Dan-ny was a hand-some lit-

tle boy, but not al-ways a

good lit-tle boy. Some-times

he was so naught-y that you

could see sparks of fire in

his soft black eyes, and he

would dou-ble his chub-by lit-

tle hands up in-to fists, and

stamp his feet, and look ex-

actly as though he were go-

ing to strike some-bod-y.

One day when mam-ma

was sick with head-ache he

had one of these bad times

with his tem-per.

"I don't wish to walk with

El-len," he cried, "an' I won't!

I want a play-walk with you,

mam-ma! El-len don't talk

with me, an' she won't let

me drive her at all! I want

a play-walk with my mam-ma,

I say! Do you hear, mam-ma!

Mam-ma heard. She felt

as though the naught-y lit-tle

boots had come down with

a stamp right on her head.

She knew ver-y well it was

nicer for a lit-tle boy to walk

with a mam-ma who would

a-muse him and take part in

his lit-tle plays, than with a

nurse, but she could not go,

and when Dan-ny stamped

and roared, he had to be sent

out of the room quick-ly, and

with-out e-ven a kiss.

It was a much-a-shamed

lit-tle boy that went stub-bing

a-long in the dust right in

the mid-dle of the road a

half-hour aft-er. His lit-tle

heart was strug-gling to find

some way to say how sor-ry

he was. There were no flow-

ers to pick for a nose-gay, and

it was too late for e-ven a

stray black-ber-ry.

But just be-fore din-ner

mam-ma woke, and there was

a great cloud of col-or, red

and gold, right be-fore her,

and shin-ing o-ver it, a pair

of silk-en-fringed black eyes,

so soft and lov-ing and sor-ry

that mam-ma gath-ered her

lit-tle boy, and the great arm-

ful of au-tumn leaves right

in-to her arms, and in one

lit-tle min-ute all the naugh-

ti-ness was loved a-way.

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