would reply,--

"I don't know, Rea. As soon as I'm a man, I can take care of you and
myself too, easy enough; and that won't be a great while. I shall ask
the King to let me be one of his officers like papa."

"Oh, no! no! Jusy," Rea would reply. "Don't! Don't let's live in this
horrid palace. Ask him to give you a little house in the country, with a
donkey; and I will cook the dinner. Caterina will teach me how."

Caterina was their nurse.

"But there wouldn't be any money to pay Caterina," Jusy would say.

"The King might give us enough for that, Jusy. He is so kind. I'm sure
he would, don't you think so?" was Rea's answer to this difficulty.

"No," said Jusy, "I don't think he would, unless I earned it. Papa had
to work for all the money he had."

It was a glad day for the children when the news came that their uncle
in America was going to send for them to come and live with him; and
that in three weeks the man who was to take them there would arrive.
This news came over by telegraph, on that wonderful telegraph wire,
down at the bottom of the ocean. Their kind Uncle George thought he
would not leave the children uncheered in their suspense and loneliness
one minute longer than he could help; so he sent the message by
telegraph; and the very day after this telegraphic message went, Jim set
out for Italy.

Jim had travelled so much with Mr. Connor that he was just the best
possible person to take charge of the children on their long journey. He
knew how to manage everything; and he could speak Italian and French and
German well enough to say all that was necessary in places where no
English was spoken. Moreover, Jim had been a servant in Mr. Connor's
father's house all his life; had taken care of Mr. Connor and his sister
when they were a little boy and girl together, just as Jusy and Rea were
now. He always called Mr. Connor "Mr. George," and his sister "Miss
Julia;" and when he set out to go for the children he felt almost as if
he were going to the help and rescue of his own grandchildren.

Jusy and Rea did not feel that they were going to a stranger; for they
had heard about their Uncle George ever since they could remember; and
all about "Jim" too. Almost every year Mr. Connor used to send his
sister a new picture of himself; so the children knew very well how he
looked.

When the news came that they were to go to America and live with him,
they got out all of these pictures they could find, and rang