"'Tisn't much, boy, but I think you ought to have a medal. Here's a silver dollar I've been keeping for a pocket piece. I'll give it to you for a medal, for being brave enough to tell what you knew _ought_ to be told. That's not tale-bearing, and as you were afraid to tell, for fear of those big bullies, it was a brave act. You're a lad that knows _what_ to do, _when_ to do, and then _does_ it!" "Hurrah for Jack Tiverton!" some one cried again, and this time they were given with a will. Mrs. Tiverton, returning from a long drive, wondered what all the excitement meant, and why they were cheering her little son. Jack, with his silver dollar tightly clasped, hung his head, and looked as if overpowered by his conspicuous position. Dorothy, now bright and happy, since Floretta was safe, saw that Jack hesitated. "Oh, Mrs. Tiverton," she said, "Jack has been truly the _best_ boy in the world, but he can't speak just now. When he tells you what he's done, you won't wonder why they cheered him!" Mrs. Barnet and Flossie, with Uncle Harry and his wife, now arrived in their big automobile from a three-days' trip that they had been enjoying. Of course Dorothy and Nancy tried to tell Flossie all about Floretta and Jack, and they were both so excited that Flossie got a very twisted idea of the affair. Uncle Harry, not dreaming that the matter was at all serious, turned, after greeting the children, to enter the house. "Oh, Uncle Harry!" cried Flossie, "you ought to hear about it. There were ever so many big boys, and only one little girl, and they tied her so she couldn't get away, and Jack wrote a note, and when they found her,--" "Now, Flossie, dear, I'm perfectly willing to be scared half out of my wits, but I _must_ know what I'm being scared about. You're getting me so mixed up that I've not the least idea what this is all about. Have you?" he asked. "Oh, no," said Flossie, "I don't _half_ understand it, but it does sound so frightful, that I'm so scared, I need to have you be scared, too." "Well, then," Uncle Harry replied, "if it will help you to know it, I'll admit that my teeth are chattering, and shivers are running up and down my spine! "I thought at first that it was the draft across this piazza, but perhaps, after all, it was caused by what you were telling me." When, at last, he had heard the story, he was full of disgust that any boy, and his friends, should have been guilty of such a contemptible act, and his sympathy for the little girl was deep and sincere. "She will need rest and quiet to-morrow," he said, "and you three little friends will be kind, I think, if you stay rather closely here, and help, in some quiet way, to amuse her." "We will," said Dorothy, "I'll let her read my new fairy book if she'd like to. She could lie in the hammock, and do that." "I'll keep the hammock swinging," said Nancy. "And I'll give her my new box of candy I just brought home," said Flossie.