She turned her back upon him deliberately and walked away toward the trolley station, leading Master Belknap by the hand, meek and unresisting. During all this time the little boy had been contentedly laboring in the removal of sand from a hole of wide dimensions; his eyes were heavy with fatigue when the girl set him gently in his place on the homeward bound car. "I yuve 'oo, Jane," he murmured sweetly, laying his curly head in her lap. "I'm doin' to build 'oo a—dreat, big house!"
Five minutes later he was soundly asleep, and Jane, who had tried in vain to awaken him, was forced to lift his limp weight in her slender arms when the car finally stopped at her destination.
"Give the boy to me, Jane," said an authoritative voice at her side.
She looked up in real vexation. "I thought," she said reproachfully, "that you promised——"
"I promised not to bother you, Jane; but I didn't say I would never offer to help you again. Did you suppose for an instant that I would allow you to carry that boy up this hill?"
Jane crossed the street without a word, and speeding across lots, by way of a daisied meadow, reached the house first.
She was met at the door by her mistress. "Why, Jane, where is Buster?" inquired Mrs. Belknap anxiously.
"Master Buster went to sleep on the way home, ma'am," explained Jane, blushing guiltily, "and Mr. Everett, who chanced to be on the same car, kindly offered to bring him up the hill."
"Oh!" said Mr. Everett's sister, rather blankly.