Once I left the room for a minute
while we were playing, and on my return found four of my men had
disappeared. I said, "Where are those men?" Teddy smiled courteously; "I
taken 'em. I go hop, hop, hop, over a lot. All fair." "But where have
you put them?" "In a pocket. All fair." But he gradually grew out of his
habits of picking and stealing, and he behaved much like a well-trained
dog. It is plain to me that he regarded me as a sort of deity; but his
love was quite unalloyed by fear. He would stroke my beard, and say,
"You very nice," when I had been specially good-humoured, and, as his
stock of words increased, he prattled on by the hour. One must love
something, and I got into the habit of loving this pale little urchin,
so that at length I fitted up a crib for him, and asked his mother to
let him stay with me. This made a great change in my habits. Teddy
seemed to wake as by magic, if I rose to go out after he was in bed,
and, although he never cried, his way of saying, "You won't let me stop
by myself--perhaps the black man might come," always settled me.
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