that is Uncle
John's knock. We'll go to Gre--Put--Greenwich, love."

"That's well, dear; and be assured, love, that nothing is so adverse to
the constitution of what Locke emphatically calls the human mind,
philosophically considered, as to persevere in that state of indecision
which--that--whereof--but we will not go to either; Uncle John shall
select the locality."

Uncle John was a bachelor of fifty-five, possessing twelve thousand
pounds, a strong disinclination to part with any of them, a good heart,
and a bad temper.

"Good morning t' ye, good folks; as usual, I perceive, billing and
cooing."

The Bagshaws had by this time got together in a corner of the garden,
and were lovingly occupied in trimming the same pot of sweet peas.

"Quite the contrary, Uncle John," said Mrs. Bagshaw. "Claudius and I
have just had one of our most desperate quarrels."

And here the happy pair giggled, and exchanged looks which were meant to
imply that _their_ most desperate quarrels were mere kitten's play; and
that Uncle John did so interpret them, he made manifest by a knowing
shake of his forefinger.

"The fact is, sir, Jane and I talk of commemorating the annual
recurrence of the anniversary of our wedding-day, at some place a
_leetle_ farther in the country; but our minds are in a perfect vacuum
concerning the identity of the spot. Now, sir, will you reduce the place
to a mathematical certainty, and be one of the party?"

"Why--um--no; these things are expensive; we come home at night with a
guinea apiece less in our pockets, and I don't see the good of that."

"I have it!" cried Bagshaw; "we'll make it a picnic; that _won't_ be
expensive."

"Then I'm with you, Bagshaw, with all my heart,--and it shall be _al
fresco_."

"There or anywhere else you please, sir," gravely replied the learned
member of the universal-knowledge-warehouse.

"Uncle John means in the open air, Claudius; that _will_ be delightful."

"Charming!" rejoined Bagshaw.

It may be inquired why Uncle John, who objected to the disbursement of a
guinea for a day's pleasure, should so readily have yielded at the
suggestion of a picnic. Uncle John possessed a neat little morocco
pocket-case, containing a dozen silver spoons, and silver-handled knives
and forks, and although we are told that these implements are of later
invention than fingers, there is, nevertheless, a very general bias in
their favor, for the purpose to which they are applied. Now, Un