"Oh! you're come, are you?" joyfully. "Mother said you wouldn't, when I told her, but I said you would. She wouldn't leave the door unlocked, cos she didn't know nothing about you; but she said, if you came to-day, you could come back to-night when she was home, and come in." "Oh, may I?" said Dick, rather gruffly; for he hardly liked the idea of meeting strangers. "Yes," went on Gerty; "I'll sing lots, if you want; and mother'll be glad to see you, too." "All right; mebbe I'll come. And say, here's suthin for ye," and the orange shot through the window. "Oh, my!" she gasped, "how nice! Is it really for me?" And Dick answered, "Yes, eat it now." Half his pleasure was in watching her eager relish of the fruit; and as Gerty needed no second bidding, the orange rapidly disappeared, she pausing now and again to look across gratefully at Dick and utter indistinct expressions of delight. "Now shall I sing?" she asked, when the last delicious mouthful was fairly swallowed; for she was anxious to make some return for the pleasure he had given her. "All right," responded Dick, "I'm ready." So the thin little voice began again the old refrain; Gerty singing with honest fervor, Dick listening in rapt attention. Following "Happy Land" came "I want to be an angel," "Little drops of water," etc.; and when full justice had been done to these well-worn tunes, Dick suggested a change. "Don't you sing 'Mulligan Guards'?" he questioned, at the close of one of the hymns. "No," said Gerty, perplexed. "They didn't sing that up to the horspital." "Oh, mebbe they don't sing it to the horspital; but I've heard 'em sing it bully to the circus. I say," he went on suddenly, "was you ever there--to the circus, I mean?" "No," said Gerty, eagerly. "What do they do?" "Oh, it's beautiful!" was Dick's answer. "All bright, you know, and warm, and the wimmin is dressed awful fine, and the men, too; and the horses prance around; and they have music and tumbling, and--oh, lots of things!" "My! and you've been there?" "Oh yes, I've been!" Then, as he watched her sparkling eyes, "Look here, I'll take you. I could carry you, you know, and we'd go early, and I'd put you up against a post, and----Don't you want to go?" "Want to go?" she repeated with rapture. "Oh, it's too good to be true! I was scared just a-thinkin' of it. Oh, if mother'd let me an' I could! Wouldn't I be too heavy? Mother says I'm light as a feather,--and I wouldn't weigh more'n I could help," she added, wistfully. "Never you mind," was Dick's hearty reply. "I'll come to-night and see the old lady,--your mother, I mean,--and we'll go next week, if she'll let you." So it was decided; and when Dick said "good-bye," and ran off, Gerty settled back with a sigh, half of delight and half of anxiety, lest her wild, wonderful hope should never be fulfilled. But Dick came that night, and Gerty's mother, when she saw Dick's honest, earnest face, and her little girl's eager, pleading eyes, gave consent.