brother, offering to do anything in the world for Phil, if he
would only hear him his lessons every evening till he could say them
perfect. Phil was going to plead that he had no time, when Hugh popped
out--

"The thing is that it does not help me to say them to just anybody.
Saying them to somebody that I am afraid of is what I want."

"Why, you are not afraid of me?" said Phil. "Yes I am--rather."

"What for?"

"Oh, because you are older;--and you are so much more of a Crofton boy
than I am--and you are very strict--and altogether--"

"Yes, you will find me pretty strict, I can tell you," said Phil, unable
to restrain a complacent smile on finding that somebody was afraid of
him. "Well, we must see what we can do. I will hear you to-night, at
any rate."

Between his feeling of kindness and the gratification of his vanity,
Phil found himself able to hear his brother's lessons every evening. He
was certainly very strict, and was not sparing of such pushes, joggings,
and ridicule as were necessary to keep Hugh up to his work. These were
very provoking sometimes; but Hugh tried to bear them for the sake of
the gain. Whenever Phil would condescend to explain, in fresh words,
the sense of what Hugh had to learn, he saved trouble to both, and the
lesson went off quickly and easily: but sometimes he would not explain
anything, and soon went away in impatience, leaving Hugh in the midst of
his perplexities. There was a chance, on such occasions, that Firth
might be at leisure, or Dale able to help: so that, one way and another,
Hugh found his affairs improving as the spring advanced; and he began to
lose his anxiety, and to gain credit with the usher. He also now and
then won a place in his classes.

Towards the end of May, when the trees were full of leaf, and the
evenings sunny, and the open air delicious, quite up to bedtime, Phil
became persuaded, very suddenly, that Hugh could get on by himself now;
that it was not fair that he should be helped; and that it was even
hurtful to him to rely on any one but himself. If Phil had acted
gradually upon this conviction, withdrawing his help by degrees, it
might have been all very well: but he refused at once and decidedly to
have anything more to do with Hugh's lessons, as he was quite old and
forward enough now to do them by himself. This announcement threw his
brother into a state of consternation not at all favourable to learning;
and the next morning Hugh m