dispersed,
and Johnnie, having been already in quarantine a fortnight, had now come
home, and the place had been turned out of windows to welcome him.

"And Cray is at Mr. Brandon's," said Bertie, "but on Monday they are
both to go to Mr. Tikey's with us."

Something aloft very large and black at this moment startled Emily.
Johnnie, who had climbed up a tall poplar tree, and was shaking it
portentously, began to let himself down apparently at the peril of his
life, and the girls at the same moment coming out of the house, welcomed
Emily, letting her know that their father had given them a large,
_lovely_ cuckoo clock to hangup in Parliament. "And you shall come and
see it," they said. Emily knew this was a most unusual privilege.
"Johnnie is not gone up there to look for nests," said Gladys, "but to
reconnoitre the country. If we let you know what for, you won't tell?"

"Certainly not," said Emily, and she was borne off to Parliament,
feeling a curiosity to see it, because John had fitted it up for the
special and exclusive delectation of his young brood. It embodied his
notion of what children would delight in.

An extraordinary place indeed she thought it. At least fifty feet long,
and at the end farthest from the house, without carpet. A carpenter's
bench, many tools, and some machines were there, shavings strewed the
floor; something, evidently meant to turn out a wheel-barrow, was in
course of being hewn from a solid piece of wood, by very young
carpenters, and various articles of furniture by older hands were in
course of concoction. "Johnnie and Cray carved this in the winter," said
the girls, "and when it is done it will be a settle, and stand in the
arbour where papa smokes sometimes."

At the other end of the room was spread a very handsome new Turkey
carpet; a piano stood there, and a fine pair of globes; the walls were
hung with maps, but also with some of the strangest pictures possible;
figures chiefly, with scrolls proceeding from their mouths, on which
sentences were written. A remarkable chair, very rude and clumsy, but
carved all over with letters, flowers, birds, and other devices,
attracted Emily's attention.

"What is that? Why, don't you see that it's a throne? Father's throne
when he comes to Parliament to make a speech, or anything of that sort
there. Johnnie made it, but we all carved our initials on it."

Emily inspected the chair, less to remark on the goodness of the carving
than to