toys you get with a little thing like a
pair of bellows under them that squeaks--well, I got a bird the other
day and pulled off the stand, and stuck it in my shoe so that I could
make a noise with it when I walked. Whenever I moved about in class,
old Ward used to beseech me with tears in his eyes to wear another pair
of boots. I used to come squeaking into assemblies a bit late on
purpose, and send all the fellows into fits. It was a fearful joke;
but poor old Val got quite huffy about it, and kept saying I should be
found out, and that there was no sense in my 'monkey tricks,' as he
called them."

"So they are," answered Queen Mab, smiling in spite of herself. "I
should have thought you were old enough to find some more sensible
amusement than putting pieces of penny toys in your boots. You may
laugh at Valentine if you like, but I can tell you this, he's very fond
of you, and that's the reason why he doesn't like to see you in
trouble."

"I know he is," returned the boy briskly. "He's a brick; and I like
him better than any other chap in the school."

Queen Mab went on shelling her peas, and Jack remained perched on the
end of the table, quite content to continue watching her nimble fingers
and sweet, restful face. It certainly was jolly to be back again at
Brenlands. He was no longer the ugly duckling; Helen and Barbara were
like sisters, and he got on with them swimmingly; all kinds of splendid
projects were on the carpet, and there were plenty of long summer days
to look forward to in which to carry them out. To be a careless dog of
a schoolboy, ready for anything in the way of larks and excitement, and
paying precious little attention to one's books or conduct record,
might be a fascinating sort of existence; yet somehow it was not
altogether unpleasant, once in a way, to become for a time a member of
a more civilized and refined society, where gentler treatment
encouraged gentler manners, where hearts were thought of as well as
heads, where there was no black list, and where no one would have made
a boast of being on it, had such a thing existed.

This year the mimic war operations were of a more advanced kind than
had ever been attempted before. A fortress built of clay and pebbles
was mined and blown up; and there still being some powder left, Jack
successfully performed the feat of blowing himself up, and in doing so
sustained the loss of an eyebrow. In order that this catastrophe
should not