hant remark when a dazzling blaze of light would roll
over flood and fell, and chase the clouds away.

"There, didn't I say so?" was the withering rejoinder of Mrs Sudberry,
when a black cloud rolled over the sky and darkened the landscape as
with a wipe of ink.

Hitherto victory leaned decidedly to neither side, the smile of triumph
and the humbled aspect of defeat rested alternate on either countenance,
so that both faces taken together formed a sort of contradictory human
barometer, which was not a bad one--at all events it was infinitely
superior to that instrument of the banjo type, which Mr Sudberry was
perpetually tapping in order to ascertain whether or not its tendencies
were dropsical.

When father was up at "set fair," mother was certain to be depressed,
inclining to much rain; yet, strangely enough, it was on such occasions
_very dry_! When mother was "fair," (barometrically speaking, of
course), father was naturally down at "changeable"! Yet there was
wonderful contradiction in the readings of this barometer; for, when
mother's countenance indicated "much rain," father sometimes went down
to "stormy," and the tails of his coat became altogether unmanageable.

But, towards the middle of the holidays, father gained a decided
victory. For three weeks together they had not a drop of rain--scarcely
a cloud in the sky; and mother, although fairly beaten and obliged to
confess that it was indeed splendid weather, met her discomfiture with a
good grace, and enjoyed herself extremely, in a quiet way.

During this bright period the Sudberry Family, one and all, went ahead,
as George said, "at a tremendous pace." The compasses having arrived,
Mr Sudberry no longer laid restrictions on the wandering propensities
of his flock but, having given a compass to each, and taught them all
the use of it, sent them abroad upon the unexplored ocean of hills
without fear. Even Jacky received a compass, with strict injunctions to
take good care of it. Being naturally of an inquiring disposition, he
at once took it to pieces, and this so effectually that he succeeded in
analysing it into a good many more pieces than its fabricator had ever
dreamed of. To put it together again would have taxed the ingenuity of
the same fabricator--no wonder that it was beyond the power of Jacky
altogether. But this mattered nothing to the "little darling," as he
did not understand his father's learned explanation of the uses of the
instr