d up.

"Noll, did you wish to speak to me?" he asked, abruptly.

The question came upon Noll unawares.

"Yes, if--if you were not too--too busy," he stammered. "I thought--I
hoped you would say something about my books--my studies, I mean,
Uncle Richard."

"What about them?"

"Why, whether I were to study with you, or by myself, or how; and
whether I am to begin now, or wait a while," said Noll, wishing that
his uncle would look less keenly at him.

Trafford leaned his head upon his hand and reflected a little. At last
he said,--

"You will wait, Noll, till your month is up. There would be no use in
beginning studies which, perchance, may end in so short a time. If, at
the end of four weeks, you conclude to stay, then we will talk about
study. Till then, you will wait."

Noll's blue eyes said, as plainly as eyes could, "Don't mention that
month again, Uncle Richard!" but his tongue was silent, and he
acquiesced in this decision by a nod of his head.

"You can fill up the time," continued his uncle, "as you like. You had
best make yourself acquainted with the Rock before you decide to stay
here. You will hardly explore it all in one day, I think;" and with
this Trafford turned again to his book.

Noll found his hat and went out, determined to keep a brave heart if
Uncle Richard _was_ cold and gloomy. If there was no other way, he
would _make_ him love him, he thought, though how that was to be done
he had, as yet, but a very slight idea. He went through the
dining-room, and from thence found his way to the broad front piazza
which faced the sea, and where, the previous evening, he had stood so
lonely and homesick. Everything looked much cheerier to him now, and
he ran down the sand, in front of the house, to the water's edge,
resolved to see the bright side of everything which pertained to gray,
barren Culm. There were stranded shells and bright-hued weeds on the
wet, glittering sand, which made Noll's eyes sparkle with delight.

"Wouldn't Ned's eyes open to see these!" he thought, "and wouldn't the
dear old fellow like some for his museum! I'll gather a whole box full
and send them up by the skipper some day."

Thinking of the skipper made Noll remember his trunks, and he wondered
if the "White Gull" had continued her voyage farther down the shore.

"There's a whole month to explore and pick up shells in," he said to
himself, "and I'll take this forenoon to go around to the land