ssion with ceremony, and when Dr. Redfield
appeared from the door of a drug shop across the way, the little
boy called to him gayly:--

"He didn't run away, did he? I held him all right, didn't I?"

Dr. Redfield had been absent long enough to use the telephone in
notifying Miss Eastman, whom David knew only by the sweeter name
of Mother, that her little boy had been waylaid and would
probably not be home to luncheon. She was not permitted to know
that the pretty rogue had run away, but the man himself strongly
suspected the truth. For some time, though, he charitably
refrained from speaking of the matter. In fact, three important
events in David's life took place before the painful subject was
broached.

To eat at the Doctor's table, and wholly without the assistance
of a high chair--that was one of the events; another was a
hair-cut, and the third--Everybody, salute! David is in trouvers!

He and his big friend both admired them immensely, and it was in
the little shabby, out-at-the-elbow doctor's office that David
had been helped to put them on. After he had strutted for a
while his Fav-ver said to him:--

"What fun, David; what fun you must have had in running away!"

"Oh," the little boy replied, "I didn't go far. I got scart and
hurried back to Mother."

The Doctor looked wryly at his guest. He knew David had not gone
home after running away.

"Did you see Mother after you went back?" he asked.

"No, I didn't see her."

"But you are sure you went back?"

"It didn't _feel_ back," said David.

"You couldn't have been mistaken about going back?"

"No."

"In what part of town were you when I found you on the
fence-post?"

"Home," said David.

"Why were you crying?"

"I was feeling bad."

"And why was that?"

"I was scart."

"Of what?"

"Everything was so mixed up."

"You ran away, though, didn't you? And you did not see Mother
after you went back?"

David nodded, and the Doctor got to his feet with a suddenness
that knocked over his chair.

"Good gracious!" he exclaimed, consulting his watch. "It's been
four hours since you saw Mother, and she may think something has
happened to you. She may think you have been run over by
horses--that you have been hurt and can never come home to her
any more."

What was to be done about it? Dr. Redfield wanted to know that;
David wanted to know that. The man crinkled up his forehead: he
rose and began to walk the floor, and David's eyes did not