laugh at anything.

"Father, we _must_ go!" he cried. "We have counted on it for weeks, and
had planned everything, and--"

"So had we, Paul, and it will be a keen disappointment to us, keener than
you can understand; but it has to be, and we must put a brave face on it.
This is the first trial, my boy. It is very easy to talk of trials, and
how we will face them; but it is the actual facing them, not the talking,
that tries our courage and shows what we are made of. It requires no
courage to give up what we care little or nothing about. Be as brave as
you know how to be over this disappointment, my boy, and don't add to your
mother's troubles by grumbling and complaining. We feel terribly any pain
that this loss may bring to you children, and to know you are fretting and
grumbling will make it a hundred times harder for us."

"Of course we will go somewhere for the summer holidays," said Mrs.
Anketell gently. "Stella and Michael will need a change before winter,
and father needs one too, I am sure."

"Not as much as you do, dear," he said, tenderly, looking sadly at her
pale face.

She shook her head and smiled. "I don't deny I shall be glad of one; in
fact we shall all be better for it," she said; "but it must be a much less
expensive one than the one we planned."

Here was another grievance to add to his list. Paul's feelings were hurt
that he had been left out as not requiring a change, and altogether the
blow which he had had was too much for him to bear well at the first
shock; so that he felt a very unhappy and ill-used boy as he left the
table and made his way slowly up to the nursery.

CHAPTER II.

HOW PAUL BORE IT.

Stella and Michael had finished their breakfast and were playing together.
Michael was standing up in the high window-seat, grasping a long pole with
a curtain hook at the end of it, with which he made frantic but futile
efforts to land Stella, who was dashing about in a perfectly break-neck
fashion in a box on the floor.

"We are playing at being in Norway," he shouted, when he caught sight of
his elder brother. "Stella has been wrecked, and is trying to get to land
in a boat, but the waves are dashing it on the rocks so hard, she will be
wrecked before I can land her, if I don't take care."

Here Stella banged her box against the wall, and rebounded again.
"I have got to catch her with the boat hook, and then I shall drag her
boat--" But Stella had caught sight of Pa