you can do. Sailors don't know much of fighting.'

'They know just as much as soldiers, and as to your old button, I b'lieve you just picked up the old brass thing from the gutter!'

'If you weren't a girl, I'd fight you!' sputtered Teddy now, with rising wrath.

'Pooh! I expect I could lick you; I don't b'lieve you have half as big a muscle as I have on my arm.'

'A girl have muscle! It's just a bit of fat!'

The tone of scorn proved too much for Nancy's self-control; with a passionate exclamation she made a quick rush across the plank, there was a struggle, and the result was what might have been expected—a great splash, a scream from Nancy, and both little figures were immersed in the stream. Happily the water was not very deep, and after a few minutes' scrambling they were on dry ground, considerably sobered by their immersion. Teddy began to laugh a little shamefacedly, but Nancy was very near tears.

'I'll tell my mother you nearly drowned me dead.'

'If you're a sailor's daughter, you oughtn't to be afraid of the water; sailors and fish are always in the sea.'

'They're never in it; never!'

'Well, they're on it, as close as they can be to it. Why, you're nearly crying! But you're only a girl, and a sailor's girl can't be very brave—not like a soldier's girl would be.'

'Sailors are much braver than soldiers,' said Nancy, quickly swallowing down her tears; 'and when they do fight they're in much more danger than the soldiers. Father said, how would soldiers like the earth to swallow them up just when they've been fighting hard and got the victory? That's what the sea does to the poor sailors. Their ship begins to sink, and they send up three cheers for queen and country, and then stand on deck with folded arms, and go down, down, down to the bottom of the sea, and never make a cry!'

Nancy forgot her wet clothes in her eloquence, and Teddy stared wonderingly at her.

'Well,' he said, as if considering the matter, 'they may be sometimes brave, but they don't fight like the soldiers, and they have no banners, and red coats, and band; and they don't know how to march. A sailor walks anyhow. I saw one once, and I thought he was tipsy, but he wasn't. A sailor walks like a goose—he waddles!'

'You're the horridest, rudest boy I've ever seen!'

And with the utmost dignity Nancy walked away, Teddy calling after her, 'You made a pretty good charge for a girl, but you couldn't get past me!' And then with one of his loud whoops he raced home, and hardly drew a breath till he reached the farmhouse door. His grandmother confronted him at once.

'You young rascal, what have you been doing? You're never a day out of mischief. If I was your mother I'd give you a good whipping; but she spoils you.'

'And you do, too, granny!'

Teddy's laughing blue eyes, as he raised them to the grim face before him, conquered, as they generally did.

'There, go to your mother, she's in the dairy; I wash my hands of you.'

But Teddy crept up to his little room to change his wet clothes before he met his mother, and then was very silent about his adventure, merely saying, by way of explanation, that he had fallen into the brook; but at tea, a short time after, he suddenly said,—

'If you put a sailor and a soldier together, which would you choose,
Uncle Jake?'

'Eh, my laddie? Well, they're both good in their way. I couldn't say,
I'm sure.'

'Mother, wouldn't you say the soldier was the bravest?'

'Perhaps I might, sonny; but a sailor can be quite as brave.'

Teddy's face fell. 'I never thought a sailor could fight at all,' he said, in a disappointed tone; 'I thought they just took care of our ships, and now and then fired a big gun off.'

'Who's been bringing up the sailors to you?' asked his grandmother.

'That little girl I told you of—Nancy her name is.'

'Where have you seen her?'

'Down by the brook; we fell into the water together, because we both wanted to cross at once.'

'But, my boy, that was naughty for you not to give place to her,' and
Mrs. John spoke reprovingly.

'I know it was, mother, but I wasn't going to turn back. That would be running away from the enemy. You see, we met in the middle, and she's not at all a nice girl, and she's so proud and stuck up about the sailors!'

'As proud as you are of the redcoats, I guess!' old Mrs. Platt said.

'Do sailors and soldiers like each other?' questioned Teddy, ignoring the thrust.

'I am sure I don't know,' his mother answered, smiling. 'I have never seen them together that I remember, but I should think they did. They both fight for their queen and country.'

'Well, I'm a soldier's son, and I don't like a sailor's daughter, I know that! I think she is a kind of enemy.'

'Oh, hush! sonny. You must have no enemies. It is wrong to talk so.'

'That's what he was a-sayin' to me t'other day,' put in his uncle slowly; 'he says he wants one.'

'Yes, I do,' and Teddy gave a fervent nod as he spoke; 'and, mother, I believe most good people have enemies, so it must be right to have one.'

'They never make one, as you're trying to do.'

Teddy looked puzzled.

'Well,' he said presently, 'I expect it's because she's a stranger. She doesn't belong to our village. I don't like strangers.'

'She's no more a stranger than you were when you first came here,' his mother said; 'and the fact of her being a stranger ought to make you kind to her.'

'I'm thinking of calling on her mother,' old Mrs. Platt said, looking at her little grandson with her keen grey eyes; 'shall I take you with me to see the little girl?'

'I've seen her enough, granny. Please, I think I'd rather not.'

The subject was dropped, but Teddy's thoughts were busy. He ran down to the village green after tea, and there met one or two of his special chums, to whom he confided the events of the afternoon. They highly applauded the scene at the bridge, but Teddy shook his curly head a little doubtfully.

'Men ought always to give way to women, I've heard mother say; but I couldn't turn back, you see—it would have disgraced my button.'

'Tell you what,' cried Harry Brown, commonly known as 'Carrots' from his fiery hair, 'you could 'a done what the goats did in the primer at school—you ought ter have laid flat down and let her walk across you.'

'She would have hurt dreadful,' Teddy observed thoughtfully. 'Besides, she's so proud, I don't think I would have liked to do that.'

'No,' put in Sam Waters; 'you did fine. I say, let's come up to the turnpike and see if she's about there. I'll give her a word, if she begins to sauce me.'

Teddy agreed to this, and the trio trotted off along a flat, dusty road, Teddy beguiling the way by some of his wonderful stories till they came in sight of the low thatched cottage, covered with roses, that guarded the turnpike.

They soon saw the young damsel, for she was swinging on the gate, her dark hair flying in the wind, and her eyes and cheeks bright with the exercise. She looked at the boys, then laughed.

'Poor little button-boy!' she said; 'you have to be taken care of by two bigger ones.'

'We've come to see you,' said Sam valiantly, 'because we ain't