eaker was a sturdy, good-natured boy, two years older than Guy,
and greatly distinguished this term by having received the cap of the
Rexbury Grammar School football team.

"You two girls are a couple of noodles," went on Guy. "I suppose you
thought it was a ghost working at the stone?"

"Well, look here," cried Ida, anxious to turn the conversation; "who let
Bob in last night? Elsie says she didn't, but he was in the house when I
came over to your room."

"He was fastened up when I crossed the yard about eight o'clock last
night," said Brian.

"Where did you find him this morning, Jane?" asked Ida, turning to the
parlour-maid.

"He was outside, chained up to his kennel, miss," was the answer.

"Outside! But when he was once in the house he couldn't possibly get out
again. He came running up the stairs, and I couldn't think what it was
for a minute."

"He was in his kennel when we came down this morning, miss," said Jane.

Guy burst out into a roar of laughter.

"Well, I'm blest!" he cried. "You are a pair! First there's Elsie's yarn
about that grindstone, and now you try to stuff some silly story into us
of Bob's running about the house when he was outside all the time."

"But he _was_ in the house," cried Ida, flushing. "He came upstairs to
me, and I sent him down again."

"Then if he was in the house, will you tell me how he could have got out
again before the servants came down to open the door? You girls must
have eaten something for supper last night that didn't agree with you,
and both had nightmare. Next time you get it, don't come across to our
door."

"Now, now!" interrupted Mrs. Ormond, who saw that Ida was about to make
an angry retort, and judged that the discussion had gone far enough.
"Come, you boys will be late if you don't make haste with your breakfast.
Are you going to play football this afternoon, Brian?"

"Yes, aunt; it's a match."

"Shall you want to take your things with you?"

"No, thank you. The game's on our ground, so I shall come home to
change."

Mr. Ormond, who had not been paying much attention to the conversation,
now laid aside the newspaper he had been reading, at the same time
remarking,--

"I see that the _Arcadia_ left the docks in London yesterday bound for
Australia, so I suppose by this time Mr. William Cole has begun his
first experience of being 'rocked in the cradle of the deep.'"

"Was the _Arcadia_ the ship he was going out on?" asked Ida.

"Yes," re