lowers," I added,
kindly.

But this did not meet my cousin's views.

"I think I'll make a nosegay for uncle," he said, presently; "I suppose
I may--eh, Willie?"

I felt sure there could be no objection, and signified my opinion from
the very centre of a geranium bed, in which I was making active
researches, that would have turned the gardener's hair gray with
consternation had he not been safely off the premises at the time,
comfortably engaged in discussing his breakfast. And Aleck set to work,
and soon gathered a nosegay that almost, if not quite, equalled my own.

Which of our young readers who knows the delight of being let loose on
some fine morning in a garden, with full permission to pluck flowers at
their own sweet will, knows when to stop? We certainly did not, and
should have produced bouquets, at all events, quite unrivalled for size,
had it not been for the sounding of the first gong, and the appearance
on the lawn of Nurse herself, still so called, although I was no longer
her subject, in virtue of her unlimited right of jurisdiction over our
clothes.

"A fine sight you're making of yourselves, young gentlemen," she said,
beginning with general statements, and then descending into details. "I
should like to know what you call that style of hair-dressing which
means that every hair stands straight out in any direction but the right
one, and no two of them the same. And, Master Willie, if you think you
can go down into the dining-room with your tunic in its present
condition, not to mention your boots, or Master Gordon's jacket, you're
greatly mistaken. And then to look at your collars! No wonder that the
bills are as they are, with respect to French polish and blue for clear
starching; I know that boys, be they young gentlemen or others, cannot
be expected to act like creatures endowed with reason, but still it
passes me to understand their ways with respect to clothes well fitted
too, and made in the most approved fashion."

"I think _we_ should be black and blue if nurse were not really very
good-natured, though she talks like that," I whispered to Aleck; feeling
too much the cause she had for strictures upon my personal appearance at
the time, to take that opportunity of defending the general character of
boyhood. So we surrendered at discretion, and went up-stairs to make
ourselves tidy, receiving before the second gong visits of inspection
from nurse, who had in the meantime tied up our nosegays