n it was not.

When Squire Norman had returned to the house with him after the funeral,
he sat in silence holding the boy's hand till he had wept his heart out.
By this time the two were old friends, and the boy was not afraid or too
shy to break down before him. There was sufficient of the love of the
old generation to begin with trust in the new.

Presently, when the storm was past and Harold had become his own man
again, Norman said:

'And now, Harold, I want you to listen to me. You know, my dear boy,
that I am your father's oldest friend, and right sure I am that he would
approve of what I say. You must come home with me to live. I know that
in his last hours the great concern of your dear father's heart would
have been for the future of his boy. And I know, too, that it was a
comfort to him to feel that you and I are such friends, and that the son
of my dearest old friend would be as a son to me. We have been friends,
you and I, a long time, Harold; and we have learned to trust, and I hope
to love, one another. And you and my little Stephen are such friends
already that your coming into the house will be a joy to us all. Why,
long ago, when first you came, she said to me the night you went away:
"Daddy, wouldn't it be nice if Harold could come here altogether?"'

And so Harold An Wolf came back with the Squire to Normanstand, and from
that day on became a member of his house, and as a son to him. Stephen's
delight at his coming was of course largely qualified by her sympathy
with his grief; but it would have been hard to give him more comfort than
she did in her own pretty way. Putting her lips to his she kissed him,
and holding his big hand in both of her little ones, she whispered
softly:

'Poor Harold! You and I should love each other, for we have both lost
our mother. And now you have lost your father. But you must let my dear
daddy be yours too!'

At this time Harold was between fourteen and fifteen years old. He was
well educated in so far as private teaching went. His father had devoted
much care to him, so that he was well grounded in all the Academic
branches of learning. He was also, for his years, an expert in most
manly exercises. He could ride anything, shoot straight, fence, run,
jump or swim with any boy more than his age and size.

In Normanstand his education was continued by the rector. The Squire
used often to take him with him when he went to ride, or fish, or shoot;
f