oths."

"Humph! Sugar the trees, eh?"

"Yes, sir," I said quickly.

"And do you know that he goes down the garden of a night?"

"Yes, Sir Francis, often," said Mr Solomon.

"Isn't it enough to tempt him to take the pears?"

"No, Sir Francis," replied Mr Solomon boldly. "I might just as well
say to you, `Isn't it enough to tempt him to take the grapes or the
peaches to trust him among them alone.'"

"He did steal the peaches when he first came. I caught him at it,"
cried Philip viciously.

"No, you did not, young gentleman," said Mr Solomon sternly; "but I saw
you cut two bunches of grapes one evening--the Muscat of Alexandria--and
take them away."

"Oh what a wicked story!" cried Philip, angrily.

"Call it what you like, young gentleman," said Mr Solomon; "but it's a
fact. I meant to speak to Sir Francis, for I hate the choice fruit to
be touched till it's wanted for the house; but I said to myself he's
only a schoolboy and he was tempted, and here are the young gentleman's
nail scissors, Sir Francis, that he dropped in his hurry and left
behind."

As Mr Solomon spoke he handed a pair of pearl-handled scissors--a pair
of those spring affairs with a tiny knife-blade in each handle--and in
the midst of a dead silence laid them on the table before Sir Francis.

"Those are not mine," said Philip hastily.

"Humph!" ejaculated Sir Francis, picking them up and examining them. "I
shall have to order you out of the room, man, if you make that noise,"
he cried, as he turned to Ike.

"I weer on'y laughin', your worship," said Ike.

"Then leave off laughing, sir," continued Sir Francis, "and have the
goodness to tell me what you were doing down the garden. Were you
collecting moths with a dark lantern?"

"Me, your honour! not I."

"What were you doing, then?"

"Well, your honour's worship, I was having a bit of a sleep--tired, you
see."

"Oh!" exclaimed Sir Francis. "Now, look here, Grant, you knew that man
was down the garden."

"Yes, Sir Francis."

"And didn't you go to join him?"

"Yes, Sir Francis."

"To get a lot of my pears?"

"No, Sir Francis."

"Then why did you go?" he thundered.

I was silent.

"Do you hear, sir?"

"Yes, Sir Francis."

"Then speak, sir."

I remained silent.

"Will you tell me why you went down the garden to join that man?"

I looked at poor Ike, and felt that if I spoke it would be to get him
discharged, so I preferred to remain silent, and said not a w