ewer.

About half-an-hour after the curfew bell had rung the cab came. The dogs
were not shut up this time, and they, and we, and the Arkwrights met in
a very confused and noisy greeting.

"GOD bless you, my dear!" I heard Mr. Arkwright say very affectionately,
and he added almost in the same breath, "Do call off the dogs, my dear,
or else take your mother's beasts."

I suppose Eleanor chose the latter alternative, for she did not call off
the dogs, but she took away two or three tin cans with which Mr.
Arkwright was laden, and which had made him look like a particularly
respectable milkman.

"What are they?" she asked.

"Crassys," said Mrs. Arkwright, with apparent triumph in her tone, "and
Serpulae, and two Chitons, and several other things."

I thought of Uncle Buller's "collection," and was about to ask if the
new "beasts" were insects, when Eleanor, after a doubtful glance into
the cans, said, "Have you brought any fresh water?"

Mrs. Arkwright pointed triumphantly to a big stone-bottle cased in
wickerwork, under which the cabman was staggering towards the door. It
looked like spirits or vinegar, but was, as I discovered, seawater for
the aquarium. With this I had already made acquaintance, having helped
Eleanor to wipe the mouths of certain spotted sea anemones with a
camel's-hair brush every day since my arrival.

"The Crassys are much more beautiful," she assured me, as we helped Mrs.
Arkwright to find places for the new-comers. "We call them Crassys
because their name is Crassicornis. I don't believe they'll live,
though, they are so delicate."

"I rather think it may be because being so big they get hurt in being
taken off the rocks," said Mrs. Arkwright, "and we were very careful
with these."

"I'm _afraid_ the Serpulae won't live!" said Eleanor, gazing anxiously
with puckered brows into the glass tank.

Mrs. Arkwright was about to reply, when the dogs burst into the room,
and, after nearly upsetting both us and the aquarium, bounded out again.

"Dear boys!" cried Eleanor. And "Dear boys!" murmured Mrs. Arkwright
from behind the magnifying glass, through which she was examining the
"beasts."

"I wonder what they're running in and out for?" said I.

The reason proved to be that supper was ready, and the dogs wanted us to
come into the dining-room. Mr. Arkwright announced it in more sedate
fashion, and took me with him, leaving Eleanor and her mother to follow
us.

"In three days more," said