tisfy
nurse. And you will never dare your sisters to do foolhardy exploits
again, will you, my boy? And you will never listen to him if he does,
girls? Now my lecture is ended, and you can tell nurse to forgive you
all. Where is Mrs. Giles? I wonder if she could put up my friend for
a night or two.'

Captain Stuart put Betty down from his knee, and rose to his feet. He
so seldom lectured the children that his words left a deep impression,
and none of them ever forgot the lesson imprinted on their minds. They
were rather subdued for the rest of the day, and not altogether pleased
at the advent of Major St. Clair.

'We shan't get Uncle Harry a bit to ourselves,' grumbled Douglas, as
the children were playing in the garden whilst the gentlemen were at
dinner; 'he'll be going out fishing with that other fellow every day,
and he's going to stay the whole week with him.'

'I like him rather,' said Molly; 'he is something like Mr. Roper.'

'He has nice sad eyes,' put in Betty; 'and he likes Prince.'

But before long Major St. Clair was taken into favour. He was a tall,
dark man, with rather a stern look, until he smiled; and then the
children knew they need not be afraid, for he had more smiles than
frowns for them during his stay. Douglas, to his great delight, was
allowed to go fishing with them.

'You see,' he confided to his sisters, 'they couldn't get on very well
without me, as I'm learning to put their bait on for them, and I help
to unpack their luncheon-basket, and very often I lie down on the bank
and tell them stories; they like that very much.'

One afternoon they were all in the orchard under some shady trees: the
gentlemen were smoking and reading the papers, the children playing a
little way off. Presently Betty came sauntering up to her uncle,
Prince close at her heels.

'We're going for a walk,' she said; 'I s'pose you wouldn't like to come
with us?'

None of the little Stuarts ever did anything without first inviting
their uncle to participate in it.

'No, I wouldn't,' he said, leaning lazily back in his wicker chair and
surveying the little figure before him with amused eyes. 'Where are
you bound? Your independence of thought and action will be sadly
crippled when you get back to town. Does nurse let you all scour the
country at your own free will?'

'What does scour mean?' asked Betty with knitted brows. 'Does it mean
scrub? for I'm sure the country doesn't want cleaning.' Then,