at his command tried her hand at throwing and been
condemned by him, she put her question again.

"Why aren't you speaking to me, John? What have I done?"

"I'm speaking!" quoth John. "But I'm done with you."

"But what have I done?"

"Done! Only got me into a row with my grandfather. Only got me to bed at
six o'clock without any tea for speaking to you. That's all."

"And shan't you speak to me any more?" asked Betty.

"Only just speak," said John.

"And--and----" Betty's voice quavered with anxiety--"shan't you run away
with me?"

"Mightn't" said John. He sent another stone speeding down the road, and
Betty watched it with misty eyes, as she trudged along behind him. She
did not speak.

"You should have cleared when I coughed," said John. "I told you I'd
cough, but you sat there reading and wouldn't look up."

Still Betty was silent.

"You'd give the whole blessed show away," said John. "What's the good
of running away and being brought back to school. That comes of being a
girl."

And then he looked at her and saw the tears were running down her cheeks
and her lips quivering.

"You're crying!" he said, turning round to her sharply.

"Oh, I'm not," said Betty, and dragged her bonnet further over her face.
"That horrid stone of yours made a d-dust, and its--it's got in my
eyes."

John laughed. "If you do run away," he said, "what shall you do?"

Betty's ambition leapt to life, and her tears dried themselves on her
cheeks and in her eyes.

"I'm going to sing," she said. "I'm going to stand at a street corner
and sing, and I'm going to wear a tattered old dress and no boots and
stockings. And then an old gentleman will pass by and he'll hear me and
stand still, and he'll take me away to make a singer of me; and even
lords will come to hear me sing, and kings and queens."

John was stirred.

"I'm going without boots, too," he said, "and I shall be in tattered
things. I shall get a place as errand boy first, and----"

"When are you going?" asked Betty artfully.

"To-morrow," said John.

"Why, so am I," said Betty. "How funny."

"If you like," said John, "I'll see you to some street corner. I'm going
at five o'clock in the morning."

"Why, so am I," said Betty. "Oh, yes; let's go together."

"You can be down at the store by half-past five," said John. "That'll
give us time to get a bit of breakfast. And we'll be in Sydney early,
before they find out we've gone."

[Illustration: "She went b