you. Now then, what was
the curfew?'

'A bird with a long beak that squeals; Kiah says----'

Betty rose up majestically.

'Godfrey, if you think it is funny to pretend that you think I said
curlew you are very much mistaken. I have a very great many things to
do, more things than a little boy like you can count, and I can't spend
all the morning with you. So I am going to write on this slate: "The
curfew bell was rung at eight o'clock every night as a sign that people
were to put their lights out and go to bed," and you are to go on
copying it and copying it till the slate is quite full.'

Godfrey said not a word, only watched while Betty wrote the words in a
bold round hand, and ruled double lines with a decided sweep of her
slate pencil, and then walked out of the room with her most 'maiden
aunt' expression. But when she was gone I am sorry to say that he got
on a chair, reached down his wooden ship from its high shelf, climbed
out of the window into the garden, and went out through a gate in the
fence and across the fields. He was not back when Betty and Angel came
in together, to find the blank slate and Godfrey's high chair pushed up
to the table, but no one in the room. They called his name about the
garden and paddock, and just as Betty was beginning to get into a panic
and to declare it was all her fault, he appeared, coming back slowly
across the field towards the wicket gate. The two aunts met him, Angel
looking grieved and Betty indignant.

'Godfrey, this is very naughty,' began Angel, gravely.

'I don't see that you can have any heart at all,' said Betty, 'because
it's quite plain you want to break both ours. Perhaps when we are both
in our graves, with stones over us like Miss Jane's--only we couldn't
afford near such large ones--you'll feel something pricking you.'

'I know I shall,' said her nephew promptly, 'because then Penny would
pin my collar, and she always sticks the point of the pin inside.'

'Godfrey,' said Angel gravely, 'this isn't a thing to laugh at. Where
have you been?'

'To Farmer White's pond to have a naval battle,' said Godfrey frankly.

'You must never go to that pond alone; it is deep in the middle and
very dangerous, and you have disobeyed Aunt Betty. Next time you do
it, I--I shall be obliged to whip you.'

Angel's voice faltered, and she turned a little pale as she spoke. In
those days most little boys were whipped for disobedience, and Angel
had always had