forehead how his father had told him he wasn't "half a boy," because he
had turned giddy climbing a high tree? "But papa always says when Harry
bangs his head about, that he doesn't believe there can be any brains
behind such a skull as his. I dare say that is the difference between
us."

So said the young scholar with all the satisfaction possible, and I
believed in him with all my heart.

[Illustration: HOLIDAY TIME.]

However, even he grew tired of wise talk, and proposed a game with the
fallen apples. How we pelted each other, how we laughed, and, oh, how
hot we did get at last! Then off came hats and jackets, and were left
behind under the trees while we went to rest ourselves in a piece of
open shade, thrown by that large barn where, by and by, the apples would
be stored away; and this was the moment which I seized to get his advice
as to a new toy I had lately bought to send to Bobbie. It was one of
those wooden soldiers whose arms and legs are to go by means of a
string; but the string, you know, is always getting hitched. This was
the case now, and it tasked all Alick's wonderful brains to set it
right. How my back and arm did ache as I held it up for him, lying flat
on the grass, to twitch, and pull, and contrive, and, at last, to
conquer! That happy moment had just come when there was a sound of
wheels in the road near us. One minute more, and Uncle Hugh's voice was
heard calling us, and the carriage stopped to take us up. What grand,
glorious news we were told as we drove home, two hatless, jacketless,
sun-burnt children, I must not tell you this time.