in which you
retain things and then give them out again so that they seem to be
life-like and real. And so you have always had a great desire to be a
traveller?"

"Always, sir," said the doctor gravely.

"Hah! And fate has so arranged it that you were to be a student
instead, and doomed you to pass your existence drumming learning into
the brains of a couple of the stupidest, wooden-headed boys I know."

"Oh, I say, dad, only one! I am sharp enough; you said so yourself; and
poor old Dozey can't help being such a sleepy-headed fellow."

"Eh? What's that?" cried Sir James. "You will show him whether you are
sleepy-headed when you get up into your room!"

"Then he shouldn't say such things, uncle."

"Ha, ha!" laughed Sir James. "But really, my dear Robertson, you have
taken me quite by surprise. You would like to travel?"

"I must confess I should, Sir James; but pray don't give me the credit
of being discontented with my lot. The three years that I have passed
at the manor, gladdened as they have been by your consideration and
perfect trust, have been happy ones to me."

"Oh, tut, nonsense, my dear sir! When you came here I laid down the law
to myself that for the first month I would lie low, as the Yankees call
it, and see what sort of a fellow you were; and at the end of that time
I was perfectly satisfied with my good fortune in obtaining your
services. I said to myself, `The doctor's a high-class University man,
and he can turn those two boys into English gentlemen--manly gentlemen--
far better than I can. He will have a terribly hard job to lick the
young cubs and shape them properly, so don't interfere.' And I haven't,
have I, doctor? No--no, don't say anything. I know what it would be,
so hold your tongue. I will say, though, here in the darkness so as to
spare the boys, doctor, that I think it's a pity that besides the
metaphorical licking that the old bears are said to use to shape their
cubs, I did not begin by giving you the power to give them now and then
what schoolboys call `the real' licking."

"You don't, father," said Mark, laughing merrily. "You have always said
that boys can be well brought up without blows."

"Hear, hear," said the doctor softly.

"But I am afraid it was very weak of me," said Sir James. "A good
thrashing, sir, now and then, would have made you less impudent."

"You mean Dean, father," said the boy mischievously.

"No, I do not, sir."

"Hear, hear!