cer full of jam or some other
tidbit. Others would come from the outside, and they, too, were mostly
old women. They always wanted to pat Keith, and he objected passionately
to all of them. His especial aversion was a gaunt old woman with a big
hooked nose and a pair of startlingly large, sad-looking eyes. She
always smiled, and her smile was hopelessly out of keeping with the rest
of her face. The very sight of her made Keith forget all his manners.
Time and again his mother rebuked him and tried to bring him around by
telling the old woman's story--a story of wonderful self-sacrifice and
heroic struggle--but it made no difference to him. There was something
about the sight of poverty and unhappiness and failure that provoked him
beyond endurance, and sometimes he would turn to his mother with a
reckless cry of:

"Why do you let them come here at all?"

For the friends of the family, who came there on an equal footing, he
showed more respect, and for a few of them he felt a real liking. As a
rule, however, they inspired him with nothing but indifference, and his
one reason for greeting them with some approach at cordiality was that
they brought a change into the general monotony of the home, and that
their coming might lead to the distribution of some dainties out of the
ordinary. Some of his parents' friends were poor and growing poorer.
Others had the appearance of doing well and hoping for more. It made no
difference to Keith. They were all middle-aged, sedate and preoccupied
with their own little affairs. They tried to be nice to him, but they
did not interest him, and his main grievance against them--not clearly
understood by any means--was that they brought nothing into his life of
what he wanted.

Had he been asked what he wanted, he would have answered unhesitatingly:

"Some one to play with."

XXII

Having whined and nagged until his mother no longer could bear it, Keith
at last obtained the cherished permission to go and play in the lane.

"But look out for horses," warned his mother as he stood in the doorway
ready to run. "And don't run out of sight, and you must come when I
call, and--you had better keep away from other boys, or you may come
home quite naked this time."

"What do you mean," asked Keith, turning to see whether the mother was
joking or talking seriously.

"Don't you recall when those boys took your coat from you, and you came
up here crying?"

There could be no mistake about