inly, but then it was Esther's old home, and she had
not seen it since her marriage. She would grow strong again there
very quickly.

"Oh, and Judy, too."

"Ah-h-h!" he said.

Two of the lines smoothed themselves carefully from his brow.

"And Meg, because I mentioned she was looking pale."

The Captain placed the cigar back in the case. He forgot there was
such a thing as gout.

"The invitation could not have been more opportune," he said. "Accept
by all means; nothing could have been better; and it is an exceedingly
healthy climate. The other children can--"

"Oh, Father expressly stipulates for Pip as well, because he is a
scamp."

"Upon my word, Esther, your parents have a large enough fund of
philanthropy. Anyone else included in the invitation?"

"Only Nell and Bunty and Baby. Oh, and Mother says if you can
run up at any time for a few days shooting you know without her
telling you how pleased she will be to see you."

"The hospitality of squatters is world-famed, but this breaks all
previous records, Esther." The Captain got up and stretched himself
with the air of a man released from a nightmare. "Accept by all
means--every one of you. On their own heads be the results; but
I'm afraid Yarrahappini will be a sadder and wiser place before
the month is over."

But just how much sadder or how much wiser he never dreamed.

CHAPTER XV

Three Hundred Miles in the Train

They filled a whole compartment--at least there was one seat vacant,
but people seemed shy of taking it after a rapid survey of them all.

The whole seven of them, and only Esther as bodyguard--Esther--in
a pink blouse an sailor hat, with a face as bright and mischievous
as Pip's own.

The Captain had come to see them off, with Pat to look after the
luggage. He had bought the tickets--two whole ones for Esther and
Meg, and four halves for the others. Baby was not provided with even
a half, much to her private indignation--it was an insult to her four
years and a half, she considered, to go free like the General.

But the cost of those scraps of pasteboard had made the Captain look
unhappy: he only received eighteenpence change out of the ten pounds
he had tendered; for Yarrahappini was on the borders of the Never-Never
Land.

He spent the eighteenpence on illustrated papers--Scraps, Ally
Sloper's Half-Holiday, Comic Cuts, Funny Folks, and the like,
evidently having no very exalted opinion of the literary tas