among them all. It was the face of the boy who lived next door--the
boy who had stood with her under the cherry tree; who had put a tiny
play ring of brass upon her finger; and who had kissed her with a kiss
that was somehow different. He was the hero of her Yesterdays as he
was the acknowledged chieftain of the school. No one could run so
fast, swim so far, dive so deep, or climb so high as he. No one could
throw him in wrestling or defeat him in boxing. He was their lord,
their leader, their boyish master and royally he ruled them all--his
willing subjects. He it was who stopped the runaway horse; who killed
the big snake; and who pulled the minister's little daughter from the
pond. It was he who planned the parties and the picnics; the sleigh
rides in winter and the berrying trips in summer. It was he whom the
girls all loved and the boys all worshiped--bold, handsome, daring,
dashing, careless, generous, leader of the Yesterdays.

Again she saw his face lifted slyly from a spelling book to smile at
her across the aisle. Again she felt the rich, warm, color rush to her
cheeks as he took his seat, beside her on the recitation bench. Again
her eyes were dimmed with tears when he was punished for some broken
rule or shone with gladness when she heard his clear voice laughing
with his friends or calling to his mates and her.

And once again, in the late afternoon, with him and with the other
boys and girls, she went down the road from the little schoolhouse in
the edge of the timber on the hill; her sunbonnet hanging by its
strings and her dinner basket on her arm. Onward, through the long
shadows that lay across their way, they went together, to pause at
last before the gate of her home, there to linger for a little, while
the others still went on. Farther and farther in the evening they
watched their schoolmates go--up the road past the house where he