s "little human praise." There are very few of us
who can do without it; who can bear not to let some one, very near and
dear, know that we have behaved rather decently on those occasions when
that is what we have done.

It took Dickie a long time to think out all this, clearly, and with no
mistakes. But at last his mind was made up.

And then he asked Edred and Elfrida to come up to the cave with him,
because he had something to tell them. When they were all there, sitting
on the smooth sand by the underground stream, Dickie said--

"Look here. I'm not going on being Lord Arden."

"You can't help it," said Edred.

"Yes, I can. You know how I went and lived in King James's time. Well,
I'm going there again--for good."

[Illustration: "'I'VE THOUGHT OF NOTHING ELSE FOR A MONTH,' SAID DICKIE"

_Page 304_]

"You shan't," said Elfrida. "I'll tell father."

"I've thought of all that," Dickie said, "and I'm going to ask the
Mouldiwarps to make it so that you _can't_ tell. I can't stay here and
feel that I'm turning you and your father out. And think what Edred did
for me, in this very cave. No, my mind's made up."

It was, and they could not shake it.

"But we shan't ever see you again."

Dickie admitted that this was so.

"And oh, Dickie," said Elfrida, with deep concern, "you won't ever see
us again either. Think of that. Whatever will you do without us?"

"That," said Dickie, "won't be so bad as you think. The Elfrida and
Edred who live in those times are as like you as two pins. No, they
aren't really! Oh, don't make it any harder. I've got to do it."

There was that in his voice which silenced and convinced them. They felt
that he had, indeed, to do it.

"I could never be happy here--never," he went on; "but I shall be happy
there. And you'll never forget me, though there are one or two things I
want you to forget. And I'm going now."

"Oh, not now; wait and think," Elfrida implored.

"I've thought of nothing else for a month," said Dickie, and began to
lay out the moon-seeds on the smooth sand.

"Now," he said, when the pattern was complete, "I shall hold Tinkler and
the white seal in my hand and take them with me. When I've gone, you can
put the moon-seeds in your pocket and go home. When they ask you where I
am, say I am in the cave. They will come and find my clothes, and
they'll think I was bathing and got drowned."

"I can't bear it," said Elfrida, bursting into sobs. "I can't, and I
won't.