Page:Anna Chapin--Half a dozen boys.djvu/150

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Fred had been the hero of one of the stories of good little boys, whose pages our  mothers and grandmothers used to bedew with  salt tears, from the hour of his midnight talk  with Bess his whole character would have  undergone a sudden and miraculous change. But he was only a natural boy, just starting to fight his own way against heavy odds, and his  progress was slow and tiresome. Though he forced himself to go out with Bess, and to see  the boys when they came to the house, he still  had the old longing to avoid them, and the old  quick temper would flash out at Rob now and  then. But Bess, watching him closely, could see his struggle, and often rejoiced over some  victory too slight to attract the attention of  any one else. With a quiet word of suggestion or encouragement she helped the boy onward  when he was cross and discouraged, or let fall