“Don’t you worry, Mrs. Emerson,” Nick exclaimed. “We’ll give him so much fun he won’t know you’re gone. I’ll bring my horse and take him to ride every day.”
“We’ll buy all the playthings in town for him.”
“We’ll tote him around all the time. It’ll give us something to do and keep us out of mischief. He shan’t shed a tear while you’re gone.”
“Here, Bye-Bye,” called Tom, “come and ride on my shoulder.” And mounted on that big, high pedestal the child was marched up and down the porch, laughing and clapping his hands. “We’ll stay and amuse him while you-all go to the depot, so he won’t cry after you.”
“I’ll make him some reins out of my Chiny pigtail,” said Nick. “You-all go right along, Mrs. Emerson, and don’t you worry once. He shan’t whimper while you’re gone, and he’ll have such a good time he’ll be sorry to see you come home.”
Marguerite looked back from the carriage window as they drove away and saw little Paul holding fast to the middle of Nick’s precious queue, laughing and shouting, while two tall figures attached to its ends pranced and kicked and cavorted up and down the veranda.
THE END
“The Books You Like to Read
at the Price You Like to Pay”