ike to hear."

"Yes, I should. Tell me what it was."

Gwyn took out his knife, and began to pick with the point at a large
crystal of pinkish felspar, which stood partly out of the huge block of
granite.

"I say, go on. What an aggravating chap you are!"

Gwyn went on picking.

"I say, do you want me to shove you off the top here?"

"No; and you couldn't, if I did."

"Oh, couldn't I?--you'd see. But I say, go on, Ydoll; tell us all about
it. I did tell you what my father said."

"Said he supposed it was from associating with such a boy as you; for he
was sure that I was too well-meaning a lad to do such things without
being prompted."

"Oh, my! What a shame!" cried Joe. "It was too bad."

"Well, I didn't want to tell you, only you bothered me till I did
speak."

"Of course. Isn't it better to know than have any one thinking such
things of you without knowing. But I say, though, it is too bad; I
couldn't help turning like I did. It came on all at once, and I
couldn't stir."

"He didn't mean about that so much. He bullied me for not taking care
of you, and stopping you from going up the ladder."

"Did he? Why, you couldn't help it."

"He talked as if he supposed I could, and said if we went out again
together, I had better take Grip's collar and chain, put the collar
round your neck, and lead you."

"Oh I say! Just as if I was a monkey."

"No; father meant a dog, or a puppy." Joe gave himself a sudden twist
round to face his companion, flushing with anger the while, and as the
space on the top of the stone was very small, he nearly slipped off, and
had to make a snatch at Gwyn to save himself from an ugly fall.

"There!" cried Gwyn, "you're at it again. You've made up your mind to
break your neck, or something else."

"It was all your fault," cried Joe, "saying things like that. I don't
believe your father said anything of the kind. It was just to annoy
me."

"What, do you suppose I wanted to go home with fresh trouble to talk
about?"

"No, but it's your nasty, bantering, chaffing way. Colonel Pendarve
wouldn't have spoken about me like that."

Gwyn laughed.

"I suppose he didn't say I had better give you up as a companion--"

"Did he?"

"If I was always getting into some scrape or another."

"No; but I say, Ydoll, did he?"

"Something of the kind. He said it was getting time for me to be
thinking of something else beside tops and marbles."

"Well, so we do. Whoever