there should be no Catechism, no Aunt
Catharine, and no more punishment, especially putting to bed, which was
Darby's detestation? He really wished to be obedient, this little lad of
seven years old, and tried very hard to remember everything he was
told. But forgetting comes easy; consequently he was frequently in
trouble. He was often good for days together--quite good, as Joan said.
But the difficulty with Darby, as with older folk, was not the _being_
good, but the _keeping_ good.

For a long time the boy lay pondering some of the problems of life which
from the beginning have puzzled many a wiser head than his. But Darby
did not know that he was only going over a well-beaten track. He just
knew that he was wishful of finding some pleasant spot where, without
effort or trouble, he could be happy after his own fashion, untrammelled
and untroubled by restrictions or consequences.

The morning had glided on to noonday. Joan, having had her sleep out,
was playing with Miss Carolina in her crib. Outside a family of
lingering swallows sat on the meadow fence discussing their plans for a
hurried departure on the morrow; and from the dovecot in the yard came
the soft, continuous cooing of Auntie Alice's pigeons as they strutted
about the flags or preened their feathers in the sun. The distant
barking of Mr. Grey's collie, Scott, as he followed the sheep to the
pasture, floated in through the open window; while from the next room
came the soothing murmur of nurse's low, droning voice, singing baby
Eric over to his midday sleep.

What was it she sang? but, indeed, she seemed always singing it. Nothing
much; only a snatch here and there from that old hymn she was so fond
of, or perhaps sang almost unconsciously from habit:--

"Oh, we shall happy be,
When from sin and sorrow free!

"Bright in that happy land
Beams every eye;
Kept by a Father's hand,
Love cannot die.

"Come to this happy land,
Come, come away;
Why will ye doubting stand?
Why still delay?"

Suddenly Darby sat up in bed in his excitement. A brilliant thought had
struck him. Why had it not occurred to him sooner? The Happy Land!
that's where they would go. It was far, far away, certainly; but they
should take some food with them, and ask the road from time to time.

Joan was soon weary of nursing Miss Carolina. She had slipped out of her
crib and trotted over to the window, where she was occupying herse