. "But it had to come some day, I suppose. I couldn't keep you
a baby always. There's a tutor coming to make a learned lady of my
little bush maid."

"Daddy!" There were worlds of horror in the tone.

"Oh, don't!" said her father. "You make me feel a criminal of the
deepest dye. What can I do with you, you ignorant small child? I can't
let you grow up altogether a bush duffer, dear." His voice was almost
apologetic. "I can assure you it might have been worse. Your Aunt Eva
has been harrowing my very soul to make me send you to a boarding
school. Think of that now!"

"Boarding school!" said Norah faintly. "Daddy, you wouldn't?"

"No--not at present, certainly," said her father. "But I had to agree to
something--and, really, I knew it was time. You're twelve, you know,
Norah. Be reasonable."

"Oh, all right," said Norah, swallowing her disgust. "If you say it's
got to be, it has to be, that's all, Daddy. My goodness, how I will hate
it! Have I got to learn heaps of things?"

"Loads," said her father, nodding; "Latin, and French, and drawing, and
geography, and how to talk grammar, and any number of things I never
knew. Then you can teach the tutor things--riding, and cooking, and
knitting, and the care of tame wallabies, and any number of things he
never dreamed of. He's a town young man, Norah, and horribly ignorant of
all useful arts."

"I'll turn him over to Billy after school," said Norah laughing. "Is he
nice, Dad?"

"Very, I should say," rejoined her father. "He's the son of an old
friend"--and his face saddened imperceptibly. "Your Aunt Eva said it
ought to be a governess, and perhaps it would have been one only young
Stephenson came in my way. He wanted something to do, and for his
father's sake I chose him for my daughter's instructor."

"Who's his father, Daddy?"

"Well, you wouldn't know if I told you, girlie. A dear old friend of
mine when I was a young man--the best friend I ever had. Jim is named
after him."

"Is he dead now?"

Mr. Linton hesitated.

"We lost him years ago," he said sadly. "A great trouble came upon
him--he lost some money, and was falsely accused of dishonesty, and he
had to go to prison. When he came out his wife refused to see him; they
had made her believe him a thief, and she was a hard woman, although she
loved him. She sent him a message that he must never try to see her or
their boy."

"She was cruel." Norah's eyes were angry.

"She was very unhappy, so we mustn'