t as if anxious to make up for her
lack of skill by speed and obedience. How much Ben liked it there is no
need to tell, yet it was a proof of the good which three months of a
quiet, useful life had done him, that even as he pranced gayly under the
boughs thick with the red and yellow apples almost ready to be gathered,
he found this riding in the fresh air with only his mates for an
audience pleasanter than the crowded tent, the tired horses, profane
men, and painted women, friendly as some of them had been to him.

After the first burst was over, he felt rather glad, on the whole, that
he was going back to plain clothes, helpful school, and kindly people,
who cared more to have him a good boy than the most famous Cupid that
ever stood on one leg with a fast horse under him.

"You may make as much noise as you like, now; Lita's had her run and
will be as quiet as a lamb after it. Pull up, Ben, and come in; sister
says you'll get cold," shouted Thorny, as the rider came cantering round
after a leap over the lodge gate and back again.

So Ben pulled up, and the admiring boys and girls were allowed to gather
about him, loud in their praises as they examined the pretty mare and
the mythological character who lay easily upon her back. He looked very
little like the god of love now; for he had lost one slipper and
splashed his white legs with dew and dust, the crown had slipped down
upon his neck, and the paper wings hung in an apple-tree where he had
left them as he went by. No trouble in recognizing Ben, now; but somehow
he didn't want to be seen, and, instead of staying to be praised, he
soon slipped away, making Lita his excuse to vanish behind the curtain
while the rest went into the house to have a finishing-off game of
blindman's-buff in the big kitchen.

"Well, Ben, are you satisfied?" asked Miss Celia, as she stayed a moment
to unpin the remains of his gauzy scarf and tunic.

"Yes'm, thank you, it was tip-top."

"But you look rather sober. Are you tired, or is it because you don't
want to take these trappings off and be plain Ben again?" she said,
looking down into his face as he lifted it for her to free him from his
gilded collar.

"I _want_ to take 'em off; for somehow I don't feel respectable," and he
kicked away the crown he had help to make so carefully, adding with a
glance that said more than his words: "I'd rather be 'plain Ben' than
any one else, if you'd like to have me."

"Indeed I do; and I'm s