be raining,
Ted, so I can't try it? Put me into the thing, Patrick. This floor is so
large that I can see how it is going to work."

The story and even Theodora herself was forgotten, while the boy grasped
the handles and rolled himself up and down the floor. For the moment,
he was half beside himself with joy. It was as if his prison door
suddenly had opened, after having been closed and barred for more than a
year. After months of the stuffy couch, after months more of Patrick and
the chair, it was good to be able to move himself about, once more. But
he was weaker than he knew, and the excitement was more than he had the
strength to endure. Theodora, who had been watching him, saw him grow a
little white around the mouth.

"Take me out, Patrick," he said wearily. "I sha'n't run away, to-day. I
think, if you don't mind, I'll get back on the lounge again."

Theodora lingered beside him until he was his usual bright self once
more. Then she started for home. Allyn met her on the steps.

"Tum in," he said imperiously.

"What for?"

"'Cause. Hope said I wasn't to tell."

"Tell what?"

"Sumfin's here."

"What kind of a sumfin, Allyn? Wait till sister gets her mackintosh
off."

"No; tum." He tugged at her hand.

Laughing at his eagerness, she threw off her mackintosh, caught him in
her arms, and went in the direction of the voices which she heard in a
confused, excited murmur. As she opened the door, she was saluted with a
chorus.

"Here she is!"

"Oh, Ted, just look!"

"Now she won't speak to the rest of us."

"Teddy, do see here!"

She looked and saw. Then, regardless of Allyn in her arms, she cast
herself into the middle of the group and seized upon something that
stood there,--something with a gleam of black enamel and a flash of
nickel and the lustre of polished wood.

"Oh, Hu! Mamma! Hope! What is it? Where did it come from?"

"The expressman left it here, addressed to you, Teddy; and here's a note
in Mrs. Farrington's writing, tied to the bar."

Theodora snatched the note and broke the dainty seal, but it was a
moment before she could realize the meaning of what was written within.

"MY DEAR TEDDY," it ran; "Will is so happy in his tricycle; but I
knew it wouldn't be quite perfect unless you had the mate to it. He
is so used to going with you, in his chair, that I am sure he would
miss you, now he can go alone. Will you accept this bicycle from
us both, dear, and