a snowflake out of the sky.

And then, for one immeasurable moment--_silence_.

John slipped back to his seat, crimson with bashfulness, while the
School thundered applause. The Field Marshal shouted "Encore," as loudly
as any fag; but the Head Master whispered--

"We don't encourage _encores_. A small boy's head is easily turned."

"Not his," the hero replied.

Two numbers followed, and then the School stood up, and with them all
Old Harrovians, to sing the famous National Anthem of Harrow, "Forty
Years on." Only the guests and the masters remained seated.

"Forty years on, growing older and older,
Shorter in wind, as in memory long,
Feeble of foot and rheumatic of shoulder,
What will it help you that once you were strong?
God give us bases to guard or beleaguer,
Games to play out, whether earnest or fun;
Fights for the fearless, and goals for the eager,
Twenty, and thirty, and forty years on!
Follow up! Follow up! Follow up! Follow up!
Till the field ring again and again,
With the tramp of the twenty-two men.
Follow--up!"

As the hundreds of voices, past and present indissolubly linked
together, imposed the mandate, "_Follow up!_" the Head Master glanced at
his guest, but left unsaid the words about to be uttered. Tears were
trickling down the cheeks of the man who, forty years before, had won
his Sovereign's Cross--For Valour.

* * * * *

After the concert, but before he left the Speech-room, the Field Marshal
asked the Head Master to introduce Lawrence and John, and, of course,
the Head of the School. When John came up, there was a twinkle in the
veteran's eye.

"Ha--ha!" said he; "you were in a precious funk, John Verney."

"I was, sir," said John.

"Gad! Don't I know the feeling? Well, well," he chuckled, smiling at
John, "you climbed up higher than I've ever been in my life. What was
it--hey? 'F' in 'alt'?"

"'G,' sir."

"You sang delightfully. Tell your uncle to bring you to see me next time
you are in town. You must consider me a friend," he chuckled again--"an
old friend. And look ye here," his pleasant voice sank to a whisper, "I
daren't tip these tremendous swells, but I feel that I can take such a
liberty with you. Shush-h-h! Good-bye."

John scurried away, bursting with pride, feeling to the core the strong
grip of the strong man, hearing the thrill of his voice, the thrill
which had