A Good-For-Nothing | Page 3

you?"
"I shall be fourteen six weeks before Christmas," answered she,
frankly.
"Then I excuse you."
"No, indeed," cried she, vehemently. "You needn't excuse me at all. If
you don't want to write my exercise, you may send the book back again.
I am very sorry I spoke to you, and I shall never do it again."
"But you will not get the book back again without the exercise," replied
he, quietly. "Good-night."
The girl stood long looking after him, hoping that he would return.
Then, with a great burst of repentance, she hid her face in her lap, and
began to cry.
"Oh, dear, I didn't mean to be rude," she sobbed. "But it was Ivanhoe
and Rebecca who upset me."
The next morning she was up before daylight, and waited for two long
hours in great suspense before the curtain of his window was raised. He
greeted her politely; threw a hasty glance around the court to see if he
was observed, and then tossed her book dexterously over into her
hands.
"I have pinned the written exercise to the flyleaf," he said. "You will
probably have time to copy it before breakfast."
"I am ever so much obliged to you," she managed to stammer.
He looked so tall and handsome, and grown-up, and her remorse stuck
in her throat, and threatened to choke her. She had taken him for a boy
as he sat there in his window the evening before.

"By the way, what is your name?" he asked, carelessly, as he turned to
go.
"Bertha."
"Well, my dear Bertha, I am happy to have made your acquaintance."
And he again made her a polite bow, and entered his parlor.
"How provokingly familiar he is," thought she; "but no one can deny
that he is handsome."
The bright roguish face of the young girl haunted Ralph during the
whole next week. He had been in love at least ten times before, of
course; but, like most boys, with young ladies far older than himself.
He found himself frequently glancing over to her window in the hope
of catching another glimpse of her face; but the curtain was always
drawn down, and Bertha remained invisible. During the second week,
however, she relented, and they had many a pleasant chat together. He
now volunteered to write all her exercises, and she made no objections.
He learned that she was the daughter of a well-to-do peasant in the
sea-districts of Norway (and it gave him quite a shock to hear it), and
that she was going to school in the city, and boarded with an old lady
who kept a pension in the house adjoining the one in which he lived.
One day in the autumn Ralph was surprised by the sudden arrival of his
father, and the fact of his failure in the examination could no longer be
kept a secret. The old Colonel flared up at once when Ralph made his
confession; the large veins upon his forehead swelled; he grew
coppery-red in his face, and stormed up and down the floor, until his
son became seriously alarmed; but, to his great relief, he was soon
made aware that his father's wrath was not turned against him
personally, but against the officials of the Military Academy who had
rejected him. The Colonel took it as insult to his own good name and
irreproachable standing as an officer; he promptly refused any other
explanation, and vainly racked his brain to remember if any youthful
folly of his could possibly have made him enemies among the teachers
of the Academy. He at last felt satisfied that it was envy of his own

greatness and rapid advancement which had induced the rascals to take
vengeance on his son. Ralph reluctantly followed his father back to the
country town where the latter was stationed, and the fair-haired Bertha
vanished from his horizon. His mother's wish now prevailed, and he
began, in his own easy way, to prepare himself for the University. He
had little taste for Cicero, and still less for Virgil, but with the use of a
"pony" he soon gained sufficient knowledge of these authors to be able
to talk in a sort of patronizing way about them, to the great delight of
his fond parents. He took quite a fancy, however, to the ode in Horace
ending with the lines:
Dolce ridentem, Dulce loqucntem, Lalagen amabo.
And in his thought he substituted for Lalage the fair-haired Bertha,
quite regardless of the requirements of the metre.
To make a long story short, three years later Ralph returned to the
capital, and, after having worn out several tutors, actually succeeded in
entering the University.
The first year of college life is a happy time to every young man, and
Ralph enjoyed its