led from his nose, the
latter organ also having given audible vent to certain stentorian sounds
uncommonly like snoring!

The old gentleman, however, did not appear conscious of all this
evidence against his fancied wakefulness; and he blinked out so queerly
from a pair of little black beady eyes, half-hidden under a fringe of
bushy white eyebrows, which made them look all the blacker from
contrast, as he glared over his spectacles at the brother and sister,
that Bob's giggle expanded into a fit of irrepressible merriment,
although he endeavoured vainly to conceal his want of manners by burying
his face in his pocket-handkerchief.

Bob some time afterwards told Nellie in confidence that, just then, the
old gentleman so comically resembled `Blinkie,' a dissipated old tame
jackdaw they had at home, in the way he cocked his head on one side,
with his ruffled hair and all, that he couldn't have helped laughing, if
he had died for it!

"Well?" said the old gentleman inquiringly, after a bit, tired
apparently of waiting for an answer to his original question as to what
Nellie had said as he woke up, gazing still fixedly at her, his beady
black eyes twinkling and his bushy eyebrows bristling up like the
whiskers of a cat when it is angry. "What did he say, eh?"

"He--he was only speaking to me, sir," stammered poor Nellie, now
trembling with fright. "He was only speaking to me, that's all."

"What, what?" jerked out her unappeased questioner. "Who is `he'?"

"My brother--Bob, sir," said she, still trembling and nervous; "my
brother here, sir."

"Bob what?"

"Strong, sir," replied Nellie, a little less timidly, now that she saw
the old gentleman was not going to eat her up quite--"Robert Dugald
Strong, sir."

"Humph!" he grunted out in reply to this. "He may be Strong by name and
he looks strong by nature; but, really, he seems unusually weak in
mind--he's a lunatic, I should think!"

But, there was a quaint, good-humoured expression on his face that
somewhat belied his abrupt manner and harsh, peremptory voice, which
sounded like that of a bullying old barrister, cross-examining a
hesitating witness in court; so Nellie, therefore, gathered increased
confidence as she caught his glance, to proceed with her explanation
anent Master Bob.

"You're mistaken, sir,--he isn't silly," she said. "He only wanted me
to cross over to the other side of the carriage; and I told him I
couldn't pass by you, sir. That was a