t. Wili and Lili were determined to finish their
undertaking, and kept on pulling and pulling.

"Stop! Stop! Wiling and Liling
You terrible twinning"

cried Jule, while little Hunne added his voice to swell the tumult.

At this the mother made her appearance upon the scene, and the uproar was
stilled at once. Jule swung himself panting back into his chair, and Hunne
slowly regained his equilibrium.

"My dear Jule, why do you make the children behave so badly? You ought to
know better at your age," said his mother reprovingly.

"Certainly, mother, certainly, in future I will do better, but if you
will look at it from another side, I am doing something, in affording the
twins an opportunity to be of use, instead of carrying on their usual
mischievous pranks."

"Jule, Jule, that does not look like doing better," said his mother
warningly. "Lili, go down stairs and practise your exercises until Miss
Hanenwinkel has finished Paula's music lesson. Wili, go on with your
studying, and the best thing you can do, Jule, to help me, is to amuse the
little one until I am at leisure."

The "big Jule" was ready to help to restore order after his bit of fun,
and Lili ran down stairs to the piano as she was bidden. She found herself
too much excited after the exertion of playing boot-jack for her brother,
and her exercises did not run smoothly, so she took up one of her
"pieces" to work off her superfluous energy upon, and began to play with
great emphasis,

"Live your life merrily,
While the lamp glows,
Ere it can fade and die,
Gather the rose."

Uncle Titus and his wife were just finishing their breakfast in a
neighboring house when the affair of the boots began. Uncle Titus hastened
to his room, closing the windows and fastening them against the noise. His
wife summoned their hostess rather peremptorily, and asked her "just to
listen to that" for herself. It did not seem to make much impression upon
Mrs. Kurd however, who only said smilingly,

"Oh, how merry the dear children are, to be sure," and when Aunt Ninette
went on to explain that such disturbances were the very worst thing for
her poor invalid, the hostess only again recommended the walk in the woods
for quiet and fresh air! The noise in the next house would not last long,
she said, the young gentleman would soon return to college, and it would
be much more quiet then. As she spoke, the sound of Lili's merry music
came across throug