irst it seemed close beside them, then in the
flower-garden, then in the fowl-yard.

Gardener dropped the ladder out of his hands. "It's that Boxer! He has
got loose again! He will be running after my chickens, and dragging his
broken chain all over my borders. And he is so fierce, and so delighted
to get free. He'll bite any body who ties him up, except me."

"Hadn't you better you go and see after him?"

Gardener thought it was the eldest boy who spoke, and turned round
angrily; but the little fellow had never opened his lips.

Here there was heard a still louder bark, and from a quite different
part of the garden.

"There he is--I'm sure of it! jumping over my bedding-out plants, and
breaking my cucumber frames. Abominable beast!--just let me catch him!"
Off Gardener darted in a violent passion, throwing the ladder down upon
the grass, and forgetting all about the cherries and the children.

The instant he was gone, a shrill laugh, loud and merry, was heard close
by, and a little brown old man's face peeped from behind the
cherry-tree.

"How d'ye do?--Boxer was me. Didn't I bark well? Now I'm come to play
with you."

The children clapped their hands; for they knew they were going to have
some fun if Brownie was there--he was the best little playfellow in the
world. And then they had him all to themselves. Nobody ever saw him
except the children.

"Come on!" cried he, in his shrill voice, half like an old man's, half
like a baby's. "Who'll begin to gather the cherries?"

[Illustration: A little brown old man's face peeped from behind the
cherry-tree.--Page 20]

They all looked blank; for the tree was so high to where the branches
sprang, and besides, their mother had said they were not to climb. And
the ladder lay flat upon the grass--far too heavy for little hands to
move.

"What! you big boys don't expect a poor little fellow like me to lift
the ladder all by myself? Try! I'll help you."

Whether he helped or not, no sooner had they taken hold of the ladder
than it rose up, almost of its own accord, and fixed itself quite safely
against the tree.

"But we must not climb--mother told us not," said the boys, ruefully.
"Mother said we were to stand at the bottom and pick up the cherries."

"Very well. Obey your mother. I'll just run up the tree myself."

Before the words were out of his mouth Brownie darted up the ladder like
a monkey, and disappeared among the fruit-laden branches.

The children