'A little boy, and it's full as much like a stick of wood as anything else.'

Ned ran away; he had heard enough for one day. He wondered, if he should meet Miss Wood, and she should ask him what they said, what he should tell her; but, wisely resolving only to speak the truth, he was not so much troubled when he saw her coming round the corner on her way home. She beckoned to him, and he crossed over to her.

'Found them rather sharp, eh, Ned? Rheumatism doesn't make people feel pleasant when they are old; so you had better "make hay while the sun shines," and never be cross now; one cross word is as bad as a dozen, because it makes a dozen.' Then came a series of nods and smiles, every one of which was most expressive and amusing to Ned; but not a word did she ask of the reception of his present; she had sent too many to the same house not to be well informed. When Ned reached the shop again, he found it half full of customers, and among them he saw Hal Foote, the boy whom he had been wishing to inform of his change in life.

Hal was a schoolmate, and of all the boys in Harland Ned loved him best. Now, Hal was a small, pale, sickly boy, an only son, and a great pet at home. People who are always very wise said, that if there had been six boys instead of one, Hal would have been as large and stout as any one else; but as it was, he had been indulged in everything that was bad as well as good for him, until there was nothing left to make a man's constitution out of. Whatever the truth was, it was certain that Hal was weak

and not able to cope with other boys in anything but his studies; in them he always stood first, or rather, going most of the time to the same school with Edward Randall, he divided the honours with him; while Ned always took care of him, fought all his battles for him, did all his running in the rough games, drew his sled up hill with his own, rowed for him in the boat, and waited for him when the other boys, too impatient to be detained, ran on, leaving them behind. That Hal loved Ned need not be said, and yet Hal was so differently situated at home from Ned, that many wondered when they saw the boys so constantly together. Hal was, as has been said, Miss Wood's nephew, and there was a great deal of money in the family. They lived in elegant houses, kept carriages and servants, fine gardens and grounds; indeed, they were the family in Harland. It may seem strange that, knowing Hal so well, Ned was such an entire stranger to Miss Wood. He had indeed heard Hal speak often of her, but it was always as his Aunt Betty. He had never thought, nor asked, what her other name was; nor had he during the morning once supposed they were one and the same person. Hal had been early that morning to Ned's house, to find why he had not been at school the day before, and had learned from his mother, without her going at all into particulars, that Ned was in Mr. Jenkins's shop.

Ned had the story all ready which he had intended to tell, of his having turned sailor, and being there to study navigation; but Hal was troubled and annoyed, and therefore in no mood for taking a joke; so Ned drew him aside, and Mr. Jenkins saw the boys in a very earnest but low

conversation. Hal grew very much excited, his pale face was flushed, and his little hands came down in most impressive gestures now and then on Ned's knees; but Ned sat quiet and calm, only now and then a troubled look stealing over his face. At length Hal started up, and with a very angry ejaculation, slammed the door of the shop, and Ned could see him standing on the bridge in the sunshine, knocking the heels of his boots noisily on the bits of ice which were clinging to the posts.

'He takes it harder than I did, or mother either,' said Ned to himself. 'I am sorry for it; but what is my duty is my duty, and a clear matter too in this case. He 'll become used to it by degrees, little by little in this as in everything else; though it won't do for him to come visiting me in a butcher's shop, of course it won't. What would his sister, dressed in her feathers and her velvets, say to that, I should just like to know? No, Ned Randall; giving up your education isn't all, it's giving up a good deal beside.'

'Ned!' called Mr. Jenkins's cheery voice; 'Ned, come here; I can't wait on all these people by myself. There's Mr. Stone wants a nice sirloin roast, and Miss Anson has sent for a pound of sausages, and Mr. Kent wants a pair of fowls; large ones, you know, Ned, good and fat. Mr. Hadden wants a turkey.'

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'Sir!' said Ned, looking around him in a very bewildered

'Well, I don't wonder you can't take it all in. Get the turkey, and put them up backwards, as you remember them easiest.'

Ned went to a number of turkeys that were lying on a box together; but which was fat and which was poor, which was which, in short, with his head full of Hal, college, profession, trade, friends and all, was more than he could tell.

Mr. Hadden had followed him, and soon called him to his senses by pointing out decidedly what he wanted, and watching Ned as he weighed it with most severe scrutiny. Ned by this time, however, was fairly awake to his business, and though Mr. Hadden was generally considered a pretty hard customer to deal with, he could not find any fault with the his order was answered.

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The fowls for Mr. Kent came next; and Mr. Jenkins made signs of approbation as he saw Ned putting in practice the rules he had given him for testing their comparative merits.

'The best in the lot,' he said to Mr. Kent as Ned was weighing them; that's the smartest boy in Harland, I don't care what you put him to; he will have sense for anything, from dead languages to a dead fowl. He'll make something yet.'

'That's Widow Randall's son, is it not? Why, I have heard a number of times that he hadn't any sense for anything but his books; he looks likely enough; up to all work, is he?'

'We will see; you just mark my words. He isn't a dunce; and his book-learning hasn't hurt him one jot.'

While Ned was thus busy on his first morning of new work, Hal, having knocked on the ice more discontent into his heart than out of it, went running home to make his