which followed the events narrated in the last chapter broke
with unclouded splendour. It was the second of the four bright days
which relieved the monotony of those six dreary weeks of rain.

Rejoicing in the glorious aspect of earth and sky, and in the fresh
scents which the rain had called forth from every shrub and flower on
the mountains, Mr Sudberry dashed about the White House--in and out--
awaiting the assembling of the family to breakfast with great
impatience. His coat-tails that morning proved the means of
annihilating the sugar-basin--the last of the set which had graced the
board on his arrival in the Highlands, and which had been left, for some
time past, "blooming alone," all its former companions having been
shattered and gone long ago.

According to custom, Mr Sudberry went forward to the barometrical
banjo, intending to tap it--not that he expected correct information
_now_. No; he had found out its falsehood, and was prepared to smile at
anything it should say. He opened his eyes, however, and exclaimed
"Hallo!" with unwonted energy, on observing that, as if in sheer
defiance of the weather, of truth, and of public opinion, its index
aimed point-blank at "stormy!"

He speedily discovered that this tremendous falsehood was the result of
a careful intestine examination, to which the instrument had been
privately subjected by Master Jacky the evening before; in the course of
which examination the curious boy, standing below the barometer, did,
after much trouble, manage to cut the bulb which held the mercury. That
volatile metal, being set free, at once leaped into its liberator's
bosom, and gushed down between his body and his clothes to the floor!

"I'll thrash him to within an inch--"

Mr Sudberry clinched his teeth and his fists, and burst out of the
room, (it was at this moment that the last of the set became "faded and
gone"), and rushed towards the nursery. "No, I won't," he muttered,
suddenly wheeling round on his heel and returning slowly to the parlour.
"I'll say nothing whatever about it." And Mr Sudberry kept his word--
Jacky never heard of it from that day to this!

Seizing the opportunity of the fine day, Mr Sudberry and George went
out to fish. They fished with worm now, the streams being too much
swollen for fly.

Meanwhile, Master Jacky sauntered down alone, in a most free-and-easy
independent manner, to visit old Moggy, who was thought to be in a dying
state--at least th