ture will come near the house till he is
starved into a visitation, but let the gamekeeper and his men be ready,
and muster what arms you have.'

'To be sure, Sir William, it shall be done,' said the frightened
steward, as he walked cautiously across the hall, looking on every side
as he advanced.

'Well,' said the baronet laughing, as he returned to the drawing-room,
'two such _gourmands_ in one four-and-twenty hours is one too many sure
enough. Here's a tiger come amongst us to-day by way of _avant-courier_
to Uncle Geoffrey.'

'A tiger!' cried both the boys. 'Oh, where, father? But you are joking?'

'No; 'tis a plain fact, according to Denton,' said Sir William, whose
information he then gave, and added: 'Though I have no apprehension of
the animal coming here I must beg you all to move upstairs, and keep in
the house till it is secured.'

'Secured; how can that be? it must be shot,' said William, adding: 'Pray
don't let Fred and me go upstairs with the misses, father. We can load a
gun, and take aim now as well as we shall do at five-and-twenty.'

'Pray let us go, father,' said Frederick; 'it would be such a thing for
me to say in India that I had shot a tiger in England.'

'But,' said Mr. Stanhope, 'do you not think it would be better if the
poor creature's life could be preserved? Its death must be a great loss
to its owner, and life is, no doubt, happiness to the creature itself.
Why terminate the existence of any animal by which we are not annoyed,
and which is not necessary to our subsistence? We certainly have no
right to do so.'

'Then you would not even kill a moth, Mr. Stanhope?' said Julia.

'No, that he would not, I dare say,' said Agnes; 'dear little
silver-wings. Mr. Stanhope knows that clippings of Russia leather and
cedar-shavings will keep the little creatures off our shawls and muffs,
and why should not the pretty things live and be happy?'

'Are you the patroness of the spiders too, little girl?' said William.

'I would put one out of my room,' said Agnes, 'if I found one there, but
certainly I would not kill it, for you know it does me no harm, and
surely it was intended that spiders should have some place to live in,
or they would not have been made.'

'You are a very considerate miss,' said William; 'but, at all events, we
cannot afford any free place for tigers in this country. So come, dear
father, let us have guns, and go with you and Mr. Stanhope, for I am
sure neither of you i