That's the way it happened that Gilbert and his mother came back to
their home at midnight. For this story isn't about the hours in the
city, it's about the reaching home so very late. Maybe you'll like to
know, though, that the new clothes were all right, and Gilbert was a
very happy though a very sleepy boy by midnight.

But he was wide-awake enough when the cab drew up at their own door, and
he heard his mother exclaim. "Why, the house is lighted! There's a
bright light in the living room, and in the dining room too!" Mrs.
Haywood had paid the driver and he whirled the cab away before she
thought. "I do wish I'd asked him to stay, until we could see what it
means."

Gilbert was eager to press forward, but his mother put him behind her.
She fully expected to see burglars searching for silver, or taking money
from the desk.

But the sight which actually greeted her made her drop into a chair and
laugh. And Gilbert! He threw up his cap, almost shouting. "That's great,
isn't it, mother? Wasn't it cute of Billikens to light up for us to get
in?"

Now Billikens was a beautiful white Persian kitten, which had come to
Gilbert on his last birthday, and as full of mischief as a kitten could
be. Billikens sat perched on the back of an easy-chair under one of the
lights, looking for all the world as if he tried to say, "I did it, for
sure."

[Illustration: Billikens sat perched on the back of an easy-chair.]