HIDE-AND-SEEK.
HERE is Charley? Where can the boy have gone? Just now he was here by my side. Now he is out of my sight. I will call him. 'Charley, Charley, my boy! where are you?'
"No answer. Hark! I hear a noise up in that tree. Can that be Charley? Oh, no! It is a bird. 'Little bird, have you seen a small boy with curly hair? Tell me where to look for him.'
"The bird will not tell me. I must ask the squirrel. 'Squirrel, have you seen a boy with rosy cheeks?' Away goes the squirrel into a hole without saying a word.
"Ah! there goes a butterfly. I will ask him. 'Butterfly, have you seen a boy, with black eyes, rosy cheeks, and curly hair?' The butterfly lights on a bush. Now he flies again. Now he is off without making any reply.
"Dear me! what shall I do? Is my little boy lost in the woods? Must I go home without him? Oh, how can I live without my boy!"
Out pops a laughing face from the bushes.
"Here I am, mamma!" says Charley. "Don't cry. Here I am close by you."
"Why, so you are. Come out here, you little rogue, and tell me where you have been all this time."
"I have been right behind this tree, and I heard every word you said," says Charley.
"What a joke that was! Why, Charley, you must have kept still for as much as three minutes. I never knew you to do that before."
IDA FAY.
