ts,
with a very sulky expression.

'I suppose that is always the way with a fellow's mother. Fuss and
bother--I'm tied to her apron-strings. Opening his paper he looked
at him over the top of it, with a rather grave expression.

'Don't you think it is silly, Uncle?'

'What's it all about?' asked Uncle James.

'Why, I just happened to be a bit late home, after the match. Saunders
wanted me to see his rabbits, and it made me a little late; at least, it
was really a lot late. There were some other fellows there, and I came
away before most of them.'

'Well?'

'Well, now there is no end of a bother, because I sort of promised I
would be home early to tea. The girls had got some friends coming, and
wanted me to show off the magic-lantern. When I came in, Mother was
crying, and the servant out looking for me. It's too silly! I'm not a
baby!'

And Roger plunged his spoon afresh into his egg, as if he expected to
find in it a remedy for his grievance.

'Jones minor says his mother is just the same; but the two Rhodeses, who
live with an aunt, can do just as they like.'

Uncle James laid down his paper, and looked steadily at the fire.

'My mother was just the same,' he said.

'What, Granny?' exclaimed Roger. 'But she is so jolly. When I go to
stay, I do what I like.'

'Did you ever hear, Roger,' asked Uncle James, 'about my sister
Phyllis?'

'Who died when she was a little girl? Oh, yes, I have heard a little, of
course. Tell me some more, please, Uncle.'

Uncle James's kind face was a little clouded.

'Can he be vexed?' wondered thoughtless Roger. 'Or else--oh, yes--it's
because she died that he doesn't like talking about her.' He said aloud,
'Never mind, Uncle, if it makes you feel bad.'

'She was very dear to me,' Uncle James said. 'Yet I scarcely ever speak
of her; you will understand why, when I have finished what I am going to
tell you. There were three of us,' he began, 'your mother, myself, and
our little Phyllis. She was the youngest, and was nine at the time. We
lived in a small house in this town, for our parents were not rich.'

Roger nodded. 'Mother showed me that house. It's smaller than this, a
good deal.'

'Your mother, who was my mother's right hand, had been sent to a
boarding-school at a distance, and I was left, in a way, in charge of my
mother and young sister, my father being abroad with his regiment. You
may be sure I felt proud of myself when I went round at night, bolting
the do