"Well--oh--well--why, there was a great deal of fighting, and they were

all blockheads, and--I can't tell it just how you told it--but they

wanted a man to be captain and king and everything--"

"Dictator, now," said Letty, with injured looks, and not without a wish

to make her mother repent.

"Very well, dictator!" said Ben, contemptuously. "But that isn't a

good word: he didn't tell them to write on slates."

"Come, come, Ben, you are not so ignorant as that," said Mrs. Garth,

carefully serious. "Hark, there is a knock at the door! Run, Letty,

and open it."

The knock was Fred's; and when Letty said that her father was not in

yet, but that her mother was in the kitchen, Fred had no alternative.

He could not depart from his usual practice of going to see Mrs. Garth

in the kitchen if she happened to be at work there. He put his arm

round Letty's neck silently, and led her into the kitchen without his

usual jokes and caresses.

Mrs. Garth was surprised to see Fred at this hour, but surprise was not

a feeling that she was given to express, and she only said, quietly

continuing her work--

"You, Fred, so early in the day? You look quite pale. Has anything

happened?"

"I want to speak to Mr. Garth," said Fred, not yet ready to say

more--"and to you also," he added, after a little pause, for he had no

doubt that Mrs. Garth knew everything about the bill, and he must in the

end speak of it before her, if not to her solely.

"Caleb will be in again in a few minutes," said Mrs. Garth, who

imagined some trouble between Fred and his father. "He is sure not to

be long, because he has some work at his desk that must be done this

morning. Do you mind staying with me, while I finish my matters here?"

"But we needn't go on about Cincinnatus, need we?" said Ben, who had

taken Fred's whip out of his hand, and was trying its efficiency on the

cat.

"No, go out now. But put that whip down. How very mean of you to whip

poor old Tortoise! Pray take the whip from him, Fred."

"Come, old boy, give it me," said Fred, putting out his hand.

"Will you let me ride on your horse to-day?" said Ben, rendering up the

whip, with an air of not being obliged to do it.

"Not to-day--another time. I am not riding my own horse."

"Shall you see Mary to-day?"

"Yes, I think so," said Fred, with an unpleasant twinge.

"Tell her to come home soon, and play at forfeits, and make fun."




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