en unusually tiresome lately;
therefore: you are all--"

"To be taken away and hanged by the neck until we are dead!"

"Be quiet, Judy. I have tried my best to beg you off, but it
only makes him more vexed. He says you are the untidiest, most
unruly lot of children in Sydney, and he will punish you each time
you do anything, and--"

"There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

"Oh, shut up, Judy! Can't you let us hear?" Pip put his hand
over her mouth and held her by the hair while Esther told the
news.

"None of you are to go to the pantomime. The seats were taken for
Thursday night, and now, you very foolish children, you will all
have to stay at home."

There was a perfect howl of dismay for a minute or two. They had
all been looking forward to this treat for nearly a month, and the
disappointment was a really bitter one to them all.

"Oh, I say, Esther, that's too bad, really! All the fellows at
school have been." Pip's handsome face flushed angrily. "And for
such a little thing, too!"

"Just because you had roast fowl for dinner," said Judy, in a
half-choked voice. "Oh, Esther, why couldn't you have had cow,
or horse, or hippopotamus--anything but roast fowl?"

"Couldn't you get round him, Esther?" Meg looked anxiously at
her.

"Dear Esther, do!"

"Oh, you sweet, beautiful Essie, do try!"

They clung round her eagerly. Baby flung her arms round her neck
and nearly choked her; Nell stroked her cheek; Pip patted her
back, and besought her to "be a good fellow"; Bunty buried his
nose in her back hair and wept a silent tear; Meg clasped her hand
in an access of unhappiness; the General gave a series of delighted
squeaks; and Judy in her wretchedness smacked him for his pains.

Esther would do her best, beg as she had never done before, coax,
beseech, wheedle, threaten; and they let her go at last with that
assurance.

"Only I'd advise you all to be preternaturally good and quiet
all day," she said, looking back from the doorway. "That would
have most effect with him, and he is going to be at home all day."

GOOD! It was absolutely painful to witness the virtue of those
children for the rest of the day.

It was holiday-time, and Miss Marsh was away, but not once did
the sound of quarrelling, or laughing, or crying fly down
to the lower regions.

"'Citizens of Rome, the eyes of the world are upon you!'"
Judy had said solemnly, and all had promised so to conduct
themselves that