ly about anything else, Harry and Laura were sure to burst forth
again upon the subject, and even after being safely stowed in their beds
for the night, they both laughed themselves to sleep at the idea of Lord
Rockville himself having been obliged, after all, to run away from that
"most respectable, quiet, well-disposed animal,

"THE MAD BULL!"

CHAPTER VIII.

THE BROKEN KEY.

First he moved his right leg,
Then he moved his left leg,
Then he said, "I pardon beg,"
And sat upon his seat.

"Oh! uncle David! uncle David!" cried Laura, when they arrived from
Holiday House, "I would jump out of the carriage window with joy to see
you again; only the persons passing in the street might be surprised!"

"Not at all! They are quite accustomed to see people jumping out of the
windows with joy, whenever I appear."

"We have so much to tell you," exclaimed Harry and Laura, each seizing
hold of a hand, "we hardly know where to begin!"

"Ladies and gentlemen! If you both talk at once, I must get a new pair
of ears! So you have not been particularly miserable at Holiday House?"

"No! no! uncle David! we did not think there had been so much happiness
in the world," answered Laura, eagerly. "The last two days we could do
nothing but play and laugh, and"----

"And grow fat! Why! you both look so well fed, you are just fit for
killing! I shall be obliged to shut you up two or three days, without
anything to eat, as is done to pet lap-dogs, when they are getting
corpulent and gouty."

"Then we shall be like bears living on our paws," replied Harry, "and
uncle David! I would rather do that, than be a glutton like Peter Grey.
He went to a cheap shop lately, where old cheese-cakes were sold at
half-price, and greedily devoured nearly a dozen, thinking that the dead
flies scattered on the top were currants, till Frank shewed him his
mistake!"

"Frank should have let him eat in peace! There is no accounting for
tastes. I once knew a lady who liked to swallow spiders! She used to
crack and eat them with the greatest delight, whenever she could catch
one."

"Oh! what a horrid woman! That is even worse than grandmama's story
about Dr. Manvers having dined on a dish of mice, fried in crumbs of
bread!"

"You know the old proverb, Harry, 'one man's meat is another man's
poison.' The Persians are disgusted at our eating lobsters; and the
Hindoos think us scarcely fit to exist, b