Y

Mr. Maxwell wore a coat with loose pockets, and while she was speaking,
he rested on his crutches, and began to slap them with his hands. "No;
there's nothing here to-day," he said; "I think I emptied my pockets
before I went to the meeting."

Just as he said that there was a loud squeal: "Oh, my guinea pig," he
exclaimed; "I forgot him," and he pulled out a little spotted creature a
few inches long. "Poor Derry, did I hurt you?" and he soothed it very
tenderly.

I stood and looked at Mr. Maxwell, for I had never seen any one like
him. He had thick curly hair and a white face, and he looked just like a
girl. While I was staring at him, something peeped up out of one of his
pockets and ran out its tongue at me so fast that I could scarcely see
it, and then drew back again. I was thunderstruck. I had never seen such
a creature before. It was long and thin like a boy's cane, and of a
bright green color like grass, and it had queer shiny eyes. But its
tongue was the strangest part of it. It came and went like lightning. I
was uneasy about it, and began to bark.

"What's the matter, Joe?" said Mrs. Wood; "the pig won't hurt you."

But it wasn't the pig I was afraid of, and I kept on barking. And all
the time that strange live thing kept sticking up its head and putting
out its tongue at me, and neither of them noticed it.

"Its getting on toward six," said Mrs. Wood; "we must be going home.
Come, Mr. Maxwell."

The young man put the guinea pig in his pocket, picked up his crutches,
and we started down the sunny village street. He left his guinea pig at
his boarding house as he went by, but he said nothing about the other
creature, so I knew he did not know it was there.

I was very much taken with Mr. Maxwell. He seemed so bright and happy,
in spite of his lameness, which kept him from running about like other
young men. He looked a little older than Miss Laura, and one day, a week
or two later, when they were sitting on the veranda, I heard him tell
her that he was just nineteen. He told her, too, that his lameness made
him love animals. They never laughed at him, or slighted him, or got
impatient, because he could not walk quickly. They were always good to
him, and he said he loved all animals while he liked very few people.

On this day as he was limping along, he said to Mrs. Wood: "I am getting
more absent-minded every day. Have you heard of my latest escapade?"

"No," she said.

"I am glad," he replie