Page:Anna Chapin--Half a dozen boys.djvu/188

168 backward glance at the lad, as he sat down for a moment on one of the seats scattered about  the lawn, and turned his face to the soft, clear  air. Above his head the trees were in the beauty of their first tiny leaves, so light and  delicate in their unfolding that they looked like  a cloud of butterflies lighted on every little  twig and stem. And the birds chirped and twittered in all the gladness of the sunshine,  rejoicing in the new life about them. The influence of the spring was over them all, and vaguely, in his boy fashion, Fred felt it too. For a moment he went back to a year or two ago, and longed for the old free, happy days;  but as he remembered the lonely, dull hours he  had spent between the times of his return from  Boston and his coming to live at the Carters’,  his mood brightened again, and he patted the  now docile Fuzz, saying cheerfully,—

“It isn’t so bad after all, is it, Fuzz?”

And the dog presented his little paw, as if to shake hands, in token of their perfect  agreement.

In the meantime Bess had betaken herself to her cousin’s, where she was greeted by five