don't know how to climb! My father taught me. I can go up the rigging as far as any sailor boy, and this is my ship, but I'll let you sit down by me if you behave yourself.'

Teddy swung himself across a bough opposite her, and was silent for a moment. Each child was trying to recover breath, and Teddy was considering how to make peace. He did it in his own quaint fashion.

'I think we're pretty close to heaven,' he remarked presently, lifting his soft blue eyes to the clear sky above. 'I wonder if that's the reason birds in their nests agree? The angels can't like to hear quallering so close to them.'

'I'm not going to quarrel, and you didn't say that word right'

'What word?'

'Quarrering.' And Nancy's tone was emphatic, though a doubt stole into her own mind as to whether her pronunciation was correct. But Teddy was too intent upon pulling something out of his pocket to notice her correction. He slowly unrolled a large white pocket-handkerchief, tied it carefully to a twig, which he broke off from an adjoining branch, and then held it up in front of her.

'I did it myself this morning,' he said with pride. 'I asked Uncle Jake for one of his best handkerchiefs. He gave it to me last night, and I did it with a pen and ink before breakfast. Can you read it?

Nancy looked at the straggling, uneven black letters that occupied the whole width across.

'Love?' she said curiously; 'what does that mean?'

'It's my banner of love that I'm going to carry for my Captain. It means
I've got to love even you.'

Nancy's red lips pouted. 'I don't want you to love me,' she said.

'I've got to do it.'

'How are you going to do it?'

'I'm—I'm not quite sure. I'm never going to be angry with you. And it's very hard—'

Here a deep-drawn sigh broke from him. 'It's very hard, but I've got to tell you I'm sorry I wouldn't let you cross the bridge first, and I'm sorry I said I hated you in church.'

Nancy's bright dark eyes peered inquisitively into the dreamy blue ones opposite her.

'Are you really sorry?' she said.

'I think I am, at least part of me is; my enemy isn't, but I am.'

This was beyond Nancy's comprehension.

'And you'll never get angry, or set those horrid boys at me any more?'

'No, I never will.'

Here a big rosy-cheeked apple was produced hastily out of the other pocket, and presented as a peace offering.

It was taken in silence; then as Nancy's white little teeth met in it she said, with one of her beaming smiles, 'And have I got to love you?'

'I think you had better, because it will make it easier.'

'Well, I will then, if you'll do one thing.'

'What is it?'

'Give me that old button of yours.'

Teddy fairly gasped at this audacity.

'Give you father's button!' he cried; 'never, never, never! I'd rather be shot dead, or drownded dead, or hung dead, or chopped into little tiny bits! I'll never give it up! It's going to be on my coats and waistcoats till I'm a hundred, and then it will be buried in my grave with me. Suppose I lost my button, do you know what I would do?'

Nancy gazed at the young orator with a little awe.

'No,' she said; 'what?'

'I would drop down and die, my heart would burst and break, and if I couldn't die very quick, I wouldn't eat or drink nothing, but I'd go sadly to my grave and lay my head down, and the next morning you would find me stiff and cold with my glassy eyes staring up at the sky, like an old dog I read about.'

Teddy's tone was so intensely tragic that Nancy was silent. At last she said, 'I'll never love you proper till you give it to me.'

'Will you like me a little instead?'

'I might do that,' she replied reluctantly.

'And you won't never say you don't believe father's story?'

'I aren't going to promise.'

Then, as the very last bite was taken of the apple, she added, 'I'll hear some more of your stories first. I want to hear one now. Sally White told me at school you know all about fairies.'

Teddy nodded impressively, then said slowly, 'I make believe I do, but I don't make believe father's story.'

'Tell me a story now.'

Teddy clasped his hands round a bough, and with knitted brows considered.
Then he looked up, and the light sparkled in his eyes.

'Shall I tell you about when I went into an oak-tree, and found a little door leading down some steps that took me to the goblin's cave?'

This sounded enchanting, and Nancy eagerly prepared herself to listen. Such a story was then poured out that it held her spell-bound. Goblins, elves, and fairies, underground glories, thrilling adventures and escapes. Was it any wonder that with such a gift for story-telling Teddy was the king of the village? It came to an end at last, and Nancy drew a long breath of relief and content when she heard the concluding sentence, 'And I quickly opened the little door, and there I was outside the oak, and safe in the wood again.'

'Button-boy, I do like you,' she asserted, with a quick little nod of her head. 'Will you tell me another story soon?'

'P'raps I will,' said Teddy, feeling a little elated that he was gaining supremacy over her, 'but I'm going home now. I only came out to have a think, and to make friends with you.'

'What made you come and make it up?' the little maiden asked, as after a scramble down, they stood at the foot of the tree. 'You said something about your Captain; who is He?'

'Jesus Christ,' Teddy replied reverently, 'and His banner is love, so I have to love everybody, whether I like them or not.'

'Why?'

'Because He wants me to, and I'm one of His soldiers now.'

'Has Jesus any sailors?'

The question was put suddenly, and the answer was given with a slight air of superiority, 'No only soldiers He has.'

'Then I don't want to belong to Him. I believe He has sailors just as well as soldiers, only you're not telling true.'

Her tone was getting wrathful, but Teddy shook his head solemnly. 'I'm sure there's nothing about Jesus' sailors in the Bible; but I'll ask mother, and then I'll tell you. I must go home now. Good-bye. We're going to be friends?'

'Yes, we're going to be friends,' she repeated; and then away they scampered in different directions, Nancy calling out, like a true little woman, 'But I shan't really love you till you give me your button.'