inside here; that's all! I'll have no grasping tyrants
sittin' 'round on my cracker-barrels!"

And he was so proud of the sentiment that he looked around proudly and
mopped his forehead.

"Perhaps they wouldn't be earls if they knew any better," said Cedric,
feeling some vague sympathy for their unhappy condition.

"Wouldn't they!" said Mr. Hobbs. "They just glory in it! It's in 'em.
They're a bad lot."

They were in the midst of their conversation, when Mary appeared.

Cedric thought she had come to buy some sugar, perhaps, but she had not.
She looked almost pale and as if she were excited about something.

"Come home, darlint," she said; "the misthress is wantin' yez."

Cedric slipped down from his stool.

"Does she want me to go out with her, Mary?" he asked. "Good-morning,
Mr. Hobbs. I'll see you again."

He was surprised to see Mary staring at him in a dumfounded fashion, and
he wondered why she kept shaking her head.

"What's the matter, Mary?" he said. "Is it the hot weather?"

"No," said Mary; "but there's strange things happenin' to us."

"Has the sun given Dearest a headache?" he inquired anxiously.

But it was not that. When he reached his own house there was a coupe
standing before the door and some one was in the little parlor talking
to his mamma. Mary hurried him upstairs and put on his best summer
suit of cream-colored flannel, with the red scarf around his waist, and
combed out his curly locks.

"Lords, is it?" he heard her say. "An' the nobility an' gintry. Och! bad
cess to them! Lords, indade--worse luck."

It was really very puzzling, but he felt sure his mamma would tell him
what all the excitement meant, so he allowed Mary to bemoan herself
without asking many questions. When he was dressed, he ran downstairs
and went into the parlor. A tall, thin old gentleman with a sharp face
was sitting in an arm-chair. His mother was standing near by with a pale
face, and he saw that there were tears in her eyes.

"Oh! Ceddie!" she cried out, and ran to her little boy and caught him
in her arms and kissed him in a frightened, troubled way. "Oh! Ceddie,
darling!"

The tall old gentleman rose from his chair and looked at Cedric with his
sharp eyes. He rubbed his thin chin with his bony hand as he looked.

He seemed not at all displeased.

"And so," he said at last, slowly,--"and so this is little Lord
Fauntleroy."

II

There was never a more amazed little boy than Cedric during th