"Did you never see one before?" she asked, smiling.
"No, ma'am, but it's very nice."
No more was said on the subject, and she never noticed that he examined it again; but the third day after he was released from the chamber he followed her one day into the pantry, and presented her a new one made by his own hands.
"You won't have to borrow again," he said, his face all in a glow of pleasure. "I'm going to try it now. I saved one skein on purpose."
Mrs. Taylor carried it out and exhibited it in triumph to the family.
"Did you do it all yourself?" asked Mr. Curtis, smiling his approbation.
"Yes, sir; but I had seen the one up stairs. I made more holes though, 'cause that was too large for some skeins and not large enough for others."
"You are a genius, Pat. I have no doubt you'll succeed, now that you've resolved to try your best."
The day before he left for the school, Pat asked Mrs. Taylor's permission to go and bid his father good-by. It was some weeks since the old man had been there, though he promised to come in a day or two. The good woman consented, though she told him the air was rather chilly for a boy who had been so sick.
On his way he passed the spot where Bertie had first talked with him. He stopped and sat on the top of the stone wall, where he had listened to the first kind words he ever remembered to have heard addressed to him. I trust no little boy or girl who reads this will think the worse of him, when I tell them that his breast began to heave, and the tears gushed to his eyes.