ngs!' said Hilary.

'You forget, Hilary,' put in Cecily, 'Tinling is the guest. They ought
to give way to him.'

'Well,' said Hilary, 'it's ridiculous for great boys who have been two
terms at school to go marching about with swords and guns. Big babies!'

Perhaps there was a little personal feeling at the bottom of this, for
she had offered herself for enlistment, and had been sternly rejected on
the ground of her sex.

'I wish he would go, I know that,' said Hazel, making a rather vicious
little chop at her shoe with her racket; 'those boys talk about nothing
but their stupid army from morning to night. Uncle Lambert says they
make him feel quite gunpowdery at lunch. And what do you think is the
last thing they've done?--put up a great fence all round their tent, and
shut themselves up there all day!'

'Except when they're sentries and hide,' put in Hilary; 'they're always
jumping up somewhere and wanting you to give the countersign. It isn't
like home, these holidays!'

'Perhaps,' suggested Cecily, 'it makes things safer, you know.'

'Duffer, Cis!' cried Hilary, contemptuously, for Cecily had appointed
herself professional peacemaker to the family, and her efforts were
about as successful as such domestic offices ever are.

'Look out!' cried Hilary, presently; 'they're coming. Don't let's take
the least notice of them. They hate that more than anything.'

From the shrubbery filed three boys, the first and tallest of whom wore
an imposing dragoon's helmet with a crimson plume, and carried a
sabretache and crossbelts, and wore red caps like those of the French
army; they carried guns on their shoulders.

'Halt! 'Tention! Dis-miss!' shouted the commanding officer, and the army
broke off with admirable precision.

'Don't be alarmed,' said the General considerately to the three girls;
'the army is only out on fatigue duty.'

'Then wouldn't the army like to sit down?' suggested Hilary, forgetting
all about her recent proposal.

'Ah, you don't understand,' said General Tinling with some pity. 'It's
a military term.'

He was a pale, puffy boy, with reddish hair and freckles, who was
evidently fully alive to the dignity of his position.

'Suppose we let military things alone for a little while,' said Hazel.
'We want the army to come and play tennis. You will, won't you, Jack and
Guy? and Cis will umpire--she likes it.'

'I don't mind a game,' said Jack.

'I'll play, if you like,' added Guy; but he had for