"Old riverzh bwoke wight in two there," said Toddie, "an' a piece of it's way up in the air, an' anuvver piece izh way down in big hole in the shtones. _That'sh_ where I want to go widin'."

"Listen, Toddy," said Mrs. Burton. "We like to take you riding with us at most times, but _to-day_ we prefer to go alone. You and Budge will stay at home--we shan't be gone more than two hours."

"Wantsh to go a-widin'!" exclaimed Toddie.

"I know you do, dear, but you must wait until some other day," said the lady.

"But I _wantsh_ to go," Toddie explained.

"And I don't want you to, so you can't," said Mrs. Burton, in a tone which would reduce any reasonable person to hopelessness. But Toddie, in spite of manifest astonishment, remarked:

"Wantsh to go a-widin'."

"_Now_ the fight is on," murmured Mr. Burton to himself. Then he arose hastily from the table, and said:

"I think I'll try to catch the earlier train, my dear, as I am coming back so soon."

Mrs. Burton arose to bid her husband Good-by, and was kissed with more than usual tenderness, and then held at arm's length, while manly eyes looked into her own with an expression which she found untranslatable--for two hours at least. Mrs. Burton saw her husband fairly on his way, and then she returned to the dining-room, led Toddie into the parlor, took him upon her lap, wound her arms tenderly about him, and said:

"Now, Toddie, dear, listen carefully to what Aunt Alice tells you. There are some reasons why you boys should not go with us to-day, and Aunt Alice means just what she says when she tells you you can't go with us.

If you were to ask a hundred times it would not make the slightest bit of difference. You cannot go, and you must stop thinking about it."

Toddie listened intelligently from beginning to end, and replied:

"But I _wantsh_ to go."

"And you can't. That ends the matter."

"No, it don't," said Toddie, "not a single bittle. I wantsh to go badder than ever."

"But you are not going."

"I wantsh to go so baddy," said Toddy, beginning to cry.

"I suppose you do, and auntie is very sorry for you," said Mr. Burton, kindly; "but that does not alter the case. When grown people say 'No!'

little boys must understand that they mean it."

"But what I wantsh izh to go a-widin' wif you," said Toddie.

"And what _I_ want is, that you shall stay at home; so you must," said Mrs. Burton. Let us have no more talk about it now. Shouldn't you like to go into the garden and pick some strawberries all for yourself?"

"No; I'd like to go widin'."

"Toddie," said Mrs. Burton, "don't let me hear one more word about riding."

"Well, I want to go."

"Toddie, I will certainly have to punish you if you say any more on this subject, and that will make me very unhappy. You don't want to make auntie unhappy on her birthday, do you?"

"No; but I do want to go a-widin'."

"Listen Toddie," said Mrs. Burton, with an imperious stamp of her foot, and a sudden loss of her entire stock of patience. "If you say one more word about that trip, I will lock you up in the attic chamber, where you were day before yesterday, and Budge shall not be with you."

[Illustration: TODDIE SUDDENLY FOUND HIMSELF CLASPED TIGHTLY IN HIS AUNT'S ARMS, IN WHICH POSITION HE KICKED, PUSHED, SCREAMED, AND ROARED, DURING THE PASSAGE OF TWO FLIGHTS OF STAIRS.]

Toddie gave vent to a perfect torrent of tears, and screamed:

"A--h--h--h! I don't want to be locked up, an' I do want to go a-widin'."

Toddie suddenly found himself clasped tightly in his aunt's arms, in which position he kicked, pushed, screamed, and roared, during the passage of two flights of stairs. The moment of his final incarceration was marked by a piercing shriek which escaped from the attic window, causing the dog Jerry to retire precipitately from a pleasing lounging-place on the well-curb, and making a passing farmer to rein up his horses, and maintain a listening position for the space of five minutes. Meanwhile Mrs. Burton descended to the parlor, more flushed, untidy and angry than one had ever before seen her. She soon encountered the gaze of her nephew Budge, and it was so full of solemnity that Mrs.

Burton's anger departed in an instant.

"How would _you_ like to be carried up-stairs screamin' an' put in a lonely room, just 'cause you wanted to go riding?" asked Budge.

Mrs. Burton was unable to imagine herself in any such position, but replied:

"I should never be so foolish as to keep on wanting what I knew I could not have."

"Why!" exclaimed Budge. "Are grown folks as smart, as all that?"

Mrs. Burton's conscience smote her not over-lightly, and she hastened to change the subject, and to devote herself assiduously to Budge, as if to atone for some injury which she might have done to his brother. An occasional howl which fell from the attic-window increased her zeal for Budge's comfort. Under each one, however, her resolution grew weaker, and finally, with a hypocritical excuse to Budge, Mrs. Burton hurried up to the door of Toddie's prison, and said through the keyhole:

"Toddie?"

"What?" said Toddie.

"Will you be a good-boy, now!"

"Yesh, if you'll take me a-widin'."

Mrs. Burton turned abruptly away, and simply flew down the stairs.

Budge, who awaited her at the foot, instinctively stood aside, and exclaimed:

"My! I thought you was goin' to tumble! Why didn't you bring him down?"

"Bring who?" asked Mrs. Burton, indignantly.

"Oh, _I_ know what you went up-stairs for?" said Budge. "Your eyes told me all about it."

"You're certainly a rather inconvenient companion," said Mrs. Burton, averting her face, "and I want you to run home and ask how your mamma and baby-sister are. Don't stay long; remember that lunch will be earlier than usual to-day."

Away went Budge, and Mrs. Burton devoted herself to thought and self-questioning. Unquestioning obedience had been her own duty since she could remember, yet she was certain that her will was as strong as Toddie's. If she had been always able to obey, certainly the unhappy little boy in the attic was equally capable--why should he not do it?

Perhaps, she admitted to herself, she had inherited a faculty in this direction, and perhaps--yes, certainly, Toddie had done nothing of the sort. How was she to overcome the defect in his disposition; or was she to do it at all? Was it not something with which no one temporarily having a child in charge should interfere? As she pondered, an occasional scream from Toddie helped to unbend the severity of her principles, but suddenly her eye rested upon a picture of her husband, and she seemed to see in one of the eyes a quizzical expression. All her determination came back in an instant with heavy reinforcements, and Budge came back a few minutes later. His bulletins from home, and his stores of experiences _en route_ consumed but a few moments, and then Mrs. Burton proceeded to dress for her ride. To exclude Toddie's screams she closed her door tightly, but Toddie's voice was one with which all timber seemed in sympathy, and it pierced door and window apparently without effort. Gradually, however, it seemed to cease, and with the growing infrequency of his howls and the increasing feebleness of their utterance, Mrs. Burton's spirits revived. Dressing leisurely, she ascended Toddie's prison to receive his declaration of penitence and to accord a gracious pardon. She knocked softly at the door, and said:

"Toddie?"

There was no response, so Mrs. Burton knocked and called with more energy than before, but without reply. A terrible fear occurred to her!

she had heard of children who screamed themselves to death when angry.