ave no patience with a rude man."

"Flint rude?" said Philip.

"Most decidedly rude, I should say."

"Oh, but he is not rude. He is only indifferent."

"Indifference is rudeness."

"Then I'm afraid, Miss Standish," broke in Winifred, "we must all be
rude to most of the world. That is, unless we belong to the Salvation
Army, like Nora Costello, and take an interest in everybody or rather
every soul."

"Very remarkable girl, that Nora Costello," said Philip. "I don't
quite know what it was that made her so interesting."

"_I_ know," answered Winifred, with a little laugh; "it was her
looks."

"Or her manner," suggested Philip.

"Oh, her manner without her looks would not have carried at all.
Manners are only thunder. It is looks that strike."

"You should know," Philip said quite low. Just at this moment Jimmy
Anstice, with that exasperatingly inopportune way of his, called
out:--

"Look, Fred! Did you see that fish jump? Gracious! He must have gone
up two feet! What makes a fish jump? Papa, Papa, do you hear me? What
makes a fish jump?"

"I don't know, my dear; I suppose to get food, or because he wants
air."

"Then why doesn't he jump oftener?"

It has always been one of Professor Anstice's pet theories that a
child's mental development is promoted by the stimulation of
intellectual curiosity. As a result, Jimmy has been encouraged to ask
questions to an extent which the world at large finds somewhat
tiresome. For my part, I think one of the most useful accomplishments
connected with the tongue is the art of holding it; and I believe in
its early acquirement by the young.

After Jimmy's curiosity in regard to the habits of fish had expended
itself, there was no more _tete-a-tete_. Everybody was shouting this
way and that; and then the boat brought up at the rocks, and those of
us who could jump, jumped out, and those who couldn't, clambered out;
and Jimmy Anstice flopped into the water above his knees, as usual,
and had to sit by the fire getting dry, when he should have been
running errands and making himself useful. Small boys, being neither
ornamental nor interesting, should be either useful or absent.

Winifred and Brady started off after driftwood. I invited Ben to help
me with the coffee; but he said, "Presently," and made off after the
other two. Really, that boy may come to something if he selects his
profession with care. He can't see when he's not wanted, which may
make him a success in