Page:Elizabeth Jordan--Tales of the cloister.djvu/53

 she had unfastened the linen bands and exhibited her ears to his inspection—but this story was never verified.

When the chilly days of autumn came he still dug in the garden, enveloped in a little tightly buttoned reefer and woollen "leggings," and wearing on his head a hood in which his face shone like a red apple. Frederick Addison believed in fresh air, and got it by his usual method of quietly taking what he wanted.

When the winter snow began to fall and the flower-beds were covered and the birds spread their wings and left him, dreary days began for the infant. He became a "shut-in," and all the attractions of the play-room fitted for him failed to compensate for the loss of the birds and the flowers he loved.

Friends of the young mother who slept under the deepening snows thought of her baby behind the convent walls, and brought him gifts and playthings. The nuns developed a marvellous talent for games of which they had never before heard, and their repertoire of songs and stories adapted to the amusement of small boys grew like a rolling snowball. But the baby was bored and showed it. He turned again to Sister Philomene, but found her as of yore—as frosty as the outside air. Intrepid as he was, he shook in his little shoes