it away; and Augustus
(the cat) got it, and ran away with it. I believe it was really his
mouse all the time, 'cos he'd been looking about as if he had lost
something, so I wasn't angry with HIM; but what did SHE want to throw
away my mouse for?"

"You have to be careful with mice," reflected Edward; "they're such
slippery things. Do you remember we were playing with a dead mouse once
on the piano, and the mouse was Robinson Crusoe, and the piano was the
island, and somehow Crusoe slipped down inside the island, into its
works, and we couldn't get him out, though we tried rakes and all sorts
of things, till the tuner came. And that wasn't till a week after, and
then--"

Here Charlotte, who had been nodding solemnly, fell over into the
fender; and we realised that the wind had dropped at last, and the house
was lapped in a great stillness. Our vacant beds seemed to be calling
to us imperiously; and we were all glad when Edward gave the signal
for retreat. At the top of the staircase Harold unexpectedly turned
mutinous, insisting on his right to slide down the banisters in a
free country. Circumstances did not allow of argument; I suggested
frog's-marching instead, and frog's-marched he accordingly was, the
procession passing solemnly across the moonlit Blue Room, with Harold
horizontal and limply submissive. Snug in bed at last, I was just
slipping off into slumber when I heard Edward explode, with chuckle and
snort.

"By Jove!" he said; "I forgot all about it. The new tutor's sleeping in
the Blue Room!"

"Lucky he didn't wake up and catch us," I grunted, drowsily; and both of
us, without another thought on the matter, sank into well-earned repose.

Next morning we came down to breakfast braced to grapple with fresh
adversity, but were surprised to find our garrulous friend of the
previous day--he was late in making his appearance--strangely silent and
(apparently) preoccupied. Having polished off our porridge, we ran out
to feed the rabbits, explaining to them that a beast of a tutor would
prevent their enjoying so much of our society as formerly.

On returning to the house at the fated hour appointed for study, we
were thunderstruck to see the station-cart disappearing down the
drive, freighted with our new acquaintance. Aunt Eliza was brutally
uncommunicative; but she was overheard to remark casually that she
thought the man must be a lunatic. In this theory we were only too ready
to concur, dismissing therea