when suddenly, as
he passed a bright saloon, he heard a joyous cry of "Oh! mamma, just
look, there he is again!" and before he could get away, the pleasant
face of the lady was bent upon him from the window of the carriage that
stood before the door, and she motioned him to her.

Perhaps he would have heeded her summons if he had not seen an impatient
and scornful countenance peeping curiously through the side-curtain. May
be it was but his native pride that induced him to press onward with
only a quiet and polite recognition of her notice.

"There, Willie, you've driven him away," said Kittie, frowning upon her
cousin reproachfully. "How could you look so cross at him when you knew
mamma wanted him to come up and speak to us? Well, I shall go to see
him, whatever you do, that's certain," continued she, after a short
pause, as the lad leaned back upon his seat without deigning a reply.
Then taking up the thin hand that lay upon his knee, she kissed it
affectionately as if to atone for the momentary pique against him; but
her eyes followed the poor boy until he was no longer visible among the
crowd, and she was thinking of the pitiful expression, and contrasting
it with the trustful, hopeful one that she had last seen from the lonely
library, and wondering what could make the difference. And she cared
little for the drive, although they passed through beautiful streets and
along her favorite haunts, by the bay, and out on the avenues and quite
beyond the noise and dust of the city, in the midst of God's own fair
and beautiful nature. The mother noticed the child's abstraction, and it
saddened her to think of the shadow that comes over the brightness of
one's early being, shutting out the loveliness and the grace even from
the youngest heart.

It was hard to feel that an unsightly hump, and a woe-begone face were
occupying the place that had hitherto been filled with images of joy and
gladness; but Mrs. Lincoln was a wise mother, and would not try to
divert her child's mind from the salutary lesson which the very shadow
itself ever brings; so they moved on with the unbroken silence, save
when Willie gave utterance to some pettish feeling, and then little
Kittie would look at him with a deeper pity than poor Archie had ever
called forth.

They were alone in the evening, after their return from their drive, and
Willie was sitting in his easy-chair by the door, while his young cousin
was upon the sill at his feet apparen