and I couldn't keep
him if I had him."

Ben tried to be grateful, but nothing short of Lita would have healed
his wounded heart, and she was not Thorny's to give, or he would
probably have offered her to his afflicted friend.

"Well, no, you couldn't take Jack to bed with you, or keep him up in
your room, and I'm afraid he would never learn to do anything clever.
I do wish I had something you wanted, I'd so love to give it to you."

He spoke so heartily and was so kind that Ben looked up, feeling that
he had given him one of the sweetest things in the world--friendship;
he wanted to tell him so, but did not know how to do it, so caught up
his hoe and fell to work, saying, in a tone Thorny understood better
than words:

"You are real good to me--never mind, I wont worry about it; only it
seems extra hard coming so soon after the other----"

He stopped there, and a bright drop fell on the bean leaves, to shine
like dew till Ben saw clearly enough to bury it out of sight in a
great hurry.

"By Jove! I'll find that dog, if he is out of the ground. Keep your
spirits up, my lad, and we'll have the dear old fellow back yet."

With which cheering prophecy Thorny went off to rack his brains as to
what could be done about the matter.

Half an hour afterward, the sound of a hand-organ in the avenue roused
him from the brown study into which he had fallen as he lay on
the newly mown grass of the lawn. Peeping over the wall, Thorny
reconnoitered, and, finding the organ a good one, the man a
pleasant-faced Italian, and the monkey a lively animal, he ordered
them all in, as a delicate attention to Ben, for music and monkey
together might suggest soothing memories of the past, and so be a
comfort.

In they came by way of the Lodge, escorted by Bab and Betty, full
of glee, for hand-organs were rare in those parts, and the children
delighted in them. Smiling till his white teeth shone and his black
eyes sparkled, the man played away while the monkey made his pathetic
little bows, and picked up the pennies Thorny threw him.

"It is warm, and you look tired. Sit down and I'll get you some
dinner," said the young master, pointing to the seat which now stood
near the great gate.

With thanks in broken English the man gladly obeyed, and Ben begged to
be allowed to make Jacko equally comfortable, explaining that he knew
all about monkeys and what they liked. So the poor thing was freed
from his cocked hat and uniform, fed with b