he way from Shannondale to Springfield he was
thinking of Jerrie, and wondering if it were possible that she could
ever look upon him with favor. Like Tom and Dick, he could scarcely
remember the time when he did not think Jerrie the loveliest girl in the
world, and ever since he had grown to manhood he had meditated making
her his wife, but had feared what his father might say, as he knew how
much importance he attached to money. Now however, his father had
signified his assent, and, resolving to lose no time, Billy, on his
return next day to Le Bateau, seized the opportunity to take Jerrie
home, as the occasion for declaring his love, which he did in a manly,
straightforward manner, never hinting at any advantage it would be to
her to be the wife of a millionaire, or offering any inducement in any
way except to say that he loved her and would devote his life to making
her happy. Tom Tracy Jerrie had scorned, Dick St. Claire she had pitied,
but this little man she felt like ridiculing.

'Oh, Billy,' she said, laughing merrily. 'You can't be in earnest. Why
I'm head and shoulders taller than you are. I do believe I could pick
you up and throw you into the river. Only think how we should look
together; people would think you my little boy, and that I should not
like. So, I can never be your wife.'

Nothing cuts a man like ridicule, and sensitive as he was with regard to
his size, Billy felt it to his heart's core; and as he stood nervously
playing with the reins and looking at Jerrie sitting there so tall and
erect in all the brightness of her wonderful beauty, it flashed upon him
how impossible it was for that glorious creature ever to be his wife,
and what a fool he had made of himself.

'For-gi-give me, Jerrie,' he said, his chin beginning to quiver, and the
great tears rolling down his face, 'I know you ca-can't, and I
ou-oughtn't to have ask-asked it, bu-but I d-did love you so much, that
I f-forgot how impossible it was f-for one like you to lo-love one
li-like me. I am so small and insig-insignificant, and st-stutter so. I
wish I was dead,' and laying his head upon the horse's neck, he sobbed
aloud.

In an instant Jerrie was out of the dog-cart and at his side, talking to
and trying to soothe him as she would a child.

'Oh, Billy, Billy,' she said. 'I am so sorry for you, and sorry I said
those cruel words about your size. It was only in fun. Your size has
nothing to do with my refusal. I know you have a big,