er go out, and then went
up-stairs softly and tapped at his mother's door. Her 'come in' was glad
and eager, and a soft pink colour flushed into her cheeks when she saw
it was really Johnnie. This good mother, so just and tender to all her
sons, kept a special corner of her heart for the merry scapegrace who
excelled the family cat in a talent for unintentional mischief, and
almost equalled that luckless animal in a facility for getting into
universal disgrace. In another minute Johnnie was squatted on a
footstool by the side of her sofa, holding her thin white hands in his
own, and sometimes kissing them with a pretty devotion, which,
mother-like, she thought very charming, though she pretended to call it
'silly.'

'And how is my Johnnie getting on at school?' she asked presently.
'Whereabouts in the class are you now? At the top, I hope!'

Johnnie screwed his mouth up, shook his head, groaned, and made all
manner of funny faces. 'I'm at the bottom, mother,' he said at last, in
a voice that might have been intended to be penitent, but did not sound
so.

'Oh, Johnnie! and I was hoping you would never do so badly again. What
_will_ papa say if this half-year's report is as bad as the last?'

'I don't know,' said Johnnie in a way that might almost have been taken
to mean, 'I don't care;' then, more softly, 'I am sorry you are vexed,
mother.'

'Yes, I am indeed, Johnnie. It is not as if you were really dull and
slow: then your low place in the school would not be your fault, and we
shouldn't mind so much; but you can learn very well if you like.'

'But I was born with a disposition _not_ to like it. I can't help being
idle, really, mother; "it's the natur of the baste!"'

'Then you must conquer your nature,' she said in the spirited tone of
one who had never sat down helplessly under her faults and talked about
'natural infirmity.' 'What should any of us be worth, Johnnie, if we
yielded to all our foolish inclinations?'

He had not an answer ready, so played with her rings, and glanced at her
deprecatingly and coaxingly from under his long, dark eyelashes.

'I didn't mean to scold,' she said relentingly, 'especially this day of
all days, when I may have you for one of the little talks we haven't had
for so long. But, Johnnie, you don't know how hard it makes it for me to
submit to be ill and helpless, when I think that because I am not able
to watch over you, you are running wild, neglecting your lessons, and
ve