Page:Keeping the Peace.pdf/96

 He hunted everywhere. Twenty minutes passed. Once he thought that he heard James and Alice giggling at him. His heart grew heavy and bitter. It wasn't fair to leave him all alone like that and to hide where you couldn't be found. You were supposed to hide in easy places so that one person wouldn't have to be It all the time.

Then Ruth appeared at the back door and called, "Where's Alice, Eddie?"

"I don't know," he shouted back in a mournful voice. "Why?"

"They're going home."

At that, from almost directly above Edward's head there was a sound of giggling. Then James dropped lightly to the ground from the lower limbs of a tree and turning caught Alice in his arms as she half slid and half dropped. He held her there a moment with her feet clear of the ground.

"Give us a kiss," he said, "and I'll put you down."

Alice laughed and kissed him. And Edward's heart became very heavy in his breast.

But there were some things that Mrs. Eaton couldn't do to her boys. She couldn't keep them from growing up. And she couldn't keep the two who had run away from home from getting on in the world. This was a terrible cross to her. When John had gone to sea she had made dire prophe-