ust as if
it had been dipped in ink."

Helen bent down over the work she had taken up.

"Don't?" said the doctor sharply. "Then what am I to do, sir? Words
are of no use. I did hope that you were going to be a better and more
tractable boy."

"Well, but ain't I?" said Dexter, looking puzzled, and rubbing his curly
head.

"Better? No, sir; much worse."

Dexter rubbed his head again thoughtfully.

"I haven't torn my clothes this week, and I haven't been down on my
knees; and I haven't been on the top of the wall, and I did want to ever
so badly."

"No, Dexter; but you climbed right to the top of the big pear-tree,"
said Helen quickly; "and it was a terribly dangerous thing to do."

"Now you've begun at me!" said the boy in a lachrymose tone. "I'm
afraid I'm a regular bad one, and you'd better send me back again."

The doctor looked at Helen, and she returned the glance with a very
serious aspect, but there was a merry light in her eyes, as she saw her
father's discomfiture.

He read her looks aright, and got up from his seat with an impatient
ejaculation.

"I'm going out, my dear," he said shortly.

"Are you going to get a cane!" cried Dexter excitedly. "I say, don't,
and I will try so hard to do what you want."

"I was not going to buy a cane, sir," said the doctor, who was
half-angry, half-amused by the boy's earnestness. "One of my
walking-sticks would do very well when I give you a good sound
thrashing. Here, Helen, my dear, you can speak to Dexter a bit. I will
have another talk to him to-night."

The doctor left the room, and Dexter stood listening as his step was
heard in the hall. Then the door closed, and Helen bent thoughtfully
over her work, while the boy stood first on one foot, then on the other,
watching her. The window was open, the sun shone, and the garden with
its lawn and bright flowers looked wonderfully tempting, but duty and
the disgrace he was in acted as two chains to hold the boy there.

"I say," he said at last.

"Yes, Dexter," said Helen, looking up at him sadly.

"Oh, I say, don't look at me like that," he cried.

"You force me to, Dexter," she said gravely.

"But ain't you going to talk to me!"

"If I talk to you, it will only be to scold you very severely."

Dexter sighed.

"Well," he said, after a pause, during which he had been gazing intently
in the earnest eyes before him; "you've got to do it, so let's have it
over. I was always glad when I had b