reath and sat down. He had a box
under his arm. It was flat and wide, a pasteboard box, and when he put
it down all the family dropped their books and looked at it attentively.
They were a very literary family and read so much that it was a great
compliment to any box to have them put down their books when they had
once taken them up.

"You haven't opened it yet?" asked the Mother.

"No," said the Boy scornfully; all the family had long ago agreed he had
a high caste of countenance which this manner suited remarkably
well--but he was not in the least conscious of it himself. "No, what's
the hurry? plenty of time to look in it when I get home."

"It's a suit, a suit of clothes," calmly said the Sister, picking up her
book again. Every one stared at the Sister who could see through a
pasteboard box. "Somebody has made a hole in the bottom of the box and I
see a button, a brass button," she explained.

True; there was a hole in the bottom of the box.

"He said, if I put the contents of this box to their proper use," said
the Boy, "every day as long as they would bear it, I would not only
learn something, but I should be his heir; so I might as well open the
lid and see what is inside. I thought books, for Uncle knows I always
put books to their proper use."

"Of course," said the Father; "it is books, no doubt."

"But," said the Sister, turning a page and reading all the time, "nobody
puts brass buttons on books."

"I think you might as well open the box," said the Mother, "I think we
are all curious"--

"Curious!" exclaimed the family indignantly.

"Curious-_ly_ affected by your Uncle's making such a strange and
trifling condition after our Boy's visit to him," went on the Mother.
"But he is certainly very odd--I should really like to know why?"

"Don't take time to untie the knot," said the Father.

"Here's my knife," said the Elder Brother.

The Boy cut the string, the Sharp-eyed Sister looked over the top of her
book, the Father put on his glasses, and the lid was lifted. Yes, it was
a suit. A blue cloth suit, quite bright in color but of very fine
material and good make. It consisted of a pair of knickerbockers and a
tight jacket, and it was most extraordinary how the tailor had ever been
able to put on so many buttons. The jacket was double-breasted and there
were three rows down the front, a dozen in each, the size of a copper
penny. There were some fancy slits in the back; buttons to the number of
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