y left the bedroom.

'He is ever so much nicer,' was the quiet answer.

'I don't think he could be,' said Jimmy, as his mother turned the
handle. Then he remembered what the boys had said at school.

'Winnie isn't really black, is she?' he asked.

'Black!' cried his mother; 'she is just the dearest little girl in the
world.'

'I'm glad of that,' said Jimmy, and then he entered the room and saw a
tall man with a fair moustache standing in front of the fire, and,
seated on his shoulder, was one of the prettiest little girls Jimmy had
ever seen.

'There he is!' she cried. 'There's my brother. Put me down, please.'

'Good-morning,' said Jimmy, as his father put Winnie on to the floor.

But the next moment Mr. Wilmot put his hands under Jimmy's arms and
lifted him up to kiss him, but the odd thing was that when he was
standing on the floor again he could not think of anything to say to
Winnie.

'I've got a dollie!' she said presently, while their father and mother
stood watching them, 'and I'm going to have a governess.'

Then they all began to talk quite freely, and Jimmy soon felt as if he
had lived with them always. Presently they went out for a walk to buy
Jimmy some more clothes, and when they came back the children's dinner
was ready.

'I do like being here,' said Jimmy during the meal.

'I am glad you got found,' cried Winnie.

'So am I,' he answered. 'But suppose,' he suggested, 'that I hadn't been
found before you went away again.'

Then Winnie solemnly laid aside her fork--she was not old enough to use
a knife.

'Why,' she said, 'you do say funny things. We're not going away again,
ever.'

'Aren't you?' asked Jimmy, looking up at his father and mother.

'No,' answered Mrs. Wilmot, 'we're going to stay at home with you.'

'Are you really--really?' asked Jimmy, for he could scarcely believe it.

'Yes, really,' said Mr. Wilmot.

'It will be nice,' said Jimmy thoughtfully, and then he went on with his
dinner.

THE END

The Dumpy Books for Children

I. The Flamp, The Ameliorator, and The Schoolboy's Apprentice,
_by E. V. LUCAS_

II. Mrs. Turner's Cautionary Stories

III. The Bad Family, _by Mrs. Fenwick_

IV. The Story of Little Black Sambo. Illustrated in Colours,
_by Helen Bannerman_

V. The Bountiful Lady, _by Thomas Cobb_

VI. A Cat Book, Portraits _by H. Officer Smith_, Characteristics
_by E. V. LUCAS_

VII