visitor with a certain searching kindness that made him
a little uneasy in the midst of all his enjoyment.

Keith returned home that day much later than unusual to find his mother
in a state of frantic worry. At first she declared that he must not go
anywhere without her knowing about it in advance, but after a while she
became quite interested and palpably elated by Keith's tale of all the
glories he had seen. She explained that the glass rods on the
chandeliers were prisms that showed the whole rainbow when you held them
in front of a light, and she asked him eagerly if he had been invited to
come again. But when the father heard of it that night, he said:

"I don't think Keith should go there at all. He can't ask such a boy
over here, and the next thing we know, Keith's own home will no longer
be good enough for him."

Keith could hardly believe his ears. He had never felt such resentment
against his father, and just before going to bed, while his father was
out of the room for a moment, he whispered to his mother:

"I think papa does not want me to have any fun!"

"You don't understand," she retorted. "He means well. Remember what
Granny says: Equals make the best playmates."

Three or four times Keith went home with Harald. Then the gates of
paradise were suddenly slammed in his face. One day, as they were
leaving school together, Harald remarked quite calmly:

"You can't come home with me any more."

"Why," gasped Keith, his throat choking.

"Because mamma says I must find some one else to play with," Harald
explained. Then he softened a little: "I can't help it, and I like you."

"But why," insisted Keith on the verge of tears.

"You look like a nice boy, mamma says, but your father is nothing but a
_vaktmaestare_, and mine is a _grosshandlare_ (wholesale dealer)."

Keith walked home in a stupor and began to cry the moment he saw his
mother. Her lips tightened and her face grew white as she listened to
the story he sobbed forth.

"Now you can see that your father was right," she said at last. "Of
course, we are just as good as anybody else, but others don't think
so--because we are poor. But we have our pride, and you had better stay
and play with your own soldiers hereafter. Then I don't have to worry
about you either."

But Keith had very little pride. He continued to seek Harald's company
as before, and twice, as they about to part in front of the latter's
house, Keith asked if he couldn't come