4 STORIES OF EARTH AND SKY 



door, that snowy March evening, his heart was 

 very heavy indeed. "As like as not she has 

 gone to bed," he whimpered to himself, "and I 

 shall have to wait another day to tell her." 



As she heard the patter of his feet outside, Anne 

 started, put a fresh log on the fire, saying, " How 

 can I ever tell him ? " Waddles nosed the door 

 open, but only enough to squeeze his plump body 

 through, and then pulled it as nearly shut as he 

 could with his paw, for what he had to say to his 

 mistress was for her ear alone. To be sure Tommy 

 was supposed to be in bed, but then he was always 

 turning up unexpectedly. Waddles snuggled up 

 to his mistress, who began smoothing out his 

 velvety ears after her old habit. He was tempted 

 to curl up and go to sleep ; but no, he must not. 

 So he sighed, turned his head on one side, and 

 gazed first at the fire and then at Anne, with a 

 most pathetic expression in his soft brown eyes. 



Anne clasped her hands around her knees and 

 returned the look, thinking in perplexity, "How 

 can I break the news to him?" 



" Mistress," said Waddles after a while, as Anne 

 was beginning to be interested in an angry dis- 

 pute in the chimney between the wind that wished 

 to come down and the smoke that was struggling 

 to go up, "I'm very unhappy and it is partly 



