Page:Mrs. Spring Fragrance - Far - 1912.djvu/122

 teacher's tenement room, was made plain to everyone by the child himself. But it devolved upon Miss McLeod, in order to save her little scholar from obviously justifiable paternal wrath, to explain his reason for the kidnapping, and this she did so clearly and eloquently that the father, raising his first born to his knee, declared in English: "I proud of him. He Number One scholar," while the mother fondly smiled.

Little Me looked at the baby in his mother's lap, and then at the teacher. His eyes filled with tears.

"You not like what I give you well enough to keep him," he sobbed.

"Yes, yes," consoled Miss McLeod. "I like him so well that I put him away in my heart where I keep the baby of my story. Don't you remember? That was what the Father of the story gave the baby for. To be kept in the people's hearts after he had gone back to Him!"

"Ah, yes," responded the child, his face brightening. "You keep my brother in your heart and I keep him in the house with me and my father and mother. That best of all!"