Page:Stanwood Pier--Crashaw brothers.djvu/158

138 seemed to require a greater gathering of himself for the effort; at last he changed to the easier hand-over-hand method, and even with  that was unable to reach the top. Six or eight rungs below the horizontal ladder his strength  failed, and he stopped.

There was a great outburst of applause for him as he came slowly down; but Edward on  the stairs was disappointed again. Sheldon brushed past him and went downstairs on the  run.

Edward glanced at him from time to time while they dressed; he had never seen Sheldon  so silent.

After a while Sheldon said to him, though just as if he were talking to himself, “What’s  the use of practising stunts if you can’t do  them when you want to!”

“You did them all pretty well,” said Edward.

“Pretty well!” answered Sheldon in a tone of scorn, and walked away.

Edward knew exactly how he was feeling, and he was so sympathetic he wished he could