“John, help him up, he is too frightened to move.” “Come, my lad, you’ve nothing to fear now,” the driver remarked, encouragingly, and reaching over the back of his seat he took the boy by the arm and lifted him from the floor, placing him opposite his young mistress. He glared wildly about him at first, but as his eyes fell upon Gladys’ sympathetic face the fear faded from them, and he seemed reassured. Then all at once he put his hand to his head in a distressed way, and called out: “M’ha! m’ha!” “What does he mean, John? Can they have hurt him, do you think?” Gladys asked, looking perplexed, and regarding the boy’s blank, though beautiful, face with anxiety. “I don’t know, miss; perhaps it’s his hat he’s troubled about.” The lad turned quickly at the word hat, nodded his head emphatically, and showed two rows of white, handsome teeth in a broad, satisfied smile. “M’ha! m’ha!” he repeated, and then there followed a lot of gibberish that was wholly unintelligible to his listeners. “How strangely he appears!” Gladys exclaimed, regarding him curiously. “He do, indeed, miss. The poor chap is an idiot, or I’m much mistaken.” “An idiot! Oh, how dreadful! Poor boy,” cried Gladys, pityingly. Then she added, soothingly: “Never mind your hat, papa shall buy you another.” The young stranger nodded contentedly, as if he understood her, while his great blue eyes were fixed earnestly and confidingly on her face. “What is your name and where do you live?” continued the young girl, wondering what she should do with him now that she had rescued him from his persecutors, if he could not tell where he belonged. The only answer to this query was a senseless smile, accompanied by a low crooning sound of contentment. “Oh, dear! can’t you talk at all? What is your name? you must tell me or I shall not know where to take you,” said Gladys, beginning to look greatly disturbed, and wondering what would be the result of this strange adventure. The boy reached out a white, slender hand and touched the girl caressingly on the cheek, at the same time making a sound indicative of pleasure and admiration, but uttering no intelligible word. It was evident that he was not only simple-minded, but that there must be some paralysis of the vocal organs as well, that prevented his talking. A flush sprang to the young girl’s face, and a strange thrill pervaded her at the touch of those delicate fingers. “He is the most beautiful boy I ever saw,” she said, “but, oh! how dreadful for him not to know anything! I wonder who he is, John!” “I’m sure I can’t say, miss,” replied the man, looking perplexed and somewhat annoyed. “How old do you think he can be?” John gave a long look at the young stranger. “He’s small of his age, miss, but I reckon he must be older than yourself.” “Older than I! Oh! I do not think that can be possible,” Gladys exclaimed, attentively studying the strangely attractive yet vacant countenance before her.