nable to secure his completed costume in proper
time. Four of the lads, as I learned at secondhand, through the
diligence of their mothers, had acquired the prescribed apparel; but all
four, strange to say, had been taken ill that very morning and now sent
their excuses, expressing deep regret at being unable to join us.
Really, when I recall what was to occur in my own instance it would
almost seem to one superstitiously inclined that a sort of fatality
attached to the wearing of the garb.

At the last moment Master Dunworthy, our youngest member, arrived in
charge of his mother; and he, I was rejoiced to behold, was properly
apparelled in the regulation red cap, white blouse and light blue nether
garments. A diffidence, with which I could in a measure sympathise,
induced Master Dunworthy to walk closely behind his mother; in fact it
might almost be said he came forward unwillingly, impelled by the firm
grip of the maternal hand on his collar. He was also sobbing audibly,
presumably from homesickness.

With a view to assuaging his distress I made him colour bearer on the
spot and conferred on him the compliment of bearing our flag--white,
with a red border and a design of a large blue filbert in the centre--a
banner of my own designing and worked out by Miss Peebles. I could have
wished the filbert had looked more like a filbert and less like a melon;
but the general effect, I flattered myself, was excellent. Yet the
bestowal of this honour failed to revive the despondent spirits of
Master Dunworthy.

Up to the moment of leaving, I cherished the hope that some of the
absentees would appear, but that was not to be. When with infinite
difficulty I had marshalled my charges aboard the train, amid the
friendly laughter and cheering of the crowd, I found that we were, all
told, but seven in number; and but a moment after we were reduced to
six, since Master Dunworthy unaccountably vanished, leaving the flag
behind him.

So engaged was I in the task of bestowing our seemingly innumerable
trappings properly that the train was actually in motion before I became
cognisant of his disappearance. Convinced that he had been left behind
by accident, I entreated the conductor to return for our colour bearer;
but this the conductor refused to do, saying it was enough to be running
a circus train without having to back up every time one of the animals
got lost, strayed or stolen. This I took to be a veiled thrust at our
little ban