apital!"

"Well, but would it be right?" said their father, seriously.

"Oh! yes, Papa," said Harry; "for we will do so much after the holidays,
and work ever so hard to make up for it; and it is so very, very hard to
learn lessons away from school. I never can get on half so well, for
one can't help thinking of the games we want to play at, and then one
don't feel to be obliged to learn, and it does make such a difference:
so do please write, there's a good, good father," said Harry, coaxingly.

The Squire laughed, and that laugh was quite sufficient to satisfy the
lads, who gave two or three frisks, and tossed their caps in the air;
when Philip's fell on the top of the verandah, and had to be hooked down
with a long hay-rake.

Dinner was nearly ready, so Fred followed his box up to the pretty
little bedroom he was to occupy--one which opened out of the room set
apart for Harry and Philip; and soon after he was down in the
dining-room eating a meal that called forth the remarks and comparisons
of his cousins, who were dreadful trencher-men. They told him that he
must learn what a country appetite meant, and so, by way of teaching
him, they dragged him off, as soon as dinner was over, to look at all
the wonders of the place. First over the flower-garden, and round by
the aviary, where Mamma's gold and silver pheasants were kept; and then
into the green-house, where Poll, the parrot, hung in her great gilt
cage, swinging about amongst the flowers, dancing up and down, and
shrieking out whenever anybody came by; then swaying backwards and
forwards in the ring in the cage, and climbing up and down all over the
bars, this way and that way, head up and head down, and all the time
looking as wicked and cunning as a hook-beaked old grey parrot can look.

"Sam, Sam, where's the master?" shouted Poll, in a reedy-weedy tone,
like a cracked clarionet, as soon as the lads came in sight. "Stealing
the grapes. Stealing the grapes," she shouted again. "Rogues, rogues,
rogues! Two in the morning, hi! hi!" And then she gave a shrill
whistle, and burst out into a loud hearty laugh, that made Fred stare,
it was so natural.

"There," said Philip, proudly, "you haven't got such birds as that in
London."

"Oh yes, we have," said Fred, "but Papa don't care about buying them.
Poor Polly," he continued, putting his finger in to stroke the parrot.

"Don't do that," shouted the boys together; but it was too late, for
almost at th