“And you want nothing?”
“Nothing. Yes—perhaps——If you please, godmother, could you bring me just one more thing?”
“What sort of thing!”
“A little boy to play with.”
The old woman looked very sad. “Just the thing, alas I which I cannot give you. My child, I cannot alter your lot in any way, but I can help you to bear it.”
“Thank you. But why do you talk of bearing it? I have nothing to bear.”
“My poor little man!” said the old woman in the very tenderest tone of her tender voice. “Kiss me!”
“What is kissing?” asked the wondering child.
His godmother took him in her arms and embraced him many times. By and by he kissed her back again—at first awkwardly and shyly, then with all the strength of his warm little heart.
“You are better to cuddle than even my white kitten, I think. Promise me that you will never go away.”