hear it--"s-seem like--some'ow--t-ter-day--I'se jes--'_blige ter be
yere!_"

She heard the faint, choked whisper, and she saw the trembling little
figure. She saw the other little figure, and then again the faint,
choked whisper came sounding up to her ears. But dimly, dimly--just
for the moment--she seemed to hear something else--to see another
little boy, whipped to school by a coarse, brutish man, yet all the
while helplessly struggling against it. That other little boy--again
the small hands caught at her skirts.

"Doan't yer let 'im! Will yer, Miss No'th?"

She lifted him from the floor.

"No--I won't let him," and she put him gently into his seat.

Still, with hushed faces, the children gazed wonderingly.... She held
out her arms.

"Come, Ezekiel!" Was Miss North going to cry?

"Sit down--right here, Ezekiel; you are very--tired!"

He still hung over the desk, and she went up to him between the seats.

"Eze-kiel! Come! Come--my dear little boy!"

But there was the sound of an opening door, and she turned.