appointed. She had thought that maybe her aunt's influence
might be all that was necessary, provided Maggie should care to be
chosen as some one's possible daughter.

But she did not give up the hope. "Maybe some one will 'dopt you,
Maggie," she said, "and then, of course, you can have Moggins back
again. Your new mamma would want you to have him." And so the two
children talked over this possibility, as if it were a delightful
fairy tale.

All this time Louis' discontent seemed to increase and he chafed more
and more under restraint. It is quite true that the same kind of
treatment did not suit the two children. Edna, on the one hand, an
honest, conscientious, self-sacrificing little girl, and on the other
hand Louis, a spoiled, proud, rather selfish little boy. Gentle
firmness would have been best for Louis, but firmness without
gentleness did not suit him at all, and he resented the methods of his
uncle and aunt.

"I'm not going to stand being ordered about as I am, and treated as if
I were the worst person in the world" he said to Edna. "They're all
right when you are concerned, but they act as if I were a criminal,
and I don't want to be good for them."

Edna looked distressed. "O, Louis," she said, "I don't believe they
feel that way."

"They act that way," replied he, "and I know what I am going to do."

"What?" asked Edna. "Tell me, Louis; I won't tell."

"Sure you won't?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

"Give your word of honor that you won't tell anyone I know."

"Yes, I promise."

"Well," and Louis lifted his hand emphatically, "I'm going to run
away."

"O, Louis."

"Yes, I'm going to find my mother and father."

"Why don't you write to them to come take you away?"

"I have asked them, but they wrote back that this was the best place
for me, and that I must stay, and I won't--I won't."

"Please stay," pleaded Edna. "Just stand it a little while longer. I'm
so afraid you'll get into a herd of cattle out on the prairies where
they have whole stampedes, and you might get caught by the Indians,
and I'd never see you again," and Edna's eyes filled at the
possibility.

"Ho! no fear of that. I'd skulk as well as the best of them, and I'd
keep out of the way of the cattle. I might stop over night with some
of the cowboys, but I wouldn't stay," replied Louis, with a very dim
idea of what he might have to encounter.

"Well, anyhow, it wouldn't be right," replied Edna.

"I'd like to know why; it isn't as i