te Was Gone! There was no mistake about it; and though, as a
matter of course, if the stick went, the string and kite must go too,
yet the boys seemed to make the discovery in the above order, and thus
have I recorded the facts.

"It's blown away," said Fred; "let's go and find it;" and off he started
in the teeth of the wind.

"What's the good of that?" said Philip, shouting after his cousin; "it
will be this way."

Fred returned as hard as he could; and off the boys started in, as
nearly as possible, a line with the direction in which they left the
kite flying. Every now and then they had to make a deviation, but still
they persevered, looking into every garden, peering into every tree,
till they were about a mile from home. Nobody had seen the kite, nor
yet heard of it; so nothing remained but to trudge wearily back--hot,
fagged, and low-spirited, for, as Fred said, "It was such a beauty!"

"And then there were our two little white silk handkerchiefs," said
Philip.

"And all that great ball of string," said Harry.

And then they trudged on again in silence.

"Oh! do carry these eggs a bit, somebody," said Fred; "they are so
heavy."

But they were not so heavy as they were at first, for Fred had managed
to give them a rap up against something, and broken two or three,--the
rich yolks having filtered through the handkerchief, and left only the
shells behind.

"Yah!" said Harry, as he took hold of the handkerchief, and placed one
hand underneath to steady it while he got fast hold. "Yah! how nasty,"
he said, holding up his sticky hand, and then rubbing it upon the grass.

In spite of the disappointment they had just met with, they all laughed
heartily at Harry and the broken eggs, and soon after turned into the
gate, and went in at the side-door--hurrying in, for it was past
tea-time; when the boys stared, for the first thing that met their gaze
upon entering the hall was the blue and white kite, with the ball of
string neatly wound up, and the tail arranged carefully from top to
bottom, and all leaning up against the wall as though it had never been
used. The cheer the boys gave at the discovery brought out Mr and Mrs
Inglis, when it came out that the Squire had strolled into the field to
speak to the boys, and found the kite flying itself, with the breeze
rather on the increase; and not seeing anybody, and at the same time
thinking the kite might break loose, he had wound it in, and taken it
with him