Robert found Mrs. Vernon resting comfortably on the garden bench. She smiled broadly when he came up.

"Robert, you are a regular hero," she observed. "Nobody could have done a braver deed."

"It was not so very much to do," he answered, with a blush. "I simply saw how the girl might be saved, and I set to work to do it."

"But it was no easy matter to catch the girl," went on the lady warmly. "You ran a big risk."

The firemen were now hard at work, and a steady stream of water was being poured on the conflagration. But the wind had caught the house fairly, and but little could be saved. Soon the men directed their efforts toward saving the adjoining property, and fortunately nothing but the boarding house was consumed.

As soon as the fire was over Mrs. Vernon and our hero set about finding another boarding place. This was an easy matter, for Mrs. Barlow\'s sister also took boarders. To Mrs. Cabe, therefore, they went, and procured rooms which were just as desirable as those which they had formerly occupied.

"It\'s too bad we couldn\'t save your trunks, Mrs. Vernon," observed Robert, after the boarding place question had been settled. "You\'ve got only what you have on."

"Well, I am no worse off than you, Robert," she answered, with a peculiar smile.

"Oh, it doesn\'t matter so much for a boy."

"I suppose not. Still we both need outfits, and I shall see to it that we get them as soon as possible."

"There are not many stores in this town--I mean stores of any importance."

"We will take a journey to Oxford. We can get about all we want there, and it will give you a chance to look at the most celebrated English institutions of learning."

"I shall like that."

"You ought to have a college education, Robert. It would prove very useful to you. Not but what I am satisfied with you, however," added the lady hastily.

"I would like to go to Yale or Harvard first-rate."

"Perhaps we will be able to arrange that later." Mrs. Vernon paused for a moment. "Robert, I feel that I owe you a good deal for saving my life."

"You don\'t owe me anything, Mrs. Vernon. I did no more than my duty."

"I think otherwise. To free myself from pain I took a double dose of my medicine, and I was in an extra heavy sleep when you aroused me. If you had not come I would have slept on until it was too late."

And the lady closed her eyes for a moment and shuddered.

Taking her jewel case from her bureau drawer, Mrs. Vernon opened it and brought forth a neat but costly diamond scarf-pin.

"I am going to make you a present of this, Robert," she went on. "It will look very well on the new scarf I am going to purchase you."

"Oh, Mrs. Vernon, it is a diamond pin!"

"So it is, Robert."

"It must be worth a good deal of money."

"It cost me two hundred dollars at one of the leading Chicago jewelers. I don\'t mind telling you that I got the pin to give to Frederic on his birthday. But I have changed my mind about giving him a present."

"It\'s too valuable a gift for me to wear, Mrs. Vernon."

"Let me be the judge of that, Robert. Of course, you will be careful and not lose it."

"I\'ll take the best possible care of it," he answered, and then she gave it to him, and he thanked her heartily.

That evening after supper Mrs. Cabe came to Robert and told him that a boy was downstairs and wanted to see him very much. Robert went down and found Sammy Gump, who stood there hat in hand, and with a face full of shame.

"Excuse me for troubling you, Robert Frost," said the bully humbly. "But--but I wanted to thank you for saving Norah\'s life, and mother and father want me to thank you, too. They can\'t come themselves, because father\'s a stoker on the railway, and mother has got to stay home and take care of Norah."

"You are welcome to whatever I did, Gump," answered Robert. "I am glad I was of service."

"Did you know she was my sister?" asked Sammy curiously.

"No, I confess I did not."

"Oh!"

"But I would have saved her anyhow," added Robert hastily.

"Honest?"

&quo............