ad been shown. It was an amusing sight to watch the boys
clumsily trying to thread the requisite number of needles before they
might make a start, and toilsomely sorting red and white beans in the
little three-divisioned boxes supplied to them, or the girls picking up
marbles and disentangling coloured ribbons with eager fingers. The
potato races were voted great fun, for it was a difficult matter to run
carrying a large and knobby potato balanced upon an egg spoon, and it
was almost sure to be dropped just as the triumphant candidate was on
the point of tipping it into the box at the end, giving the enemy an
opportunity of making up arrears, and of proving the truth of the
proverb that the race sometimes goes to the slow and sure instead of to
the swift. Three-legged races were popular among the boys, and Bertie
Rokeby and Eric Wright, with their respective right and left legs firmly
tied together, against Charlie Chester and Arnold Rokeby similarly
handicapped, made quite an exciting struggle, the former couple winning
in the end, owing to Charlie's undue haste upsetting both himself and
his partner. The jumping and vaulting were mostly appreciated by the
older children, but both big and little exclaimed with delight when one
of the gardeners brought out a famous "Aunt Sally," which he had been
very busy making, with a turnip for her head, carved with a penknife
into some representation of a human face, over which reposed an ancient
bonnet, a shawl being wrapped round her shoulders, and a large pipe
placed between her simpering lips. She was tied securely to the top of a
post, and the children threw sticks at her, the game being to see who
could first knock the pipe from her mouth, a feat which proved to be
more difficult than they had at first supposed, and which caused much
merriment, the prize being won in the end by Letty Rokeby, whose aim was
as true as that of any of the boys.

The sun had set, and the September twilight was just beginning to deepen
into dark, when the young guests were arranged in rows on the terrace
steps to witness the final treat--an exhibition of fireworks, which the
colonel had sent a special telegram to London to obtain in time. It was
a very pretty display of Catherine wheels, Roman candles, rockets, and
golden rain, finishing with the Royal Arms in crimson fire; and it made
such a splendid close to the day that twenty pairs of hands clapped
loudly, and twenty voices joined in ringing che