uests at the Manor-house, that anything like a
feeling of inferiority to his brother was one which he found it very
hard to allow a lodging in his heart and thoughts. So, while the
generous impulse of the moment had led him to applaud and rejoice in his
brother's noble moral courage, when they were discussing the matter in
his aunt's room, he was by no means prepared, when that impulse had died
away, to allow Amos to carry off and retain the palm which he
acknowledged that he had won. Jealousy of his brother's reputation for
moral courage with Miss Huntingdon was a meanness which he would have
thought himself incapable of, and which he would have repudiated
indignantly had he been charged with it. Nevertheless, it was there in
his heart; it made him restless and dissatisfied, and kept him longing
for an opportunity to display a moral courage which should shine with a
light that might, even in his aunt's eyes, eclipse, or at any rate
equal, that which glowed so brightly in Amos. He was therefore on the
watch for such an opportunity; and before long that opportunity, as he
thought, presented itself.

One morning as the squire was reading the county paper, while his sister
was superintending the preparations for breakfast, and her two nephews
were seated near her, Mr Huntingdon exclaimed suddenly, in a tone of
angry excitement, "Why, whatever is the meaning of this? Walter, my
boy, whatever does it mean?"

"What, father?" asked his son in a voice of mingled uneasiness and
surprise.

"Why, just listen to this advertisement:--`I hereby challenge the
working-men of this neighbourhood to a trial of skill in running,
leaping, and shooting; and I promise to give a sovereign to any man who
shall beat me in a mile race, a high jump, and firing at a mark. The
trial to come off on Marley Heath, on Tuesday, June 8th, at four o'clock
p.m.

"`Signed, Walter Huntingdon, Flixworth Manor.'--Do you know anything
about this, Walter? Did you really put this advertisement into the
paper? or is it a disgraceful hoax?"

Poor Walter looked perfectly astounded, as did also his aunt and
brother. Then he said, with some hesitation, "It is no advertisement of
mine."

"No, I thought not," said his father indignantly. "It must be, then, a
most shameful hoax; and I shall speak or write to the editor about it in
pretty strong terms you may be sure."

"Father," said Walter sadly, and after a pause, "it is no hoax."

"No hoax! What do