y, her peculiar way of enjoying herself
is calculated to have rather a depressing influence upon the spirits of
those with whom she comes in contact--always excepting Jack, who has a
lively sense of the ludicrous, and never enjoys himself better than in
bantering his aunt.

Ida is no less a favorite with Jack than with the other members of the
household. Rough as he is sometimes, Jack is always gentle with Ida.
When she was just learning to walk, and in her helplessness needed the
constant care of others, he used, from choice, to relieve his mother of
much of the task of amusing the child. He had never had a little sister,
and the care of a child as young as Ida was a novelty to him. It was,
perhaps, this very office of guardian to the child, assumed when she was
so young, that made him feel ever after as if she was placed under his
special protection.

And Ida was equally attached to Jack. She learned to look up to him for
assistance in anything which she had at heart, and he never disappointed
her. Whenever he could, he would accompany her to school, holding her by
the hand; and fond as he was of rough play, nothing would induce him to
leave her.

"How long have you been a nurse-maid?" asked a boy, older than himself,
one day.

Jack's fingers itched to get hold of his derisive questioner, but he had
a duty to perform, and contented himself with saying, "Just wait a few
minutes, and I'll let you know."

"I dare say," was the reply. "I rather think I shall have to wait till
both of us are gray before that time."

"You won't have to wait long before you are black and blue," retorted
Jack.

"Don't mind what he says, Jack," whispered Ida, fearful lest he should
leave her.

"Don't be afraid, Ida; I won't leave you; I guess he won't trouble us
another day."

Meanwhile the boy, emboldened by Jack's passiveness, followed, with more
abuse of the same sort. If he had been wiser, he would have seen a storm
gathering in the flash of Jack's eye; but he mistook the cause of his
forbearance.

The next day, as they were again going to school, Ida saw the same boy
dodging round the corner, with his head bound up.

"What's the matter with him, Jack?" she asked.

"I licked him like blazes, that's all," said Jack, quietly.

"I guess he'll let us alone after this."

CHAPTER VIII. A STRANGE VISITOR.

IT was about eleven o'clock in the forenoon, Mrs. Crump was in the
kitchen, busy in preparations for dinner, when