but at least his own sky was above him, looking just the same as
it looked out home at Noel's Cove. He recognized the stars as friends;
how often Stephen had pointed them out to him as they sat at night by
the door of the little house.

He was not at all frightened now. He knew the way home and the kind
night was before him. Every step was bringing him nearer to Stephen
and Nora and the Twin Sailors. He whistled as he walked sturdily
along.

The dawn was just breaking when he reached Noel's Cove. The eastern
sky was all pale rose and silver, and the sea was mottled over with
dear grey ripples. In the west over the harbour the sky was a very
fine ethereal blue and the wind blew from there, salt and bracing.
Paul was tired, but he ran lightly down the shelving rocks to the
cove. Stephen was getting ready to launch his boat. When he saw Paul
he started and a strange, vivid, exultant expression flashed across
his face.

Paul felt a sudden chill--the upspringing fountain of his gladness was
checked in mid-leap. He had known no doubt on the way home--all that
long, weary walk he had known no doubt--but now?

"Stephen," he cried. "I've come back! I had to! Stephen, are you
glad--are you glad?"

Stephen's face was as emotionless as ever. The burst of feeling which
had frightened Paul by its unaccustomedness had passed like a fleeting
outbreak of sunshine between dull clouds.

"I reckon I am," he said. "Yes, I reckon I am. I kind of--hoped--you
would come back. You'd better go in and get some breakfast."

Paul's eyes were as radiant as the deepening dawn. He knew Stephen was
glad and he knew there was nothing more to be said about it. They were
back just where they were before Miss Trevor came--back in their
perfect, unmarred, sufficient comradeship.

"I must just run around and see Nora first," said Paul.

Abel and His Great Adventure

"Come out of doors, master--come out of doors. I can't talk or think
right with walls around me--never could. Let's go out to the garden."
These were almost the first words I ever heard Abel Armstrong say. He
was a member of the board of school trustees in Stillwater, and I had
not met him before this late May evening, when I had gone down to
confer with him upon some small matter of business. For I was "the new
schoolmaster" in Stillwater, having taken the school for the summer
term.

It was a rather lonely country district--a fact of which I was glad,
for life had been go