ll the
boys _must_ keep guinea-pigs; and he wrote Bobbie a letter last term
with a picture of a guinea-pig on the flap of the envelope, and 'Where
is it?' written where the tail ought to be. Ever since then Bobbie has
been _mad_ after guinea-pigs."

"Yes, I can remember Master Jack a-walking in here with ten of 'em,"
said Jeptha, "and keepin' 'em in the lumber room in houses made out of
cigar-boxes."

"Oh, but Aunt Lucy found it out, and wouldn't allow it," said Jerry.
"They all had to be taken out to the stable yard again."

"I must own I think on _that_ occasion yer Aunt was reasonable, Miss
Jerry; a guinea-pig don't seem a kind of a domestic indoor
animal--like a cat, for instance."

"Will you have mufflings and crumfits for tea, do you think, when we
come?" enquired Bobbie, after a thoughtful pause. "Excuse me asking
you, but I do like them so very much."

"Oh, Bobbie, you shouldn't say that!" cried Jerry, reprovingly; "it's
very impolite. Aunt Lucy would be quite _horrified_!"

"Well, I don't _mean_ anything rude," said Bobbie. "I _do_ like them,
and I can't help it. I can't see why it's any more rude than if I said
I liked guinea-pigs."

CHAPTER II.

The next day was a very wet one; and Aunt Lucy, coming up into the
schoolroom in the morning--as she invariably did, even during the
holidays--saw a most extraordinary collection of baskets standing on
the floor, in front of a small fire of sticks blazing away in the
fireplace.

There was a large covered market basket, a fish bag with a skewer
through the top, and a small japanese basket, with a lid which was
kept in place by the poker and tongs laid carefully over it.

The baskets were all occasionally agitated from within; and Aunt Lucy
found on enquiry that they contained the guinea-pig family, who having
been flooded out of their usual quarters by the rain, had been brought
in to a fire by Bobbie to be dried!

"I really object to these animals in the house!" said Aunt Lucy,
trying to be severe; but Bobbie's face was so pathetic, she did not
order them to be taken out at once, as she had at first intended.

"As soon as they are dry you must move them away, Bobbie," she
continued; "I have had quite enough trouble with Jack's. I can't have
the house turned into a menagerie."

"Really, Aunt Lucy, you needn't mind Habbakuk and Funnel--they are so
very well behaved. I _have_ been debillerating whether I ought to
bring in Pompey, because his hair _str