and enduring with saintly fortitude the general's compliments
upon her management of the children, there came screams of fear and
anguish from the general's own grounds, which the couple were passing.

"Who can that be?" exclaimed the general, his short hairs bristling like
the quills of his titular godfather. "_We_ have no children."

"I--think I know the voices," gasped Mrs. Burton, turning pale.

"Bless my soul!" exclaimed the general, with an accent which showed that
he was wishing the reverse of blessings upon souls less needy than his
own. "You don't mean--"

"Oh, I do!" said Mrs. Burton, wringing her hands. "Do hurry!"

The general puffed and snorted up his gravel walk and toward the
shrubbery, behind which was a fish-pond, from which direction the sound
came. Mrs. Burton followed, in time to see her nephew Budge help his
brother out of the pond, while the general tugged at a large crawfish
which had fastened its claw upon Toddie's finger. The fish was game,
but, with a mighty pull from the general, and a superhuman shriek from
Toddie, the fish's claw and body parted company, and the general, still
holding the latter tightly, staggered backward, and himself fell into
the pond.

"Ow--ow--ow!" howled Toddie, clasping the skirt of his aunt's mauve silk
in a ruinous embrace, while the general floundered and snorted like a
whale in dying agonies, and Budge laughed as merrily as if the whole
scene had been provided especially for his entertainment. Mrs. Burton
hurried her nephews away, forgetting, in her mortification, to thank the
general for his service, and placing a hand over Toddie's mouth.

"It hurts," mumbled Toddie.

"What did you touch the fish at all for?" asked Mrs. Burton.

"It was a little baby-lobster," sobbed Toddie; "an' I loves little
babies--all kinds of 'em--an' I wanted to pet him. An' then I wanted to
grop him."

"Why didn't you do it, then?" demanded the lady.

"'Cauze he wouldn't grop," said Toddie; "he isn't all gropped yet."

True enough, the claw of the fish still hung at Toddie's finger, and
Mrs. Burton spoiled a pair of four-button kids in detaching it, while
Budge continued to laugh. At length, however, mirth gave place to
brotherly love, and Budge tenderly remarked:

"Toddie, dear, don't you love Brother Budge?"

"Yesh," sobbed Toddie.

"Then you ought to be happy," said Budge, "for you've made _him_ awful
happy. If the fish hadn't caught you, the general couldn't have pu