darkening sea; "I am very much obliged to you, and I do hope I have not

said anything to vex you. I have never forgotten all you did for me, and

you must not mind the way I have of saying things."

"What a shame it does appear--what a fearful shame it is," she whispered

to herself as she hurried through the trees--"that he should be

nothing but a fisherman! He is a gentleman in everything but birth and

education; and so strong, and so brave, and so good-looking!"

CHAPTER XI

NO PROMOTION

"Do it again now, Captain Scuddy; do it again; you know you must."

"You touched the rim with your shoe, last time. You are bound to do it

clean, once more."

"No, he didn't. You are a liar; it was only the ribbon of his shoe."

"I'll punch your head if you say that again. It was his heel, and here's

the mark."

"Oh, Scuddy dear, don't notice them. You can do it fifty times running,

if you like. Nobody can run or jump like you. Do it just once more to

please me."

Kitty Fanshawe, a boy with large blue eyes and a purely gentle face,

looked up at Blyth Scudamore so faithfully that to resist him was

impossible.

"Very well, then; once more for Kitty," said the sweetest-tempered of

mankind, as he vaulted back into the tub. "But you know that I always

leave off at a dozen. Thirteen--thirteen I could never stop at. I shall

have to do fourteen at least; and it is too bad, just after dinner. Now

all of you watch whether I touch it anywhere."

A barrel almost five feet in height, and less than a yard in breadth,

stood under a clump of trees in the play-ground; and Blyth Scudamore had

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