bend beside the little headstone under the evergreens and talk of
him--the faithful friend they had loved all their lives, who had reached
his prime and died of old age during their own youth.

We must pass rapidly over the next few months, only pausing to say that
they were busy ones for the D's. In the first place, the new tutor, as
Don expressed it, was "worked by steam" and was "one of the broad-gauge,
high-pressure sort;" but Uncle George noted that his nephew and niece
made great advancement under what _he_ called Dr. Sneeden's careful and
earnest teaching.

But they had, too, their full share of recreation. Don and Ed found the
gymnasium not only a favorite resort in the way of pleasure, but also a
great aid to their physical development. After a few weeks' exercise,
their muscles began to grow stronger and harder, and the startling
climbs, leaps, tumbles, hand-springs and somersaults which the boys
learned to perform were surprising.

When the summer came, Don and Ed Tyler secretly believed themselves
competent to become members of the best circus troupe in the country,
and many a boy-visitor was asked to "feel _that_, will you?" as each
young Hercules knotted the upper muscles of his arm in order to astonish
the beholder. Even the girls caught the spirit, and, though they would
not for the world have had the boys know it, they compared muscle in a
mild way among themselves, and Dorry's was declared by admiring friends
to be "awfully hard."

Little Fandy Danby, too, after giving himself numberless bruises,
became so expert that he finally attained the summit of his ambition by
hanging from the horizontal ladder and going hand over hand its entire
length, though not without much puffing and panting and a frantic
flourishing of little legs.

Don and the boys had great fun in "stumping" each other; which consisted
in one performing a certain feat and challenging the others to do it,
and if matched in that, then daring them to some bolder and more
difficult attempt.

Uncle George himself took part in these contests, and, though often
beaten, threatened to distance them all after a few months' practice.
"There's a plentiful share of limberness tied up in these old muscles,"
he would say, "and when it's set free, boys, look out for your laurels!"

Well, the spring passed away and no bones were broken. Boating and
bathing, berrying and other sports, came with the advancing season; but
the great feature of the