f
coming to the Ballard home simply because the place was made an
enjoyable center for them. Some came to practice the violin and others
to sing. Some came to try their hand at sketching and painting and
some just to hear Bertrand talk. All was done for them quite
gratuitously on his part, and no laugh was merrier than his. Even the
chore boy came in for a share of the Ballards' kindly help, sitting at
Mary Ballard's side in the long winter evenings, and conning lessons
to patch up an education snatched haphazard and hardly come by.

Here comes one of them now, head up, smiling, and happy-go-lucky.
"Bertrand, here comes Johnnie. Give him the apples and let him
distribute them. Poor boy! I'm sorry he's going; he's too easily led,"
said Mary.

"Oh! Johnnie, Johnnie Cooper! I've got something for you. We made
them. Mother helped us," cried Martha. Now the children were out of
the carriage and running about among their friends.

Johnnie Cooper snatched Jamie from the ground and threw him up over
his head, then set him down again and took the parcel. Then he caught
Martha up and set her on his shoulder while he peeped into the
package.

"Stop, Johnnie. Set me down. I'm too big now for you to toss me up."
Her arms were clasped tightly under his chin as he held her by the
feet. Slowly he let her slide to the ground and thrust the little case
in his pocket, and stooping, kissed the child.

"I'll think of you and your mother when I use this," he said.

"And you'll write to us, won't you, Johnnie?" said Mary. "If you
don't, I shall think something is gone wrong with you." He knew what
she meant, and she knew he knew. "There are worse things than bullets,
Johnnie."

"Never you worry for me, Mrs. Ballard. We're going down for business,
and you won't see me again until we've licked the 'rebs.'" He held her
hand awkwardly for a minute, then relieved the tension by carrying off
the two baskets of apples. "I know the trees these came from," he
said, and soon a hundred boys in blue were eating Bertrand's choicest
apples.

"Here come the twins!" said some one, as Peter Junior and Richard
Kildene came toward them across the sward. Betty ran to meet them and
caught Richard by the hand. She loved to have him swing her in long
leaps from the ground as he walked.

"See, Richard, I made this for you all myself--almost. I put C in the
corner so it wouldn't get mixed with the others, because this I made
especially for you."

"Did