t aware whether he slept or no, but suddenly sunlight was in
the room, the bath-water was running, the canary was singing and Hamlet
was scratching upon his door. He jumped out of bed and let the dog in.
Then he heard Rose's voice from the next room:

"... and 'e's taken everything, 'e 'as. All the silver candlesticks and
the plate what was give to master by the Temp'rance Society, and Master
Jeremy's mug what he 'ad at 'is christening and all the knives and
forks--'e 'as--and the gold clock out o' the drorin'-room, and the mess!
Why, I says to Cook 'e couldn't 'ave made more mess, I say, not if 'e'd
come to do nothin' else. Grease everywhere, you never see nothin' like
it, and all the drawers open and the papers scattered about. Thank
'Eaven 'e never found Cook's earrings. Real gold they was, ever so many
carat and give to Cook ever so many years ago by 'er John. Poor woman!
She'd 'ave been in a terrible takin' if she'd lost 'em... And so quiet
too--not a sound and everyone sleepin' all round 'im. Wonderful 'ow
they does it! I thank the Lord I didn't 'ear 'im; I'd 'ave died of
fright-shouldn't like! Why, Cook says she knew a 'ouse once..."

But Jeremy did not listen, he did not care. As Hamlet sprang about him
and licked his hand he thought of one thing alone.

The Captain was gone! The Captain was gone! He was free! The Captain had
not taken him, and he was free at last!

CHAPTER VI. FAMILY PRIDE

I

I am afraid that too great a part of this book is about old maids, but
it is hard for anyone who knows only the thriving bustling world of
today to realise how largely we children were hemmed in and surrounded
by a proper phalanx of elderly single ladies and clergymen. I don't
believe that we were any the worse for that, and to such heroines as
Miss Jane Maple, Miss Mary Trefusis and old Miss Jessamin Trenchard, I
here publicly acknowledge deep and lasting debt-but it did make our life
a little monotonous, a little unadventurous, a little circumscribed
-and because T am determined to give the whole truth and nothing but the
truth about the year of Jeremy's life that I am describing, this
book will also, I am afraid, be a little circumscribed, a little
unadventurous.

The elderly lady who most thoroughly circumscribed Jeremy was, of
course--putting Miss Jones, who was a governess and therefore did not
count, aside--Aunt Amy.

Now Aunt Amy was probably the most conceited woman in Polchester. There
is of