nd on his head on the top.'

'Oh, that's not nearly all he can do,' said Nancy, who was there, of
course, steadying the ladder.

'Nance, is it true that your Uncle Kiah came home in a post chaise with
the gentlemen?' asked one of the inn maids.

'Of course it is,' said Nancy, with her head inches higher than usual.

'And did King George really thank Master Godfrey himself for saving
them French papers?'

'Of course,' said Nancy, promptly, 'or at least he sent somebody very
grand to do it.'

'And did he and his papa really swim over from France with the letters
in their mouths and the cannon-balls flying all over them?'

'I'll tell you all about it by-and-bye, I'm going to get eggs for the
captain's breakfast,' said Nancy, who was as important as the Admiral
of the Fleet; 'but you see if Mr. Godfrey doesn't have a ship of his
own directly, and medals all over him.'

And at the top of Sir Godfrey's oak the English flag flew free and
fair, as it flies amidst the storm of shot and shell, the roar of winds
and the din of battle.

It was flying gaily when a party of three came past on their way from
the cottage to the Place, Mr. Wyndham, with Betty on one side of him
and Godfrey on the other. Betty pointed up into the tree. 'That's
where the bough was, Bernard, just under the flag, where Godfrey sat
that first day when he was a little naughty boy and I was a little
stupid aunt.'

'And you did name me after the great Sir Godfrey, didn't you?' said the
young sailor eagerly.

'I named you after the Sir Godfrey of the oak, with some sort of hope,
I think, that you might stand under it one day. I'm afraid I didn't
think of choosing you an illustrious namesake; I never knew that he did
anything particular, except plant that acorn.'

'No more did I,' laughed Betty. 'Don't look horrified, Godfrey; you
and I romanced about him so much that I came to think he was a great
hero, just as I believed Miss Jane was a broken-hearted aunt.'

'He was my first hero,' Godfrey said, 'before Kiah and the captain
came. I shall go on believing in him; he left something good behind
him at all events. Do you remember how cross I was because you
wouldn't let him sit under his own oak-tree? Oh, there's old Mrs.
Ware, I must speak to her; don't wait, I'll catch you.'

He darted off, and the others went on slowly.

Presently Betty said:

'I have been thinking that sometimes people are allowed to sit under
their own trees after a