{ MR. PENALTY AND HIS ROD. 169
when I heard the voice up in the air. I ran away from Featherpate
—I wouldn’t go with him.”

“That accounts for it, then,’ said Mr. Penalty. “Sit down,
Buttercup. Here, take this easy chair of mine; it looks hard,
but it is comfortable enough when you are in it. I'll warm some
milk for you to drink, for you must be very tired.”

‘““But—but the rod,” began Buttercup, “the dreadful rod—you
said you would use it at six o'clock.”

“Not on you, child; the rod will be put out of sight; your
punishment was over when you reached my house. Sit there and
rest. When you conquered Featherpate you broke the power of
this rod. See, now, I am going to put the pieces in the fire.”

With these words Mr. Penalty snapped the slender parcel in
two, and, with a deep sigh of satisfaction, Buttercup saw the
broken pieces thrust into the burning flames.

The next moment he had closed his tired eyes and had fallen
into profound slumber.

When he awoke the daylight was streaming into the cottage,
and the brilliant sunshine was covering everything. A little round
table was drawn up in front of Buttercup, and when he opened his
heavy eyes the first thing he saw was Mr. Penalty pouring some
boiling milk into a large basin full of bread.

“ Hat that,” he said to the child. ‘“ HKat—eat quickly, for a
heavy fall of snow will soon come down, and I want you to get
back to Mrs. Discipline’s as quickly as possible.”

_ While Mr. Penalty was speaking he was bustling about the
cottage, and Buttercup could not help following him with his eyes.
He had thought Mrs. Discipline an old woman—she had grey
hair and a figure a good deal bent, and she had the slow kind of
walk children more or less associate with old age—but she looked
young indeed compared to Mr. Penalty. His long hair and flow-
ing beard were white as the snow outside; his little deep-set dark
eyes looked like beads in his withered face, his skin was brown
and hard as parchment, his hands almost resembled claws; and
yet Buttercup felt that he had seen ugher people than Mr.