"Oh! no, 'cause I'm afraid. I saw a bear, a big bear once. Daddy shooed it away from our house. And oh! it whiffed and whiffed just awful. Please take me with you—Phil."
"Just what I'll do, Mazie. You see I have three friends, all boys who will be glad to see you. And when daddy comes he can take you back home."
"Home!"
The child repeated the word after him. There was a bewildered look on her face. Phil judged from this that some memory was awakening.
"Home—daddy—muzzer!" he heard her say almost in a whisper.
"Oh! you didn't tell me that your mother was up here, too; is she with daddy, Mazie?" Phil asked her, as they walked slowly along.
She looked up. The wistful glow in her eyes gave the boy a strange feeling.
"Oh! no. Muzzer gone far away. She never come to her little girl now," he heard her say; and somehow the thought that she meant her mother was dead kept Phil from questioning her any further.
The little thing had evidently already recovered from her recent grief. She trusted in Phil, and believed that it would only be a matter of a short time before he would bring "daddy."
In her eyes Phil was a magician. Nothing could be beyond his power to accomplish. That is what the faith of a child means.