hen tell him once again, honey," Miss Bailey advised, "and make him
understand that he must go back to his own people as soon as your mother
is well. Where are his own people? I can't understand how any one so
little could be wandering about with no one to take care of him."

"Teacher, I'm takin' care of him," Morris pointed out.

All that night and all the succeeding day Miss Bailey's imagination
reverted again and again to the two little ones keeping house in Mrs.
Mowgelewsky's immaculate apartment. Even increasing blindness had not
been allowed to interfere with sweeping and scrubbing and dusting, and
when Teacher thought of that patient matron, as she lay in her hospital
cot trusting so securely to her Christian friend's guardianship of her
son and home, she fretted herself into feeling that it was her duty to
go down to Monroe Street and investigate.

There was at first no sound when, after climbing endless stairs, she
came to Mrs. Mowgelewsky's door. But as the thumping of the heart and
the singing in her ears abated somewhat, she detected Morris's familiar
treble.

"Bread," it said, "iss awful healthy for you, only you dasn't eat it
'out chewin'. I never in my world seen how you eats."

Although the words were admonitory, they lost all didactic effect by the
wealth of love and tenderness which sang in the voice. There was a note
of happiness in it, too, a throb of pure enjoyment quite foreign to
Teacher's knowledge of this sad-eyed little charge of hers. She rested
against the door frame, and Morris went on:

"I guess you don't know what iss polite. You shall better come on the
school, und Miss Bailey could to learn you what iss polite and healthy
fer you. No, you couldn't to have no meat! No, _sir_! No, _ma'am_! You
couldn't to have no meat 'til I cuts it fer you. You could to, maybe,
make yourself a sickness und a bashfulness."

Miss Bailey put her hand on the door and it yielded noiselessly to her
touch, and revealed to her guardian eyes her ward and his little friend.
They were seated _vis-a-vis_ at the table; everything was very neat and
clean and most properly set out. A little lamp was burning clearly.
Morris's hair was parted for about an inch back from his forehead and
sleeked wetly down upon his brow. The guest had evidently undergone
similar preparation for the meal. Each had a napkin tied around his
neck, and as Teacher watched them, Morris carefully prepared his guest's
dinner, while the guest