“Yes, you mean fellow, why didn’t you tell us?” demanded Jennie, disposed to pout.

“You were sure you would know the young gentleman; and I meant that if I ever gained your love you should love me for myself, and not for any accident of the past.”

“But—­but how jolly it would have been if we had known it was you!  For you see I have had two heroes all along.  One was you, and the other was that unknown boy who took a plunge in the icy river for my sake.”

“You may have those two heroes still,” said Tom.

“So I have; but now the two are one.”

“And so are we,” he added, touching his lips to the sweet mouth that did not refuse to meet them.

“And any way, I could not love you a bit more than I have all along.”

And the grateful, happy fellow, in looking back over his stormy boyhood and young manhood, and feeling how strongly he had striven at all times to live by the Golden Rule, knew in his heart that it was to that fact that he had Fought the Battle that Won.

* * * * *

The second volume in the “Brave and Honest” Series is entitled “Honest Ned.”