ayed
expression of countenance.

"Never mind, I'll hunt up something else. Let me help you with those
your hands are so cold." And Rose good-naturedly gave a tug at the boots
while Jamie clutched the banisters, murmuring somewhat incoherently
as his legs flew up and down: "I'll go back if you want me to. I'm so
sorry! It's very good of you, I'm sure. Getting these horrid things on
made me forget. Mother would make me wear 'em, though I told her they'd
stick like like gumdrops," he added, inspired by recollections of
certain dire disappointments when the above-mentioned sweetmeat melted
in his pockets and refused to come out.

"Now what shall we do?" asked Rose when he was finally extricated.
"Since I've nothing to read, I may as well play."

"I'll teach you to pitch and toss. You catch very well for a girl, but
you can't throw worth a cent," replied Jamie, gamboling down the hall
in his slippers and producing a ball from some of the mysterious
receptacles in which boys have the art of storing rubbish enough to fill
a peck measure.

Of course Rose agreed and cheerfully risked getting her eyes blackened
and her fingers bruised till her young receptor gratefully observed that
"it was no fun playing where you had to look out for windows and jars
and things, so I'd like that jolly book about Captain Nemo and the
Nautilus, please."

Being gratified, he spread himself upon the couch, crossed his legs in
the air, and without another word dived Twenty Thousand Leagues
Under the Sea, where he remained for two mortal hours, to the general
satisfaction of his relatives.

Bereft both of her unexpected playfellow and the much desired book, Rose
went into the parlor, there to discover a French novel which Kitty
had taken from a library and left in the carriage among the bundles.
Settling herself in her favorite lounging chair, she read as diligently
as Jamie while the wind howled and snow fell fast without.

For an hour nothing disturbed the cozy quiet of the house for Aunt
Plenty was napping upstairs and Dr. Alec writing in his own sanctum; at
least Rose thought so, till his step made her hastily drop the book and
look up with very much the expression she used to wear when caught in
mischief years ago.

"Did I startle you? Have a screen you are burning your face before this
hot fire." And Dr. Alec pulled one forward.

"Thank you, Uncle. I didn't feel it." And the color seemed to deepen in
spite of the screen while the une