eir colony from the mere presence of the cat;
but she did not stir. Suddenly she sprang into the air, and then darted
away with a martin in her mouth, while my boy's heart leaped into his
own, and the other boys rushed after the cat.

As when something dreadful happens, this seemed not to have happened;
but a lovely experience leaves a sense of enduring fact behind, and
remains a rich possession no matter how slight and simple it was. My
boy's mother has been dead almost a quarter of a century, but as one of
the elder children he knew her when she was young and gay; and his last
distinct association with the Smith house is of coming home with her
after a visit to her mother's far up the Ohio River. In their absence
the June grass, which the children's feet always kept trampled down so
low, had flourished up in purple blossom, and now stood rank and tall;
and the mother threw herself on her knees in it, and tossed and
frolicked with her little ones like a girl. The picture remains, and the
wonder of the world in which it was true once, while all the
phantasmagory of spectres has long vanished away.

The boy could not recall the family's removal to the Falconer house.
They were not there, and then they were there. It was a brick house, at
a corner of the principal street, and in the gable there were places for
mock-windows where there had never been blinds put, but where the
swallows had thickly built their nests. I dare say my boy might have
been willing to stone these nests, but he was not allowed, either he or
his mates, who must have panted with him to improve such an opportunity
of havoc. There was a real window in the gable from which he could look
out of the garret; such a garret as every boy should once have the use
of some time in his life. It was dim and low, though it seemed high, and
the naked brown rafters were studded with wasps' nests; and the rain
beat on the shingles overhead. The house had been occupied by a
physician, and under the eaves the children found heaps of phials full
of doctor's stuff; the garret abounded in their own family boxes and
barrels, but there was always room for a swing, which the boys used in
training for their circuses. Below the garret there were two unimportant
stories with chambers, dining-room, parlor, and so on; then you came to
the brick-paved kitchen in the basement, and a perfectly glorious
cellar, with rats in it. Outside there was a large yard, with five or
six huge old