ay be harrowed by you as little as possible. And why
the deu--dickens they think it necessary to wash the hall floor before
breakfast, Heaven only knows!"

William coughed, a cough meant to be a polite mixture of greeting and
deference. William's face was a study in holy innocence. His father
glanced at him suspiciously. There were certain expressions of
William's that he distrusted.

William entered the dining-room morosely. Jimmy's sister Barbara--a
small bundle of curls and white frills--was already beginning her
porridge.

"Goo' mornin'," she said, politely, "did you hear me cleanin' my
teef?"

He crushed her with a glance.

He sat eating in silence till everyone had come down, and Aunts Jane,
Evangeline, and Lucy were consuming porridge with that mixture of
festivity and solemnity that they felt the occasion demanded.

Then Jimmy entered, radiant, with a tin in his hand.

"Got presents," he said, proudly. "Got presents, lots of presents."

He deposited on Barbara's plate a worm which Barbara promptly threw at
his face. Jimmy looked at her reproachfully and proceeded to Aunt
Evangeline. Aunt Evangeline's gift was a centipede--a live centipede
that ran gaily off the tablecloth on to Aunt Evangeline's lap before
anyone could stop it. With a yell that sent William's father to the
library with his hands to his ears, Aunt Evangeline leapt to her chair
and stood with her skirts held to her knees.

"Help! Help!" she cried. "The horrible boy! Catch it! Kill it!"

Jimmy gazed at her in amazement, and Barbara looked with interest at
Aunt Evangeline's long expanse of shin.

"_My_ legs isn't like _your_ legs," she said pleasantly and
conversationally. "My legs is knees."

It was some time before order was restored, the centipede killed, and
Jimmy's remaining gifts thrown out of the window. William looked
across the table at Jimmy with respect in his eye. Jimmy, in spite of
his youth, was an acquaintance worth cultivating. Jimmy was eating
porridge unconcernedly.

Aunt Evangeline had rushed from the room when the slaughter of the
centipede had left the coast clear, and refused to return. She carried
on a conversation from the top of the stairs.

"When that horrible child has gone, I'll come. He may have insects
concealed on his person. And someone's been dropping water all over
these stairs. They're _damp_!"

"Dear, dear!" murmured Aunt Jane, sadly.

Jimmy looked up from his porridge.

"How was I to know s