been keeping it for you.'
'Uncle Regie, the hounds meet at the Bugle this morning, won't you come and see them throw off?'
'Oh, let me come too!' 'And me!' 'And me!'
'My dear children,' exclaimed their mother, 'I can't have the whole tribe of little ones and girls going galloping after your uncle. You will only hinder him.'
'No, no, Lily! the more Merrifields, the merrier the field. I'll drill them well. How far off is this Bugle?'
'Not two miles over Furzy Common.'
'Oh! not so far, Hal!'
'That's nothing. Who is coming?'
A general outbreak of 'Me's' ensued, but mamma laid an embargo on Primrose, who must stay at home and 'help her,' while Gillian looked wistful and doubtful, knowing that more efficient help than the little one's might be desirable.
'You had better go, my dear,' said her mother, 'if you are not tired. I don't like to send Mysie and Val without some one to turn back with them if your uncle and the boys want to go further.'
But whereas it was not nearly time to start, Uncle Reginald was dragged down to inspect all the live stock in the stable-yard, at their feeding-time, and went off with Val and Primrose clinging to his hands, and the general rabble surrounding him.
Nothing could have been more alien to Dolores's taste than going out to a meet on foot through mud and mire-she who hated the being driven out to take a constitutional walk on the gravel road or the paved path! But she had some hope that while all the others ran off madly, as was their wont, she might secure a little rational conversation with Uncle Reginald. So she came down in hat and ulster, and was rewarded with 'That's right, Doll; I'm glad to see they have taught you to take country walks.'
'It is all compliment to you, Uncle Regie,' said Gillian. 'She hates them generally.'
'Are we all ready? Where are Japs and Will?'
'Gone to shut up the dogs; and Hal is not coming.'
'Beneath his dignity, eh?'
'I think he has some reading to do,' said Gillian.
'Now mind, Reginald,' said Aunt Lily, coming on the scene, 'you are not to let those imps drag you farther than you like. It is a very different thing, remember, children, from going out with the hounds like a gentleman.'
'Yes, mamma,' returned Fergus. 'If you would only let me have the pony!'
'And send home the girls as soon as you find them in the way,' she added.
'All right,' answered he, and off plunged the party; but Dolores soon found that she was not to be allowed much of Uncle Reginald's exclusive society. He did begin talking to her about her father's voyage, last letters, and intended departure from Auckland, but Valetta kept fast hold of his other hand, and the others were all round, every moment pointing out something-to them noticeable-and telling the story of some exploit, delighted when their uncle capped it with some boyish tales of Beechcroft, or with some droll, Irish story.
With such talk, the strong, healthy young folk little heeded the surface mud or the lanes. Even Dolores when she heard her father's name in the reminiscences,' was interested for a time, and was always hoping that the others would fly off and leave her to her uncle; but she was much less used to country mud and stout boots than the others, and she had been very much tired by her expedition on the previous day, so that she had begun to find the way very long before they came out on an open green, with a few cottages standing a good way back in their gardens, and as their centre, one of the great old coaching inns of past days, now chiefly farmhouse, though a sign, bearing a golden bugle-horn upon a blue ground, stood aloft in front of it, over the heads of the speckled mass of tan, black, and white, pervaded with curved tails, over which the scarlet-coated whips kept guard, while shining horses, bearing red coats and black coats, boys, and a few ladies, were moving about, and carriages drew up from time to time.
There was a long standing about, and Colonel Mohun, being a stranger there himself, kept his flock on the outskirts, only Jasper plunging in, at sight of a mounted schoolfellow, while Gillian and Mysie told the names of the few they recognized. At last there was a move, and Jasper came back to point out the wood they were going to draw, close at hand. Should they not all go on and see it?
'Oh! let us! do come, Uncle Regie,' cried Mysie and Val.
'Look here, Gill,' said the uncle, 'this child doesn't look fit to go any farther.'
'I'm very tired, and so cold,' said Dolores.
'Yes,' said Gillian, 'we ought to go home now.'
Not me! not me;' cried the other two girls; 'Uncle Regie will take care of us.'
'I think you must come,' said Gillian, 'mamma said you had better come home when I do.'
'Yes,' said Wilfred, 'we don't want a pack of girls to go and get tired.'
'We shall go into all sorts of places not fit for you,' said Jasper; 'you wouldn't come back with a whole petticoat among you.'
'And Val would be left stodged in a ditch for a month of Sundays,' added Wilfred.
'I am afraid we had better part company, Gill,' said the colonel. 'I would take you on a little further, but this poor little Londoner won't have a leg to stand upon by the time she gets home.'
'More shame for her to come out to spoil our fun,' muttered Valetta, too low for her uncle to hear.
'Mamma will think we have gone quite far enough, thank you, uncle,' said the sage Gillian, 'and I think Fergus had better come too.'
'That he had,' said Jasper. 'Fancy him over Peat Hill.'
'He'll be left behind to be picked up as we come back,' said Wilfred.
'No, no, no! I can keep up better than you can, Wil! Take me, Uncle Regie.' The little boy was so near a howl that good-natured Colonel Mohun's heart was touched, and he consented to let him come on, though Jasper argued, 'You'll have to carry him, uncle.'
'No, I'll make you, master! Tell your mother not to wait luncheon for us, Gillian; we'll pick up something somewhere.'
'Hurrah!' cried Wilfred and Fergus, to whom this was an immense additional pleasure.
The girls turned away into the lane, Valetta indulging in an outrageous grumble. 'Why should Dolores have come out to spoil everything?'
Dolores did not speak.
'Just our one chance,' sighed Mysie, 'and perhaps we should have seen the fox.'
'We may do that yet,' said Gillian; 'he may come this way.'
'I don't care if he does,' said Valetta. 'I wanted to see them draw the copse. I believe Dolores did it on purpose to spoil our pleasure.'
'Don't be so cross, Val,' said Mysie. 'She can't help being tired.'
'Why did she come, then, when nobody wanted her?'
'For shame, Val,' said Gillian, 'you know mamma would be very angry to hear you say anything so unkind.'
'It's quite true, though,' muttered Valetta.
'Never mind, Dolly, dear,' said Mysie, shocked. 'Val doesn't really mean it, you know.'
'Yes, she does,' said Dolores, shaking her comforter off; 'you all do! I wish I had never come here.'
Mysie tried in her own persevering way to argue again that Val was only put out, and disappointed at having to turn back, to which Valetta, in spite of Gillian's endeavour to silence her, added, 'So stupid of her to come out! What did she do it for?'
Dolores, who hardly ever cried, was tired into crying now. 'You grudge me everything; you wouldn't let me speak one single word to Uncle Regie, and kept bothering about! I'll never do anything with you again! I won't.'
'Did you want to speak to Uncle Regie?' asked Mysie.
'To be sure I did! He is my uncle, that I knew ever so long before you did, and you never let him speak to me.'
'Mrs. Halfpenny always put us on the high chair, with our faces to the wall when we were jealous,' remarked Valetta.
'But did you want to say anything to him in particular?' said Mysie, revolving means of contriving a private interview.
