ne leg.'

'Really, you are a tiresome boy to-night,' said poor Mary with a sigh of
despair, 'and you know that Nannie is waiting for me to get Baby's bath
ready. Poor Master Harry,' she continued after a pause, during which
that young gentleman had been trying, unsuccessfully, to balance himself
on one leg, 'I don't believe I shall have time now to tell you that
interesting secret.'

'Interesting secret, Mary?' asked the boy in an eager voice. 'Oh, Mary,
I will be quite good if you will tell it to me.'

Harry loved a secret. So many of the nice things in his life had been
sprung upon him in this form that the very word 'secret' was to his
youthful mind a promise of coming happiness.

'Let me guess,' he pleaded in answer to her nod, and for at least two
minutes, during which time Mary put on and buttoned the shoes, there was
silence.

'Is it about my birthday?'

'Yes,' said Mary, taking advantage of the unusual peace to give a few
additional touches to her young master's smart sailor suit. This over,
she drew his curly head down and whispered in a deep, slow voice, that
sent a shiver through Harry's little body, 'As to-morrow is your
birthday, your father and mother are going to give you a present that
has four legs! Now run away downstairs; for I heard the motor going
round to the stables, and your father must be home again!'

At this moment Harry's quick ears heard a footstep upon the stairs--a
footstep that he loved with all his heart--and with a cry of delight he
disappeared through the nursery doorway, and down the broad staircase.

'Well, old man! What do you mean by not coming to meet me?' and the
father picked up his little son and kissed him affectionately.

'I never heard you come, Father. Did you remember to "toot, toot" on the
motor?'

'No, I didn't. That little imp, Paddy, rushed out at the hall door,
barking at the motor, and I was so busy wondering what he would look
like squashed quite flat that I forgot all about toot, toot. But run and
ask Nannie to put on your coat, for I am going to take you out to the
stables. Remember to ask very politely,' he called after the receding
figure in a warning voice.

'Please put on my coat, Nannie,' gasped Harry, bursting into the nursery
like a whirlwind; and as she buttoned it across his wriggling little
body, he put his arms round her neck and whispered, 'I expect I am going
to see the present with the four legs! Oh, I wonder if it will be a
wheelbarrow