boy in Duncanville. I stick to the right only sometimes, but Guy is always right. I wish I was. I think I gain some. I wish I gained faster. May He who pardons wrong and loves right forgive me my past errors, and keep me in the narrow path for evermore!"

Should Walter go on in this spirit, don't you think there is reason to hope that he will grow up into a noble manhood?

CHAPTER XIV.

OLD RUNDOWN'S DOG.

UNDER the big pine, which stood like some tall giant in a small grove of pygmy pines, Hugh found a group of some dozen boys listening to a plan for catching and killing old Roger's dog, which Adolphus was setting forth. Seeing Hugh come up the speaker paused, and looking at Hugh, said—

"Glad to see you, Hugh. Where's Walt?" "He isn't coming. He thinks it isn't right for us to kill the dog."

"That's Guy Carlton's work, I suppose. He is a regular old granny. He would make old ladies of us all, if we'd let him. There's Dick Duncan, too—he hasn't got half the spunk in him he used to have before Guy got him under his thumb--"

"There, just stop that talk against Guy, Mis

ter Dolph," said Harry Randall, interrupting Adolphus. "He is a good fellow-the best in Duncanville, by all odds. We didn't come here to talk about him, but about that ugly dog. Let us hear your plan for killing the crittur you began to tell us about, just now."

"Pretty sharp, ain't you, Master Harry? Guess you ate pickles for dinner," replied Adolphus, in a tone of vexation at being interrupted.

"The plan! the plan!" shouted several boys

at once.

"Well, my plan is to coax the cur to follow us to these woods, by throwing him bits of meat, and then stoning him to death."

"That's a cruel way, Dolph," said Harry. "I want to see the crittur killed, as much as any of you; but I don't want to be cruel to it."

"Let us poison him, then," said Donald Cam

eron.

"Where shall we get the poison?" asked one f the boys.

Buy it of the apothecary," replied Donald.

"Buy it, eh? Wouldn't that be green? The apothecary would tell who bought the poison, and so we'd get found out," rejoined the boy. "You are right, Charlie," said Hugh. "I propose that we hang him."

"Agreed!" responded Adolphus. "If you will put the rope round the cur's neck, I'll pull him up to the branch of a tree."

Hugh laughed, and a boy said, "Hugh's plan is like catching birds by putting salt on their tails."

"Or like the receipt for cooking a hare before you've caught him," said another.

"Or like the proposal of the rats to put a bell round the neck of the cat," suggested Donald, amid a roar of laughter.

When the laughing ceased, Norman Butler said: "I'll tell you the easiest way to get the cur killed. I know a fellow who calls himself a tax-taxi-taxidermer, or some such jawbreaking name "

"Taxidermist?" suggested Hugh.

"Yes, that's it," said Norman, "a taxider mist; he "

"What on earth is a taxidermist ?" asked one of the boys, interrupting Norman.

"He is a man who fixes up the skins of birds and beasts and stuffs them, so as to preserve them. He stuffed that owl we have in my father's sitting-room," replied Norman.

"Well, what of him?" inquired several voices. "I saw him this noon, and told him about old Roger's dog. He said he'd kill the cur for us, if we would give him twenty-five cents, and promise to say nothing about it.”

"Good! I'll give five cents towards it," said Hugh.

"I'll give three," said Harry.

"Pass your cap round, Nor. Let's see if we can get the quarter," said Adolphus.

Norman handed round his cap. The boys put in their pennies; the quarter was raised, and Norman deputed to bargain with the taxidermist to kill the dog.

This was far better than if they had tried to do the deed themselves. But was it right? Was not Guy's plan of complaining to their teacher and to their parents the really right