_everyfing_;" while Duke's breast swelled with the thought that he too,
like his father and grandfather before him, would journey some day to
those distant lands, there, if need were, like them "to fight for the
king." For there were times at which "bruvver" was quite determined to
be a soldier, though at others--the afternoon, for instance, when the
young bull poked his head through the hedge and shook it at him and
Pamela, and Duke's toy-sword had unfortunately been left at home in the
nursery--he did not feel quite so sure about it!

But on this particular morning the little pair were less interested and
talkative than usual. They sat so quiet while Grandmamma made her
arrangements that her attention was aroused.

"You are very silent little mice, this morning," she said. "Is it
because poor Nurse is ill that you seem in such low spirits?"

Duke and Pamela looked at each other. It would have been so easy to say
"yes," and Grandmamma would have thought them so kind-hearted and
sympathising! Once one has swerved a little bit from the straight exact
road and begun to go down-hill even in the least, it is so tempting to
go on a little farther--so much less difficult than to stop short, or,
still more, to try to go back again. But these children were so unused
to say anything not quite true that they hesitated, and this hesitation
saved them from making another step in the wrong direction.

"I wasn't finking of Nurse, Grandmamma," said Pamela at last in rather a
low voice.

"Nor I wasn't neither," said Duke, taking courage by her example.

"That's all right, then," said Grandmamma cheerfully, not having noticed
anything unusual in their tone. "Poor Nurse, we are sorry for her to be
ill, but I don't think it will be anything very bad. And I am sure you
will try to be _very_ good."

"Yes, Grandmamma," said the two voices together, but less confidently
and more timidly than usual. This time their tone caught the old lady's
attention.

"There's something on their minds," she said to herself. But she was a
wise old lady, and thought it better to wait a while before trying to
find out what it was.

"When I was a little girl," she began--and the children pricked up their
ears--"when I was a little girl I remember once that our nurse was ill,
or she had to go away to see some friend who was ill, and, as I was the
eldest of several little brothers and sisters, I had to help to take
care of them. I had always thought it w