Page:Anna Chapin--Half a dozen boys.djvu/345

Rh middle of the room, she could see many a pleasant mark that the year had left on them. And even Sam. Hard as the separation had been for those who were left behind, the boy  was so safe and happy, safe from the many  temptations that follow our boys through their  lives, strengthening many a one, it is true, but  all too often overpowering and destroying some fine, manly lad, who yet lacks just the courage to speak the one decided word that shall leave  him the victor in the fight. Yes, Sam had gained in the past year, although it had been a  sad lesson for the other boys, whose careless  fun had brought the loss to them.

And Fred? It was with a feeling of unmixed pride and pleasure that Bessie surveyed the bonnie boy who was sitting opposite her, with Fuzz on his knee. His figure and features were the same they had been on that rainy November afternoon, a little over a year ago;  but that was all. In place of the pale, listless, sad boy that had greeted her then, there sat an energetic, rosy, happy lad, whose whole face was laughing at the frolic into which he had  entered as heartily as any of the other lads, a