ell, half of the distance separating them from the top had been safely
navigated, and so far no accident had occurred. Hugh kept encouraging
his charge from time to time; and then speaking words also to the
laboring, anxious boy above, directing him just how to proceed.

Finally they reached the top. Hugh still ordered "Just" Smith to hold
the pole as he had been doing. Then he managed to push Claude up so
that he could crawl over the edge, which the other did in a speedy
manner, bordering on the ludicrous.

Then, to the surprise, as well as delight of Hugh, what did Claude
do but turn and stretch out a helping hand, as though his first
thought was to assist his rescuer to top the rise; indeed, Hugh's one
arm was so utterly gone that he could hardly count on it for a single
thing. Hugh would not be apt to forget this action on the part of
the "sissy"; it proved what he had all along more than half suspected,
that Claude really did have the making of a genuine boy in him, given
half a chance for it to show itself, and the seed to germinate. And
Hugh determined that he would make it his particular business to see
that there came a change in Claude's dreary life. His mother could
hardly refuse anything asked by the one to whom she owed the life of
her son.

Soon the trio lay upon the ground, breathing hard, and trying to talk
at the same time. Both Hugh and "Just" Smith were consumed with
curiosity to know how Claude happened to get into such a strange
predicament, and he hastened to explain.

After all, there was nothing so very singular about it. His mother
had stopped in to see an old nurse, who had been in the family many
years but was at the time lying sick at her sister's place.

Something influenced Claude to get out of the big car to take a
little stroll. Perhaps the sight of all those happy lads running
and jumping and throwing weights had made him feel more than ever
his own narrow, confined life, kept out of the society of all the
other boys after school hours, and made to play the part of a
"mollycoddle," as Roosevelt called all such fellows who have never
learned how to take care of themselves when a bully threatens.

Unused to the woods and hills, of course the first thing Claude did
was to lose all sense of direction. He became alarmed, and that
made matters worse than ever. So he had roamed about for almost a
full hour, dreadfully tiring his poor feet and limbs, since he had
never before i