ny Boy blushed. He began to say that he was not much for spelling and
fractions himself, but Lena touched his foot.

"Spelling and fractions are nothing! I'll show you how to do them," said
Sonny Boy stoutly.

"And you'll show me how to straighten my legs, so I can be a soldier,
won't you?" said Otto.

Sonny Boy moved about uneasily on his bow-legs. "It's queer! I want to be
a soldier, too," he said. "Yes, I'll show you, Otto."

"You're what I've been wanting--a well boy!" said Otto, with a happy sigh.
"You're very bright and clever, aren't you?"

"Oh, no," began Sonny Boy, but Lena touched his foot again.

"The Plummers are called a smart family," said Sonny Boy firmly, although
his cheeks burned. "My brother Tom and my sister Trixie are very clever."

"Of course you couldn't have trained those mice if you hadn't been very
clever," said Otto.

"Those mice have done him good. I've never seen him so bright," whispered
the matron. "They've done all the children good!"

"And although I went away off to Uncle Fritz's to get the parrot for him,
he says he doesn't like a parrot," whispered Lena.

"You like a parrot, don't you?" said Otto, eagerly, to Sonny Boy.

"I never was very well acquainted with one before. I think this one has a
fine voice," said Sonny Boy politely.

"You like her better than you do the mice, don't you? You'll swap, won't
you?" said Otto.

Now this, thought Sonny Boy, was hard! And what would they say at home?
Trixie herself had trained the big mouse with the black spots on his ears
that they called Admiral Cervera, and Tom would never be willing that
Hobson should go out of the family!

[Illustration: "'JUST THINK! HE NEVER HAS HAD ONE GOOD TIME.'"]

But Sonny Boy's heart ached with pity for the poor, humpbacked, shrunken
fellow, whose face looked like a little old man's. And Lena leaned over
Sonny Boy's shoulder and whispered:

"Just think! He never has had one good time!" she said.

"You can have them!" said Sonny Boy, although he had to swallow a great
lump in his throat.

He got away as soon as he could then, for fear he should cry, Otto making
him promise that he would come again just as soon as he could.

The delightful little glow at Sonny Boy's heart, such as you always feel
when you have made any one happy, was queerly mixed with the grief of
losing his white mice.

When he got to the entrance door he found that Polly had been shut up in a
dark closet, because she whoop