“Where are you going, Seth dear?”
“I wasn’t—I had to run away, Aunt Hannah, an’ that’s the truth of it!” he cried passionately, suddenly recovering the use of his tongue.
“Why didn’t you tell me at supper-time?”
“I was afraid you and Gladys would try to stop me, an’ perhaps I couldn’t stick to what I’d agreed on.”
“Do you really want to leave us, Seth?”
“Indeed I don’t, Aunt Hannah! I’d give anything in this world if I could stay, for this is the very nicest place I ever was in. Oh, indeed, I don’t want to go away!”
“Then why not stay?”
“I can’t! I can’t, ’cause I’d have to tell——”
Seth did not finish the sentence, but buried his face in Snip’s silky hair.
“Is it because you can’t tell me why you left the city?” And the little woman laid her hand on the boy’s shoulder with a motion not unlike a caress.