She was the sister of a schoolmate, and her name was Nancy. All this vacation he had developed great fondness for this school friend; was often at his house. “And there,” he said, “I would lean against the window and watch Nancy sew, she had such little pink fingers—how I wanted to take hold of them! And then once in a while she would just glance up, and I would be covered with hot and awkward confusion.” On one evening in particular he had spruced up his dress and screwed up his courage preparatory to making an evening call, when, as the family sat around the fire, “Lyman,” said the mother, without looking up from her lace knitting, “Mount Pleasant is an excellent school. Henry is improving very much. He has grown tidy, blacks his boots and brushes his hair, and begins to pay a proper attention to his clothes.” “At this point,” says Mr. Beecher, in telling the story, “Charles gave an explosive giggle and punched me slyly. Father lowered his newspaper; glancing over his glasses in our direction, seeing me covered with confusion and Charles full of suppressed laughter, said dryly: “‘Oh! it is the school, is it? Humph! I guess the cause is nearer home.’” “How did it turn out, grandpa?” “Oh! she was older than I, and married another fellow soon after. A short time ago, after a lecture in Boston, a little old lady introduced herself to me as ‘Nancy ———.’ But the charm was gone. I shook the once tempting hand and felt neither awkward nor hot.” To some of his letters of this school-boy era he signs the initials H. _C._ B. instead of H. W. B. The adoption of this letter C came about from that enthusiasm of friendship which was always one of his marked characteristics. The following is the history of the matter: On the back of a sheet of letter-paper which we have before us, folded as if for filing, is written: “HENRY W. BEECHER & CONSTANTINE F. NEWELL, Mount Pleasant Collegiate Institution, Amherst, Mass.” Opening it we read: “We do, in the presence of God and his holy angels, by our signatures, mutually pledge ourselves to be and perform all things subjoined: “(1) We do pledge ourselves to be _real_, lawful, and everlasting _brothers_; and that we will perform toward each other _all the duties_ of brothers, whether present or _absent_, in health or in _sickness_, in wealth or in _poverty_, in prosperity or adversity; and that we will love and watch over one another, seeking by all means in our power to aid and make each other happy. ”H. C. BEECHER, “CONSTANTINE F. NEWELL.