nts to carry home
at Christmas. But I'll never tell him anything again. Oh! Dale! do you
really think he will never pay me?"

"He never pays anybody; that is all I know. Come,--forget it all, as
fast as you can. Let us go and see if we can get any nuts."

Hugh did not at all succeed in his endeavours to forget his adventure.
The more he thought about it, the worse it seemed; and the next time he
spoke to Holt, and told him to remember that he owed him a shilling,
Holt said he did not know that,--he did not mean to spend a shilling;
and it was clear that it was only his fear of Hugh's speaking to Mrs.
Watson or the usher, that prevented his saying outright that he should
not pay it. Hugh felt very hot, and bit his lip to make his voice
steady when he told Dale, on the way home, that he did not believe he
should ever see any part of his half-crown again. Dale thought so too;
but he advised him to do nothing more than keep the two debtors up to
the remembrance of their debt. If he told so powerful a person as Firth,
it would be almost as much tale-telling as if he went to the master at
once; and Hugh himself had no inclination to expose his folly to Phil,
who was already quite sufficiently ashamed of his inexperience. So poor
Hugh threw the last of his plums to some cottager's children on the
green, in his way home; and, when he set foot within bounds again, he
heartily wished that this Saturday afternoon had been rainy too; for any
disappointment would have been better than this scrape.

While learning his lessons for Monday, he forgot the whole matter; and
then he grew merry over the great Saturday night's washing; but after he
was in bed, it flashed upon him that he should meet uncle and aunt Shaw
in church to-morrow, and they would speak to Phil and him after church;
and his uncle might ask after the half-crown. He determined not to
expose his companions, at any rate: but his uncle would be displeased;
and this thought was so sad that Hugh cried himself to sleep. His uncle
and aunt were at church the next morning; and Hugh could not forget the
ginger-beer, or help watching his uncle: so that, though he tried
several times to attend to the sermon, he knew nothing about it when it
was done. His uncle observed in the church-yard that they must have had
a fine ramble the day before; but did not say anything about
pocket-money. Neither did he name a day for his nephews to visit him,
though he said they must come before th