ll able to teach
the bairn. It was all a foolishness, and very likely would end in
something uncanny. If it did--well, let nobody blame her. She had lifted
up her testimony, and thrown away her wisdom on deaf ears.

Which, indeed, was something not unlike the case.

For just then the sun shone out. The clouds divided to right and left,
following the steep purpling ridges on either side of Eden Valley--and
in the middle opening out a long sweet stream of brightness. Little
Louis clapped his hands. He ached for the company of his kind. He talked
"boys." He dreamed "boys"--not grown-up boys like me, but children of
his own age. He despised Irma because she was a girl. Only Agnes Anne
could anyways satisfy him, when she put on over her dress a pair of her
grandfather's corduroy trousers, buttoned them above her shoulder, and
pretended to give orders as in the pirn-mill. Even then, after a happy
hour with the toys which Agnes Anne contrived for him, all at once Louis
grew whimpering disappointedly, stared at her and said, "You are not a
real little boy."

And I, who had the pick of the Eden Valley boys on my hand every time I
went near my father's (and knew them for little beasts), wondered at his
taste, when he could have Irma's company, not to speak of Agnes Anne's.
But I resolved that I should keep a bright look-out and make the little
villains behave. For at an early age our Eden Valley boys were just
savages, ready to mock and rend any one of themselves who was a little
better dressed, who wore boots instead of clogs with birch-wood soles,
or dared to speak without battering the King's English out of all
recognition.

My father and Miss Huntingdon would, of course, be ready to protect our
small man as far as was in their power. But they, especially my father,
were often far removed in higher spheres of work, while Miss Huntingdon
was never in the boys' playground at all. But I had none of these
disabilities. I was instructed, sharp-eyed, always on the spot, with
fists in good repair--armed, too, with a certain authority and the habit
of using it to the full.

So little Louis found himself among his boys. I picked him out
half-a-dozen of the most peaceable to play with, after he had received
his first lesson from a very proud and smiling Miss Huntingdon. Miss
Irma, after being formally introduced to the school, left the sort of
throne which had been set for her beside my father, to go and sit beside
Agnes Anne at t