irst lighted in the kitchen
chimney, which, with that in the sitting-room, was lined with bricks;
and the whole party sat down to a dinner of mutton and wild fowl of
three or four sorts.

The same evening Mr. Hardy told the boys that he should start the next
day to bring up their mamma and the girls, who were all getting very
impatient indeed to be out upon the Pampas. He explained to them that he
should bring up iron bedsteads with bedding, but that he relied upon
them to increase their stock of tables and benches, and to put up
shelves, which would do until regular cupboards and closets could be
made. Mr. Hardy thought that he should not be away much more than a
week, as, by making a long ride to Rosario, the next day he should catch
the boat, which left the following morning for Buenos Ayres; and as he
had already written to Mr. Thompson saying when he should probably
arrive, there would be no time lost. The next morning he started before
daylight, the last words of the boys being: 'Be sure, papa, to bring the
mosquito curtains for us all; they are getting worse and worse. We
hardly closed an eye all last night.'

Hot as the weather now was, the boys worked incessantly at their
carpentering for the next week, and at the end had the satisfaction of
seeing a large table for dining at in the sitting-room, and a small one
to act as a sideboard, two long benches, and two short ones. In their
mother and sisters' rooms there were a table and two benches, and a
table and a long flap to serve as a dresser in the kitchen. They had
also put up two long shelves in each of the bedrooms, and some nails on
the doors for dresses. They were very tired at the end of the week, but
they looked round with a satisfied look, for they knew they had done
their best. The next morning they were to ride to Rosario to meet the
party. The carts had gone off under the charge of Terence that day.

It was indeed a joyful meeting when Mr. and Mrs. Hardy and the girls
stepped off the steamer; but the first embrace was scarcely over when
the boys exclaimed simultaneously, 'Why, girls, what is the matter with
your faces? I should not have known you.'

'Oh, it's those dreadful mosquitoes; there were millions on board the
steamer last night I really thought we should have been eaten up. Didn't
you, mamma?'

'Well, my dear, I thought that they would perhaps leave something of us
till morning, but I felt almost inclined to go mad and jump overboard.
I