rly bursting into tears as possible.

My mother's loving, pleasant way staved off the sulky fit, however.

"These lessons begun, and not one of them finished off!" she exclaimed.
"Let us see how long they will take you. First the exercise, we will
allow a quarter of an hour for that; five minutes will prove your sum;
and the verb, an old one you say and very nearly perfect, two minutes
for that: less than twenty-five minutes, Willie, and you will be so
perfectly prepared that you will be longing for ten o'clock to-morrow,
and Mr. Glengelly to come, all the rest of the evening."

I could not help laughing at the notion of my pining for Mr. Glengelly's
arrival, and a laugh is an excellent stepping-stone out of the sulks. My
mother put her watch on the table, and stayed in the room, helping me by
quiet sympathizing superintendence, and I set to work with such
earnestness that I had completed my tasks in twenty minutes, and was off
to the play-room without a trace of my wrong temper, as eager to join my
cousin in the carpentry as if nothing had gone wrong between us, and
only rejoicing that my lessons were over at last, without troubling
myself to remember that the trial of Aleck's being so much quicker than
myself at his studies was sure to recur again and again, and that,
unless my dislike to his superiority could be conquered and stamped out,
I should soon find every-day trouble in my every-day work.

And in truth the conquering and stamping out of such feelings as these
is no easy task. It is unquestionably a real trial to find that work
which takes you an hour's hard labour can be accomplished by your
companion in not much more than half the time; that even though the
lessons are apportioned so as to give him the heavier burden, he can
always dispose of the heavier more readily than you can of the lighter.
In my own case, Aleck was often very good-natured, and would linger in
_his_ work to give me a help in _mine_; or purposely keep pace with me,
so that we might go out to play together. But this was not always the
way; when he was very eagerly engaged in any play-time occupation, he
would bend all his energies to getting his tasks finished off quickly,
and then hurry away, without appearing in the least troubled that I
could not accompany him. Upon which occasions I thought him selfish and
unfeeling, and was inclined not a little to regret that he had ever come
to Braycombe.

The worst of it was, that though I kne