"Where's Mamie?" I thought to ask with the greatest apprehension.

"In the garden eating cup-cake Jane baked hot for both of us," he
answered, snuggling close and much comforted.

"Don't ever, ever do that again, Billy," I said, giving him both a hug
and a shake. "It's piggy to eat more than is good for you and then still
want more. What would your father say?"

"Father isn't no good, and I don't care what he says," answered Billy
with spirit. "He don't play no more, and he don't laugh no more, and he
don't eat no more hardly, too. I'm not going to live in that house with
him more'n two days longer. I want to come over and sleep in your bed
and have you to play with me, Molly."

"Don't say that, darling, ever again," I said as I bent over him. "Your
father is the best man in the world, and you must never, never leave
him."

"I 'spect I will, when I get big enough to kill a bear," answered Billy
decidedly. "I say, do you think Mamie saved even a little piece of that
cake? I 'spect I had better go see," and he slipped out of my arms and
was gone before I could hold him.

It is a lonely house across the garden with the big and the tiny man
in it all by themselves! And tears, from another corner of my heart
entirely, rose to my eyes at the thought, but they, too, never fell, for
I heard Mrs. Johnson calling, and I had to run down quick and see what
new delicacy had arrived for my party.