e to go to Boston; and I
presume you will feel sorry to have me go; but suppose I should bring
you something nice when I come back--a little rabbit, or something of
the kind?"

"O, then you may go, uncle," said Mary, clapping her hands, as a
certain lord of the barn yard does his wings, just before crowing, and
dancing up and down, as if she saw the little white rabbit, with his
long ears and red eyes, actually munching his clover and bean pods on
the carpet.

Ha! ha! ha! The lesson Uncle Frank learned then was, that the love of
children sometimes lies on the surface of the heart, and does not
reach quite to the bottom of it. However, I suppose the same is true
of grown people, too, sometimes, though they are usually more careful
as to what they say, so that they do not let the cat out of the bag.

But I shall be taken up as a _vagrant_, if I go wandering about in
this style.

CHAP. VI.

A NOBLE RESOLUTION.

As I said, the children all liked the good old gentleman, for some
reason or other. Now I think of it, I guess the reason of their liking
him might have been hid away in some sly place, as was the reason of
Mr. Somebody for _not_ liking Doctor Fell. This Mr. Somebody used to
say, as you probably have heard,

"I do not like you, Doctor Fell,
The reason why I cannot tell."

If the children had put their thoughts into rhyme, as Mr. Somebody
did, when he gave vent to his feelings in the Doctor Fell affair, no
doubt they would have said this, or something like it:

"I love you, sir, I love you well;
The reason why I cannot tell."

When supper was over that evening at Deacon Bissell's, the sun had
been down some time. The stars were beginning to peep out of their
hiding places, and the moon, who had shown her face a little before
the sun took his leave, had now grown bolder, and shone out brightly
and clearly, as if she were not afraid of anybody, and as if she had
some sort of a notion that she had got to be mistress.

"Well, children," said Captain Lovechild, "what are you going to drive
at next?"

Mrs. Bissell remarked that she thought it was almost time for them to
drive towards home, but said that she guessed the captain had
something to show them, and that they might stay just half an hour
longer.

Of course all the boys and girls flocked around the captain; and, sure
enough, he went into another room, and showed them one of the most
curious looking instruments, they all t