have seen for a long time that you had something
on your mind; if you tell me, I may be able to help you out of it."

"I ain't in no scrape, Miss Milly, if that's what you mean," said the
boy; "only--only--it's a mean kind of a thing, an' I've got to tell.
'Tain't fair for me to keep it to myself any longer. Bill's the only
other feller knows. It's going to take my chance, for sure; but all the
same, I've got to tell. I ain't so afraid of you as of--some others."
He paused again, and again Milly had to re-assure and encourage him,
bidding him remember that others as well as herself had his good and
interest at heart, and that he had already tested these and not found
them wanting.

"I know, Miss Milly," he answered, "but I can't bear for you or none of
the family to think me a sneak, an' that's what I feel I've been now.
'Twasn't fair, an' now I know it. I did know it all along, on'y I
wouldn't let on."

"Well, come, Jim," said Milly, determined to bring him to the point
without any more of this shilly-shallying which was exceedingly unlike
Jim; "you must tell me at once if you wish to do so, for I have an
engagement, and shall have to leave you very soon."

"Well, miss," he replied, thus urged, "I found out--don't you be
ashamed of me, Miss Milly--I found out about how Mr. Rutherford was
goin' to give a big thing, some kind of a thing in the way of eddication,
to me or Theodore Yorke, whichever turned out best this year at school,
an' how he thought Theodore was a sneak, an' me too hot-tempered, an'
always ready for a fight,--an' how he was goin' to see which did the
best, not on'y in his learnin', but in his conduck, quite without us
knowin' about what was afore us, an' then give that one this big thing.
And, Miss Milly, you an' Mr. Rutherford, an' the rest of the fam'ly,
maybe, thought me doin' well, an' takin' care of my temper. An' maybe
so I was; but it was 'cause I was _bound_ to beat Theodore, an' not let
him get that prize. I felt awful mean all along; but now Theodore's cut
up so, an' got sent off, an' he never knew nothin' about it, or maybe
he'd done better, an' I don't feel it's fair in me. I knew, an' he
didn't. I stood a lot from Theodore, an' didn't fly out at him on'y
once or twice that you know about; but I wouldn't ha' stood it, an'
there's many a time I would ha' fought him an' the other boys, too,
on'y for thinkin' of that. So, you see, I did get more chance at the
beginning than him, an' 'tain