ng! What I have read and heard of, but I always thought
it something too great and too happy for me ever to do."

"I hope you will be able to succeed in it," said her mamma. "What a
treat it will be to see your work on Sunday."

"And you are to help, too, Fred; you and Alexander are to come and reach
the high places for us. But do tell us your adventures."

Fred had been all over the farm; had been introduced to the whole
live stock, including ferrets and the tame hedge-hog; visited the
plantations, and assisted at the killing of a stoat; cut his name out on
the bark of the old pollard; and, in short, had been supremely happy.
He "was just going to see Dumpling and Vixen's puppies at Sutton Leigh,
when--"

"When I caught you, my poor boy," said his mamma; "and very cruel it
was, I allow, but I thought you might have gone out again."

"I had no other thick shoes upstairs; but really, mamma, no one thinks
of minding those things."

"You should have seen him, Henrietta," said his mother; "his shoes
looked as if he had been walking through a river."

"Well, but so were all the others," said Fred.

"Very likely, but they are more used to it; and, besides, they are such
sturdy fellows. I should as soon think of a deal board catching cold.
But you--if there is as much substance in you, it is all height; and you
know, Fred, you would find it considerably more tiresome to be laid up
with a bad cold."

"I never catch cold," said Fred.

"Boys always say so," said Mrs. Frederick Langford; "it is a--what shall
I call it?--a puerile delusion, which their mammas can always defeat
when they choose by a formidable list of colds and coughs; but I won't
put you in mind of how often you have sat with your feet on the fender
croaking like an old raven, and solacing yourself with stick-liquorice
and Ivanhoe."

"You had better allow him to proceed in his pursuit of a cold, mamma,"
said Henrietta, "just to see how grandmamma will nurse it."

A knock at the door here put an end to the conversation, by announcing
the arrival of Bennet, Mrs. Frederick Langford's maid; who had come in
such good time that Henrietta was, for once in her life, full dressed
a whole quarter of an hour before dinner time. Nor was her involuntary
punctuality without a reward, for the interval of waiting for dinner,
sitting round the fire, was particularly enjoyed by Mr. and Mrs.
Langford; and Uncle Geoffrey, therefore, always contrived to make it a
leisure