ait until one of you
expressed a desire to learn. I brought out three light rook-shooting
rifles, on purpose, for you and your mamma, and you can begin to-morrow
morning if you like.'

'Oh, thank you, papa, thank you very, very much; that will be nice!'
both the girls exclaimed, clapping their hands in their excitement.

'And what do you say, mamma?' Mr. Hardy asked.

'No, thank you,' Mrs. Hardy said; 'I have plenty to do, and, with a
husband and two sons and two daughters to defend me, I do not consider
that it is essential. But I think that it will be a nice amusement for
the girls.'

And so next morning, and nearly every morning afterwards, the girls
practised with the light rifle at a mark, until in time their hands
became so steady, that at short distances of sixty or seventy yards they
could beat their brothers, who were both really good shots. This was
principally owing to the fact that the charge of powder used in these
rifles was so small, that there was scarcely any recoil to disturb the
aim. It was some time before they could manage to hit anything flying;
but they were very proud one evening when, having been out late with the
boys, a fat goose came along overhead, and the girls firing
simultaneously, he fell with both bullets in his body. After this, they,
too, carried their rifles out with them during their rides.

Any one who had known Maud and Ethel Hardy at home, would have scarcely
recognised them now in the sunburnt-looking lassies, who sat upon their
horses as if they had never known any other seat in their lives. Their
dress, too, would have been most curious to English eyes. They wore wide
straw hats, with a white scarf wound round the top to keep off the heat.
Their dresses were very short, and made of brown holland, with a
garibaldi of blue-coloured flannel. They wore red flannel
knickerbockers, and gaiters coming up above the knee, of a very soft,
flexible leather, made of deers' skin. These gaiters were an absolute
necessity, for the place literally swarmed with snakes, and they
constantly found them in the garden when going out to gather vegetables.
Most of these snakes were harmless; but as some of them were very
deadly, the protection of the gaiters was quite necessary. The girls did
not like them at first, especially as their brothers could not help
joking them a little, and Hubert said that they reminded him of two
yellow-legged partridges. However, they soon became accustomed to them