children to come along and be quick about it. The two small families had been playing on the strip of turf across the road, just by the stile into the fields. The children ran across the road; all of them except Johnnie Roberts. His brother Willie said that just as their mother called them he heard Johnnie cry out: 

 “Oh, what is that beautiful shiny thing over the stile?” 

 

CHAPTER X. The Child and the Moth

 The little Roberts’s ran across the road, up the path, and into the lighted room. Then they noticed that Johnnie had not followed them. Mrs. Roberts was doing something in the back kitchen, and Mr. Roberts had gone out to the shed to bring in some sticks for the next morning’s fire. Mrs. Roberts heard the children run in and went on with her work. The children whispered to one another that Johnnie would “catch it” when their mother came out of the back room and found him missing; but they expected he would run in through the open door any minute. But six or seven, perhaps ten, minutes passed, and there was no Johnnie. Then the father and mother came into the kitchen together, and saw that their little boy was not there. 

 They thought it was some small piece of mischief—that the two other children had hidden the boy somewhere in the room: in the big cupboard perhaps. 

 “What have you done with him then?” said Mrs. Roberts. “Come out, you little rascal, directly in a minute.” 

 There was no little rascal to come out, and Margaret Roberts, the girl, said that Johnnie had not come across the road with them: he must be still playing all by himself by the hedge. 

 “What did you let him stay like that for?” said Mrs. Roberts. “Can’t I trust you for two minutes together? Indeed to goodness, you are all of you more trouble than you are worth.” She went to the open door: 

 “Johnnie! Come you in directly, or you will be sorry for it. Johnnie!” 

 The poor woman called at the door. She went out to the gate and called there: 

 “Come you, little Johnnie. Come you, bachgen, there’s a good boy. I do see you hiding there.” 

 She thought he must be hiding in the shadow of the hedge, and that he would come running and laughing—“he was always such a happy little fellow”—to her across the road. 

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