Jimmy sprang up and brought it to him, and Mrs. Hunt gave him
a kind word or two and asked him to come in and sit awhile, but he
said he was tired, and taking the key, he crossed the hall and
unlocked Nan's door. As he closed it behind him he gave a little
start, for he saw something move over by the window. The next instant
he realised that it was only Nan's chair which had rocked a little
from the jar of the closing door. The room was unlighted except for
the faint glimmer near the open windows.
As Theo sat down in the rocking-chair, a wave of loneliness and
homesickness swept over him. Nan and Little Brother had made all the
home feeling he had ever known, and never before had he felt so
absolutely alone and friendless as he did to-night.
Tag seemed to share the feeling too. He went sniffing about the room,
evidently searching for the two who were gone, and finally, with a
long breath like a sigh, he dropped down beside the rocking-chair and
rubbed his head against his master's hand with a low, troubled whine.
Theodore patted the rough head as he said,
"Pretty lonesome, ain't it, old fellow?" and Tag rapped the floor with
his tail and whined again.
For a long time the boy sat there gravely thinking. At last, with a
sigh, he said to himself, "Might's well go to bed.
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