splash of the flooded river. Two of his schoolboys were
loitering under the window, wishing to speak to him, yet too bashful; he
got up and sat on the window-sill, smiled at them, and they smiled back.
They had a tale to tell; but, as it was of a somewhat delicate nature
and hard to explain, he had to listen very patiently. They had a
dollar--a brown and green paper dollar--which they gave him with an air
of solemn importance. They said that they and some of their comrades had
been a long way from home gathering saxifrage, and that they had met one
of the young ladies of the town. She had her arms full of flowers, and
her pocket quite full of moss, so full that she had had to take her
purse and handkerchief out and hold them in her hand with the flowers
because the moss was wet. When she came upon them, they were trying to
get some saxifrage that was on a ledge of rock; they could only climb
half-way up the rock, and were none of them tall enough to reach it; so
she put down all her flowers and things and climbed up and got it for
them; but in the meantime one of them opened the purse and took out the
dollar. She never found it out, and went away.

'Not either of you?' said the schoolmaster.

'No, sir; one of the other fellows did it. But he's sorry, and wants to
give it back; so we said that we would tell you, and perhaps you would
give it to her.'

'Why couldn't you go and give it to her, just as you have given it to
me?'

'Because we knew you'd b'lieve us that it was just the way we said; and
her folks, you know, might think we'd done it when we said we hadn't.
Or, mother said, if you didn't want to be troubled, perhaps you'd just
write a line to say how it was, and we'll go and leave it at the house
after dark and come away quick.'

The master had no objection to this; so he brought the boys in and got
out his best note-paper--he was fastidious about some things--and wrote
a note beginning 'Dear Madam,' telling in a few lines that the money had
been stolen and restored.

'What is the lady's name?' he asked, taking up the envelope.

'It was Eelan Reid, sir; Mr. Reid's daughter that keeps the shop.'

So the schoolmaster wrote 'Miss Eelan Reid' in a fair round hand, and
then he paused for a moment. He was making up his mind to the
all-decisive action.

'Perhaps you can wait for another note and take that for me at the same
time,' he said. He gave them some picture papers to look at. Then he
wrote the note of