I will go somewhere. I will hide myself. I will run to the market
while the cloth is laying. I will get away, and not come back till Mr
Tooke is gone. I will never say my multiplication table to him!"

"Never?" said Agnes, with an odd smile and a sigh. "However, do not
talk of running away, or hiding yourself. You will not have to say
anything to Mr Tooke to-day."

"How do you know?"

"I feel sure you will not. I do not believe Mr Tooke will talk to you,
or to any of us. There you go! You will be in the water-butt in a
minute, if you tumble so."

"I don't care if I am. Mr Tooke will not come there to hear me say my
tables. Let me go!" he cried, struggling, for now Agnes had caught him
by the ankle. "If I do tumble in, the water is not up to my chin, and
it will be a cool hiding-place this hot day."

"But there is Susan gone to lay the cloth; and you must be brushed; for
you are all over dust. Come up, and I will brush you."

Hugh was determined to have a little more dust first. He rolled once
more the whole length of the leads, turned over Jane's stool, and upset
her work-basket, so that her thimble bounded off to a far corner, and
the shirt-collar she was stitching fell over into the water-butt.

"There! What will Jane say?" cried Agnes, picking up the basket, and
peeping over into the small part of the top of the water-butt which was
not covered.

"There never was anything like boys for mischief," said the maid Susan,
who now appeared to pull Hugh in, and make him neat. Susan always found
time, between laying the cloth and bringing up dinner, to smooth Hugh's
hair, and give a particular lock a particular turn on his forehead with
a wet comb.

"Let that alone," said Hugh, as Agnes peeped into the butt after the
drowning collar. "I will have the top off this afternoon, and it will
make good fishing for Harry and me."

Agnes had to let the matter alone; for Hugh was so dusty that she had to
brush one side of him while Susan did the other. Susan gave him some
hard knocks while she assured him that he was not going to have Harry up
on the leads to learn his tricks, or to be drowned. She hardly knew
which of the two would be the worst for Harry. It was lucky for Hugh
that Susan was wanted below directly, for she scolded him the whole time
she was parting and smoothing his hair. When it was done, however, and
the wet lock on his forehead took the right turn at once, she gave him a
kiss in the