Miss Wetherby did not see much of her guest that afternoon; he went
away immediately after dinner and did not return until supper time.
Then he was so completely tired out that he had but two words in reply
to Miss Wetherby's question.

"Did ye have a good time?" she asked wistfully.

"You bet!"

After supper he went at once to his room; but it was not until Miss
Wetherby ceased to hear the patter of his feet on the floor above that
she leaned back in her chair with a sigh of relief.