a good deal deeper down than this
hole I'm digging."

"What's the hole for?"

"My doll, here. I've got to put away childish things; so I'm going
to cover her right up and never see her face again. Oh! oh!"

She began to sob as if her heart would break.

"I wouldn't cry if I were you. I didn't cry just now when I tumbled
off the flower-pot."

"You don't know what it is to be a mother."

"No, but I can dig ever so much better than you. Look here.
I've got a spade of my own, and I'll show you how to dig properly, if
you like."

He ran off and returned with it in less than a minute. In another
minute they were engrossed in the burial rites, the girl still
playing at tragedy, but enjoying herself immensely.

"We must read something over the remains," she announced.

"Why?"

"Because it's always done, unless the dead person is buried with a
stake through his inside."

"Then we'd better take her out again and put a stake through her;
because I can't read."

"Haven't you begun to learn yet?"

"No."

"Well," said Sophia, picking up the Euclid, "you can hold a corner of
the book and listen to what I read, and perhaps you can repeat some
of it after me, you contemptible boy."

They were standing over the doll's grave, side by side, and chanting
in antiphon the fourth proposition of the First Book of Euclid, when
Captain Runacles came round the corner of the house and halted to rub
his eyes.

At the sound of his footstep on the gravel Sophia snatched the
book from Tristram and looked desperately round. It was too late.
Her father was glaring down upon them both, with his hands behind him
and his chin stuck forward.

"You miserable child!"

He pronounced it deliberately, syllable by syllable, and turned upon
Tristram.

"Will you kindly explain, sir, to what I owe the honour of your
presence in my garden?"

Tristram, who had never before been addressed with harshness, failed
to understand the tone of this speech, and answered with amiable
directness--

"I tumbled in, off a flower-pot."

"Indeed!"

"Yes; and I stayed because I liked the girl here."

"You do her infinite honour."

"I'm going away now because I'm hungry. But I'll come back again
after dinner, all right."

"No," said Captain Runacles grimly; "on that point you must allow me
to correct you. You infernal young cub, if I catch you here again--"

"Hi! Captain!" interrupted a voice at the foot of the garden.

Doctor Beckerleg