replied, and Ted's face cleared. When they got to the
shore he trotted on quietly, but his eyes were very busy, busier even
than usual. They looked about them in all directions, till at last they
spied what they wanted, and for half a minute or so nurse did not notice
that her little charge had left her side and was lagging behind.

"What are you about, Master Ted?" she said hastily, as glancing round
she saw him stooping down--not that he had very far to stoop, poor
little man--and struggling to lift some object at his feet.

"A 'tone," he cried, "a beauty big 'tone for Ted's muzzer," lifting in
his arms a big round stone--one of the kind that as children we used
to say had dropped from the moon--which by its nice round shape and
speckledness had caught his eye. "Ted will cally it hisself."

And with a very red face, he lugged it manfully along.

"Let me help you with it, dear," said nurse.

But "No, zank thoo," he replied firmly each time that the offer was
repeated. "Ted must cally it his own self."

And "cally" it he did, all the way. Nurse could only succeed in getting
him to put it down now and then to rest a bit, as she said, for the
stone was really so big a one that she was afraid of it seriously tiring
his arms. More than once she pointed out prettier and smaller stones,
and tried to suggest that his mother might like them quite as well, or
better; but no. The bigness, the heaviness even, was its charm; to do
something that cost him an effort for mother he felt vaguely was his
wish; the "lamp of sacrifice," of _self_-sacrifice, had been lighted in
his baby heart, never again to be extinguished.

And, oh, the happiness in that little heart when at last he reached his
mother's room, still lugging the heavy stone, and laid it at her feet!

"Ted broughtened it for thoo," he exclaimed triumphantly. And mother was
_so_ pleased! The stone took up its place at once on the mantelpiece as
an ornament, and the wearied little man climbed up on to his mother's
knee, with a look of such delight and satisfaction as is sweet to be
seen on a childish face.

So Ted's education began. He was growing beyond the birds and the
flowers already, though only a tiny man of three; and every day he
found new things to wonder at, and admire, and ask questions about, and,
unlike some small people of his age, he always listened to the answers.

After a while he found prettier presents to bring home to his mother
than big stones. W