May was watering Sarah's asters when Phyllis joined her.

"Phyllis!" cried the delighted young gardener, "I am going to take the whole care of the asters. Think of that! Oh, I like living here ever so much."

"The General wants you right away," said Phyllis.

All the light died out of May's face at these words.

"What can he want of me, Phyllis?"

"I don't know what he wants," said Phyllis, not very encouragingly. "But you must be a little man and meet him like one."

May's face was sad as she said,—

"I shall never be a man and I wish I had never tried to be a boy."

"As long as you are a boy you ought to try to be a manly one," said Phyllis, who played the mentor excellently. "You don't want your brothers and sisters to be ashamed of you."

This was the right chord to touch.

"I won't be a coward if I can help it. My brother always said I had as much pluck as he had, but it has all leaked out somewhere since I've seen Uncle Harold," May said, dolefully.

"The General isn't very terrible—you must just face him right down," replied Phyllis.

This was like telling a mouse to go right up to an elephant and scare him, but it buoyed up May's spirits considerably. She stopped, however, as often as possible in going to the house to make the way seem longer, and at the hall door she made a long pause.

"It isn't that I'm really a coward," the poor child thought. "But I'm not used to being treated as if I had done something awful. And when he shouts at me I forget all about acting like a boy I'm so frightened. But there's no use in putting it off; I've got to go in and take it."

The General was pacing up and down the hall. He appeared to be in an excellent humor; his face beamed with smiles and he rubbed his hands together as if in expectation of some good fortune.

"You sent for me, Uncle Harold," said May, quite bravely.

The General bent his head and went into the library, followed by May, who was beginning to feel apprehensive of the character of the interview.

"Sit down, my boy," said the General, graciously, sitting down himself as he spoke.

May sat down; clasped her hands; tried to look unconcerned and succeeded in looking both uncomfortable and unhappy.

"I will not deny that you have been a great disappointment to me, Gay. From the promise of your babyhood I was led to believe that you would be a gentleman."

The General's manner, as well as his words, seemed to cast a reflection upon somebody, and May was prompt to resent both.

"Father and mother are gentlemen," she said. "That is, father is a gentleman, and it is not their fault if I'm not one."

The General stared slightly. He was not prepared for so spirited an answer, albeit it was rather ludicrous.

"You are come of a family of gentlemen including, of course, your father," the General said, with the air of one who means to keep his temper, no matter what happens. "But I can't retract my statement regarding the disappointment you are to me."

"I do not ask you to, sir," said May, very distinctly.

The General's face grew very red when this cool response met his ears, but he controlled himself, and said,—

"I have said that I perceive defects in your deportment that are lamentable from my point of view; it is my purpose to remedy them."

"How?" May inquired, simply.

"By a course of training," replied the General, with a bland smile.

"Have you written to my father about it?"

"No," answered the General, looking dazed.

"You'd better ask his permission, first."

"Ask his permission," echoed the General, with rising color that boded ill for May. "What do you mean?"

"I don't think my father sent me up here to be trained; I think he thought I was invited to visit here."

"You impudent young jackanapes! Do you refuse to have your bad manners mended?"

"I'm sorry you don't like them, but if they need mending I think my father ought to know it before you begin."

"I am obliged to you, sir, for telling me what I should do, but it is not necessary for a person of your age to dictate to me."

"I did not mean to dictate to you," said May. Then she raised her small brown head proudly and flashed her hazel eyes upon the astonished General, and said,—

"But I couldn't let even you insult my father and mother."

"Insult!" roared the General, springing to his feet.

May rose and faced him. "Yes, sir, insult. You said my manners were bad when you knew father and mother taught me them."

"This is too much!" gasped the General. "Leave the room, sir!"

May obeyed, but no sooner was the threshold crossed than her courageous mien changed to one of sadness, and she walked away with bent head and eyes that would fill with tears in spite of every effort to restrain them.

"What is the matter?" said Sarah, coming upon May suddenly and noticing her tears.

May hid her face in Sarah's spotless lawn apron and cried quietly.

"I don't mean to cry—but I can't help it," she sobbed.

"Cry if you want to; there's no law against it," Sarah said, with characteristic crispness of speech, which somehow did not sound unsympathetic.

Sarah saw the General coming, but of course May did not, for her head was still buried in Sarah's apron, and it was a surprise when he cried with terrible scorn,—

"You have been crying, sir!"

"I have been crying," May admitted, from the folds of the apron, "but I haven't told Miss Sarah how disagreeable you were to me."

Sarah turned her head away to hide the smile this ingenious defense provoked; the General saw the smile and it irritated him.

"Unless you can apologize handsomely, sir," said he, with his grandest air, "you may spend the rest of the day in your room."

May walked away in silence that was more expressive than speech.

"He is the most stubborn boy in the world!" said the General. "He deserved a week in the guard-house."

"You don't understand him," said Sarah. "But you'll find there'll be a tug of war unless you change your tactics."

"His discipline shall begin from this hour," said the General, sternly. "I will not be defied in my own house. Sarah, you will send him nothing but bread and water to-day."

"General," Sarah replied, coolly, "you govern the guard-house but I manage the kitchen! I shall send that boy just what we have to eat, and I may make ice-cream for him, beside."