“No bad news, I hope, Hector?” said Walter.
“No,” answered Hector. “You may read the letter, if you like, Mr. Ross.”
Mr. Ross did so, and aloud, much to the surprise of everyone at table.
“You did not tell me of this,” said Walter, in astonishment.
“No,” answered Hector, smiling.
“But why not?”
“Because Hector is modest,” Mr. Ross answered for him. “Now, if you had done such a thing, Walter, we should have been sure to hear of it.”
“I don’t know,” returned Walter, comically. “You don’t know how many lives I have saved within the last few years.”
“Nor anyone else, I fancy,” replied his father. “By the way, Hector, there is a paragraph about it in the Herald of this morning. I read it, little suspecting that you were the boy whose name the reporter was unable to learn.”
Hector read the paragraph in question with excusable pride. It was, in the main, correct.