so, sir; but I am sure I can't [illegible
words] be like her a bit. Mother is so pretty, and I am sure I am not
the least bit in the world; and I don't think it's nice for a boy to
be like a woman."

This was rather a sore point with Ralph, who had a smooth soft face
with large eyes and long eyelashes, and who had, in consequence, been
nicknamed "Sally" by his schoolfellows. The name had stuck to him in
spite of several desperate fights, and the fact that in point of
strength and activity he was fully a match for any boy of his own age;
but as there was nothing like derision conveyed by it, and it was
indeed a term of affection rather, than of contempt, Ralph had at last
ceased to struggle against it. But he longed for the time when the
sprouting of whiskers would obliterate the obnoxious smoothness of his
face. Mr. Penfold had smiled at his remark.

"I do not like girlish boys, Ralph; but a boy can have a girlish face
and yet be a true boy all over. I fancy that's your case.

"I hope so, sir. I think I can swim or run or fight any of the chaps
of my own age in the school; but I know I do look girlish about the
face. I have done everything I could to make my face rough. I have sat
in the sun, and wetted it with sea-water every five minutes, but it's
no use."

"I should not trouble about it. Your face will get manly enough in
time, you may be sure; and I like you all the better for it, my boy,
because you are certainly very like your mother. And now, Ralph, I
want you to enjoy yourself as much as you can while you are here. The
house itself is dull, but I suppose you will be a good deal out of
doors. I have hired a pony, which will be here to-day from Poole, and
I have arranged with Watson, a fisherman at Swanage, that you can go
out with him in his fishing-boat whenever you are disposed. It is
three miles from here, but you can ride over on your pony and leave it
at the little inn there till you come back. I am sorry to say I do not
know any boys about here; but Mabel Withers, the daughter of my
neighbor and friend the clergyman of Bilston, the village just outside
the lodge, has a pony, and is a capital rider, and I am sure she will
show you over the country. I suppose you have not had much to do with
girls?" he added with a smile at seeing a slight expression of dismay
on Ralph's face, which had expressed unmixed satisfaction at the first
items of the programme.

"No, sir; not much," Ralph said. "Of course some