Napoleon listened attentively to her reading. "Dr. Warden's word is a very true one," he said.

Betsy finished her stay at Longwood this day by remaining awhile with Madame Bertrand.

The news of Betsy's visit to Napoleon without the requisite permission reached the Governor's ears; and Mr. Balcombe was severely reproved. In fact, he nearly lost his position. The Governor from the first insisted that Mr. Balcombe always acted in the interest of Napoleon, and hence, as he viewed it in his narrow-mindedness, against the interests of the English Government. Thus we can see that Napoleon's young neighbor was wrong in doing things that drew on her father the Governor's reproof.

"My dears," said Mr. Balcombe one morning, "I am going to Longwood to-morrow, and the Emperor has expressly asked me to bring you. He has something curious to show you."

"What can it be?" the girls asked each other. This special invitation, promising a special pleasure, made them eager to start when the next morning came.

When they reached Longwood with their father they found Napoleon examining a machine whose use they could guess.

"Come, come, young ladies," the great man cried, when he caught sight of them, “come see me make ice. You have not been here for a long time, Mees Betsy, what is the matter?" "I have been ill, - a sunstroke."

"Oh, I am sorry! What foolish thing did you do?"

“Oh, Jane and I walked with Captain M. to call on Mrs. Wilks. We went over the mountain, two thousand feet, and also across Francis Plain, and down into the valley, up the mountain ridges.

Napoleon expressed his astonishment at the extent of their walk.

"Yes, we were nearly dead when we reached Plantation House, but the Lady Governess and her daughter there were so kind, and at noon we went to Fairyland."

When Betsy had told her story, Napoleon explained the air-pumps and the process of ice-making. He was evidently proud of his own proficiency.

"Now, Mr. Balcombe, get an elementary

chemistry for Miss Betsy and make her study every day, and the good O'Meara shall be her examiner."

While he talked Napoleon was watching the

machine.

"Do try my ice," he exclaimed at last, when he had a cupful.

"Here, Mees Betsee, take this!" and he put a large piece in her mouth.

"Oh, Mees Betsee, why make such faces?” This was the first ice that had ever been seen on the island, and those who had never been off St. Helena were naturally amazed when it was shown to them.

"It can't be frozen water," exclaimed Miss de F., a young St. Helena lady who had accompanied the Balcombes on this visit to Longwood; and she had to hold a piece in her hand before she believed it. Then she gave a little scream. The glassy substance was so cold at first that she was ready to drop it. A moment later when it began to melt and the water streamed down her fingers, she realized that she had actually seen a very strange thing, the turning of water into ice by artificial means.

Betsy long remembered the day when she had first seen the wonderful ice machine, and perhaps her remembrance of it was intensified because on that same morning Napoleon permitted her to cut from his coat an embroidered bugle, and the coat was the one he had worn at Waterloo. Napoleon himself was as pleased as a child with the ice machine, and to more than one person expressed his regret that he had not had it in Egypt, where its use would have saved the lives of many suffering soldiers.

A

CHAPTER VIII

THE GOVERNOR'S RULES

FTER Napoleon had been at St. Helena a few months, newspapers from England began to arrive with narratives of many of the happenings at The Briars.

One journal contained a letter from the Marquis de Montchenu, describing all the romping games at The Briars, such as the game of blindman's buff, the sword scare, and other things in which the children had taken part.

Special comments were made on the manners of Betsy, and the writer said, "She is the wildest little girl I have ever met; she seems folle." This letter had been translated into French and German journals, so that Betsy Balcombe's name was now widely known.

Mr. Balcombe was greatly enraged by this letter, and wished to call the Marquis to account for his ill nature, but Mrs. Balcombe