riskly on the shady road,
where the sunlight was falling softly; for Arthur meant never to cry,
unless he could not possibly help it, and certainly not out of doors. He
wandered over a good distance--for it was pleasant exploring in the new
country--until he suddenly remembered his aunt at home, and that she would
be thinking he had lost his way. "And I must not begin by frightening
her," said Arthur to himself.

Up till this time Arthur's first day had passed more brightly than he had
expected. It would be hard for him to be very unhappy on that spring day,
with everything rejoicing around him, and the free country breathing in
soft breezes. But it was different when he came in. The house seemed very
dark and gloomy after the cheerful sunlight, and it seemed to him as if
there was no sound of any sort indoors, except now and then a faint noise
from the servants' regions far away; for even the canary-birds were
silent, and the fat dog was sleeping its life away upon the hearth-rug.
Indeed, Arthur thought he could almost imagine, that the hairy creature
and the soft hearth-rug were one and the same. There seemed to be nothing
at all to do within doors, and he could not be out always. Besides, the
bright morning was fast changing, and grey, gloomy clouds were gathering
over the country. The myrtle trees were beginning to shake with a rainy
wind, and he could see that the fine weather was gone for that day.

Altogether, Arthur felt very dismal as he stood at the drawing-room
window, near to where his aunt was sitting at her writing-table.

"Have you had a nice walk?" she asked presently.

"Yes, aunt," said Arthur, tapping very forcibly on the window.

"And what did you see?"

"Oh, nothing particular!" said Arthur.

Mrs. Estcourt saw that she must try some other subject to talk about.

"Have you anything you would like to do, dear, until dinner-time?"

"No, I don't think so, aunt."

"What do you generally do at home when you are not walking?"

"I don't know, really aunt," Arthur answered. "I suppose I do lessons."

"Oh, but I don't want you to begin lessons just yet. Well, then, what do
you do when it is neither lessons nor walking?"

"Sometimes I go for messages, and sometimes I make things with my tools."

"Make things! How do you mean, dear?"

"Oh, I make boats and things! and I used to make wedges for a window in
mamma's room that rattled with the wind. Have you any windows that don't
shut quite tightly,