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of his visitors seemed as if they had gone through a process of taming.
For though a boy--a hearty boy in his teens--living say anywhere, can,
as a rule, eat, in the exception of boys of the old fen-land, where the
eastern breezes blow right off the German Ocean, they were troubled with
an appetite which was startling, and might have been condemned but for
the fact that it resulted in their growing into magnificent specimens of
humanity, six feet high not being considered particularly tall.

It was quite late when the boys reached the Toft, to find the squire
standing outside smoking his pipe and waiting for them.

"Where have you been, lads?" he said; and on being told, he uttered a
good-humoured grunt, and laying his hand upon Tom's shoulder, "Here," he
said, "you'd better stop with Dick to-night. They won't be uneasy at
home?"

"No, sir," said Tom naively; "I told father perhaps I should stay."

"Oh, you did, eh!" said the squire. "Well, you're welcome. If you
don't want any supper, you'd better be off to bed."

Both lads declared that they did not want any supper, but Mrs Winthorpe
had made certain preparations for them which they could not resist, and
something very like a second meal was eaten before they retired for the
night.

As a rule, when one boy has a visitor for bed-fellow, it is some time
before there is peace in that room. Set aside unruly demonstrations
whose effects are broken pillowcase strings, ruptured bolsters, and
loose feathers about the carpet, if nothing worse has happened in the
way of broken jugs and basins, there is always something else to say at
the end of the long conversation upon the past day's occurrences or the
morrow's plans.

But in this instance it was doubtful whether Dick fell asleep in the act
of getting into bed, or whether Tom was nodding as he undressed; suffice
it that the moment their heads touched pillows they were fast asleep,
and the big beetle which flew in at the open window and circled about
the room had it all to himself. Now he ground his head against the
ceiling, then he rasped his wings against the wall, then he buzzed in
one corner, burred in another, and banged himself up against the white
dimity curtains, till, seeing what appeared to be a gleam of light in
the looking-glass, he swept by the open window, out of which he could
easily have passed, and struck himself so heavily against the mirror
that he fell on the floor with a pat, and probably a