r way, but it ought to be a band of children, with nobody else
about.

And so he put Mr. Literal and the Masked Lady, too, out of his mind.
He was talking eagerly to Tom when they got back to where the others
were. He called out gladly, when he came within hearing of them, "He's
going with us. And what do you think? We've got a dog!"

There was general rejoicing when the dog made his appearance, running
from one to another to get acquainted. And then, as they had already
been delayed quite a little, they made haste to continue on their
journey.

PART III

ARGUMENT: EVERYCHILD VIEWS WITH AMAZEMENT A FAMOUS DWELLING-PLACE, AND
IS GRIEVED BY THE PLIGHT OF AN UNFORTUNATE PRINCE.

CHAPTER XV

A STRANGE HOUSE IN THE FOREST

Together they traveled along the road the greater part of the day
without mishap and without any experience worth recording.

As was her custom, the Masked Lady did not make her appearance among
them as long as they were quite light-hearted, and Everychild went so
far as to congratulate himself upon having seen the last of her.

Toward evening they came within sight of a path leading into the road
on which they traveled, and on a stile which stood in the way of the
path they observed a little boy who was plainly in trouble.

With much difficulty the little boy crawled up the stile, step by step;
and when he got to the top step and paused a minute, he turned about,
just as small children will do, and began climbing down the stile on
the other side, moving feet foremost.

Now and again he looked over his shoulder to be sure that his feet had
been safely placed before he put his weight on them; and when he did
this you could see his face, showing two eyes very bright with
excitement and fear.

At last he had got clear over the stile; and then he stood erect and
put his finger in his mouth. You could tell that he was trying to
think what to do now.

In the meantime Everychild and his companions had come up.

"Such a cute little chap," said Everychild. Then he spoke to the
child. "Where are you going, little boy?" he asked.

The little boy looked at Everychild blankly. He looked at him quite a
long time. Then he looked at the other members of the band. Finally
he looked at Everychild again, still with a blank expression. But at
last he replied, "I want to go home, but I dasn't."

The band of travelers all laughed at this; whereupon the little boy
looked at all of them