And this time came back a lusty young voice crying:

"I'm coming!"

And hard behind the voice leaves shook, and a boy came
striding into the sunlight. In one hand he trailed a gun, and
at his heels trotted a waggish spaniel of immense importance
and infinitesimal size. In his other hand the boy carried by
the legs a splendid cock-grouse, ruffled and hunger-compelling.
The boy, perhaps two years older than Aladdin, was big and strong
for his age, and bore his shining head like a young wood-god.

Margaret ran to him, telling her story as she went, but so
incoherently that when she reached him she had to stop and
begin over again.

"Then Senator St. John is your father?" said the boy at
length. "You know, he's a great friend of my father's. My
father's name is Peter Manners, and he used to be a
congressman for New York. Are you hungry?"

Margaret could only look it.

They sat down, and the boy took wonderful things out of his
wonderful pockets--sandwiches of egg and sandwiches of jam;
and Margaret fell to.

"I live in New York," said the boy, "but I'm staying with my
cousins up the river. They told me there were partridges on