had crushed his Strawberries, and mixed them with Cream, and now
she put his Spoon into his Hand, saying, in jest, "Father, this is
Angels' Food, you know. I Have pressed the Meath from many a Berry, and
tempered dulcet Creams."

"Hush, you Rogue," says he; "_Ned_ will find us out."

"Is Uncle still at his great Work?" whispers Cousin to Mother.

"Indeed, I know not if you call it such," she replies, in the same
Undertone. "He hath given over all those grand Things with hard Names,
that used to make him so notable abroad, and so esteemed by his own Party
at Home; and now only amuses himself by making the _Bible_ a Peg to hang
his Idlenesse upon."

Sure what a Look _Ned_ gave her! Fearful lest Father should overhear
(for Blindness quickens the other Senses), he runs up to the Bookshelf,
and cries, "Why, Uncle, you have brought down Plenty of Entertainment
with you! Here are _Plato, Xenophon_, and _Sallust, Homer_ and
_Euripides, Dante_ and _Petrarch, Chaucer_ and _Spenser_, . . . and . . .
oh, oh! you read Plays sometimes, though you were so hard upon
_Shakspeare_. . . . Here's 'La Scena Tragica d' _Adamo_ ed _Eva_,'
dedicated to the Duchess of _Mantua_."

"Come away from that Corner, _Ned,"_ says Father; "there's a Rat behind
the Books; he will bite your Fingers--I hear him scratching now. You had
best attack your Strawberries."

"I think this Sort will preserve well," says Mother. "_Betty_, in
'lighting from the Coach, must needs sett her Foot on the only Pot of
Preserve I had left; which she had stuffed under the Seat, instead of
carrying it, as she was bidden, in her Hand."

"How fine it is, though," says Father, laughing, "to peacock it in a
Coach now and then! _Pavoneggiarsi in un Cocchio_! Only, except for the
Bravery of it, I doubt if little _Deb_ were not better off on her
Pillion. I remember, on my Road to _Paris_, the Bottom of the Caroche
fell out; and there sate I, with _Hubert_, who was my Attendant, with our
Feet dangling through. Even the grave _Grotius_ laughed at the Accident."

"Was _Grotius_ grave?" says _Ned_.

"Believe me, he was," says Father. "He had had Enough to make him so.
One feels taller in the Consciousness of having known such a Man. He was
great in practical! Things; he was also a profound Scholar, though he
made out the fourth Kingdom in _Daniel's_ Prophecy to be the Kingdoms of
the _Lagidae_ and the _Seleucidae_; which, you know, _Ned_, could not
possibly be."