may
miss your footing if attempting to cross while carrying a weight on
your shoulder. You go first, unburdened, and then I'll easily stretch
out the end of the ladder for you to catch hold of."

Lubin did not wait to be twice invited to put down his tiresome burden.
He flung down his end of the ladder, went across the stepping-stones at
once, and then, without so much as turning to look at his companion,
began to walk fast up the hill.

"Holloa! stop! where are you going?" shouted Dick.

Lubin only quickened his pace.

"The lazy rogue means to leave me to carry this ladder all by myself!"
exclaimed Dick, in high indignation.

"I wish that I could help you, dear Dick," said Nelly; "but I'm lame,
and--"

"And you've been carrying the can all the way, till your face is quite
pale with fatigue. I wonder that that saucy puss Matty is not ashamed of
treating you so."

"I was so busy with my fairies that I forgot," began Matty.

"Ah, well; take the can now and remember. And as for the ladder--"
Without finishing his sentence, to the surprise of the girls, Dick
suddenly turned round, and walked back several paces. His object soon
became plain; he was giving himself room for a run. Once more he rushed
forward with a bound, and, laden as he was with ladder and with paper,
was over the brook in a moment.

"There's a jump!" he exclaimed, his face flushed less with the effect,
than with the pride which he felt in having accomplished such a feat;
"depend on't, a boy who can leap like that won't soon be turned back in
life's long race by any difficulty or trial. I only wish that Mr.
Learning could have seen me take that jump."

Nelly's admiration of her brother's remarkable powers was a little
damped by a fear that arose in her mind when she saw how he gloried in
them. Nelly was very fond of Dick, but she could not help thinking that
she would rather have seen him conquer his pride than jump over
half-a-dozen Bothers. Slowly and thoughtfully the little girl passed
over the brook, and Matty, who was now carrying the can, brought up the
rear of the party.

"Dick," said Matty, when she had joined her brother, "I wonder that you
did not lay the ladder of Spelling across the stream, and make a bridge
of it at once."

"I was too wary a bird for that," laughed Dick. "You know I've not yet
mastered that awkward spelling, and if I'd put my foot upon a step, I
should just have gone souse into Bother."

"Oh, I quite forgot!" e