tell you a story. Long years ago there was a man who
had a happy home with a young wife and a tiny baby boy in it. I could
not begin to tell you all the plans that man made for that baby boy.
Such a great and good and wonderful being that tiny baby was one day to
become. But the baby--went away, after a time, and carried with him all
the plans--and he never came back. Behind him he left empty hearts that
ached, and great bare rooms that seemed always to be echoing sighs and
sobs. And then, one day, such a few years after, the young wife went to
find her baby, and left the man all alone with the heart that ached and
the great bare rooms that echoed sighs and sobs.

"Perhaps it was this--the bareness of the rooms--that made the man turn
to his boyish passion for collecting things. He wanted to fill those
rooms full, full!--so that the sighs and sobs could not be heard; and he
wanted to fill his heart, too, with something that would still the ache.
And he tried. Already he had his boyish treasures, and these he lined up
in brave array, but his rooms still echoed, and his heart still ached;
so he built more shelves and bought more cabinets, and set himself to
filling them, hoping at the same time that he might fill all that dreary
waste of hours outside of business--hours which once had been all too
short to devote to the young wife and the baby boy.

"One by one the years passed, and one by one the shelves and the
cabinets were filled. The man fancied, sometimes, that he had succeeded;
but in his heart of hearts he knew that the ache was merely dulled, and
that darkness had only to come to set the rooms once more to echoing
the sighs and sobs. And then--but perhaps you are tired of the story,
Billy." William turned with questioning eyes.

"No, oh, no," faltered Billy. "It is beautiful, but so--sad!"

"But the saddest part is done--I hope," said William, softly. "Let me
tell you. A wonderful thing happened then. Suddenly, right out of a dull
gray sky of hopelessness, dropped a little brown-eyed girl and a little
gray cat. All over the house they frolicked, filling every nook and
cranny with laughter and light and happiness. And then, like magic, the
man lost the ache in his heart, and the rooms lost their echoing sighs
and sobs. The man knew, then, that never again could he hope to fill his
heart and life with senseless things of clay and metal. He knew that the
one thing he wanted always near him was the little brown-ey