eneral turned
with him.

"A Christmas gift! It must be a fine one. Who gave it to you?" demanded
the General, with a smile at the little fellow's confidence.

"It is a fine one! Did n't anybody give it to me. We 're giving it to
somebody."

"Oh! You are? To whom?"

"I 'll tell you; but you must promise not to tell."

"I promise I will not tell a soul. I cross my heart."

He made a sign as he remembered he used to do in his boyhood.

The boy looked up at him doubtfully with a shade of disapproval.

"My grandfather says that you must not cross your heart--'t a
gentleman's word is enough," he said, quaintly.

"Oh, he does? Well, I give my word."

"Well--" He glanced around to see that no one was listening, and
sidling a little nearer, lowered his voice: "It 's a great-coat for
grandfather!"

"A great-coat! That's famous!" exclaimed the General.

"Yes, is n't it? You see--he 's mighty old and he 's got a bad cough--he
caught it in the army, and I have to take care of him. Don't you think
that's right?"

"Of course, I do," said the General, envying one grandfather.

"That's what I tell him. So mamma and I have bought this for him."

"He must be a proud grandfather," said the General, with envy biting
deeper at his heart.

"I have another grandfather; but I don't like _him_," continued the
little fellow.

"I am sorry for that," said the General, sincerely. "Why is that?"

"He was mean to my father, and he is mean to my mother." His voice
conveyed a sudden bitterness.

"Oh!"

"Mamma says I must like him; but I do not. I just can't. You would not
like a man who was mean to your mother, would you!"

"I would not," declared the General, truthfully.

"And I am not going to like him," asserted the boy, with firmness.

The General suddenly pitied one grandfather.

They had come to a well-lighted corner, and as the boy lifted his face,
the light fell on it. Something about the bright, sturdy countenance
with its frank, dark eyes and brown hair suddenly sent the General back
thirty years to a strip of meadow on which two children were playing:
one a dark-eyed boy as sturdy as this one. It was like an arrow in his
heart. "With a gasp he came back to the present. His thoughts pursued
him even here.

"What is your name?" he asked as he was feeling in his pocket for a
coin.

"Oliver Drayton Hampden, sir."

The words were perfectly clear.

The General's heart stopped beating and then gave a bound. The