The dog stood close beside him, wagging his bushy tail and looking up with two bright loving eyes.
And then the train gave a sudden lurch, the door flew open, and as the child fell forward with a little cry, Boxer sprang after him and seized him by his sailor-collar. Powerless to save his little master from falling, he yet dragged him sideways to the ground, and received the full force of the fall, as they rolled over and over down the long green bank.
And yet mother did not wake! No! not until that motionless bundle—the child and the dog—had been left many miles away.
"Boxer! wake up! It's time for bekfust."
Boxer did not move.
"I said I was 'samed of you. Now I'm 'sameder. You are a lazy dog!"
And then Willie's eyes opened wider, and he turned over on his bed. His bed? Why! it was soft green grass! and that was not a bed-curtain up there. It was a tree, and branches of whispering leaves.
Slowly the truth crept into the child's mind, and very slowly it drove two large tears into his blue eyes. Where was mother—dear, dear mother?
He sat up and looked round him. "Mother! mother! I'm very, very sorry!" he cried; the remembrance of his disobedience being full upon him. But his voice ended in sobs, as he buried his face in the grass again. "Oh, mother! Willie does want you so!"
Mother was coming. Her strained, anxious eyes had already discovered the little figure lying stretched upon the ground.