THE DEANERY CANDIDATES.
"Good-morning, Mrs. Hartland. Isn't Jim ready? All right; I'll wait for him. Do you think Susie would care for these wild flowers and grasses? I picked them this morning. Rover and I have been for a splendid run over the common, nearly as far as the forest."
"Thanks, Dick," said Mrs. Hartland, with a pleased smile; "Susie will be delighted with them. Poor girl! it's little chance she has to see them growing herself. What a pretty white dog-rose!"
"Isn't it a beauty? I thought Susie would like that.—Hullo, Jim!" as his chum appeared from an inner room; "come on, old lazy-bones. I expected to find you in a tremendous hurry this morning.—Good-bye, Mrs. Hartland; I hope Susie will be pleased with the flowers."
Most people liked Dick Boden. He was a comical youngster, fond of all kinds of fun and frolic, and always keeping an eye on the bright side of things. In school he was a regular pickle, and yet his teachers spoke well of him, for there was nothing mean about Dick, and he was as honest as the day.
"Full of animal spirits and a trifle impetuous, but a good little chap at bottom," said Mr. Holmore, the head-master of the Deanery School.
He was a round-faced, curly-haired fellow, with laughing blue eyes, a most engaging smile, and such an innocent expression that a lady artist once painted his portrait as a study of an angel. This greatly amused the Deaneryites, who promptly dubbed him the Angel.
Of course he was very popular with his school-fellows, but his one particular chum was Jim Hartland, a sailor's son, and one of the head boys in the school.
"Grinding for the exam.?" he asked, as they waved a last adieu to Mrs. Hartland, who stood on the doorstep watching them as they went down the street.
"Hardly," said Jim, "until we know who are to be the candidates."