f it that day, now so long ago, is still
vividly present to my mind. By the time we again reached the farm-house
the dinner-hour had arrived; and our long continued exercise in the open
air had so much improved our appetites that we did ample justice to the
good things set before us. Dinner being over we observed, what had
before escaped our notice, that the sky was becoming overcast with dark
clouds, and soon a heavy rain began to fall, which put an end to all our
plans of out-of-door enjoyment for the afternoon. As I mentioned at the
beginning, Harry was very much disappointed, for outside sports were his
especial delight; and for a time his face looked almost as dark and
forbidding as the sky itself. We tried to cheer him up, saying we would
have some quiet games in the large dining-room, and we did succeed in
getting him to join us; but somehow or other our games afforded us no
enjoyment, and the question, "what shall we do with ourselves?" began to
pass from one to the other among the group of eager, restless boys.
"Would you like me to tell you a story, boys?" enquired Harry's mother,
after observing for a time our vain attempts at enjoyment. Mrs. Knights
was a lady of high culture, and possessed the happy faculty of rendering
herself an agreeable companion to either the young or old; and more than
one pair of eyes grew bright with pleased anticipation, when she
proposed telling us a story; and, of course, we as eagerly assented to
her proposal. Seating herself our midst, she took up a piece of
needlework, saying, "I can always talk best, when my hands an employed,"
and began as follows:

"I suppose none of you, perhaps not even my own Harry is aware that my
home has not always been in Canada; but I will now inform you that the
days of my childhood and youth were passed in a pretty town near the
base of the Alleghany Mountains in the State of Virginia. I will not
pause at present to give you any further particulars regarding my own
early years, as the story I am about to relate is concerning one of my
schoolmates who was a few years older than myself. The Pastor of the
Church in the small village where my parents resided had but one son;
and, when quite a little girl, I remember him as one of the elder pupils
in the school I attended. I was too young at that time to pay much
attention to passing events, but I afterward learned that, even then,
his conduct was a source of much anxiety and sorrow to his parents, his