my leg, or a house on fire, or an apoplectic fit, or anything
of that sort, but--of things in the dark. Every half-holiday I hoped
there would be something about what to do with robbers or ghosts, but
there never was. I do not think there can have been any emergencies of
that kind in the yellow leather book.

On the whole, I fancy Rupert found us satisfactory pupils, for he
never did give up the lectures in a huff, though he sometimes
threatened to do so, when I asked stupid questions, or Henrietta
argued a point.

CHAPTER II.

HENRIETTA--A FAMILY CHRONICLE--THE SCHOOL MIMIC--MY FIRST FIGHT.

Henrietta often argued points, which made Rupert very angry. He said
that even if she were in the right, that had nothing to do with it,
for girls oughtn't to dispute or discuss. And then Henrietta argued
that point too.

Rupert and Henrietta often squabbled, and always about the same sort
of thing. I am sure he would have been _very_ kind to her if she would
have agreed with him, and done what he wanted. He often told me that
the gentlemen of our family had always been courteous to women, and I
think he would have done anything for Henrietta if it had not been
that she would do everything for herself.

When we wanted to vex her very much, we used to call her "Monkey,"
because we knew she liked to be like a boy. She persuaded Mother to
let her have her boots made like ours, because she said the roads
were so rough and muddy (which they are). And we found two of her
books with her name written in, and she had put "Henry," and Rupert
wrote Etta after it, and "Monkey" after that. So she tore the leaves
out. Her hair was always coming out of curl. It was very dark, and
when it fell into her eyes she used to give her head a peculiar shake
and toss, so that half of it fell the wrong way, and there was a
parting at the side, like our partings. Nothing made Rupert angrier
than this.

Henrietta was very good at inventing things. Once she invented a
charade quite like a story. Rupert was very much pleased with it,
because he was to act the hero, who was to be a young cavalier of a
very old family--our family. He was to arrive at an inn; Henrietta
made it the real old inn in the middle of the town, and I was the
innkeeper, with Henrietta's pillow to make me fat, and one of Nurse's
clean aprons. Then he was to ask to spend a night in the old Castle,
and Henrietta made that the real Castle, which was about nine miles
off, and