Something stirred in Roddy’s heart at his mother’s words.  The best part of him suddenly came uppermost.  He walked quietly away, followed by Fuzzy sniffing at his heels.  And, somehow, the boy felt an inch taller as he looked round the farm.  After all, what were the butterflies compared with the tinies left in his charge?  “Hip, hip, hooray!” Roddy straightened himself and cheered.  He had won a victory—­over himself.

[Illustration:]

“Hi, Nettie!  Hi, Dumps!  Come along!  And where’s Baby?  We’re going to the meads, and I’ll make you a fine cowslip ball to shoot the rooks with!” he shouted, and Fuzzy barked madly round as the tinies flocked out.

When they got there, what with the sun and the wind, the making of the huge cowslip ball and the little ones’ joy over it, Roddy’s face cleared up and was as sunshiny as the weather itself.  There’s nothing like giving up your own will for making the heart sing.

By-and-by, when dinner-time came, so did father.  As the dog-cart drove along the high-road, Roddy and Nettie puzzled over its appearance.

“It’s got a new wheel at the back, Roddy!”

But Roddy’s eyes widened into a fixed stare, and his face grew very red.

“Well, boy, here you are at your post.  Now I’ll tell you why I wanted you to stay at home this morning.  It was for this surprise.  Look, my lad!  For weeks back I’ve been in treaty for this bicycle for you.  To-day I was able to close with the bargain, and it’s yours!”

For a few seconds Roddy could not see:  his eyes were dimmed.  The good, kind father had been planning out his boy’s pleasure!  “O, father!” he gasped; then, “O, mother!”

“Such a beauty!” delightedly said mother.

“It’s a good one; I don’t know the name,” father was beginning.

“I do!” put in mother.  “It is the ’Victory’—­Roddy’s Victory!”

M.B.  Manwell.

Was It a Dream?

[Illustration:]

Rita grew quite tired of gathering wildflowers while her brother Frank sat by the water busy with his fishing-rod.

“He must be tired of it by this time!  He has been fishing for two hours!” she said, and, swinging her bunch of flowers, she walked to where her brother was sitting.

“Do leave off fishing for a while, Frank!” she pleaded, leaning against the tree beside him.  “There is such a funny-looking animal running about over there in the grass.  Come and look!”

Frank laughed.

“I know your funny-looking animals, Rita!” he said.

“Aren’t you really tired of sitting quite still?” went on Rita wonderingly.

“I don’t think about it,” answered her brother.  “I want to catch the fish, and to do that I must sit still.”

Rita knew she must be contented to wait, so she walked a little way from him and threw herself down upon the bank.

As she lay looking into the water she suddenly felt herself grow very sleepy.  A little while after, the water began to get so clear that she could see right through it.  It grew more and more so until it became just like glass.  Rita could see the very bottom of the pond and the fish swimming quickly backwards and forwards.