"O! I'm very strong, sir," said Daubeny; "I've a cast-iron constitution, as that amusing plague of mine, Henderson, always tells me." "Never mind, you must really work less. I won't have that getting up at five in the morning. If you don't take care, I shall _forbid_ you to be higher than twentieth in your form under heavy penalties, or I shall get Dr Keith to send you home altogether, and not let you go in to the examination." "O! no, sir, you really mustn't do that. I assure you that I enjoy work. An illness I had when I was a child hindered and threw me back very much, and you can't think how eager I am to make up for that lost time." "The time is not lost, my dear Daubeny, if God demanded it in illness for His own good purposes. Be persuaded, my boy; abandon, for the present, all struggle to take a high place until you feel quite well again, and then you shall work as hard as you like. Remember, knowledge itself is valueless in comparison with health." Daubeny felt the master's kind intention; but he could not restrain his unconquerable eagerness to get on. He would have succumbed far sooner, if Walter and Power had not constantly dragged him out with them almost by force, and made him take exercise against his will. But, though he was naturally strong and healthy, he began to look very pale, and his best friends urged him to go home and take a holiday. Would that he had taken that good and kind advice! CHAPTER FOURTEEN. APPENFELL. To breathe the difficult air Of the iced mountain top. Manfred. Fetzo auf den Schroffen Zinken Hangt sie, auf dem hochsten Grat, Wo die Felsen jah versinken, Und verschwunden ist der Pfad. Schiller. It was some weeks before the examination, and the close of the half-year, when one day Walter, full of glee, burst out of the schoolroom at twelve, when the lesson was over, to tell Kenrick an announcement just made to the forms, that the next day was to be a whole holiday. "Hurrah!" said Kenrick, "what's it for?" "O! Somers has got no end of a scholarship at Cambridge--an awfully swell thing--and Dr Lane gave a holiday directly he got the telegram announcing the news." "Well done, old Somers!" said Kenrick. "What shall we do?" "O! I've had a scheme for a long time in my head, Ken; I want you to come with me to the top of Appenfell." "Whew-w-w! but it's a tremendous long walk, and no one goes up in winter." "Never mind, all the more fun and glory, and we shall have the whole day before us. I've been longing to beat that proud old Appenfell for a long time. I'm certain we can do it." "But do you mean that we two should go alone?" "O, no; we'll ask Flip, to amuse us on the way." "And may I ask Power?" "If you like," said Kenrick, who was, I am sorry to say, not a little jealous of the friendship which had sprung up between Power and Walter. "And would you mind Daubeny joining us?"