k how wicked he had grown up to be. Howsomever, he
went on a-lying like a Trojan, about the pony. He told 'em it did so
unfortunately happen that the pony was half-clipped, you see, and that
he couldn't be taken out in that state for fear that it should strike to
his inside. But that he'd be finished clipping in the course of the day,
and that to-morrow morning at eight o'clock the phaeton would be ready.
Boots' view of the whole case, looking back upon it in my room, is, that
Mrs. Harry Walmers, Jr., was beginning to give in. She hadn't had her
hair curled when she went to bed, and she didn't seem quite up to
brushing it herself, and it's getting in her eyes put her out. But
nothing put out Master Harry. He sat behind his breakfast cup, a-tearing
away at the jelly, as if he had been his own father.

"After breakfast Boots is inclined to think that they drawed
soldiers--at least, he knows that many such was found in the fireplace,
all on horseback. In the course of the morning Master Harry rang the
bell--it was surprising how that there boy did carry on--and said in a
sprightly way, 'Cobbs, is there any good walks in this neighborhood?'

"'Yes, sir,' says Cobbs. 'There's Love Lane.'

"'Get out with you, Cobbs!'--that was that there boy's
expression--'you're joking.'

"'Begging your pardon, sir,' says Cobbs, 'there really is Love Lane. And
a pleasant walk it is, and proud I shall be to show it to yourself and
Mrs. Harry Walmers, Jr.'

"'Norah, dear,' said Master Harry, 'this is curious. We really ought to
see Love Lane. Put on your bonnet, my sweetest darling, and we will go
there with Cobbs.'

"Boots leaves me to judge what a beast he felt himself to be, when that
young pair told him, as they all three jogged along together, that they
had made up their minds to give him two thousand guineas a year as
head-gardener, on account of his being so true a friend to 'em. Boots
could have wished at the moment that the earth would have opened and
swallowed him up; he felt so mean with their beaming eyes a-looking at
him, and believing him. Well, sir, he turned the conversation as well as
he could, and he took 'em down Love Lane to the water-meadows, and there
Master Harry would have drowned himself in half a moment more, a-getting
out a water-lily for her--but nothing frightened that boy. Well, sir,
they was tired out. All being so new and strange to 'em, they was tired
as tired could be. And they laid down on a bank of dai