"Well, I shouldn't like that," pursued Will; "and I'm glad I don't live in such a little place. Now, the doors at the Hall are so high that I could stand on your shoulders and go in without bending my head. Let's try it some day. Grandpa wouldn't know." Christopher turned and looked at him suddenly. "What would you say to going 'possum hunting one night?" he asked in a queer voice. "Whoopee!" cried the boy, tossing his hat in the air. "Will you take me?" "Well, it's hard work, you know," went on the other thoughtfully. "You'd have to get up in the middle of the night and steal out of the window without your grandfather's knowing it." "I should say so!" "We'd tramp till morning, probably, with the hounds, and Tom Spade would come along to bring his lanterns. Then when it was over we'd wind up for drinks at his store. It's great sport, I tell you, but it takes a man to stand it." "Oh, I'm man enough by now." "Not according to your grandfather's thinking." "What does he know about it? He's just an old fogy himself." "We'll see, we'll see. If he wants to keep you tied to nurse's strings too long, we must play him a trick. Why, when I was fourteen I could shoot with any man about here--and drink with him, too, for that matter. Nobody kept me back, you see." The boy looked up at Christopher with sparkling eyes, in which the eternal hero-worship of youth was already kindled. "Oh, you're splendid!" he exclaimed, "and I'm going to be just like you. Grandpa shan't keep me a baby any longer, I can tell you. All this Greek, now--he's crazy about my learning it--and I hate it. Do you know Greek?" Christopher laughed shortly. "Where does he live?" he inquired mockingly. For a moment the boy looked at him perplexed. "It's a language," he replied gravely; "and grandpa says it comes handy in a bargain, but I won't learn it. I hate school, anyway, and he swears he's going to send me back in two weeks. I hope I'll fall ill, and then he can't." "In two weeks," repeated the other reflectively; "well, a good deal may happen, I reckon, in two weeks." "Oh, lots!" agreed the boy with enthusiasm; "you'll let me chase rabbits with you every day--won't you? and teach me to shoot? and we'll go 'possum hunting one night and not get home till morning. It will be easy enough to fool grandpa. I'll take care of that, and if Aunt Saidie finds it out she'll never tell him--she never does tell on me. Here, let me take the gun awhile, will you?"