gentlemen! I trust you and my nephew Jack
will be friends. The young should be friendly,--eh, Raymond? My brother
Raymond, boys, is a man of genius. He is probably studying the lines of
a fiddle at this moment,--an imaginary fiddle, you understand,--and I
doubt if he is aware of your presence, or of one word I have been
saying."

"Not quite so bad as that, Tom!" said Mr. Ferrers, holding out his hand
to the boys, with the peculiarly sweet smile that won all hearts to him
at the first glance, "not quite so bad as that. I am delighted to see
you, young gentlemen. I have already heard a good deal about your
cheerful circle here. I am, it is true, somewhat absent-minded,--"

"Absent-minded! Jupiter Capitolinus! When it comes to a man putting
sugar and cream on his mutton-chop at breakfast,--"

"How do you know that I do not prefer it so, Tom? We have many curious
customs in Virginia, you know. It wasn't bad, really!"

"Not bad!" snorted the Colonel. "Five-year-old mutton, hung a fortnight,
and broiled by Elizabeth Beadle; and this man treats it as a pudding,
and then says it was not bad! Elizabeth Beadle wept when Giuseppe told
her about it; shed tears, sir! Said there was no pleasure in feeding
you."

"Poor Elizabeth!" said Raymond Ferrers, laughing. "Dear, good soul! I
must go and ask her to make me some molasses cookies with scalloped
edges. Will that pacify her, Tom? Where is the boy?"

"Raymond, do not try me further than I can bear!" said his brother, with
marked ferocity. "Ask for the boy every five minutes, my dear brother! a
shorter interval than that is beyond my powers of endurance, which have
their limits. The boy, sir, if you persist in applying that epithet to a
young giraffe who has already scraped more paint off my lintels than I
can supply in six months,--well, I will make it three, if you specially
desire it,--is putting on his togs, to go skating with these young
fellows. And what is more, Raymond, I know two old fellows who are going
to be asses enough to put on _their_ togs and go skating with the
youngsters. Come along, sir! Jimmy's Pond, Ray! Come along!"

[Illustration: ON JIMMY'S POND.]

A pleasant sight was Jimmy's Pond an hour later, when all the party had
assembled. Hildegarde came in regal state, escorted by Colonel Ferrers
and his brother, one walking on either side, while the three tall lads
strode along before, now thoroughly at ease with each other, and Hugh
capered and curveted in