DE SMILE."--_Page
251_]

Dickon came in smiling his nicest wide smile. The new-born lamb was in
his arms and the little red fox trotted by his side. Nut sat on his left
shoulder and Soot on his right and Shell's head and paws peeped out of
his coat pocket.

Colin slowly sat up and stared and stared--as he had stared when he
first saw Mary; but this was a stare of wonder and delight. The truth
was that in spite of all he had heard he had not in the least understood
what this boy would be like and that his fox and his crow and his
squirrels and his lamb were so near to him and his friendliness that
they seemed almost to be part of himself. Colin had never talked to a
boy in his life and he was so overwhelmed by his own pleasure and
curiosity that he did not even think of speaking.

But Dickon did not feel the least shy or awkward. He had not felt
embarrassed because the crow had not known his language and had only
stared and had not spoken to him the first time they met. Creatures were
always like that until they found out about you. He walked over to
Colin's sofa and put the new-born lamb quietly on his lap, and
immediately the little creature turned to the warm velvet dressing-gown
and began to nuzzle and nuzzle into its folds and butt its tight-curled
head with soft impatience against his side. Of course no boy could have
helped speaking then.

"What is it doing?" cried Colin. "What does it want?"

"It wants its mother," said Dickon, smiling more and more. "I brought it
to thee a bit hungry because I knowed tha'd like to see it feed."

He knelt down by the sofa and took a feeding-bottle from his pocket.

"Come on, little 'un," he said, turning the small woolly white head with
a gentle brown hand. "This is what tha's after. Tha'll get more out o'
this than tha' will out o' silk velvet coats. There now," and he pushed
the rubber tip of the bottle into the nuzzling mouth and the lamb began
to suck it with ravenous ecstasy.

After that there was no wondering what to say. By the time the lamb fell
asleep questions poured forth and Dickon answered them all. He told them
how he had found the lamb just as the sun was rising three mornings ago.
He had been standing on the moor listening to a skylark and watching him
swing higher and higher into the sky until he was only a speck in the
heights of blue.

"I'd almost lost him but for his song an' I was wonderin' how a chap
could hear it when it seemed as if he'd get out