stay there till to-morrow morning."

"Oh! not without his supper," entreated Salome. "You--you won't improve
the child's morals by injuring his stomach, Judith."

"Without his supper, I say," repeated Judith inexorably. "Lionel
Hezekiah, go up-stairs to the south room, and go to bed at once."

Lionel Hezekiah went up-stairs, and went to bed at once. He was never
sulky or disobedient. Salome listened to him as he stumped patiently
up-stairs with a sob at every step, and her own eyes filled with tears.

"Now don't for pity's sake go crying, Salome," said Judith irritably. "I
think I've let him off very easily. He is enough to try the patience of
a saint, and I never was that," she added with entire truth.

"But he isn't bad," pleaded Salome. "You know he never does anything the
second time after he has been told it was wrong, never."

"What good does that do when he is certain to do something new and twice
as bad? I never saw anything like him for originating ideas of mischief.
Just look at what he has done in the past fortnight--in one fortnight,
Salome. He brought in a live snake, and nearly frightened you into fits;
he drank up a bottle of liniment, and almost poisoned himself; he took
three toads to bed with him; he climbed into the henhouse loft, and fell
through on a hen and killed her; he painted his face all over with your
water-colours; and now comes THIS exploit. And eggs at twenty-eight
cents a dozen! I tell you, Salome, Lionel Hezekiah is an expensive
luxury."

"But we couldn't do without him," protested Salome.

"_I_ could. But as you can't, or think you can't, we'll have to keep
him, I suppose. But the only way to secure any peace of mind for
ourselves, as far as I can see, is to tether him in the yard, and hire
somebody to watch him."

"There must be some way of managing him," said Salome desperately. She
thought Judith was in earnest about the tethering. Judith was generally
so terribly in earnest in all she said. "Perhaps it is because he has
no other employment that he invents so many unheard-of things. If he had
anything to occupy himself with--perhaps if we sent him to school--"

"He's too young to go to school. Father always said that no child should
go to school until it was seven, and I don't mean Lionel Hezekiah shall.
Well, I'm going to take a pail of hot water and a brush, and see what I
can do to that henhouse door. I've got my afternoon's work cut out for
me."

Judith stood Salome