gun at the wrong end? What do you think makes a brave man?'

'Killing lots of Frenchmen,' said Godfrey promptly.

'Not a bit of it. Now, little maid, what do you say?'

'I think, please sir, that brave men don't mind when Frenchmen kill
them, and shoot their legs and their fingers off like Uncle Kiah's.'

'That's nearer the mark, but that's not all. The bravest men are the
ones that do what they don't like because it's right, and leave what
they do like because it's wrong.'

Godfrey's grave eyes looked up at the gentleman's face as they were
used to looking at his Aunt Angel. After a minute he said, slowly,

'Should I have been more like the captain if I'd stayed and done the
sum instead of going to be an Arctic discoverer?'

'You'd have been more like a hero, my lad, and you will be another
time, I know. This is the way to Oakfield Cottage, isn't it? Do you
live there too, little lass?'

'Oh no, sir,' said Nancy; 'we live at the Place, sir, and take care of
it for the captain.'

'Do you, though! And is it hard work?'

Nancy looked as important as if the welfare of the whole house depended
on her efforts.

'Of course one can't help thinking a deal about what he'll say when he
comes home,' she said. 'Patty says he'll as like as not be very
particular in his ways. Sailors get to be that neat, she says. She
always says it if I racket about or if I spill anything or break
things.'

'Well, I wouldn't frighten myself before he comes, if I were you,' said
the stranger good-naturedly. 'I shouldn't be surprised if he's not so
very alarming. These people who look so big from a distance are often
small enough when you get them close. Ah, there's the Cottage, I
remember it, and somebody coming to the gate to look for you. These
are your sisters, I suppose; you didn't tell me you had any sisters.'

'No,' said Godfrey, 'these are my aunts.'

Then he ran straight forward and had hold of Angelica's dress in a
moment, looking up straight into her face.

'Aunt Angel,' he began, when Betty stopped him by a scream.

'Godfrey, you're wet! Wherever have you been?'

'I've been in the pond,' said Godfrey's clear voice; 'I mean my legs
have. Before that I was on the ice, but it broke, and then there was
only water for me to be on. If there hadn't been a tub I should have
been at the bottom. Aunt Angel, Aunt Angel dear, don't look like that;
your cheeks are quite white--oh, is your heart cracking? I've come