LITMIR.BIZ

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evening, the children were in such a hurry to get down again to the delectable anecdotes.

      But Sir Everard took alarm at Miles's flushed cheeks and bright eyes, and would allow no more exciting stories so close upon bed-time.

      "Will you finish about the crocodile to-morrow?" asked Humphrey, creeping up his uncle's leg, as he came to wish him good-night.

      "To-morrow I go, my boy," he answered.

      "Going to-morrow!" said Humphrey. "What a very short visit!"

      "What a very short visit!" echoed Miles, who always thought it incumbent on him to say the same thing as his brother.

      "I will pay you a longer visit next time," said Uncle Charlie, as he kissed the two little faces.

      "But when will next time be?" persisted Humphrey.

      "Yes! when will next time be?" repeated Miles.

      "Ah! when indeed?" said Uncle Charlie.

      CHAPTER III

      "I have got so many plans in my head, that I think I shall burst," said Humphrey to Miles the next morning, as they stood on the door-steps, watching the dog-cart vanishing in the distance, on its way to the station, with their father and uncle. "Some of the things Uncle Charlie was telling us about would be quite easy for us to do. You wouldn't be afraid, I suppose, to climb up the big tree overhanging the pond where the water-lilies are?"

      "No," said Miles, rather doubtfully, "not if you went on first and gave me your hand: but that tree is a long way off—wouldn't one of the trees in the orchard do?"

      "Oh, no! it wouldn't be half the fun. Don't you remember the man in the story crawled along the branch that stretched over the water? Well, this tree has a branch hanging right over the pond; and I want to crawl along it, like he did."

      "Hadn't we better ask Virginie if we may go all that way alone?" suggested Miles, in the vain hope of putting off the evil moment.

      Humphrey, however, did not see the force of this argument, and so they started off.

      It was a very hot day, and after they had got out of the farm-yard there was no shade at all.

      Humphrey skipped through the meadows and over the gates, and Miles followed him as quickly as he could, but the sun was very hot on his head, and he soon got wearied and fell back.

      Humphrey did not perceive how languidly his little brother was following him, till a faint cry from behind reached him.

      "Humphie, please stop; I can't keep up to you."

      Instantly he ran back.

      "I'm so tired, Humphie, and so hot, shall we go home?"

      "Go home! why we are close to the pond now. Look, Miles, it is only across that meadow, and the corn-field beyond."

      Miles followed the direction of his brother's finger, and his eye rested ruefully on the expanse lying before him, where the sun was scorching up everything.

      "I'll try, Humphie," he said, resignedly.

      "I tell you what!" exclaimed Humphrey, "I'll carry you!"

      Miles felt a little nervous at the prospect, but he did not like to object.

      "Just get over the gate," continued Humphrey, "and then I'll carry you across the field, and we'll soon be by the pond, where it will be as cool as possible."

      Over the gate they scrambled, and then the elder boy disposed himself to take his little brother in his arms. How shall I describe the intense discomfort of the circumstances under which Miles now found himself!

      One of Humphrey's arms was so tightly round his neck, that he almost felt as if he were choking, and the hand of the other grasped one of his legs with a gripe which amounted almost to pain; and still there was a feeling of insecurity about his position which, already very strong while Humphrey was standing still, did not diminish when he began to move.

      Humphrey started with a run, but his speed soon slackened, and grave doubts began to arise even in his own mind as to the accomplishment of the task he had undertaken.

      However, he staggered on. But when presently his long-suffering load began to show signs of slipping, Humphrey tightened his grasp to such a degree, that Miles, who till now had endured in silence, could endure no longer, and he uttered a faint cry for mercy.

      At the same moment, Humphrey caught his foot in a rabbit hole, and both boys rolled over together. Peals of laughter from Humphrey followed the catastrophe, but Miles did not quite enter into the spirit of the joke. He was hot and tired, poor little fellow, and began to implore his brother to take him under the neighboring hedge to rest.

      Humphrey readily consented, and led him out of the baking sun.

      "Perhaps we had better give it up," said he, sighing, as he sat down by Miles in the shade, "and try again in the cool of the evening. You could do it, couldn't you, if it were not for the heat?"

      "Oh, yes," said Miles, eagerly. With a respite in view, he was ready to agree to anything.

      "Very well," said Humphrey, "then we'll give it up and come again this evening after tea. I declare," he added, suddenly breaking off, "there's a mushroom out there!"

      He was off in a moment, and returned in triumph. "Isn't it a lovely one, Miles? How fresh it smells and how beautiful it peels. If father were at home, we'd have had it cooked for his dinner, he is so fond of mushrooms."

      "It wouldn't keep good till Friday, I suppose, for the wild men's dinner party?" enquired Miles.

      "One would be no use," answered Humphrey, "but we might come here some morning and get a lot if we brought a basket. I'll tell you what, we'll get up quite, quite early to-morrow, and come and have a regular mushroom hunt. Won't it be fun!"

      "I'm afraid Virginie would not be awake to dress me," observed Miles.

      "Oh, never mind Virginie!" said Humphrey, "I'll dress you, Miles; I don't think Virginie would care to get up so early, and it would be a pity to wake her, poor thing! She goes to bed late, and is so tired in the morning."

      "So she is, poor thing!" said Miles.

      "And besides, you know," continued Humphrey, "she always thinks something dreadful will happen if she doesn't come with us, and it would be a pity to frighten her for nothing."

      "So it would; a great pity," repeated Miles. "But what's that noise, Humphie? Is it a cock crowing or a bull roaring?"

      Both children listened.

      There was many a sound to be heard round about on that summer morning; the buzzing of bees as they flitted about among the clover, the chirrup of the grasshoppers in the long grass, the crowing of a cock from the farm, and the lowing of cattle in the distance, but that which had attracted Miles' attention was none of all these. It was the gradually approaching sound of a female voice, which, as its owner neared the meadow, assumed to the two little listeners the familiar tones of the French language.

      "M. Humphrey! M. Miles! M. Humphrey! où êtes-vous donc?"

      "It's Virginie!" they both exclaimed, jumping up.

      Virginie it was; and great was the horror she expressed at their having strayed so far from home, at the state of heat in which she found Miles, and at his having been taken such a long walk.

      Many were the reproaches she heaped upon Humphrey as they walked back to the house for having caused her such a hunt in the heat of the sun, and her nerves such a shock as they had experienced when she had not found him and his brother in their usual haunts.

      Lastly she brought him up with the inquiry, "Et vos leçons! Savez vous qu'il est midi passé?"

      Humphrey's ideas of time were always of the vaguest order, and when anything of so exciting a nature as this morning's expedition came in the way, hours were not in his calculations.

      He did not mend matters much by saying he should have thought it had been about half-past nine.

      Virginie maintained a dignified silence after this explanation,

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