y squaring his shoulders.

"Oh! that terrible boy again! What a shame he can't pick out some one
of his own size to beat! Did he hurt you very much, my poor boy?"

Then she was surprised to see Darry smile broadly.

"I didn't know he had even struck me until just now. You see Captain
Harley allowed me to box with the sailors, and I learned how to defend
myself. Jim says he is going to get even with me later on," he said
modestly.

"Do you mean to tell me you whipped that big loafer, that
good-for-nothing bully who has run the place for years?" exclaimed the
woman, in astonishment.

"I wouldn't just say that, ma'am, and Jim wouldn't admit it either; but
I did knock him down twice, and the second time he said he wouldn't
fight any more because, you see, his right hand was sprained. So he went
off and left me alone."

"Splendid! He deserved a lesson, the brute! Many's the time he has
jeered at me when he passed; and everyone has been afraid to put a hand
on him because his father is a bad man. And you did that? Well, the boys
of Ashley ought to vote you thanks. And you fought because he wanted you
to leave _this_ house? You thought it was a home worth fighting for?
Then it shall be yours as long as you want to stay here, Darry."

Before he suspected how greatly her feelings had been aroused, Mrs.
Peake threw her arms about his neck and gave him a resounding
kiss--perhaps in her heart she was in this way demonstrating her undying
affection for the boy who had vanished from that home one year ago, and
never came back.

After that Darry worked with a light heart, such as he had never before
known in all his life.

During the afternoon Abner's wife took pains to open a box that
contained all the treasured possessions of the young trapper and
naturalist whose greatest delight had been to spend his time in the
swamps watching the animals at their play; and in the proper season
setting his traps to secure the pelts of muskrats, 'coons and skunks,
which, properly cured, would bring high prices at such centres where
furs are collected, and secure many little luxuries for his mother
during the winter season.

Darry handled these with a bit of reverence, for he knew what a wrench
it must be to the devoted heart of the mother to see a stranger touching
the things she had hoarded up as treasures, and over which she must have
had many a secret cry.

Together with the traps and other things there was an old shotgun still
i