pleasure which I would willingly have earned by
any amount of ciceroneship to the old sailor and his wife. The subject
had not been mooted before the younger portion of the family, but had
been discussed and settled in private conclave among our elders; so it
was a most agreeable surprise to each one and all of us.

"But about Captain and Mrs. Yorke?" I said, at length, when my
transports had somewhat subsided, and calmness was once more restored.
"You do not really mean that you are going to bring them to the city,
and--to _our_ house?"

And all manner of domestic and social complications presented
themselves to my mind's eye, in view of such an arrangement. For uncle
Rutherford, in his far-reaching desire to benefit and make others
happy, was given to ways and plans which, at times, were too much even
for his ever-charitable, generous wife; and which now and then would
sorely try the souls of those less interested, but who, _nolens
volens_, became the victims of his benevolent schemes.

No one was better aware of uncle Rutherford's proclivities in this way,
or more in dread of them, than my young brother Norman, who had just
joined our circle, fresh from mother's surgery, and with his arm in a
sling. For Norman's bump of benevolence was not as large as that of
some other members of the family, and he was inclined to look askance
upon uncle Rutherford's demands upon his heart and his purse. These, to
tell the truth, were not infrequent; for our uncle, believing that
young people should be led to the exercise of active and unselfish
charity, and seeing that Norman was inclined to shirk such claims, was
constantly presenting them to the boy, with a view to training him in
the way he should go in such matters.

"Uncle Rutherford gives with one hand, and takes away with the other,"
Norman had said, grumblingly, only this same morning, in my hearing.

"You had better say he takes with one hand, and gives seven-fold with
the other," said Douglas, resentfully; for he inherited, to the fullest
extent, the family generosity. "Nor, I saw the skins of your flints
hanging out to dry this morning."

Whereupon Douglas dodged a book aimed at his head, and left his shot to
work what execution it might.

Norman had caught my last words, and taken in their meaning, and his
delight at the prospect of a visit from Captain Yorke was almost as
great as Milly's and mine in view of the stay of our uncle and aunt at
our home; being in