h flaming cheeks
and defiant eyes, as if ready to meet all comers.

Aunt Millicent, more astonished than ever, exclaimed:

"Why, Pen Butler, I'm shocked!"

But the colonel did not seem to be shocked. Back of his glasses there
was a gleam of satisfaction in his eyes which Pen could not see. Here
was the old Butler pride and independence manifesting itself; the
spirit which had made the family prosperous and prominent. He was not
ill-pleased. Nevertheless he leaned back in his chair and spoke
impressively:

"Now let us consider the situation. You received from your teacher a
copy of the same subscription blank which was handed to your
fellow-pupil. Had you met your engagement at the station, and called
the matter to my attention, you would doubtless have received my
subscription, or been the bearer of my offer, in preference to any one
else. In your absence your school-fellow seized a legitimate
opportunity to present his case. My regret at your failure to appear,
and my appreciation of his alertness, led me to favor him. I am unable
to see why, under these circumstances, he should be charged with
improper conduct."

"Well," responded Pen, hotly, "he might at least have told you that I
had a subscription blank too."

"He did so inform me. And his fairness and frankness in doing so was
an inducing cause of my favorable consideration of his request."

Pen felt that the ground was being cut away from under his feet, but
he still had one grievance left.

"Anyway," he exclaimed, "he might have told me about your giving the
whole flag, instead of letting me go around like a monkey, collecting
pennies for nothing."

"Very true, Penfield, he should have told you. Didn't he intimate to
you in any way what I had done? Didn't he offer to show you his
subscription blank containing my letter?"

"Why--why, yes, I believe he did."

"And you declined to look at it?"

"Yes, I declined to look at it. I considered it none of my business.
But he might have told me what was on it."

"My dear grandson; this is a case in which the alertness of your
school-fellow, added to your failure to keep an engagement and to
grasp a situation, has led to your discomfiture. Let this be a lesson
to you to be diligent, vigilant and forearmed. Only thus are great
battles won."

Again the colonel placed his glasses on the hook on the breast of his
waistcoat, and resumed his activity in connection with his evening
meal. It was plain that he c