two in winter, the complete regiment of
Farguses moved out in an immense mass and proceeded in a dense crowd for
a walk. The female Farguses, having very long legs, walked very fast,
and the solitary male Fargus, having very short legs, walked very
slowly, and was usually, therefore, trotting to keep up with the pack.
He had, moreover, not only to keep pace but also to keep place. He was
forever getting squeezed out from between two tall Farguses and trotting
agitatedly around the heels of the battalion to recover a position in
it. He always reminded Sabre of a grey old Scotch terrier toddling along
behind and around the flanks of a company of gaunt, striding mastiffs.
He returned from those walks panting slightly and a little perspiring,
and at the door gave the appearance of being dismissed, and trotted away
rather like a little grey old Scotch terrier toddling off to the
stables. The lady Farguses called this daily walk "exercise"; and it
certainly was exercise for Mr. Fargus.

The eldest Miss Fargus was a grim thirty-nine and the youngest Miss
Fargus a determined twenty-eight. They called their father "Papa" and
used the name a good deal. When Sabre occasionally had tea at the
Farguses' on a Sunday afternoon Mr. Fargus always appeared to be sitting
at the end of an immense line of female Farguses. Mrs. Fargus would pour
out a cup and hand it to the Miss Fargus at her end of the line
with the loud word "Papa!" and it would whiz down the chain from
daughter to daughter to the clamorous direction, each to each,
"Papa!--Papa!--Papa!--Papa!" The cup would reach Mr. Fargus at the speed
of a thunderbolt; and Mr. Fargus, waiting for it with agitated hands as
a nervous fielder awaits a rushing cricket ball, would stop it
convulsively and usually drop and catch at and miss the spoon, whereupon
the entire chain of Farguses would give together a very loud "_Tchk_!"
and immediately shoot at their parent a plate of buns with
"Buns--Buns--Buns--Buns" all down the line. Similarly when Mr. Fargus's
grey little face would sometimes appear above the dividing wall to Sabre
in the garden there would come a loud cry of "Papa, the plums!" and from
several quarters of the garden this would he echoed "Papa, the plums!"
"Papa, the plums!" and the grey little head, in the middle of a
sentence, would disappear with great swiftness.

The Farguses kept but one servant, a diminutive and startled child with
one hand permanently up her back in sea