see seven Campbells can do more than you thought
they could.'

'And now, when we want anything done, we may look to our seven Campbells
for it, said Mrs. Campbell gaily. 'Honorius, you were the directing
genius, were you not?'

'Yes, I believe I planned how it was to be, but it was Willie who first
thought of it, and proposed that we should do it to please you. I am so
glad you are satisfied with our work, mother.'

'Satisfied! I am delighted, my Emperor. But now that the desert is _put_
in order, who is going to _keep_ it so? Are we to look to our seven sons
for that?'

'Yes, oh yes!' was chorused by six of the seven voices. Johnnie alone
was silent; but his dimples were all in play, and he had never looked
more roguish.

'Sans-terre means to steal a march on us, and do more than any of us, I
do believe, though he won't make promises,' said Honorius.

'Sans-terre shall be sans-terre no longer,' said Dr. Campbell; 'he has
earned back a right to his own plot of flower-garden, and may enter into
possession again to-night, if he pleases.'

But Lackland shrugged his shoulders, and declined the burden of
proprietorship.

'I don't care to have any garden of my own, thank you, papa,' he
answered; 'I'm happier without it than with it, and there's plenty of
work for me here. I never want to have anything belonging to me except a
sword.'

'And some clothes, Johnnie,' said Seymour, who was very matter-of-fact.

The boys laughed, and Johnnie replied, 'Oh, certainly, Seymour. I'm not
prepared to adopt the full dress of a Mexican general even--a cocked hat
and a pair of spurs; I must have a full suit of uniform, at any rate.
But I mean to say I'll never be bothered with a house or a wife, or
anything like that.'

'Ah, Johnnie,' said his father, 'I may say to you in the words of the
old song,

"Bide ye yet, and bide ye yet,
Ye dinna ken what'll betide ye yet."

For aught you know,

"A canty wee house and a cosie wee fire,
And a bonnie wee bodie to praise and admire,"

may be your destiny; and perhaps some day you will appreciate those
treasures as much as I do now.'

Johnnie looked incredulous. But the attention of all was diverted by the
sudden appearance of a sun-burnt, grinning face over the paling which
separated the kitchen garden (no longer desert) from the road.

'That's Bob Middleton, I declare!' said Honorius. 'Do you know, papa,
Farmer Jennings has taken him