her."

Nellie afterwards joined her sister "for a few days," but
the days spread to some weeks, for the poor little dormouse
developed scarlet fever, and the elder children had to be
kept out of harm's way until fear of infection was over.

Of Emsie he had a funny little story to tell. He had taken
her to the Aquarium, and they had been watching the seals
coming up dripping out of the water. With a very pitiful
look she turned to him and said, "Don't they give them any
towels?" [The same little girl commiserated the bear,
because it had got no tail.]

Asked to stay to dinner, he assured us that he never took
anything in the middle of the day but a glass of wine and a
biscuit; but he would be happy to sit down with us, which he
accordingly did and kindly volunteered to carve for us. His
offer was gladly accepted, but the appearance of a rather
diminutive piece of neck of mutton was somewhat of a puzzle
to him. He had evidently never seen such a joint in his life
before, and had frankly to confess that he did not know how
to set about carving it. Directions only made things worse,
and he bravely cut it to pieces in entirely the wrong
fashion, relating meanwhile the story of a shy young man who
had been asked to carve a fowl, the joints of which had been
carefully wired together beforehand by his too attentive
friends.

The task and the story being both finished, our visitor
gazed on the mangled remains, and remarked quaintly: "I
think it is just as well I don't want anything, for I don't
know where I should find it."

At least one member of the party felt she could have managed
matters better; but that was a point of very little
consequence.

A day or two after the first call came a note saying that he
would be taking Isa home before long, and if we would like
to see her he would stop on the way again.

Of course we were only too delighted to have the
opportunity, and, though the visit was postponed more than
once, it did take place early in August, when he brought
both Isa and Nellie up to town to see a performance of
"Sweet Lavender." It is needless to remark that we took
care, this time, to be provided with something at once
substantial and carvable.

The children were bright, healthy, happy and childlike
little maidens, quite devoted t