circus man, and as he was without fear so he was without reverence. He would tease Miss Thomasia and play practical jokes on Mr. Gray and Dr. Cary. To show his contempt for the "Indian Killer," he 5 went alone and spent the night on the bloody rock, and when the other boys crept in a body to see if he were really there, he was found by the little party of scared searchers to be tranquilly asleep on the "Indian Killer's" very grave.

10 At length Steve went off to school to Dr. Maule,

at The Academy," as it was called. Jacquelin missed him sorely and tried to imitate him in many things; but he knew it was a poor imitation, for often he could not help being afraid, whilst Steve 15 did not know what fear was. Jacquelin's knees would shake and his teeth sometimes chatter, whilst Steve performed his most dangerous feats with mantling cheeks and dancing eyes. However, the boy kept on, and began to do things simply because 20 he was afraid. One day he read how a great general,

named Marshal Turenne, on being laughed at because his knees were shaking as he mounted his horse to go into battle, replied that if his knees knew where he was going to take them that day 25 they would shake still more. This incident helped Jacquelin mightily, and he took his knees into many

dangerous places. In time this had its effect, and as his knees began to shake less he began to grow more self-confident and conceited. He began to be very proud of himself, and to take opportunities to show his superiority over others, which developed 5 with some rapidity the character existent somewhere in most persons, the prig.

Blair Cary gave the first, if not the final, shock to this development.

She was the daughter of Dr. Cary, Mr. Gray's 10 cousin, who lived a few miles off across the river, at Birdwood, perhaps the next most considerable place to Red Rock in that section. She was a slim little girl with a rather pale face, large brown eyes, and hair that was always blowing into them.

15

She would have given her eyes, no doubt, to have been accepted as companion by Jacquelin, who was several years her senior; but as that young man was now aspiring to be comrade to Steve and to Blair's brother, Morris, he relegated Blair to the 20 companionship of his small brother, Rupert, who was as much younger than Blair as she was younger than himself, and treated her himself with sovereign disdain. The first shock he received was when he found how much better Blair could read Latin than 25 he could, and how much Steve thought of her on

that account. After that Jacquelin condescended to play with her occasionally, and sometimes even to let her follow him about the plantation to admire his feats, whilst he tried to revenge himself on her 5 for her superior learning by showing her how much more a boy could do than a girl. It was all in vain. For, with this taunt for a spur, she would follow him even to the tops of trees or the bottoms of ponds; so he determined to show his superiority 10 by one final and supreme act. This was to climb

to the roof of the "high barn," as it was called, and spring off into the top of a tree which spread its branches below. He had seen Steve do it, but had never ventured to try it himself. He had often 15 climbed to the roof, and had fancied himself performing this feat to escape from pursuing Indians, but had never really contemplated doing it in fact, until Blair's persistent emulation, daunted by nothing that he attempted, spurred him to undertake 20 it. So one day, after some boasting, he climbed to the peak of the roof. His heart beat so as he gazed down into the green mass far below him and saw the patches of brown earth through the leaves, that he wished he had not been so boastful; but there 25 was Blair behind him, astride of the roof, her eyes

fastened on him with a somewhat defiant gaze.

He thought how Steve would jeer if he knew he had turned back. So, with a call of derision to Blair to see what "a man could do," he set his teeth, shut his eyes, and took the jump, and landed safely below, among the boughs, his outstretched 5 arms gathering them in as he sank amidst them, until they stopped his descent and he found a limb and climbed down, his heart bumping with excitement and pride. Blair, he felt sure, was at last stumped." As he sprang to the ground and 10 looked up he saw a sight which made his heart give a bigger bound than it had ever done in all his life. There was little Blair on the very peak of the roof, the very point of the gable, getting ready to follow him. Her face was white, her lips 15 were tightly closed, and her eyes were opened so wide that he could see them even from where he was. She was poised like a bird ready to fly.

66

"Blair! Blair!" he cried, waving her back. "Don't! don't!" But Blair took no heed. She 20 only settled herself for a firmer foothold, and the next second, with outstretched arms, she sprang into space. Whether it was that his cry distracted her, or whether her hair blew into her eyes and made her miss her step, or whether she would have 25 misjudged her distance anyhow, instead of reaching

the thickly leaved part where Jacquelin had landed, she struck where the boughs were much less thick, and came crashing through, - down, down, from bough to bough, until she landed on the lowest 5 limb, where she stopped for a second and then rolled over and fell in a limp little bundle on the ground, where she lay quite still. Jacquelin never forgot the feeling he had at that moment. He was sure she was dead, and that he was a murderer. 10 In a second he was down on his knees, bending over her.

"Blair! Blair!" he cried. "Dear Blair, are you hurt?" But there was no answer. And he began to whimper in a very unmanly fashion for one who 15 had been so boastful a moment before, and to pray,

too, which is not so unmanly; but his wits were about him, and it came to him quite clearly that, if she were not dead, the best thing to do was to unfasten her neckband and bathe her face. So off to the 20 nearest water he put as hard as his legs could take him, and dipped his handkerchief in the horse trough, and then, grabbing up a bucket near by, filled it and ran back with it. Blair was still motionless and white, but he wiped her scratched face and bathed 25 it again and again, and presently, to his joy, she

sighed and half opened her eyes, and sighed again,