th great
affectation. Dale tried to get away, but he was followed, whichever way
he turned.

"What do they mean by that?" inquired Hugh of Firth.

"Dale has a sister at a school not far off, and her name is Amelia; and
she came to see him to-day. Ah! you have not found out yet that boys are
laughed at about their sisters, particularly if the girls have fine
names."

"What a shame!" cried Hugh; words which he had used very often already
since he came to Crofton.

He broke from Firth, ran up to Dale, and said to him, in a low voice, "I
have two sisters, and one of them is called Agnes."

"Don't let them come to see you, then, or these fellows will quiz you as
they do me. As if I could help having a sister Amelia!"

"Why, you are not sorry for that? You would not wish your sister dead,
or not born, would you?"

"No; but I wish she was not hereabouts: that is, I wish she had not
come up to the pales, with the maid-servant behind her, for everybody to
see. And then, when Mr. Tooke sent us into the orchard together, some
spies were peeping over the wall at us all the time."

"I only wish Agnes would come," cried Hugh, "and I would----"

"Ah! you think so now; but depend upon it, you would like much better to
see her at home. Why, her name is finer than my sister's! I wonder what
girls ever have such names for!"

"I don't see that these names are finer than some boys' names. There's
Frazer, is not his name Colin? And then there's Hercules Fisticuff----"

"Why, you know--to be sure you know that is a nickname?" said Dale.

"Is it? I never thought of that," replied Hugh. "What is his real name?"

"Samuel Jones. However, there is Colin Frazer--and Fry, his name is
Augustus Adolphus; I will play them off the next time they quiz Amelia.
How old is your sister Agnes?"

Then the two boys wandered off among the furze bushes, talking about
their homes; and in a little while, they had so opened their hearts to
each other, that they felt as if they had always been friends. Nobody
thought any more about them when once the whole school was dispersed
over the heath. Some boys made for a hazel copse, some way beyond the
heath, in hopes of finding a few nuts already ripe. Others had boats to
float on the pond. A large number played leap-frog, and some ran races.
Mr. Carnaby threw himself down on a soft couch of wild thyme, on a
rising ground, and took out his book. So Dale and Hugh felt themselves
unobserved, and they chatted