t going through
his extremely easy duties of waiting in the anteroom, bearing letters
and messages from one part of the Palace to the other, and generally
looking courtly as a royal page.

Then the Monday came, with Andrew Forbes in the highest of spirits, and
ready to chat about the country, his friend's life at Winchester, and to
make plans for running down to see them when his father and mother went
out of town.

"I don't believe you'd like it if you did come," said Frank.

"Oh yes, I should. Why not?"

"Because you'd find some of the lanes muddy, and the edges of the roads
full of brambles. You wouldn't care to see the bird's and squirrels and
hedgehogs, nor the fish in the river, nor the rabbits and hares."

"Why, those are all things that I am dying to see in their natural
places. I wish you would not think I am such a macaroni. Why, after
the way in which you have gone on about the country, isn't it natural
that I should want to see more of it?"

He kept on in this strain to such an extent that, instead of convincing
his companion, he overdid it, and set him wondering.

"I don't understand him a bit," he said to himself; "and I wish he
wouldn't keep on calling me my dear fellow and slapping me on the back.
I never saw him so wild and excitable before."

The lad's musings were interrupted to his great disgust by Andrew coming
behind him with the very act and words which had annoyed him. For he
started and turned angrily upon receiving a sounding slap between the
shoulders.

"Why, Frank, my dear fellow," cried Andrew, "what ails you? Hallo! eyes
flashing lightning and brow heavy with thunder. Has the gentle,
shepherd-like swain from the country got a temper of his own?"

"Of course I have," cried the boy angrily. "Why don't you let it lie
quiet, and not wake it up by doing that!"

"Is the temper like a surly dog, then?" cried Andrew, laughing
mockingly. "Will it bite?"

"Yes, if you tease it too much," snapped out Frank.

"Oh, horrible! You alarm me!" cried Andrew, bounding away in mock
dread.

"Don't be a fool!" cried Frank angrily; and the tone and gesture which
accompanied the request sobered Andrew in a moment, though his eyes
looked his surprise that the boy whom he patronised with something very
much like contempt could be roused up into showing so much strength of
mind.

"What's the matter, Frank boy?" he said quietly; "eaten something that
hasn't agreed with you?"

"No," said