the same, is it?" and Dan looked up at her with a wistful,
hungry look that went to her heart.

"No, dear, it is not the same, and never can be. I think an own mother
would have been a great deal to you. But as that cannot be, you must
try to let me fill her place. I fear I have not done all I ought, or you
would not want to leave me," she added, sorrowfully.

"Yes, you have!" cried Dan, eagerly. "I don't want to go, and I won't
go, if I can help it; but every now and then I feel as if I must burst
out somehow. I want to run straight ahead somewhere, to smash something,
or pitch into somebody. Don't know why, but I do, and that's all about
it."

Dan laughed as he spoke, but he meant what he said, for he knit his
black brows, and brought down his fist on the ledge with such force,
that Mrs. Jo's thimble flew off into the grass. He brought it back, and
as she took it she held the big, brown hand a minute, saying, with a
look that showed the words cost her something,

"Well, Dan, run if you must, but don't run very far; and come back to me
soon, for I want you very much."

He was rather taken aback by this unexpected permission to play truant,
and somehow it seemed to lessen his desire to go. He did not understand
why, but Mrs. Jo did, and, knowing the natural perversity of the human
mind, counted on it to help her now. She felt instinctively that the
more the boy was restrained the more he would fret against it; but leave
him free, and the mere sense of liberty would content him, joined to the
knowledge that his presence was dear to those whom he loved best. It was
a little experiment, but it succeeded, for Dan stood silent a moment,
unconsciously picking the fan to pieces and turning the matter over
in his mind. He felt that she appealed to his heart and his honor,
and owned that he understood it by saying presently, with a mixture of
regret and resolution in his face,

"I won't go yet awhile, and I'll give you fair warning before I bolt.
That's fair, isn't it?"

"Yes, we will let it stand so. Now, I want to see if I can't find some
way for you to work off your steam better than running about the place
like a mad dog, spoiling my fans, or fighting with the boys. What can we
invent?" and while Dan tried to repair the mischief he had done, Mrs.
Jo racked her brain for some new device to keep her truant safe until he
had learned to love his lessons better.

"How would you like to be my express-man?" she said, as a