ll infallibly
drive him away at once and for ever. Neither is it wise to seek to bring
into play influences that will compel him to attend _nolens volens_, for
that will but deepen his dislike, and make him long the more eagerly
for the time when he will be his own master in the matter.

There seem to be but two possible solutions of the problem. You must
either appeal to the boy's natural sense of independence, and desire for
importance by making some special provision for him that will mark a
distinction between him and the younger folk, or you must, by going far
deeper, reach the spiritual side of his nature, and through it secure
his fidelity to the school.

To Bert this temptation had not presented itself. He no more thought of
tiring of the Sunday school than he did of his own home. He had attended
regularly ever since his sister Mary would take him with her, and put
him in the infant class, and it might be said to have become second
nature with him.

With Frank, however, it was different. He had never gone to Sunday
school until Bert invited him, and although for some years he was very
fond of it, that fondness in time had fallen into an indifference, and
of late he had a decided disinclination to go at all. This was not due
so much to any resistance to the claims of religion itself, but rather
to a foolish idea that he was now too old and too big for Sunday school.

Bert took his friend's change of feeling very much to heart, and he
pleaded with him so earnestly, that for some time Frank continued in
his place just to please him. But this of course could not last, and he
was in danger of drifting away altogether, when an event occurred which
turned the current of his life and set it flowing once more in the right
direction, this time with a volume it had never known before.

It was a pleasant custom at Calvary Church to give the Sunday school a
picnic every summer, and these picnics were most enjoyable affairs. A
better place than Halifax Harbour for the holding of a picnic could
hardly be conceived. You go, of course, by steamer, and then have the
choice of some half-dozen different routes, each having its own
attractions. You might go right up to the head of the big basin that
stretched away eight miles or more beyond the north end of the city, and
there land, amid the meadows that are bordered by the unbroken forest,
or you might stop half-way, and invade the old estate that had once been
proud to claim