lief to her pity and grief.

He had missed his home and parents a good deal at first, had cried at his
lessons, and cried more at not having father to carry him to the nursery,
nor mother to hear him say his prayers and kiss him at night; but time
wore off the association, and he was full of delight at the sea, the
ships, the little crabs, and all the other charms of the shore.

Above all, he was excited about the little boys. His own kind had never
come in his way before, his chief playfellow being Amice, who was so much
older as to play with him condescendingly and always give way to him.
There was a large family in a neighbouring lodging containing what he
respectfully called 'big knicker-bocker boys,' who excited his intense
admiration, and drew him like a magnet.

For once Mrs. Morton and Eden were agreed as to the propriety of the
companionship, since Rollstone had pronounced them of 'high family,' and
the governess who was in charge of them was quite ready to be interested
in the solitary little stranger, even if he had not been the Honourable
Michael. So was the elder girl of the party, but, unluckily, Michael was
just of the age to be a great nuisance to children who played combined
and imaginative games which he could not yet understand.

When they were making elaborate approaches to a sand fortification,
erected with great care and pains, he would dash on it with a _coup de
main_, break it down at once with his spade, and stand proudly laughing
and mixing up the ruins together, heedless of the howls of anger of the
besiegers, and believing that he had done the right thing.

And once, when a wrathful boy of eight had shaken the troublesome urchin
as he would have done his own junior, had this last presumed to stir up
his clear pool of curiosities, most of the female portion of the family
had taken the part of the intruder, and cried shame on any one who could
hurt or molest a poor dear little boy away from a father who was so ill!

Thus the Lincoln family, for the sake of peace and self-defence, used
sedulously to flee at the approach of Mite, and seek for secluded coves
to which he was not likely to penetrate.

Mr. Rollstone was Eden's great solace. They discovered that they had
once been staying in the same country-house, and had a great number of
common acquaintances in the upper-servant world, and they entirely agreed
in their estimate of Mrs. Morton and Ida, whom Mr. Rollstone pronounced
to be ne