his age; and every time he read aloud, he was improving himself in this part of education.  Another pleasant change was, going to school.  Arthur had dreaded this very much, because all the scholars would be strangers to him, and he had never been to school without older brothers and sisters with him.  Being so shy and timid, he did not form acquaintances so readily as some boys; but in two or three weeks, he had become quite friendly with some, particularly Theodore Roberts.  Theodore was two years older than Arthur, but recited in the same classes.  He passed Mr. Martin’s on his way to school, and usually called for Arthur.  They walked about half a mile, partly through a wood, to reach the school-house; a little brown building, with only one room in it.  Theodore was a bold, generous-hearted boy, and his influence over Arthur was very good; while Arthur’s gentler nature and more refined manners were of service to Theodore, who was not very particular about little things.

One night, as Theodore and Arthur were coming home from school, they stopped to look at a squirrel’s nest in a hollow tree, just in the wood.  A pretty striped squirrel was running up and down a tree at a little distance, whisking his bushy tail, and watching them with his large, bright eyes.  They found a large store of nuts in the hollow tree, and Theodore proposed they should take them out.

“Oh no, no!” said Arthur, “would you have the poor squirrel starve?”

“Oh, he’ll find enough to eat, never fear,” said Theodore, “a squirrel is too cunning to starve.”

“But it isn’t right to take them, Theodore.  Just think how many hours the little fellow worked, and how hard he tugged to get them all in here, and they are his now, I’m sure; he has a good right to them, and I wouldn’t any sooner rob him of his nuts, than I would a man of his money!”

“La, what a fuss you make about it;” said Theodore with a loud laugh, “but since you feel so bad, I’ll let his squirrelship alone, this time.”

“Thank you,” said Arthur, “and now, Theodore, I must say if you had done it, I wouldn’t have liked to play with you so well as I did before, for I should think you were a cruel boy, and I couldn’t love you.”

“You are a curious fellow,” said Theodore, with another loud laugh.  Such lessons were not lost on Theodore, for though he had had very little instruction in morals or manners, he had a heart in the right place under his rough outside.

“We’ll begin our stone house to-night, if you’ll come in, Theodore,” said Arthur, as they reached Mr. Martin’s gate.

“No, I can’t stop to-night.  Sister Susan is coming to see us, and I want to get home early.”

This made Arthur think of his sisters, and it was with rather a heavy heart he entered the yard.  Mr. Martin stood near the door, and as Arthur passed him, he said,

“I have got a present in the house for you!”