are notorious for your boyish pranks."

"Yes, sir; and I want to get the better of it. It's as the Major said:
the troubles I get into are boys' troubles, and not suitable to a young
man."

"The Major's wise, Archie. Then why don't you put off all your boyish
mischief and remember that you are now pretty well a man grown, and, as
one of our lads would say in his cockney lingo, `act as sich?'"

"Because I can't, Doctor," said the lad earnestly. "I want to act as a
man. I'm six feet two, and I shave regularly."

"Humph!" grunted the Doctor, who had to make an effort to keep his
countenance.

"And whenever I get into trouble I make a vow that I'll never do such a
childish, schoolboyish thing again; but it's no use, for before many
days have passed, something tempts me, and I find myself doing more
foolish things than ever. Can it be that there is some screw loose in
my head?"

The Doctor sat looking earnestly in the lad's agitated countenance, for
his brow was one tangle of deeply marked wrinkles.

"I think sometimes I must be going mad, or at all events growing into an
idiot, and you can't think how wretched and despairing it makes me. Do
you think medicine--tonic or anything of that sort--would do me good?"

The Doctor gazed at the lad fixedly till he could bear it no longer, and
he was about to speak again, when the adviser uttered a loud expiration
of the breath, jumping up at the same time and clapping his hands
heavily on his visitor's shoulders.

"No, my lad, I don't," he cried boisterously. "You are sound as a bell,
strong as a young horse. Why, you ought to be proud of yourself instead
of fidgeting with a lot of morbid fancies. You have been for years and
years a boy, fresh--larky, as you would say--full of mischief, as I was
myself--"

"You, Doctor! Impossible!"

"What! Ha, ha! Why, Archie Maine, I have watched you pretty thoroughly
since we have been friends, noted your pranks, and seen the trouble you
have got into with the Major. Oh yes; I believe I was much worse than
you. And you are now changing into the man, when most fellows of your
age begin thinking more of others than of themselves; though they are
pretty good at that latter, and particularly fond of arranging their
plumage so as to excite admiration. But you held on to your merry,
mischievous boyhood, so take my advice and don't worry yourself any
more. I hope you have got many, many years to come, and you will find
yours