e of Theodore before
the day after to-morrow (when the General was due), it would have been
satisfactory. But Miss Jessamine feared it would be impossible in
practice, and she had scruples about it on principle. It would not seem
quite truthful, although she had always most fully intended that he
should be called Theodore when he had outgrown the ridiculous
appropriateness of his nickname. The fact was that he had not outgrown
it, but he must take care to remember who was meant when his grandfather
said Theodore.

Indeed, for that matter, he must take care all along.

"You are apt to be giddy, Jackanapes," said Miss Jessamine.

"Yes, aunt," said Jackanapes, thinking of the hobby-horses.

"You are a good boy, Jackanapes. Thank God, I can tell your grandfather
that. An obedient boy, an honorable boy, and a kind-hearted boy. But you
are--in short, you _are_ a Boy, Jackanapes. And I hope," added Miss
Jessamine, desperate with the results of experience, "that the General
knows that Boys will be Boys."

What mischief could be foreseen, Jackanapes promised to guard against.
He was to keep his clothes and his hands clean, to look over his
catechism, not to put sticky things in his pockets, to keep that hair of
his smooth ("It's the wind that blows it, aunty," said Jackanapes--"I'll
send by the coach for some bear's-grease," said Miss Jessamine, tying a
knot in her pocket-handkerchief), not to burst in at the parlor door,
not to talk at the top of his voice, not to crumple his Sunday frill,
and to sit quite quiet during the sermon, to be sure to say "sir" to the
General, to be careful about rubbing his shoes on the door-mat, and to
bring his lesson-books to his aunt at once that she might iron down the
dogs'-ears. The General arrived; and for the first day all went well,
except that Jackanapes's hair was as wild as usual, for the hair-dresser
had no bear's-grease left. He began to feel more at ease with his
grandfather, and disposed to talk confidentially with him, as he did
with the Postman. All that the General felt, it would take too long to
tell; but the result was the same. He was disposed to talk
confidentially with Jackanapes.

"Mons'ous pretty place this," he said, looking out of the lattice on to
the Green, where the grass was vivid with sunset and the shadows were
long and peaceful.

"You should see it in Fair-week, sir," said Jackanapes, shaking his
yellow mop, and leaning back in his one of the two Chippendal