AN UNEXPECTED REVELA TION. 25

 same time the knowledge puzzled him more than
 ever as to what to do with the boy.
 Could he now send hini away from home and part
 the children ? Already Polly was pale and worn
 with fretting; and now he feared that this foolish
 Jack would take it as a sign that he was glad to
 get rid of him, and perhaps such a conviction would
 make him feel desperate, and so at school he might
 turn out even worse than at home.
 "Dear, dear, what a trouble boys are!" sighed
 Mr. Gilbert; but still as he thought this, a feeling of
 pride and pleasure came over him as he remem-
 bered Jack's faltering sentence, "I do love him
 very much."
 All this time Mr. Gilbert had been walking on,
plunged in reverie, when he suddenly felt a touch on
his arm, and heard some one panting behind him,
and looking round he saw the kind and genial face of
the aged rector of Crosslin.
 "Why, Gilbert," he said, I've been trying to catch
you up this half mile past. Are you walking for a
wager, might I ask ? and how deep your meditations
must have been; for I called to you several times, but
you did not hear me."
 "I was wrapped up in thought, I suppose," an-
swered Mr. Gilbert, for I did not hear you; but let
me assure you that there is no one I could be more