unger boys will be
very little, if any, better than Melville."

"Oh! yes, father. Ralph will do anything you wish, I know; and Hal and
Bunny are very good at school. Remember what the master said of them at
Christmas."

"Yes, yes; they are good little fellows. Then there is poor Piers; he
must always be an anxiety, poor boy!"

"I don't think any of us can be happier than Piers," Joyce said. "He
never complains because he is lame; and he is as contented as possible,
making his collection of moths and butterflies, and bird's eggs, and
things. No, father, don't be unhappy about Piers."

"Do you think, Joyce, I ever forget that it was my carelessness which
made the boy a cripple? I never forget it."

"No one else thinks of it, dear daddy," Joyce said, slipping her hand
into her father's, as it rested on his knee. "No one else thinks of it;
and you know the colt had been broken in, and----"

"The child ought never to have put his legs across it, Joyce; and I
lifted him on, and told him not to be a coward. Ah!" said the squire,
suddenly starting to his feet. "I cannot speak of it; I dare not."

He began an abrupt descent the way that they had come. Nip and Pip, who
had been sleeping with their noses on their paws, and one eye open,
raced off, while Duke drew himself into a standing position, and walked
demurely down the steep bit of turf, with the brush of his tail waving
from side to side as he went.

Joyce did not follow immediately. Her bright face was clouded with the
sympathy she felt for her father. It all came back to her: the group
before the Manor, the child of eight years old, saying, "I am afraid of
riding Rioter, father." Then the father's answer, "Afraid! Don't be a
coward, Piers; you have a good seat enough for such a little chap. Here,
let me put you on." The boy's white, set face, as he grasped the reins;
and Rioter was off like lightning. "His brothers rode long before they
were his age," the squire had said; "it won't do to tie him to his
mother's apron strings, because he happens to be the youngest." Then the
sound of returning horse's feet, and Rioter rushed up the side drive to
the stables riderless. Another minute and old Thomas appeared with a
lifeless burden in his arms, which the squire took from him, with a
groan of remorse, as he turned into the house with him and said to his
wife, "I have killed the boy."

But Piers was not killed. His injuries were life-long, but his life was
spared.