Page:St. Nicholas - Volume 41, Part 1.djvu/57

 1913] His eves flew wide open. and he tried to raise himself. Failing, he yet commanded her with his glance. He seemed no longer dazed by his fall, but to understand his situation. He looked at her with strangely appealing eyes. Harriet was reminded of a wild animal which, when cornered or trapped. mutely begs for help. But now he spoke.

“Don’t open it!”

“Very well.” she answered. “What shall I do with it?”

“Keep it for me,” he replied. “Don't let any one know you have it.”

She slipped the wallet into the pocket of her skirt. “All right.”

His eves did not leave her. A desperate kind of earnestness was growing in them. Then she saw that he was struggling to rise again. He lifted his head but an inch before it fell back. Quickly she knelt by him and put a hand on his chest. “You must lie still!”

He tried to lift his hand—failed—succeeded. His eyes implored her. “Hide it!” he gasped. “Promise!”

With a womanly instinct to soothe by complying, she also raised a hand. "I promise!” she repeated, and felt as if she had taken an oath.

His hand fell, and he looked his gratitude; but then his eyes closed again. This time she knew that he had fainted once more. He lay so still, and the silence of the wide pasture so long remained unbroken, that at last she became anxious. Would the others manage to find help?

It was a mile to Nate’s, and the way might easily be missed. And then her own position would be hard to find. The cliffs stretched for a long distance above the upper end of the pasture, and the girls might not be able to tell at what point of them she was. When she listened, she heard nothing but the wind in the trees and the distant cawing of the crows. She looked down at the town, seemingly so near, and wished that a single friend of all that were there below might be here at her side. She lookad again at the boy. He lay as if he were dead.

Harriet was a girl bred in a gentle household, to whom, as yet, life had been made easy. Even sickness and bereavement, which none can escape, so far had passed her by: and apart from simple daily duties, she had had no responsibilities. But she was of the kind that learns quickly, As she sat here, curbing her impatience, seeing her own home below her and yet knowing that it was hopeless to wish to bring this injured boy into its shelter, she had a glimpse of the meaning of patience.