fever. Poor old Ward, I never was
more shocked; what is become of the young ones?'

'Oh! you must ask Mary, Miss Ward is a bosom friend of hers.'

'What! the girl that sang like the lark? I must hear her again. But
she won't be in tune for singing now, poor thing! What are they doing?
Henry Ward taken to the practice? He used to be the dirtiest little
sneak going, but I hope he is mended now.'

'Ask my father,' said mischievous Tom; and Dr. May answered not, nor
revealed his day's annoyance with Henry.

'He is doing his best to make a home for his brother and sisters,' said
Richard.

'My letter,' said Tom, 'was written in Whitsun week; I wish you had had
it.'

'Ay, it would have been precious from its rarity,' said Harry. 'What
commission did it contain, may I ask?'

'You have not by good luck brought me home a Chinese flea?'

'He has all the fleas in creation,' said Daisy confidentially, 'cats'
and dogs', and hedgehogs', and human; and you would have been twice as
welcome if you had brought one.'

'I've brought no present to nobody. I'd got my eye on a splendid ivory
junk, for Blanche's wedding present, at Canton, but I couldn't even
speak to send any one after it. You have uncommon bad luck for a
sailor's relatives.'

'As long as you bring yourself home we don't care,' said Blanche,
treating the loss of the junk with far more resignation than did Tom
that of the flea.

'If you only had a morsel of river mud sticking anywhere,' added Tom,
'you don't know the value the infusoria might be.'

'I had a good deal more than a morsel sticking to me once,' said Harry;
'it was owing to my boat's crew that I am not ever so many feet deep in
it now, like many better men. They never lost sight of me, and somehow
hauled me out.'

Gertrude gave him a hug, and Mary's eyes got so misty, that her skein
fell into worse entanglements than ever.

'Were you conscious?' asked Ethel.

'I can't say. I'm clear of nothing but choking and gasping then, and a
good while after. It was a treacherous, unlucky affair, and I'm afraid
I shall miss the licking of rascally John Chinaman. If all I heard at
Plymouth is true, we may have work handy to home.'

'At home you may say,' said his father, 'Dulce et, &c. is our motto.
Didn't you know what a nest of heroes we have here to receive you? Let
me introduce you to Captain Ernescliffe, of the Dorset Volunteer Rifle
Corps; Private Thomas May, of the Cambridge University Cor