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 himself together and said very composedly, "Don't let me drive you away, Miss Hattie. You have come back for something."

"Only my scissors," she stammered, "but it isn't of the least consequence."

"Let me help you find them."

And he began moving the fallen leaves and petals about with his cane. The scissors soon turned up. As he handed them to her he said:

"You will perhaps be glad to hear—that is, if you care about it one way or the other—that I am going away for good in July. I have not told any one yet, for my new appointment was only settled this morning."

Hattie stood still in helpless embarrassment. She felt that she must say something. Shecould not go away leaving such an announcement as that in mid-air. It would be too cowardly. At last she gave a constrained little laugh, and asked, inconsequently:

"What do you think of all this clutter in your schoolroom, Mr. Swain?"

He hesitated a moment—

"Would you like to know what I was thinking when you came in? Iwas wondering whether the fellows who got killed did not have the best of it after all. Whether it was not better, for instance, than hobbling through life?"

"But—but—you were not in the war," cried Hattie, suddenly forgetting her embarrassment and self-consciousness.