when
they did, he himself blew them up, and there was no occasion to
mention it to Mr. Bale, when it wasn't anything very serious. But
of course, I could not have that; and said that either he must tell
uncle, or I should.

"It really happened because my fingers were so cold I could not
feel the bottle. Of course the cellar is not cold, but I had been
outside, taking in a waggon load of bottles that had just arrived,
and counting them, and my fingers got regularly numbed.

"So John went to the counting house, and told him about the wine
being spilt. He said I wished him to tell him, and how it had
happened."

"What did uncle say, Bob?"

"He said he was glad to hear that I told John to tell him; but that
he knew it already, for he had just come down to the cellar when
the bottles went over and, as he didn't wish to interfere with the
foreman's work, had come back to the counting house without anyone
noticing he had been there. He said, of course boys could not be
trusted like men; and that, as he had chosen to put me there, he
must put up with accidents. He never spoke about it to me, till
last night."

"Well, he seemed very vexed about it, Bob, and made a great deal of
it."

"He didn't mean it, Carrie; and he knew I knew he didn't mean it.
He knows I am beginning to understand him."

That evening, Mr. Bale sent Bob back to the hotel by himself.

"I thought I would get him out of the way," he said, when Bob had
left. "I wanted to have a chat with you about him.

"You see, Carrie, I acted hastily in taking him away from school;
but it seemed to me that he must be getting into a very bad groove,
to be playing such pranks as breaking out in the middle of the
night. I was sorry, afterwards; partly because it had upset all my
plans, partly because I was not sure that I had done the best thing
by him.

"I had intended that he should have stopped for another year, at
school; by that time he would be between sixteen and seventeen, and
I thought of taking him into the office for six months or so, to
begin with, for him to learn a little of the routine. Then I had
intended to send him out to Oporto, for two years, and then to
Cadiz for two years; so that he would have learnt Portuguese and
Spanish well, got up all there was to learn about the different
growths, and established friendly relations with my agents.

"Now, as it happens, all these plans have been upset. My agent at
Oporto died, a month ago. His son su