Grandfather’s Hero, by Anon.

“Harry Moore’s a milksop,” said Bob decidedly.

“Why?” asked his sister. “I thought you liked him.”

“So I did,” answered Bob, “but I hadn’t found out what a stupid he was.”

“And how did you find it out?” asked Maud.

“Well, I’ll tell you,” said Bob. “Last Saturday, you know, we had a paper-chase, and the track was over the bog meadows down by the river. Harry Moore and I were last, and all of a sudden he stopped and said: ‘I can’t go over these fields.’ I asked him why not, and he said they were too wet.” Bob uttered the last words very contemptuously.

“Well?” questioned Maud.

“Well, I told him he was a little milksop and had better go home, and he went, and I haven’t spoken to him since, although I met him and his little sister and brother with their go-cart this morning. I don’t care about being friends with milksops,” Bob added frankly.

“Of course not,” Maud agreed.

“Oh, bother this rain,” said Bob impatiently. “It’s going to be wet this afternoon. What shall we do?”

“Come here, children,” said their Grandfather, from his chair by the fireside. “I will tell you a little story to while away the time.”

The old man had been sitting with his eyes closed, and the children thought he was asleep. But he had heard Bob’s anecdote.

Grandfather’s stories were always interesting, and the children were glad to forget the weather in listening to one of them.

“I was thinking just now,” said their Grandfather presently, “of a great and good man, who is now one of the greatest officers in the army. I want to tell you a little incident that happened when we were schoolboys together. We were three years together, then he left, and I have never seen him again, for his life has been spent in foreign lands. He was some years older than I, and I daresay he soon forgot the little fellow who used secretly to look up to him and worship him. But now I must tell you why he became my hero. One day a party of boys had arranged to walk to a place four miles distant, where there was to be a meet of the hounds. I wanted very much to go; I joined the party as they set out on their expedition. There were six boys, all older than myself, one of them being the handsome, clever fellow whom even then I thought superior to all the rest. Well, it was a good long walk, over fields and hedges and ditches. I had some trouble to keep up with the others, for you must remember I was a very small boy then, and once, in jumping a ditch, I gave my ankle a little twist which made it still more difficult to go along fast. However, no one noticed me, and I was determi............