Leonard, meanwhile, had seated himself, and was holding little Ned on his
knee, his arm at the same time encircling shy, sensitive Johnnie, who was
fairly trembling with excited expectancy. Ned, with his thumb in his
mouth, regarded his new relative in a nonchalant manner; but to the
little girl the home-world was _the_ world, and the arrival in its midst
of the beautiful lady never seen before was as wonderful as any fairy
tale. Indeed, that such a June-like creature should come to them that
wintry day--that she had crossed the terrible ocean from a foreign realm
far more remote, in the child's consciousness, than fairy-land--seemed
quite as strange as if Cinderella had stepped out of the storybook with
the avowed purpose of remaining with them until her lost slipper was
found. Leonard, big and strong as he was, felt and interpreted the
delicate and thrilling organism of his child, and, as Amy turned toward
him, he said, with a smile:

"No matter about me. We're old friends; for I've known you ever since you
were a little girl at the station. What if you did grow to be a young
woman while riding home! Stranger things than that happen every day in
storybooks, don't they, Johnnie? Johnnie, you must know, has the advantage
of the rest of us. She likes bread-and-butter, and kindred realities of our
matter-of-fact sphere, but she also has a world of her own, which is quite
as real. I think she is inclined to believe that you are a fairy princess,
and that you may have a wand in your pocket by which you can restore to her
doll the missing nose and arm."

Amy scarcely needed Leonard's words in order to understand the child, for
the period was not remote when, in her own mind, the sharp outlines of
fact had shaded off into the manifold mysteries of wonderland. Therefore,
with an appreciation and a gentleness which won anew all hearts, she took