he oldest,' said the clown, 'and you've got to make me feel at
home, or I shall go away again.'

'I won't do it again, and I'm very sorry,' pleaded Tommy; but the clown
wouldn't be friends with him for ever so long, and was only appeased at
last by being allowed to put Tommy upside down in a tall wicker basket
which stood in a corner.

Then he helped Tommy to dress by buttoning all his clothes the wrong
way, and hiding his stockings and necktie. While he was doing this,
Sarah, the under-nurse, came in, and he strutted up to her and began to
dance quietly. 'Go away, imperence,' said Sarah.

'Beautiful gal,' said the clown (though Sarah was extremely plain), 'I
love yer!' and he put out his tongue and wagged his head at her until
she ran out of the room in terror.

He looked so absurd that Tommy was delighted with him again, and yet,
when the bell rang for breakfast, he felt obliged to give his new friend
a hint.

'I say,' he said, 'you don't mind my telling you--but mother's very
particular about manners at table;' but the clown relieved him instantly
by saying that so was he--_very_ particular; and he slid down the
banisters and turned somersaults in the hall until Tommy joined him.

'I do hope father and mother won't be unkind to him,' he thought, as he
went in, 'because he does seem to feel things so.'

But nothing could be more polite than the welcome Tommy's parents gave
the stranger, as he came in, bowing very low, and making a queer little
skipping step. Tommy's mother said she was always glad to see any friend
of her boy's, while his father begged the clown to make himself quite at
home. All _he_ said was, 'I'm disgusted to make your acquaintance;' but
he certainly made himself at home--in fact, he was not quite so
particular about his manners as he had led Tommy to expect.

He volunteered to divide the sausages and bacon himself, and did so in
such a way that everybody else got very little and he himself got a
great deal. If it had been anybody else, Tommy would certainly have
called this 'piggish'; as it was, he tried to think it was all fun, and
that he himself had no particular appetite.

His cousin Barbara, a little girl of about his own age, was staying with
them just then, and came down presently to breakfast. 'Oh, my!' said the
clown, laying a great red hand on his heart, 'what a nice little gal you
are, ain't yer? Come and sit by me, my dear!'

'No, thank you; I'm going to sit by Aunt Mary,' s