"Not a particle; but she 's a dear," returned Sallie, defending
her friend even while confessing her short-comings.

"She 's not a stricken deer, any way," said Ned, trying to
be witty, and succeeding as well as very young gentlemen usually
do.

On the lawn, where it had gathered, the little party separated
with cordial good-nights and good-byes, for the Vaughns were
going to Canada. As the four sisters went home through the
garden, Miss Kate looked after them, saying, without the patron-
izing tone in her voice, "In spite of their demonstrative man-
ners, American girls are very nice when one knows them."

"I quite agree with you," said Mr. Brooke.

LAURIE lay luxuriously swinging to and fro in his hammock,
one warm September afternoon, wondering what his neighbors
were about, but too lazy to go and find out. He was in one of
his moods; for the day had been both unprofitable and unsatis-
factory, and he was wishing he could live it over again. The
hot weather made him indolent, and he had shirked his studies,
tried Mr. Brooke's patience to the utmost, displeased his grand-
father by practising half the afternoon, frightened the maid-
servants half out of their wits, by mischievously hinting that
one of his dogs was going mad, and, after high words with the
stable-man about some fancied neglect of his horse, he had
flung himself into his hammock, to fume over the stupidity of
the world in general till the peace of the lovely day quieted him
in spite of himself. Staring up into the green gloom of the
horse-chestnut trees above him, he dreamed dreams of all sorts,
and was just imagining himself tossing on the ocean, in a voyage
round the world, when the sound of voices brought him ashore
in a flash. Peeping through the meshes of the hammock, he

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