e on the box!" John Strong
would say to himself. "If life were all driving, now--but--

"Weel I ken my ain lassie;
Kind love is in her e'e!"

CHAPTER X.

LOOKING BACKWARD.

But in the twilight came Margaret's hour of comfort. Then Peggy had her
dancing-lesson from Rita, and while the two were whirling and stumping
about the hall, she would steal away through the little door and down
the three steps to the white rooms, where peace and quiet, gentle words
and kind affection were always awaiting her. Aunt Faith always
understood the little troubles, and had the right word to say, of
sympathy or counsel. The two had grown very near to each other.

"How is it," Margaret asked one evening, "I seem so much nearer your
age, Aunt Faith, than the girls'? Do you suppose I really belong to your
generation, and got left behind by accident?"

Aunt Faith laughed. "My dear, you ought to have had half a dozen
brothers and sisters!" she said. "An only child grows up too fast,
especially where, as in your case, the companionship with father or
mother is close and intimate. No doubt your dear father did his best to
grow down to your age, when you were little; but he did not succeed, I
fear, so you had to grow up to his. Was not that the way?"

Margaret nodded thoughtfully. "I remember his playing horse with me!"
she said. "Poor dear Papa! I asked him to play, and he said in his deep,
slow way, 'Surely! surely! the child must have play. Play is necessary
for development.' And then he sat and looked at me, with his Greek book
in his hand, as if I were a word that he could not find the meaning of.
Oh! I remember it so well, though I must have been a little tot. Then he
got up and said, 'I will be a horse, Margaret! Consider me a horse!' and
he gave me the tassels of his dressing-gown, and began to amble about
the room slowly, among the piles of books. Oh, dear! I can see him now,
dear Papa! He made a _very_ slow horse, Aunt Faith, and I felt, in a
baby way, that there was something awful about it, and that he was not
meant to play. I think I must have dropped the tassels pretty soon, for
he came to a great book lying open on a chair, and forgot everything
else, and stood there for an hour reading it. I never asked him to play
again, but we used to laugh over it when we were big--I mean when I was
big, and had grown up to him a little bit."

Mrs. Cheriton laid her hand on the girl's head, and smoothed her hair
tenderl