won't be able to get
at them."

"Well, then, a kitten will be useful," said Edward, "for she will teach
you to be careful."

"My coat is a little the worse for wear, and so is yours, Edward. We
must try if we cannot, like Alice, find means to pay for another."

"Humphrey," said Jacob, "I'll buy all you want, and trust to you for
paying me again as soon as you can."

"That's just what I want," replied Humphrey. "Then you must buy me a
gun and a new suit of clothes first; when I've paid for them I shall
want some more tools, and some nails and screws, and two or three other
things; but I will say nothing about them just now. Get me my gun, and
I'll try what the forest will do for me--especially after I have my
dog."

"Well, we shall see; perhaps you'll like to come out with me sometimes
and learn woodcraft, for Edward knows as much as I do now, and can go
out by himself."

"Of course I will, Jacob; I want to learn everything."

"Well, there's a little money left in the bag yet, and I will go to
Lymington to-morrow. Now I think it is time that we went to bed; and if
you are all as tired as I am, you will sleep soundly."

Jacob put into the cart the next day about forty of the chickens which
Alice had reared; the others were kept to increase the number in the
poultry-yard. They had cost little or nothing bringing up; for when
quite young they only had a little oatmeal cake, and afterwards, with
the potatoes which were left, they found themselves, as fowls can always
do when they have a great range of ground to go over.

Jacob came back at sunset, with all the articles. He brought a new suit
for Alice and Edith, with some needles and thread and worsted, and gave
her some money which was left from the sale of the chickens, after he
had made the purchases. He also bought a new suit for Edward and
Humphrey, and a gun, which was much approved of by Humphrey, as it had a
larger bore and carried a heavier bullet than either Jacob's or Edward's
and there was a white kitten for Alice and Edith. There was no news,
only that the Levellers had opposed Cromwell, and he had put them down
with the other troops, and Jacob said that it appeared that they were
all squabbling and fighting with each other.

Time passed; the month of November came on without anything to disturb
the daily employments of the family in the forest: when one evening
Jacob, who had returned from hunting with Edward (the first time they
had been