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and stockings, Hal?' said he, putting his hands in his pockets. He asked the question in a loud voice, and held upright. 'Big boys wear trousers like mine.'

himself very

jackets and

'Oh dear! Oh dear!' said papa, ‘I am afraid you are all of you too old to care to go and see Uncle Tom, or to have any holidays at all. I wish one of you would stay in town and do my work, and let me be a little boy.'

'No, we are not too old, papa,' said both Hugh and Harry at once. We would like to go; we are not so very old as all that.'

Mr. Selby shook his head. 'Boys in knickerbockers to think of eating gooseberries and currants!' he said.

'We are not too old, indeed, papa.'

'A boy in a jacket to play in the fields like a child!'

'But, papa, I should like it,' said Hugh. 'Too old, I am afraid,' said Mr. Selby. 'No, papa, we are not very old,' said Harry.

'Indeed, papa, we are rather young,' said Hugh.

'We are rather little boys,' said Harry. 'So I have always thought,' said papa. 'But you must remember one thing,' said their papa, gravely, 'if I let you go to stay with Uncle Tom, you must be good boys. Do you think I can trust you?'

'Of course you can, papa,' said Hugh.

'I expect Guy and Walter are very good boys, much better than you two.'

'Why should they be?' asked Harry.

'I think they would not be up to mischief, as some boys I know,' said Mr. Selby.

Now, Hugh and Harry could hardly be called good boys; for I am sorry to say they had learned some very bad tricks from some of the boys at school, and the worst of it was, that they were sly enough to be much better before their papa and mamma than they were behind their backs.

Then their mamma said kindly

'I am sure Hugh and Harry will try to do all they ought; won't you, my dear boys?'

And the boys answered, 'Oh yes, mamma.' But when they were alone in their bedroom, Hugh said to his brother

'I wonder what papa meant about Guy and Walter being such good boys. I am sure I shall hate Guy; for I know he will be a prig, and will tell tales of us to Uncle Tom.'

'He had better not,' said Harry very grandly, forgetting that his cousin Guy was a great many years older than himself. 'No,' said Hugh, 'he had better not.'

CHAPTER II.

TRAVELLING BY RAIL.

T seemed as if the twenty-first of June would never come. Harry declared that every day grew longer than the day before out of spite; but after all it did come, and everything was packed up, and the cab was at the door, and the boys were in such a hurry that they could hardly wait to say 'Good-bye;' and little Alfy had a new drum to comfort him at being left behind; and both the boys wished to go upon the box of the cab, so that Mr. Selby said he supposed he and the driver had better get inside; and at length they were off, rolling as fast as ever they could to the railway station.

'I think,' said Harry, rubbing his hands, 'that there is nothing in the world so jolly as going in a cab, it jolts so over the stones; I wish it always went over stones; and sometimes it almost knocks me off my seat. Why do you make a face, papa?'

'There is no accounting for tastes, my dear,' said Mr. Selby.

But when they arrived at the station, Harry thought it more jolly still; there was such a bustle and noise, and everybody was running backwards and forwards; and if he liked being knocked about, he got plenty of that by being always in everybody's way. Both boys were quite red in the face by the time their train drew up, and they jumped into the carriage at once.

'Had you not better walk up and down with me?' asked their papa; 'the train will not start for ten minutes, and you will have more than enough of it before the day is over.'

But Harry and Hugh thought it quite impossible that they could ever have enough

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