y some dishonest device. As he
sat alone that night, Mr Bhaer's words came back to him with curious
clearness, and he saw himself a boy again at Plumfield, punishing his
teacher as a lesson to himself, when timidity had made him lie.

'He shall not suffer for me again, and I won't be a sneak if I am a
fool. I'll go and tell Professor Baumgarten all about it and ask his
advice. I'd rather face a loaded cannon; but it must be done. Then I'll
sell out, pay my debts, and go back where I belong. Better be an honest
pauper than a jackdaw among peacocks'; and Nat smiled in the midst of
his trouble, as he looked about him at the little elegancies of his
room, remembering what he came from.

He kept his word manfully, and was much comforted to find that his
experience was an old story to the professor, who approved his plan,
thinking wisely that the discipline would be good for him, and was very
kind in offering help and promising to keep the secret of his folly from
his friend Bhaer till Nat had redeemed himself.

The first week of the new year was spent by our prodigal in carrying out
his plan with penitent dispatch, and his birthday found him alone in
the little room high up at Frau Tetzel's, with nothing of his former
splendour, but sundry unsalable keepsakes from the buxom maidens, who
mourned his absence deeply. His male friends had ridiculed, pitied,
and soon left him alone, with one or two exceptions, who offered their
purses generously and promised to stand by him. He was lonely and
heavy-hearted, and sat brooding over his small fire as he remembered the
last New Year's Day at Plumfield, when at this hour he was dancing with
his Daisy.

A tap at the door roused him, and with a careless 'Herein', he waited
to see who had climbed so far for his sake. It was the good Frau proudly
bearing a tray, on which stood a bottle of wine and an astonishing
cake bedecked with sugar-plums of every hue, and crowned with candles.
Fraulein Vogelstein followed, embracing a blooming rose-tree, above
which her grey curls waved and her friendly face beamed joyfully as she
cried:

'Dear Herr Blak, we bring you greetings and a little gift or two in
honour of this ever-to-be-remembered day. Best wishes! and may the new
year bloom for you as beautifully as we your heart-warm friends desire.'

'Yes, yes, in truth we do, dear Herr,' added Frau Tetzel. 'Eat of this
with-joy-made Kuchen, and drink to the health of the far-away beloved
ones in