ed to make allowance for
such little eccentricities of genius.

"Yours, with sentiments that would do anybody credit,

"Gifford Crayshaw."

The second letter, which was also addressed to both sisters, was from
Johnnie, and ran as follows:--

"Now look here, you two fellows are not to expect me to spend all my
spare time in writing to you. Where do you think I am now? Why, at
Brighton.

"Val's a brick. Yesterday was our _Exeat_, and he came down to Harrow,
called for me and Cray, and brought us here to the Old Ship Hotel. We
two chose the dinner, and in twenty minutes that dinner was gone like a
dream. Val and Cray made the unlucky waiter laugh till he dropped the
butter-boat. The waiter was a proud man--I never saw a prouder. He had
made up his mind that nothing should make him laugh, but at last we had
him. Beware of pride, my friends.

"Then we went to the Aquarium. My wig! I never saw anything so
extraordinary. It ought to be called the Aquaria, for there are dozens
of them. They are like large rooms full of water, and you go and look in
at the fish through the windows. No, they're more like caves than rooms,
they have rocks for walls. Talk of the ancient Greeks! I'll never wish
to be one of those fogies again! I've seen turtles now under water,
sitting opposite to one another, bowing and looking each in his fellow's
face, just like two cats on a rug. Why the world's full of things that
_they_ knew nothing about.

"But I had no notion that fish were such fools, some of them, at least.
There were some conger eels seven feet long, and when we stared at them
they went and stuck their little heads into crevices in the rocks. I
should like to have reasoned with them, for they evidently thought they
were hidden, while, in fact, they were wriggling upside down, full in
view. Well, so then we went to see the octopus. One was just like a pink
satin bag, covered with large ivory buttons, but that was only because
it was inside out. While I was watching it I rather started, for I saw
in a corner of the den close to me an enormous sort of bloated sea
toadstool (as I thought), but it had eyes, it was covered with warts, it
seemed very faint, and it heaved and panted. By that time a
conglomeration like a mass of writhing serpents was letting itself down
the side of the den, and when it got to the bottom it shot out a head,
made itself into the exact shape of an owl without wings, and began to
fly about the place. That mad