ne to look for it?" laughed Dora.

"Tell us what you mean," said Bess.

With much laughter the boys told the story.

"It is mean of you to make fun. Suppose it was your nose?" and Louise
held on to her own.

"Perhaps it won't turn up any more," suggested Bess.

"I am afraid he won't go to the ball-game; that will be too bad," said
Carl.

They were all going with Uncle William to see a game of foot-ball that
afternoon, and there was only time for a hasty lunch before they
started. Carl ran over to beg Ikey to go in spite of his
disfigurement, but a melancholy voice from the third-story landing
declined so positively that there was nothing left to be said.

From behind the curtains Ikey watched the party start off, and felt
very unhappy at not being with them.

That was a miserable afternoon! His grandmother's exclamations and
questions had only made matters worse, and he took refuge in his room,
declining to eat any lunch.

Before long he succeeded in convincing himself that nobody cared for
him, except, perhaps, his father and mother, who were so far away.

Maybe the others would be sorry when he died of hydrophobia. He had
heard that people often had it when they were bitten by dogs, and it
seemed very probable that this would be his fate.

Absorbed in his misery, he hardly knew how time passed, till some one
knocked at his door. He lay on the couch with his face buried in the
pillows, and thinking it was the housemaid he said, "Come in," without
looking up.

The hand that touched his head, however, was not Katie's, nor the
voice that said, "You poor boy!"

It was Mrs. Howard, or Aunt Zelie as he always called her in his
thoughts.

Overwhelmed with mingled delight and dismay, he could only struggle to
a sitting position, with his handkerchief to his nose and not a word
to say.

She did not appear to notice this, but talked on, and in some way it
came about that presently his aching head was down on the pillows
again, and her soft hand was smoothing back his hair, just as Mamma
did, while she told him that Mr. Hazeltine had inquired about the
dogs, and found that they were only very large and lively puppies, not
at all vicious.

Ikey heaved a sigh of relief, and managed to thank her for her
thoughtfulness. Then they talked of other things, and he actually lit
the gas--for it was growing dark--that she might see the photographs
of his mother and sister.

Before Aunt Zelie left they were even laugh