on chatty
terms before we reached the house.

"There are papa and mamma!" I exclaimed, as we came in sight of the
entrance. They had heard the carriage, and were at the door to welcome
their guests.

"See, I have brought you two boys instead of one," said my uncle,
lifting me out first, and then proceeding to help out my aunt, as if she
were a delicate piece of china, and "With care" labelled outside her.

When the greetings were over, my mother declared a rest on the sofa in
her room and a cup of tea indispensable for my aunt's refreshment. My
uncle took my father's arm and disappeared into the study; and we two
boys were left to take care of each other until dinner-time.

I proposed going round the garden, and Frisk being of the party,
proceeded to show off his accomplishments. This led to an animated
description of my cousin's dog, Caesar, and a comparison of the ways and
habits of Caesar the Big with those of Frisk the Little, on the strength
of which we became very intimate.

Afterwards we returned to the house, and having shown Aleck his room, I
took him into mine, where we were found seated on the floor surrounded
by "my things," which I had been exhibiting in detail to my cousin, when
nurse came, a little before six o'clock, to see that we were ready for
dinner.

"Aleck, tell me one thing," I had just said to my cousin; "are they
really your knees or leather?"

Aleck stared, "Leather! why, of course not; what made you think such an
odd question?"

"I didn't think they _could_ be leather after the first minute," I
replied, doubtfully; "but I couldn't know--"

CHAPTER III.

A WHOLE HOLIDAY.

To what boy or girl does not the promise of a whole holiday convey a
sort of Fortunatus' purse of anticipated enjoyment! I used to wonder--I
remember wondering that very day after Aleck's arrival, when I had the
most enjoyable whole holiday I ever spent--why grown-up people who
always had them should seem so indifferent to their privileges, writing
it down upon the secret tablets of my resolve, that when _I_ grew up
things should be very different with me.

My cousin and I sat side by side at the breakfast-table in a vehement
impulse of boyish affection, so completely taken up with each other that
I for one never remember noticing any one else during the progress of
the meal, except when once I caught a wistful look from my aunt, and
heard her saying, in a rather sorrowful low voice, to my mother,--