ng chapel, and as every one was doubtfully wondering what had
become of them, and whether they had encountered any serious mishap.
When the Famulus admitted them, the fellows thronged round them in
crowds, pouring into their ears a succession of eager questions. The
tale of Walter's daring act flew like wildfire through the school, and
if any one still retained against him a particle of ill-feeling, or
looked on his character with suspicion, it was this evening replaced by
the conviction that there was no more noble or gallant boy than Walter
among them, and that if any equalled him in merit it was one of those
whose intimate friendship for him had on this day been deepened by the
grateful knowledge that to him, in all human probability, they owed
their preservation from an imminent and overpowering peril. Even
Somers, in honour of whose academic laurel the whole holiday had been
given, and who that evening returned from Cambridge, was less of a hero
than either of the three who had thus climbed the peak of Appenfell and
braved so serious an adventure; far less crowned with schoolboy
admiration than the young boy who had thrice crossed and recrossed the
Devil's Way, and who had crossed it first unaided and with full
knowledge of its horrors, while the light of winter evening was dying
away, and the hills around him reeked like a witch's caldron with wintry
mists.

Walter, grateful as he was for each pat on the back and warm pressure of
the hand, which told him how thoroughly and joyously his doings were
appreciated, was not intoxicated by the enthusiasm of this boyish
ovation. It was indeed a proud thing to stand among those four hundred
schoolfellows, the observed of all observers, greeted on every side by
happy, smiling, admiring faces, with every one pressing forward to give
him a friendly grasp, every one anxious to claim or to form his
acquaintance, and many addressing him with the kindliest greetings whose
very faces he hardly knew; but the deeper and more silent gratitude of
his chosen friends, and the manly sense of something bravely and rightly
done, was more to him than this. Yet this was something very sweet.
When the admiration of boys is fairly kindled it is the brightest, the
most genial, the most generously hearty in the world. Few succeed in
winning it; but he who has been a hero to others in manhood only, has
had but a partial taste of the rich triumph experienced by him who has
had the happiness i