l,
and to pass over the trouble without further comment.

CHAPTER FIVE.

IS HE RIDICULOUS?

Few people besides the actual sufferers can at all conceive or
appreciate the intense misery which shy and retiring characters
experience when themselves or their conduct are made the subjects of
open ridicule, especially in company. Amos was peculiarly sensitive on
this point; and Walter knew it, and too often ungenerously availed
himself of this knowledge to wound his brother when he owed him a
grudge, or was displeased or out of temper with him. He would watch his
opportunity to drag Amos forward, as it were, when he could present him
to his father and his friends in a ridiculous light; and then he would
clap his hands, point to his brother's flushed face, and make some
taunting or sarcastic remark about his "rosy cheeks." Poor Amos, on
these occasions, tingling in every nerve, and ready almost to weep tears
of vexation, would shrink into himself and retreat into another room at
the earliest opportunity, followed not unfrequently by an outspoken
reproach from his brother, that "he must be a regular muff if he
couldn't bear a joke." Sometimes Walter's unfeeling sallies would
receive a feeble rebuke from his father; but more often Mr Huntingdon
would join in the laugh, and remark to his friends that Amos had no
spirit in him, and that all the wit of the family was centred in Walter.
Not so Miss Huntingdon. She fully understood the feelings of both her
nephews; and, while she profoundly pitied Amos, she equally grieved at
the cruel want of love and forbearance in her younger nephew towards his
elder brother.

Some weeks had passed away since the disastrous ride, and Forester being
none the worse for his mishap, Mr Huntingdon allowed Walter to exercise
him occasionally, accompanied by Dick, who had been fully restored to
favour. It was on a lovely summer afternoon that the two had trotted
briskly along to a greater distance from home than they had at all
contemplated reaching when they started. They had now arrived at a part
of the country quite unknown to Walter, and were just opposite a neat
little cottage with a porch in front of it covered with honeysuckle,
when Walter checked his horse, and said, "Dick, it's full time we turned
back, or my father will wonder what has become of us." So they turned
homewards. They had not, however, ridden more than a quarter of a mile,
when Walter found that he had dropped one