g a cheerful tune.

"It is a good thing that Helen was not here," said Jim, "or Master Hal
would not have got off so easily. I know she is burning to give him a
piece of her mind."

"Oh, I hope she won't," said Drusie, in real distress; "and he has been
so nice about it. You heard him offering to stay, Jim?"

"Yes," said Jim, "I heard him, and I thought you were very wise not to
accept. He would have been sorry long before the fight was over."

Meanwhile Hal, feeling very well pleased with himself, hurried on, and
reached the cricket field just as a distant church clock was striking
nine.

Dodds had not yet arrived, and Hal thought with pleasure of the promise
Dodds had given him that he should go in first. And he meant to stay
in too; Dodds should not get him out so easily as he imagined. He only
hoped that Dodds would not get tired of bowling to him, and turn him
out willy nilly.

That was the worst, he reflected, of playing with a boy so much older
than himself. At school Dodds was an immensely popular fellow, and a
new and comparatively small boy, as Hal was, would have been very much
snubbed if he had ventured to say a word against him. But here Hal
could not help seeing that Dodds was rather inclined to be selfish.
And Hal was quick not only to see but to resent selfishness in other
people.

He had plenty of time to think over the faults in the character of his
friend, for half-past nine and then ten struck, and still he had not
put in an appearance. Hal began to get impatient, for the sun was
gradually getting hotter, and soon it would be too warm to play with
any comfort. It really was too bad of Dodds to treat him so.

He wondered what the others were doing, and whether they had begun
their fight. If it had not been for Dodds, he might have been with
them now, instead of dawdling away the whole of the morning doing
nothing.

For another half-hour Hal waited, and at the end of that time he came
to the conclusion that Dodds did not intend to turn up at all.

"He _is_ selfish," he thought indignantly. "Here have I spoiled the
whole of my birthday morning waiting for him. I might have been
defending the fort all this time and enjoying myself."

Here his conscience whispered that he might also have been helping his
twin sister to enjoy her birthday; and when he remembered how bravely
she had concealed her own disappointment, and how unselfishly she had
told him to go and spend his birthday