cting
rather blindly in this matter. You have viewed it from one side only,
and with the very best intentions in the world have done harm rather
than good.

"I am convinced that when you come to think it over you will see that,
in following out your own and your father's intentions and wishes as to
your future career, you will really best fulfil his last injunctions and
will show the truest kindness to your mother. Don't give me your answer
now, but take time to think it over. Try and see the case from every
point of view, and I think you will come to the conclusion that what I
have been saying, although it may seem rather hard to you at first, is
true, and that you had best go into the army, as you had intended. I am
sure in any case you will know that what I have said, even if it seems
unkind, has been for your good."

"Thank you, Mr. Porson," Ned replied; "I am quite sure of that. Perhaps
you are right, and I have been making a fool of myself all along. But
anyhow I will think it over."

CHAPTER XI: THE NEW MACHINERY

It is rather hard for a lad who thinks that he has been behaving
somewhat as a hero to come to the conclusion that he has been making a
fool of himself; but this was the result of Ned Sankey's cogitation over
what Mr. Porson had said to him. Perhaps he arrived more easily at that
conclusion because he was not altogether unwilling to do so. It was very
mortifying to allow that he had been altogether wrong; but, on the other
hand, there was a feeling of deep pleasure at the thought that he could,
in Mr. Porson's deliberate opinion, go into the army and carry out all
his original hopes and plans. His heart had been set upon this as long
as he could remember, and it had been a bitter disappointment to him
when he had arrived at the conclusion that it was his duty to abandon
the idea. He did not now come to the conclusion hastily that Mr.
Porson's view of the case was the correct one; but after a fortnight's
consideration he went down on New Year's Day to the school, and told his
master that he had made up his mind.

"I see, sir," he said, "now that I have thought it all over, that you
are quite right, and that I have been behaving like an ass, so I shall
set to work again and try and make up the lost time. I have only six
months longer, for Easter is the time when Mr. Simmonds said that I
should be old enough, and he will write to the lord lieutenant, and I
suppose that in three months after t