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Mamma was laughing too.

'We may go, may not we, mamma?' asked Hugh.

'Ask your papa,' she answered.

Both the boys jumped upon Mr. Selby, Hugh on his back and Harry on his lap, and both hugged him so tightly round the neck that he pretended he was being choked, and at last promised they should go and stay with Uncle Tom, if they would let go his throat and behave like decent boys.

I don't know what Mr. Selby called behaving decently, but Hugh and Harry leaped and hopped about the room more like two monkeys out of Wombwell's Menagerie than respectable boys who were in the Latin grammar.

Dear! what a noise boys do make sometimes. I think papas and mammas' heads must be made of very hard stuff that they do not sometimes go deaf and stupid in holiday time.

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And why may not me go too?' asked Alfy, who was not yet four.

'Because Uncle Tom doesn't want such a little chappy as you!' said his papa.

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'Littoo!' said Alfy, boys what wear tulics and towlers ain't littoo.'

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Wait till you wear knickerbockers,' said Harry;

'tunics and trousers are baby's dress; you'll be a big boy then, Alfy.'

Hugh laughed out loud.

'Did you ever see a big boy in knickers and stockings, Hal?' said he, putting his hands in his pockets. He asked the question in a loud voice, and held himself very upright. Big boys wear

jackets and trousers like mine.'

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'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!'

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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.

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No,' said Hugh, he had better not.'

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CHAPTER II.

TRAVELLING BY RAIL.

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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 'Goodbye;' 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

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