uidance."

Buttar could thoroughly appreciate the advantages his friend possessed,
for they were advantages of no ordinary kind, and were the cause of the
superiority he possessed over the greater number of his companions.

What a merry evening that was on which the boys arrived! Lemon had met
Charles Bracebridge in Germany, though it was only just before the
holidays he discovered that Ernest was his brother. He now came more
especially to visit him. He was of a more suitable age than Ernest for
a companion.

There was a Christmas-tree loaded with really useful prizes, so that all
the boys were glad enough to obtain some of them, and their distribution
caused great fun; then they had a most uproarious game of blindman's
buff. Some of them dressed up in all sorts of costumes, so that when
they were caught, the blind man could not tell who they were.

Bouldon made a capital blind man. He rushed furiously here and there,
over everybody and everything, never minding where he went, shrieking
with laughter all the time, but keeping his hands well out before his
head, so that he ran no chance of knocking it against the wall. More
than once Tom came head over heels down on the ground; but amid the
shouts of laughter, in which he himself heartily joined, having stood on
his head for a minute, he leaped up, and made a desperate dash at some
of the players. At last he caught Buttar, who also made a very amusing
blind man, and though he suffered several mishaps, never for a moment
lost his temper.

Among Buttar's very many good qualities, a fine temper was one. Nothing
ever put him out, though he was often much tried. He was good-tempered
by nature, but he was also good-tempered from principle. He knew how
wrong it is to lose temper, and he despised the frivolous excuses often
made by people for doing so. The game of blindman's buff lasted a
wonderfully long time. At last the ladies began to think that it had
become almost too boisterous, and Lemon, who was a capital hand at
starting games, proposed the game of "baste the bear."

"What's that?" asked Buttar. "In all my experience I never heard of
that game."

"I'll show you, then. Who knows it? Do any of you?"

Tom Bouldon acknowledged that he did.

"Very well, Tom; you must be the first bear. I'll be your keeper," said
Lemon. "Properly speaking, everybody ought to draw lots as to who
should be bear, and the bear selects his keeper. However, we will
su