CHAPTER XV.

LITTLE LESTER.

THE young people were so full of the overturned basket and its mysterious contents that Randall forgot to tease Hugh as much as usual. And besides, Miss Ashlyn's quiet presence rather awed the little bully, who was not quite sure how she would take it, if he let his sharp tongue loose on his delicate brother.

Indeed, since the episode of the sticky pen, Randall could not forget the sudden glance Gertrude had given towards his little hands, nor the quiet and firm tone in which she had told him to go to nurse to have them washed. Nor did he like Daisy's exclamation as he was leaving the room—

"Why, Miss Ashlyn, how funny that your watch should have been sticky too!"

So he decided to keep quiet for a time and make some plan of mischief which should be more annoying and more difficult of discovery.

Hugh and Daisy soon made their way to the schoolroom, and settled themselves cosily under Gertrude's wing, the little boy conning his lessons with great industry, only occasionally asking for some help in a gentle, entreating little tone, which Gertrude thought she quite understood since their conversation that morning.

At last, the books were put away, and Daisy came over to Gertrude's side and said softly, "Are we friends enough yet?"

Gertrude smiled. "What do you think?" she asked.

"I think we are," said Daisy. "When Hugh and I take to people, we 'take' to them, and we don't change a bit."

"I see; so you consider you have 'taken' to me?"

"You are laughing at us?"

"Only a very little. I am so glad, Daisy, if you have. Come, then, and sit by the fire, and we will have a sort of story—

"About seven years ago my pretty sister Rose was married—"

"Was she like you?" interrupted Daisy with a little smile.

"Oh no! A hundred times prettier," said Gertrude enthusiastically; "oh no! Her husband travels for a large firm in London, and my sister generally has her home at Camptown, near where I come from."

"Yes," nodded Hugh. "I know about Camptown; there are soldiers there."

"Yes. Well, by and by there came a dear little baby boy to my sister's home, and she and her husband doted on him more than I can say. My sister used to take him about with her, if the places that her husband went to were near enough, and they used to have such happy times. Sometimes, however, he went alone.

"Once, when she was staying at a watering-place in the south, she was suddenly called to Scotland to nurse her husband, and left her darling little boy in the landlady's care.

"Whether she was right or wise to do such a thing does not matter now. The landlady seemed a very nice woman, and my sister trusted her completely.

"When she got back again—think of it, Daisy and Hugh—the house was empty, the woman and her husband and little boy were all gone too!—and with them our little darling, the most precious thing in the world to all of us!"

Hugh and Daisy gazed in Gertrude's face, but they seemed as if they could not ask a question.

"Ever since, my dear sister has gone about searching for her lost child, little Lester. And never have we heard one single word of him from that day to this."

Hugh's little hand was put out till it touched Gertrude's softly, and he said—

"Perhaps, some day—"

"Yes," she answered, "we live in hope of that. Hugh, he used to say, 'I've opened my heart to Jesus, and He's come in!'"

"Who taught him that?" asked Daisy gently.

"I think I taught him," said Gertrude. "My dear sister did not know her Saviour herself then, and it was not till little Lester was taken away that she found she needed a Saviour."

Hugh's eyes gave a flash, but he looked down quickly and was silent.

"I believe you love Him too, Hugh," said Gertrude, drawing the boy to her.

"I'm so bad," said Hugh in a low tone. "So afraid—and so nasty sometimes, but yet—" he paused. Then meeting Daisy's eyes, and flushing up to the roots of his hair, he added courageously, "Yes, I do. In spite of not being a bit what I should be, I do. And He loves me!"

Daisy looked well satisfied. She had been almost afraid that Hugh's courage would vanish under the test to which it was being put. But as she had found many times, to her surprise, there was a secret of strength in the frail little boy that surpassed her utmost expectations.

"Now we must go to bed," she said, rising reluctantly. "Thank you ever so much, Miss Ashlyn."

Hugh put up his face for a kiss, and then Gertrude was left alone with her heart full of her sister Rose and of lost little Lester.

And every time she shut her eyes, she seemed to see before them a pair of worn, shabby little kid-lined slippers!

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