hair and leaning his head
against him.

"Yes; he shall go for a walk with me every day, and in the twilight I
will talk to him about you," answered Alice. "You might send messages
to him in your letters," she added.

"Would you understand them, old fellow?" asked Reginald, lifting up
the dog's head and looking into his eyes.

The dog wistfully returned his master's gaze and gave him his paw.

"I believe he understands," said Reginald, throwing his arms round the
dog's neck. "Oh, Rover, Rover, if I could only take you with me!"

"It would not be so bad then," sighed Alice.

"It won't be really bad when I get accustomed to it. Just at first it
may be strange, but I shall be sure to like one, at any rate, out of
the forty boys. It is going out into the world, and my father says it
is well for a boy to learn his level early. On the whole, I am glad I
am going; it is only the first bit of it that one is not sure about."

* * * * *

It was a large room, with desks and benches on either side, and an
aisle, as Reginald called it, up the middle. It had four large windows
looking out on the playground, and a fireplace at each end, round
which some dozen or two of boys were clustered.

Reginald advanced toward the fireplace at the lower end of the room,
hoping that some one might speak to him and rid him of the strange,
uncomfortable feeling that crept over him; but none of the boys spoke,
though they regarded him critically, as if measuring the sort of being
he was before committing themselves to any closer acquaintance.

So he sat down on a bench halfway down the school-room, tried to look
unconscious, and half wished himself at home again.

"Have any of you fellows got a knife? I want to cut this piece of
string," said a tall boy, addressing the group generally.

In a moment Reginald had taken out his new knife and offered it to the
speaker.

"Ah!" said Thompson, the tall boy; "a capital knife. Much obliged;
will borrow it for the present;" and after using it he quietly put it
into his pocket.

Some of the boys laughed. One of them, however, murmured, in an
undertone, "What a great shame!"

Reginald's color rose. He walked straight up to Thompson:

"Will you please to give me my knife again?"

Thompson looked surprised:

"No; I shall please to do nothing of the kind. You offered it, and I
accepted it. An offer's an offer."

"I lent it to you to cut the string."

"You did