o on with your
'hush--hush!' Mag--he's as sound as a button. Look here, I must speak
a little louder. Fa--ther! oh, I say, father, open your eyes!"

Eric's voice became piteous, but the eyes remained closed, the face
peaceful and immovable.

"We might both of us jump on the bed at the same moment," said Eric.
"That ought to shake him a good bit, and perhaps he'd begin to yawn.
Oh, jolly, it's a spring mattress; we can give him a great bounce if
we jump on together. Now then, Mag, be sure you jump when I do."

Marjorie, still looking rather terrified, but led on by Eric's
indomitable spirit, did spring on the bed, and so heavily that she
rolled on to Mr. Wilton's leg. He started, groaned, said "Down, Gyp!"
in a very angry voice, and once more pursued his way in dreamland,
without any idea that two little imps were perched each on one side
of his pillow.

"It's too bad," said Eric. "The whole morning will go at this rate; it
will soon be five o'clock. Oh, I say--pater--father--gov! do wake!"

"You shouldn't say pater or gov," said Marjorie. "Father doesn't like
it."

"Much he cares! He doesn't hear anything. He's stone deaf--he's no
good at all!"

"Well, we shouldn't say words he doesn't like, even if he is asleep,"
said Marjorie in her properest tones.

"I like that," said Eric. "And why mayn't I say pater, I wonder? Pater
is the Latin of father. It's a much nicer word than father, and all
our fellows say it. You think it isn't respectful because you're an
ignorant girl, Maggie, but Julius Caesar used to say pater when he was
young, so I suppose I may."

"Father looks very handsome in his sleep," said Marjorie, turning her
head on one side, and looking sentimentally at her parent.

"He doesn't," said Eric. "He looks much better with his eyes open. Oh,
I say, I can't stand this! The morning will go, and we'll never get
our water-lilies. Father, wake up! Father, it's your birthday! Don't
you hear us? Here, Mag, let's begin to jump up and down again on the
bed. Couldn't you manage to hop on his leg by accident? You're heavier
than me."

Marjorie and Eric joined hands, the fun entered into their souls, and
they certainly jumped with energy.

Mr. Wilton began to have a very bad dream. Gyp, his favorite spaniel,
seemed suddenly to have changed into a fiend, and to have seized him
by the leg. Finally the dream dissolved itself into a medley of
laughter and childish cries. He opened his eyes: two little figures