BILLY AND HANS 



mitted me I supplied them with, with 

 a guilty feeling that I could never 

 atone for what they lost with free- 

 dom. I tried to make them happy in 

 any way in my limited abilities, and, 

 the vacation over, we went back to 

 Rome and the fresh pine-cones and 

 their window niche. 



But there Billy grew rapidly worse, 

 and I realised that a crisis had come 

 to our little minage. He grew apa- 

 thetic, and would lie with his great 

 black eyes looking into space, as if 

 in a dream. It became tragedy for 

 me, for the symptoms were the same 

 as those of a dear little fellow who 

 had first rejoiced my father's heart in 

 the years gone by, and who lies in an 

 old English churchyard; whose last 

 hours I watched lapsing painlessly 

 into the eternity beyond, and he, 

 thank God ! understanding nothing 



f 



