Kitty stopped and looked around, for she heard a muttering as of two people talking confidentially together.

Yes, there were two figures in front of her, standing with their arms round each other’s necks. They were so like that Kitty felt sure they were twins. They had satisfied round eyes and big faces and double chins, and wore steeple-crowned hats, tilted on one side, which gave them a jaunty look.

All at once Kitty started back, for she perceived that one of the figures was solid and the other quite transparent; through it she could see the tree against which it leaned.

“Why—who—who—what is that?” she gasped nervously.

“That is Myself,” said the opaque one, rolling 224his eyes with an affectionate grin in the direction of his comrade, who rolled his pale round eyes and grinned a ghostly grin in answer.

“Then who are you?” asked Kitty timidly.

“I—why, I am I,” he answered rather sullenly.

“That’s what we are—Myself and I,” said a voice hard and thin like a spectral rattle, which Kitty perceived emanated from the vapory figure.

“I never knew there was a difference between Myself and I,” murmured Kitty, who felt compelled to gaze at that transparent form, although she would much rather not have looked. It was so very uncomfortable to see that tree through it.

“I made him; is he not a beauty?” said I, proudly pointing with his thumb, and a grin to his companion.

Myself acknowledged the compliment by bowing his misty head, and grinning likewise.

“How did you make him?” asked Kitty with a little shiver.

225“I made him,” said I, “with my thoughts. I thought of myself night and day, talking, eating, walking, sleeping, I thought of myself, and one day there was Myself before me—the dear—he never quits me—never—we gaze at each other—we love each other.”

“And we love nobody else—nobody—nobody—nobody 226else,” joined in the thin rattle of a voice.

“Are you never tired of each other?—I—mean—of—of—well, I don’t know how to put it—quite—for you are not each other,” said Kitty.

“Tired!” shrieked the two voices together; and then the two beings fell into each other’s arms.

“If you please,” said Kitty, after having watched this scene of affection, and feeling rather neglected, “will you tell me if it is a long way out of this wood?”

“A very long way,” said I, cheerily looking up.

“We don’t care a dump how long it is, provided we have not to walk it,” chimed Myself, airily wagging its head.

“I am very tired,” said Kitty despondently, and tears rushed into her eyes.

“I suppose you are,” remarked I indifferently.

“That is no matter to us,” said Myself, grinning his ghostly smile.

227“I cannot offer you this seat,” said I, “for Myself must sit there. I am afraid of tiring Myself. It is a duty I owe to Myself, never to tire Myself—precious one—never to let Myself be hungry or thirsty—dearest creature—or any harm come to Myself—excellent fellow.” Saying this I and Myself sat down side by side on the mossy roots of a tree, and looked up at Kitty with a grin that made the spectral face of Myself more than ever like that of I.

“Selfish thing!” muttered Kitty indignantly. “It must be Goblin Selfishness.”

“Yes, Goblin Selfishness,” whispered the guardian child, and his voice was anxious. “Take care!”

“Oh!” said Kitty, once more setting off at a run, “there’s no danger for me. It will be enough to think of that creepy, misty, ugly Myself, never to think of myself again, lest—”

But she stopped.

“Well, here is some one coming who is not running,” cried Kitty, laughing.

228“The walking picture of Cleverness,” the naughty sprite chuckled.

If it was a little old man or a very old-looking boy who now approached Kitty could not determine. He wore a pair of blue spectacles astride upon his hooked nose, which jutted out over very thin lips, and was rather blue and frost-bitten. Altogether he was uncommonly 229like an owl, Kitty thought. Whoever he was, this personage walked slowly, holding a sun-shade open in one hand, and a warm overcoat slung over his other arm. He was apparently prepared to meet every sort of weather. Kitty noticed also that his ears were stuffed with cotton-wool.

“Well,” she said aloud, addressing nobody in particular, and with a broad smile, “this must be Mr. Take-care-of-himself.”

“An excellent name,” answered the little old man, or the very old-looking boy. The cotton-wool in his ears did not seem to deafen sound. “And I would advise you to deserve such a name.”

“Not if I must wear those big spectacles to deserve it,” laughed Kitty.

“Don’t say a word against my spectacles till you have looked through them,” answered her new acquaintance.

He had a cold, crisp voice, and he seemed to peck his words as a fowl pecks grain. From his pocket he pulled out another pair of blue glasses. “Just try this pair and tell me what you see.”

230“Don’t!” whispered the guardian child.

“Do, just for the fun of it,” urged the naughty sprite in a coaxing tone.

“I shall wait till I want spectacles to make a fright of myself,” said Kitty, and she would have walked on.

“What do you see?” asked the blue-spectacled personage, rubbing the glasses he ............