When the tailor had gone, there was silence in the room for some minutes. The General had nothing to say; the principal was deep in thought; and Harry, who had been more excited than, considering his recent illness, was altogether good for him, felt very light-headed and dizzy, and grasped his chair to make sure that it was not whirling about the room with the rest of the apparently hilarious furniture.

"How did you acquire your fine physique, Wylie?" the principal asked, suddenly.

"By hunting and fishing, sir," said Harry, rous

time for gymnasium work?" and Harry was astounded at his own hardihood in suggesting the idea.

"Certainly not," said the General, severely. "Well," said the principal, rising, "I shall give you a week's vacation, Wylie." The General stared.

"You mean, I suppose, that I am suspended for that period," said Harry, smiling faintly. He had expected a severer punishment, although suspension in itself entailed sufficiently objectionable features.

"No. I mean to give you a real vacation. You

ing himself. "Then, too, I was fond of archery and practised a great deal."

"Bow and arrows!" sniffed the General, with a little sarcastic laugh. "What we need is a good gymnasium, and there is plenty of room for it in one end of the drill-hall."

"Why are you smiling, sir?" he asked, sharply, as Harry failed to conceal a feeling of amusement, for he was reminded of what the Dutch cornetplayer said when the bandmaster kept telling him to blow harder, "But vere is der vind ter gome from?"

"

are overworked and need rest. I shall send you out to Farmer Brown's, and you are not to look at a book while you are there."

"But what about my class and rank, sir?" asked poor Harry, with his head in a whirl, and even yet hardly comprehending.

"I do the ranking," said the principal, significantly. "I shall expect a full report of all that you do, however, that I may judge whether your memory is improved."

to be performing a hornpipe; and he was amazed to see the principal, the chairs, the tables, and the General suddenly begin to chase the squirrel around the room. Then the floor flew up and struck him with a loud crash. When he came to his senses again, he was lying on the lounge, with his collar unbuttoned, the window open, his hair dripping with water, and Dane and the principal bending over him anxiously, while the General held a basin and sponge. The floor, chairs, and tables had returned to their normal immobility and there was no evidence of their late unseemly conduct.

CHAPTER IV.

How quickly a vacation can pass has never yet been satisfactorily determined. Whether it is a week or a month, at the end it rarely seems in retrospect to have been of more than a day's duration. But when his leave was up, and Harry Wylie jumped from the wagon that brought him back, his long-bow in one hand and a fuzzy bundle swinging from the other, his face was many shades browner than when he went away; there was a healthy light in his eye, and a spring in his walk; and he had left friends behind him where there had been strangers. Farmer Brown had shaken hands in a reluctant farewell when Harry had come to say good-bye. Even Aminadab Doolittle, the hired man, had pressed upon him a remembrance from his scanty store of treasures, compelling him to accept an old fife, a relic of army days, in the use of which the boy was quite expert. That same evening, Edward Dane rushed out of the hall door and seized the returned hunter by the hand, bow and all, with an odd quiver of suppressed excitement in his grasp.

"Come up to my study, old man! I've a jolly fire there, and when you get through with your side, I'll tell you a tale that will beat all your adventures out of sight. We are right on the eve of a mutiny!"

"I see you have already heard of the state of affairs at the Institute and are impatient to hear more, so I will not detain you longer; I shall look to you, Wylie, for support, as far as your influence allows, since you are in part responsible for it. You will find a document upon your table"; and there was a queer twinkle in his eye as he noticed the boy's bewilderment.

"What on earth has happened?" Harry said to himself. What was it that he was responsible for, and what was the document the principal had referred to? That last question, however, was susceptible of speedy solution, which made him eager to get away; so he laid two of his grouse upon the table, with the request that the principal would accept them as part of the report, and edged out before the astonished preceptor could utter a word of thanks.

Dashing upstairs, three steps at a time, he rushed into his room, and felt around upon the table till his hand touched a long envelope; then, thanking his stars that it was Friday, and there were no lessons ahead, he hastened to Dane's

room.

"Now, then, Ed, speak quickly, and tell me all about it."

"It's broomsticks, Harry!" said Ed, solemnly. "That's what it is! Broomsticks! Steady,"-as Harry made a gesture of impatience,-“I'm coming to it as fast as possible. You remember the factory across the lake? well, two days ago, a big, four-horse team came from that factory, loaded to the muzzle with broom-handles. They were left at the armory; and four hours afterward, every blessed musket in the racks was boxed up and sent to the railway station, marked for some town out West. When the boys went in to drill, instead of the guns they were given those broomsticks; and some of the fellows were so mad that they broke them across their knees."

"More fools they!" interjected Harry.

"But of course the principal soon stopped that. About twenty of them, led by Lieutenant Rankin, refused to drill, and every one of them is now in the guard-house. After they were settled, the principal condescended to tell us that it was only a temporary arrangement, and that the 'pikes,' as he very politely called them, being borrowed, must be treated gently. But the boys are mad, clear through, and vow, to a man, that if they use those things, the battalion will be known as the 'Wild-Lake Witches.' The second lieutenant was the ringleader, and it'll cost him his shoulderstraps, or I'm a Dutchman."

Harry drew a long breath of astonishment.

"It was a stupid thing to do to get up a mutiny,” he remarked in a moment. "No good

could ever come of that, for of course the General would have to demonstrate his authority, and he is n't the most lamb-like man in the world under such provocation."

"That's a fact," he I say, though,

Ed burst into a laugh. asserted, as you ought to know.

66

what's in that big envelope?"

"To be sure; I had forgotten it," said Harry, as he tore it open and began to read the inclosure, his eyes dilating with surprise.

"What on earth, Ed! just listen to this!

"TO SERGEANT HENRY WYLIE.

"SIR: A vacancy having occurred, in recognition of your general standing and attention to details while on duty, you are hereby

appointed Acting Second Lieutenant, in place of Lieutenant Rankin, disrated. HOLWORTH LONG, General Commanding.'

parade-ground, and forming. He saw himself a private in the ranks, with Wylie by his side. He heard the order read that made his friend a corporal, and was once more applauding with the rest. Then the scene and the time of year changed, and the same battalion was in the drill-hall, witnessing another promotion to corporal-this time his own. Then half a year later they were made sergeants together. But Wylie's first little start had widened, and his friend was "first" sergeant and he "second." Now the rift was opening still more, for the gap between first sergeant and second lieutenant was wider by far than that between the previous stages. Throughout, Wylie had kept just a step ahead. It was so, too, in the class-room. When his percentage was eighty, Wylie's would be

Ed looked at Harry, and Harry looked at Ed. Then simultaneously they broke into a laugh.

"I congratulate you, and, as I have remarked before, why was I not born with opinions worth considering?" said Dane, with a sigh. "But you must keep quiet over the share you had in turning us into broomstick-riders, old fellow, or you'll find your path rather a thorny one."

"It's only an acting commission, not a regular one; and it is likely to be canceled at any time when they deem Rankin sufficiently punished," said Harry, sagely. "I shall not put on any airs over it."

"I

How

"Don't you believe it," Dane declared. have known three acting-commissions in my brief time, and every one of them was confirmed later on. You'll be Major yet!" and with that prophecy ringing in his ears, Harry rose and bade his friend good-night. There was not much sleep for him, however, he had so much to think of. unspeakably jolly it would be! His letters would now come addressed to "Lieutenant" Harry Wylie, instead of the more plebeian "Sergeant." Yet, at the time, he had been proud of the step that raised him to the latter rank. How old Tom would rejoice, and shake his hand when they next met, and what a thing to have the boys at home know! He must write to Tom that very night. Then, without further delay, he must study up the duties he was to undertake, lest he should make mistakes in delivering his orders; and he straightway found his copy of "Upton's Tactics," and spent several hours very profitably in reviewing the manual, and putting himself and his command into imaginary situations, and then extricating them by rule.

As for Dane, he sat looking into his fire for a long time afterward, seeing visions. He saw the battalion marching out of the drill-hall into the

walk fast enough to catch the hay that swung before his nose, and Ed moodily recognized the fact.

He was not actually jealous, nor yet envious. He would have scorned to do anything to pull Wylie down, but he could not help wishing that some lucky chance would arise to bring them more on a level, and to give him an even chance once more. But that does not often happen twice, either in a man's life or in a boy's career. The two had started as equals when they entered the Institute, and it was Dane's own fault that he had not profited more by his opportunitics. If he had been as carnest as his friend had been, and less content to let well enough alone, he might have stood even above him, since Wylie was not an unusually bright scholar.

At about the same hour, the General sat in the library, examining the grouse which Harry had given to the principal, while doubt struggling against conviction was clearly expressed in his countenance.

"Do you mean to say that that boy shot these birds with a bow and arrow? Are you sure that they were not killed with a rifle? The wounds look to me like those made by a thirty-two caliber rifleball."

"The twist of the arrow in flying would produce much the same wound as a small-bore rifle-ball when it struck," said the principal, oracularly. Then changing the subject, he said: "But I have made up my mind definitely. It was high time for a reform, for Wylie's statement as to the physical condition of the boys was based on practical observation. He seems to be unique among them in quickness of eye a result of his hunting habits, perhaps. It seems to me that for the last week I have done nothing but write letters to manufacturers and dealers. It was fortunate that I so easily found a market for the muskets, for otherwise the change would have cost a small fortune. I have found a manufacturer who has a reputa

"WANTED,- Something to do!"

Thus a great many young persons, and not a few of their elders, might word an advertisement truly embodying the wish which is uppermost in their minds. The greatest enjoyment which can be imagined by an active person is to have some pleasant work which will occupy brain and hand at the same time.

Most amateurs are tired of pretending to be wiser than they are, and yet, having formed a habit of making pictures, would like to exercise it, if only they could do so without seeming to pretend to be artists. For the name "artist" is one not lightly to be bestowed; although lately it has been taken down and dragged about until it has become rusty and dusty,-like some old garment, once worn at a wedding, which the children have been permitted to take for their masquerading. Of course we all know that there is nothing very new in this; in fact, I doubt whether there is such a thing as a very new truth; but, still, even some old things may be worth new consideration.

The other day, as I was thinking about our childish efforts to attain artistic results without having to undergo the toil and trouble of artistic labor, I was startled by a very emphatic slap on the back, and the whispered suggestion: "Try accidental pictures!" I was pleased with the idea, and, at the first opportunity, put it to the test of actual trial. Some years ago a friend told me of a similar plan, but all, beyond a recollection of its

VOL. XV.-25.

results, was forgotten, and so I began by experimenting.

First, I took a saucer, put into it about a teaspoonful of water, and thickened the fluid by rubbing in it a stick of india-ink, till I had a mixture not quite black enough to write with, and still not light enough for any mere tinting.

Next, I got a soft, old, linen rag, some bits of paper of divers sizes and various grades, from note to heavy straw paper, and then I went to work. Dabbling