can put up with me. And after
that we will hold a reception for grown-ups only."

"I shall like that," said Tessa graciously. "Ah, here is Peter! Peter,
will you please bring a box for Scooter while I have my dinner? He wants
to go snake-hunting," she added to Bernard. "And if he does that, I
shan't have him again for the rest of the evening."

"You don't get snakes this time of year, do you?" asked Bernard.

"Oh yes, sometimes. I saw one the other day when I was out with Major
Ralston. He tried to kill it with his stick, but it got away. And
Scooter wasn't there. They like to hide under bits of carpet like this,"
said Tessa in an instructive tone, pointing to the strip that had been
laid in her honour. "Are you afraid of snakes, Uncle St. Bernard?"

"Yes," said Bernard with simplicity. "Aren't you?"

Tessa looked slightly surprised at the admission. "I don't know. I
expect I am. Peter isn't. Peter's very brave."

"He has been more or less brought up with them," said Bernard.
"Scorpions too. He smiled the other day when I fled from a scorpion in
the garden. And I believe he has a positively fatherly feeling for
rats."

Tessa shivered a little. "Scooter killed a rat the other day, and it
squealed dreadfully. I don't think he ought to do things like that, but
of course he doesn't know any better."

"He looks as if he knows a lot," said Bernard.

"Yes, I wish he would learn to talk. He's awful clever. Do you think we
could ever teach him?" asked Tessa.

Bernard shook his head. "No. It would take a magician to do that. We are
not clever enough, either of us. Peter now--"

"Oh, is Peter a magician?" said Tessa, with shining eyes. "Peter, dear
Peter," turning to him ecstatically as he appeared with a box in which
to imprison her darling, "do you think you could possibly teach my
little Scooter to talk?"

Peter smiled all over his bronze countenance. "Missy _sahib_, only the
Holy Ones can do that," he said.

Tessa's face fell. "That's as bad as telling you to pray for anything,
isn't it?" she said to Bernard. "And my prayers never come true. Do
yours?"

"They always get answered," said Bernard, "some time or other."

"Oh, do they?" Tessa regarded him with interest. "Does God come and talk
to you then?" she said.

He smiled a little. "He speaks to all who wait to hear, my princess," he
said.

"Only to grown-ups," said Tessa, looking incredulous.

Bernard put his arm round her. "No," he said. "It's the chi