"You must go home now, Gil," said the Stork. "Go home and go to bed. And
to-morrow when you wake there will be a little brother in the house, and
you ought to be a very good boy because you have your wish."

Gil gently loosened the Sea-child's hand and ran home as the Stork bade
him, but said no word of all this to any one.

Now early in the morning the Stork came to the house on the hill,
bringing a rosy little new baby which he laid on the bed beside Gil's
mother, and then flew away. What a hullabaloo there was then, to be
sure! What a welcome for the little stranger! Gil was not the only one
who had longed for a new baby in the house, and this was the prettiest
little fellow ever seen. Loudest of all cheered Gil when he saw the
present which the Stork had brought. "Hurrah for my little new brother!"
he cried. "Now I shall have some one to play with." That was Gil's chief
thought: now he would have some one to play with.

They called the baby's name Jan. And from the first little Jan was very
happy in his new home. He was happy all day in his mother's arms; happy
when his foster-father came home at night and tossed him high to the
ceiling; happiest of all when Gil held him close and begged him to hurry
and grow up, so that they could play together.

Little Jan did hurry to grow up, as fast as health and strength and
happiness could make a baby grow. He grew bigger and bigger, handsomer
and handsomer, the finest baby in the village, and his family loved him
dearly. Every day he became more of a playmate for Gil, whom he admired
more than any one in the world. Gil petted and teased the little fellow,
who, as soon as he could walk, began to follow him about like a faithful
dog. Grand times the brothers had together then. They dug in the sand on
the seashore, and scrambled about the cliffs. They rowed out in the
harbor boats with hooks and lines, and played at being fishermen like
their father, who sailed away early and came home late. They grew bigger
and sturdier and handsomer, and their parents were very proud of them
both, the finest lads in all the country round.

The years went by, and during all this time Jan never dreamed the truth
which only Gil and the Stork knew about the bargain made at the sea-pool
cradle. To Jan, indeed, the sea was full of strange thoughts which were
not memories but were like them. He loved to look and listen alone upon
the water, or in the water, or by the water. Gil often caught him