moving round the house with the sun, so as to be always in
the shade.

The drawing and dining rooms both opened into this veranda The road
came up to the back of the house; and upon the other three sides
was a garden, which was a compromise between the English and French
styles. It had a smooth, well-mown lawn, with a few patches of
bright flowers which were quite English; and mixed up among them,
and beyond them, were clumps of the graceful foliaged plants and
shrubs in which the French delight. Beyond was a vineyard, with its
low rows of vines while, over these, the view stretched away to the
towers of Dijon.

In the veranda the boys, upon their return, found Captain Barclay
reading the papers, and smoking. He looked up as they entered.

"You are back early, boys."

"Yes, papa, there was so much talking going on, that the professor
gave it up as hopeless. You have heard the news, of course?"

"Yes, boys, and am very sorry to hear it."

Captain Barclay spoke so gravely that Ralph asked, anxiously:

"Don't you think we shall thrash them, papa?"

"I consider it very doubtful, Ralph," his father said. "Prussia has
already gained an immense moral victory. She has chosen her own
time for war; and has, at the same time, obliged France to take the
initiative, and so to appear to be the aggressor--and therefore to
lose the moral support of Europe. She has forced this quarrel upon
France, and yet nine-tenths of Europe look upon France as the
inciter of the war. History will show the truth, but it will then
be too late. As it is, France enters upon the war with the weight
of public opinion dead against her and, what is worse, she enters
upon it altogether unprepared; whereas Prussia has been getting
ready, for years."

"But the French always have shown themselves to be better soldiers
than the Prussians, papa."

"So they have, Percy, and--equally well led, disciplined, and
organized--I believe that, in anything like equal forces, they
would do so again. The question is, have we generals to equal those
who led the Prussians to victory against Austria? Is our discipline
equal--or anything like equal--to that of the Prussians? Is our
organization as good as theirs? And lastly, have we anything like
their numbers?

"I don't like the look of it, boys, at all. We ought, according to
published accounts, to be able to put a larger army than theirs in
the field, just at first and, if we were but prepared, should
certainl