from their seniors a trustworthy assurance of the
date of Mrs. Prichard's return, and had only succeeded in obtaining from
Aunt M'riar a vague statement. Mrs. Prichard was a-coming some day, and
that was plenty for children to know at their time of life. They might
have remained humbly contented with their ignorance, if Uncle Mo had not
added:--"So's Christmas!" meaning thereby the metaphorical Christmas
used as an equivalent of the Greek Kalends. He overlooked, for
rhetorical purposes, the near approach of the actual festival; and Dave
and Dolly accepted this as fixing the date of Mrs. Prichard's return, to
a nicety. The event was looked forward to as millennial; as a
restoration of a golden age before her departure. For no child is so
young as not to _laudare_ a _tempus actum_; indeed, it is a fiction that
almost begins with speech, that the restoration of the Past is the first
duty of the Future.

Dolly never tired of recasting the arrangement of the tea-festivity that
was to celebrate the event, discovering in each new disposition of the
insufficient cups and unstable teapot a fresh satisfaction to gloat
over, and imputing feelings in sympathy with her own to her offspring
Gweng. It was fortunate for Gweng that her mamma understood her so
thoroughly, as otherwise her fixed expression of a maximum of joy at
all things in Heaven and Earth gave no clue to any emotions due to
events of the moment. Even when her eyes were closed by manipulation of
her spinal cord, and opened suddenly on a new and brilliant combination,
any candid spectator must have admitted her stoicism--rapturous perhaps,
but still stoicism. It was alleged--by her mamma--that she shed tears
when Dave selfishly obstructed her line of sight. This was disputed by
Dave, whom contact with an unfeeling World was hardening to a cruel
literalism.

Dave, when he was not scheming a display of recent Academical
acquirements to Mrs. Prichard, dwelt a good deal on the bad faith of the
postman, who had not brought him the two letters he certainly had a
right to expect, one from each of his Grannies. He had treasured the
anticipation of reading their respective expressions of joyful gratitude
at their discovery of their relationship, and no letter had come! Small
blame to Dave that he laid this at the door of the postman; others have
done the self-same thing, on the other side of their teens! The only
adverse possibility that crossed his infant mind was that his Gra