lacking in the rest of the children on the isle, and so they felt

a mutual attraction.

They discussed serious matters-something that Teda, at least, deemed most serious-that Freda should learn to talk correctly. The pastor's daughter had a strong desire to teach, and she was delighted to have found someone on whom she might exercise her powers.

Uwen agreed with her, and said that he considered such training quite indispensable. Freda began to believe this, and, forgetting her former refusal, felt grateful for their proposal to teach her. They chose one of the little hollows on the downs for a schoolroom, gave names to the sand-slopes, selected their seats, and fixed the hour of meeting.

The social impulse had seized them, and led to a combination of childish mirth and play with a more serious aim. The afternoon was spent in the eager discussion of their plans; and when they parted it was as if they were old acquaintances who had often carried out plans such as this together. Freda accompanied the two others as far as the neck of land, and there she stood watching them as long as they were in sight. She had never had any playfellows before, and the last two hours had transformed the island for her; she was conscious of some new, strange happiness in her life.

She ran homewards in the direction of the setting sun; her long golden hair floated, unconfined, on the gentle breeze, and gleamed like a halo round her brow. Walmot stood at work

before the door as Freda came rushing towards her :

'Mother, mayn't I go to school, too?'

Then she told of her meeting with Teda and Uwen, and how they were going to give her lessons. An expression of fear came into Walmot's eyes; she drew the child close to her as though to guard her from some impending danger. she asked:

'Would Datya like very much to go to school?'

Then

The child's beaming glance was sufficient answer, but it drew a heavy sigh from Walmot's heart. She knew that it was a sigh of selfish feeling, so she answered quickly :

Then I, too, shall be glad for Datya to learn something, and to-morrow morning I will see Pastor Remmert. But Datya mustn't have her hair flying about her head any longer; I will make it into two plaits like other girls wear it.'

She took the little one upon her lap, and the two plaits were

soon hanging down her back. This new style of dressing her hair gave Freda quite a different appearance. Something had vanished. A portion of her childhood, of her life, lay behind her. Walmot Tyamen looked at her, and with difficulty suppressed another bitter sigh. Henceforth the child would no longer be hers alone, but the change would be for Datya's good, and with that she must be content.

CHAPTER XVII.

UWEN.

IN personal appearance Uwen Folmar closely resembled his deceased father, and, according to the report of those who had known the latter in his youth, he was also very much like him in character. Anyone could tell at the first glance that he was of East Frisian race; his robust figure harmonized with his features. As regards mental power, there was nothing especially noticeable in him; he had no peculiar characteristics, and he did not appear to have any will or opinions of his own, but relied implicitly on those who were about him. He was evidently waiting for the hand that would mould him into shape, and the peculiar gentleness of his character would make the work easy for whoever might undertake it. He had mourned bitterly the loss of his parents, but his tears had soon dried; he was not old enough to grasp the full meaning of death. His grief had been lightened by his removal from the town to the little island. The novelty and the freedom of rambling about excited and charmed him; Nature made on him no particularly poetic impression, but the strangeness of this barren island in the midst of the ocean worked upon his imagination. His eyes, hitherto accustomed to a more limited horizon, acquired new powers as they gazed into the boundless space.

On taking the boy into his own family, Pastor Remmert hoped to train him for the work of the ministry, and he clearly recognised the hand of Providence in laying upon him this fresh duty, which his thorough knowledge of the ancient

languages fully fitted him to discharge. He could save Uwen from all need of attending a classical school; it is true that, without some previous college training, he might not be able to matriculate at any university before he was twenty years of age, but Pastor Remmert considered it a special advantage not to take this step until the character was more fully formed than it could be at the age at which most students enter upon college life. He also himself derived benefit from having to undertake this fresh kind of teaching. For the last ten years he had devoted himself with the utmost conscientiousness to the instruction of the village children in reading, writing, and arithmetic; but an increasing desire had arisen within him to utilize his knowledge in some wider and higher sphere, and that desire may have exercised a secret influence in leading him to undertake the office of guardian to this orphan lad. was soon seen that the boy learned willingly. He was intelligent and industrious; he had every mental capacity for receiving a learned education, and for the calling to which he was destined by his teacher and guide.

It

Deena, however, was far from approving of the admission of this boy into the parsonage. She had supposed at first that his father had left him a good fortune, and that he would pay a suitable sum for his board. Instead of this, the boy caused a positive decrease of income, and much extra outlay and trouble were entailed without any compensation for them. Deena therefore considered the introduction of Uwen into the household as an act of folly on her husband's part. She asked him one day: 'Why should we trouble ourselves about this lad? He's no relative of ours.' The pastor answered her : "Take care, Deena, lest you say, like Cain: "Am I my brother's keeper ?" "

After this she never grumbled again about the presence of the boy; it would have been useless, for it would have made no difference, and would only have caused her useless worry. So she provided food enough for him to share their repasts, and troubled herself no further about him. She did not care any longer for her own child-why, then, should she care for a stranger's? The only boon she asked of life was to be spared unnecessary trouble, and she never uttered another word in relation to the matter than what was absolutely indispensable.

Teda no longer received special lessons from her father; she now shared Uwen's, and undoubtedly spurred him on by her

own thirst for knowledge. Though three years his junior, she was almost his equal in mental development, and in many things she knew far more than he did; so that while in the schoolroom they were rivals, outside the school Teda exercised unquestioned sway over Uwen. It was not that the boy gave way to her, but that he always liked what she liked, and was always to be found where she was. When he looked for her in vain about the house, and then went outside, his eye wandered restlessly around until he caught sight of her dark head somewhere upon the white downs; then he would run to her, and keep close at her side. With girlish instinct Teda quickly perceived that she could get him to do whatever she chose. She did not abuse her power, but she soon came to look upon it as a matter of course, as something that belonged to her, something to which she had a perfect right.

Freda went to school now every morning with the other children of the village, but in the afternoon Teda and Uwen came over to her on the downs in order to help her with her lessons. It was partly teaching, partly mutual enjoyment; she learned whilst at play, but her earnest features showed that she took the matter very seriously. Teda chiefly undertook the office of teacher; but, strange to say, it was not Teda's, but Uwen's pronunciation of the strange words, and his accent, that Freda imitated. The three met every day with the regularity of the rising tide; the attraction that draws one child towards another had brought them together and made them sociable.

There was no particular intimacy between the two girls, but they never quarrelled. Freda readily acknowledged Teda's mental superiority, and with this the latter was content. The mutual acquaintance had aroused a desire for mutual pursuits, and habit soon made this a necessity. The island afforded them little variety in their games; but childish fancy grew inventive, and in this direction Uwen won the prize. He had singular fertility in devising new pleasures, and procuring the materials for them out of the veriest trifles-sand and stone, weed and water, fennel and feathers, the very few objects that these sea-girt sand-hills afforded them for amusement.

On one particularly hot summer's day Uwen proposed that they should make for the two girls, who always ran about bare-headed, some hats by plaiting reeds together, and from this time they often sat busily engaged in preparing a supply.

They dressed pretty much alike. In the summer they wore a coarse linen smock, over it a bodice, and a short skirt reaching to the knee. Freda's feet and legs were bare like those of the other village children. Teda wore shoes and stockings, it is true, but both were in a most worn-out condition, as no one looked after rents and holes. Uwen, on the contrary, presented a more distinguished appearance in his town suit of clothes, which, alas! lost daily much of their freshness, for Deena could be as little expected to attend to the repair of his clothes as to those of her own daughter.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE TWO RAFTS.

Freda had been in the afternoon

On one occasion Uwen's inventive talent won him especial praise. A storm from the north-west had burst forth, and, as sometimes happened even in summer, had flooded the little isthmus between the two halves of the island. unable to attend the morning lessons, and she stood waiting on her side of the channel. were stopped in like manner on their side. they were hindered from joining each other. wave their hands in greeting. Then a plan boy. He shouted to Freda to wait, while he hurried away with Teda.

The two others For the first time They could only occurred to the

Freda sat down and waited patiently for hours to see what would happen. Suddenly her two playfellows came in sight on the other side, dragging with all their might a stout rope along the ground. Out of the planks of some wreckage, Uwen had joined and nailed together a little raft; this they lowered into the water, and, with the aid of two long poles, he and Teda managed to convey themselves and their singular craft to the other shore. Their feet got wet, but the delight was great, especially on the part of Freda, as she welcomed them to land. Joy beamed in her blue eyes, and she warmly thanked Uwen for having taken so much trouble to come across to her. Teda interrupted her with the remark that her thanks were not needed, as they had done it for their own amusement, and