"They are going to leave me!" sighed the Little Red House.

"And they are laughing quite happily, as if they were glad about it.

There's a nice thing for you!--Going to leave me, and laughing about it!"

"But perhaps you are wrong," said the big Blue-gum, who was not so hard-hearted as he seemed.

"I always know," moaned the Little Red House. "I can't be mistaken.

Sym was singing his Tinker's song this morning long before the sun was up. And then I heard him tell Emily Ann not to forget her umbrella.

That means that she is going; and the little dog is going, and I shall be all alone."

"Well," answered the Blue-gum rather stiffly, "you still have ME for company."

"I know," sighed the Little Red House. "Don't think I'm ungrateful.

But, when they both go away, I shan't be really and truly a home again until they come back--just an empty house; and it makes me miserable.

How would YOU like to be an empty house?"

"Some day I might be," replied the Blue-gum, "if I don't grow too old.

There is some fine timber in me yet."

Suddenly there was a great clattering and stamping inside the Little House, and Sym began to sing his Tinker's song.

"Kettles and pans! Kettles and pans!

All the broad earth is the tinkering man's-- The green leafy lane or the fields are his home, The road or the river, where'er he way roam.

He roves for a living and rests where he can.

Then bring out your kettle! ho! kettle or pan!"

There's a nice thing for you!" said the Little Red House bitterly.

"What kind of a song do you call that? Any old place is good enough for his home, and I am just nothing!"

"Oh, that's only his way of putting it," answered the Blue-gum kindly.

"He doesn't really mean it, you know; he wants a change, that's all."

But the Little Red House wouldn't say a word.

"It looks a good deal like rain this morning, doesn't it?" said the Blue-gum cheerfully, trying to change the subject.

But the Little Red House wouldn't say a word.

Very soon Sym and Emily Ann, carrying bundles, came out of the Little Red House, laughing and talking; and Sym locked the door.

"Now for a jolly trip!" shouted Sym, as he picked up his firepot and soldering-irons.

But all at once Emily Ann ceased laughing and looked back wistfully at the Little Red House.

"After all I'm sorry to leave our little home," she said. "See how sad it looks!"

"Hurry on!" cried Sym, who was all eagerness for the trip. Then he, too, looked back. "Why, you forgot to draw down the blinds," he said.

"No, I didn't forget," answered Emily Ann, "but I think it a shame to blindfold the Little Red House while we are away. I just left the blinds up so that he could see things. Good-bye, little home," she called. And the Little Red House felt just the least bit comforted to think that Emily Ann was sorry to leave him. Then she went off down the winding path with Sym; and Sym began to shout his Tinker's Song again.

The Little Red House watched them go down the mountain.

Away they went: through the gate, past the black stump, round by the bracken patch and over the bridge, across the potato paddock, through the sliprails--getting smaller and smaller--past the sign-post, down by the big rocks--getting smaller and smaller--under the tree-ferns, out on to the stony flat, across the red road, until they were just two tiny specks away down in the valley. Then they went through a white gate, round a turn, and the high scrub hid them.

Had you been able to see the Little Red House just at that moment, you would have been sure he was going to cry--he looked so miserable and so lonely.

"Cheer up!" said the big Blue-gum.

But the Little Red House couldn't say a word.

Presently the big Blue-gum groaned loudly.

"Oo! Ah! Ah! Golly!" groaned the Blue-gum in a strange voice.

"I beg your pardon? said the Little Red House.

"Oh, I have a nasty sharp pain in my side," said the Blue-gum. "I do hope and trust it isn't white-ants. It would be simply horrible, if it were. Fancy getting white-ants at my time of life! Here I have lived on this mountain, tree and sapling, for over a hundred years; and to think those nasty, white, flabby little things should get me at last is horrible--horrible!"

"I am sorry," said the Little Red House. "I'm afraid I've been very selfish, too. I was forgetting that everyone has troubles of his own; but I hope it isn't so bad as you fear."

"It is bad enough," groaned the Blue-gum. "Ow! There it is again. I'm afraid it IS white-ants. I can feel the wretched little things nipping."

But the Little Red House hardly heard him. He was thinking again of his own troubles.

So they stood all through that day, saying very little to each other.

Rabbits came and played about the Little Red House, and lizards ran over his door-step, and once a big wallaby went flopping right past the front gate. But the Little Red House paid no attention. He was too busy thinking of his loneliness.

Birds came and perched in the branches of the big Blue-gum, and chattered and sang to him, trying to tell him the news of other trees on distant mountains. But the big Blue-gum took no notice. He was too busy thinking about white-ants.

So the sun sank low behind the Little House, and the shadow of the tall Blue-gum began to creep down the mountain and get longer and longer.

Just as it was growing dark, the big Blue-gum said Suddenly, "It certainly looks more like rain than ever. The heavy clouds have been gathering all day, and we shall get it properly to-night."

But the rain did not come that night, nor the next day, nor for two days and nights. And all this while the Little Red House and the Big Blue-gum remained silent and miserable--one through loneliness, the other through white-ants.

But on the evening of the third day the big Blue-gum said, "The rain will come to-night for certain. I know by the feel of the air."

"Let it come!" said the Little Red House. "I don't care. I couldn't be more miserable than I am."

Just as he said that, one great rain-drop fell right on the middle of his roof--Plop!

"It's coming already," cried the Blue-gum, "and it's going to pour."

Then three more big drops fell--Plop! Plop! Plop!

"I have never in my life seen such big rain-drops," said the Blue-gum.

"I've lived on this mountain, tree and sapling, for--"