The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-02-16

l
wsstedl Back, now, to the start, and
we'll make fire and put some chest
nuts to roast;" and the next moment
the whole laughing, merry party had
swept away again, with the exception
of Carol, who still stood beside the
sleigh.
eyes, he is very much better" the
doctor was saying, in reply to some
question which the boy had put;
''that is, physically. Mentally he is
in what you fellows would call the
dumps;' for he is just beginning to
realize all that he has lost by this
long illness, and because he is SO
weak and unlike himself, he is CORE
spondingly down hearted and mis-
cradle. Idon't know what he wouldn't
give to be with you to-day. Poor
fellow! / hated to leave him; and if
l had not had two or three calls that
l am obliged to make this afternoon,
l should have stayed for an hour or
so and tried to do what | could
toward cheering him up, and at the
same time sent his mother out for
bit of this glorious air. Well, l must
be off. 1 envy you your afternoon
on the ice. You'll come in and see
me tomorrow or Monday before you
go? All right. Good bye"
AS he drove off, Carol turned
again to the lake and made his way
carefully down the slippery bank to
the ice. But he did not follow the
vanished party whose merry, laugh
ing voices came to him, though they
| themselves were hidden by bend
from his sight. For moment he
stood looking toward the quarter
whence the voices came, with an ex-
preston of longing in his brown
eyes; then, with something very like
a stifed sigh, he took pencil from
his pocket, wrote few words on a
bit of paper, inserted it in the end of
a tall twig which he had prepared
for the purpose, placed it in con-
spicuous position on the bank of the
island, took off his skates, and bound
ing up the bank, walked quickly
away from the lake with not a glance
behind.
81 do wonder what got into Carol
this afternoon" said Bessie, as she
sat with her father and mother at sup
per that evening. eve had all been
having race-in which, of course, he
won-and were planning to make the
most of the rest OF the afternoon, as
the boys go back to school on Mon
day. We left him at the island talk
ing to the doctor, who had been UNI
pire for the race, thinking that of
course he would follow us back to
the shore house where the boys were
going to build fire on the bank to
roast chestnuts. But he did not come,
and after while some of us went
back to where we had left him to
hunt him up, but all that we found
was bit of paper futtering in the
breeze, on which he had written:
you need not dredge the lake for my
body, have gone to attend to some
business. If / get through in time,
I'll come back and walk home with
YOU But he didn't come back,
though we waited half an hour for
him; and I should just like to know
what business he could have found
urgent enough to take him away from
the lake on his last afternoon at home,
for there isn't one of us that loves
skating as he does. And why need
he have been so mysterious about it 1?
Why couldn't he have told us what
| it vast"
81 can explain it to you, Bessie"
said her father, with that look in his
face which Bessie said always came
"when somebody had been doing
something awfully good"
at was good business that Carol
was upon, and he did not tell you be-
cause it is his way not to let even his
left hand know what his right hand
doeth. / had called in to see Jack
Race this afternoon, and found the
poor fellow looking very blue and
discouraged; and though he tried to
exert himself and be his own polite
self, l could see that he was down
hearted and miserable, and as soon
as turned from him to his mother,
and the necessity for attempting to
look cheerful was removed, his face
became absolutely melancholy. /
was Just thinking that he needed
some bright young companion to
cheer him up, when, to my joy, in
came Carol, the picture of health
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