which he drove, my fears soon vanished. We were leaving the town behind, and I began to enjoy the drive. Thanks to my aunt's thoughtfulness I was so wrapped up as to be scarce conscious of the cold. I only felt that the air was deliciously fresh and clear, a delightful contrast to the dull, foggy atmosphere of London.

Many persons regard Essex as a flat and uninteresting county, but I had always found beauty in the woods and lanes. Even on this January day as we drove along muddy roads with brown hedges on either side, where sapless twigs and leafless roots waited for the touch of spring, the country did not lack charm for me. I marked with pleasure the beauty of "wintry boughs against a wintry sky," and the emerald freshness of pasture-lands thrown into relief by the rich brown of the upturned earth across which strong, shaggy horses were drawing the plough. We passed woods in which the ivy—surely a well-meaning if harmful parasite—was doing its utmost to clothe the bare trunks and limbs of trees with a garment of vivid green. And every now and then we caught a broad view of the open country and saw the woods and meadows melt into the exquisite blue haze of distance.

I should have been content to gaze and enjoy in silence, but Jack Upsher had always an abundant supply of small talk, and as we drove along, he told me in the most amusing fashion the news of the countryside.

"But how is it you are here now?" I asked. "I expected to hear that you were at Woolwich."

Jack's colour rose, and he shrugged his shoulders rather awkwardly.

"That's where I ought to be," he said, with a rueful air; "but unluckily I got ploughed in my exam. The governor was awfully mad with me; but it was not my fault that I could not answer the idiotic questions. Brains were never my strong point."

It was true that no one would credit Jack with scholarly tastes, but he was by no means stupid in his own line of life. I imagined that he had fair abilities, and it surprised me to hear of his failure, for I had always understood that the entrance examination for Woolwich was not an unduly stiff one.

"But how was it?" I asked. "Of course you worked hard."

"But I did not," he said; "that's the honest truth, Nan, so I suppose you will say it was my fault, after all. You see I was sent to a coach in town. Father thought I should work better there than at home, but it did not answer. I found it awfully jolly 

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