“Sharp at the _point_, Job, not blunt at the end like a new black–lead pencil”. “And whatever you do, Job, donʼt forget the catgut for my cross–bow, one size larger than last time”. “Hold your jaw, Viley, till Iʼve quite finished; or heʼll ask for a top made of catgut”. Both the boys laughed at this; you could hear them all down the long passage. Any small folly makes a boy laugh. “Well, Master Crad, you _must_ think me a ‘muff’, as you call it. And the groove is to go quite up to the spill; there must be two rings below the crown of it”. “Below the crown, indeed! On the fat part, I said three times. Now, Viley, you know you heard me”. “Well, well”, cried Job in despair, “two rings on the fat part, and no knot at all in the wood, and at least six inches round, and, and, well—I think thatʼs all of it, thank the Lord”. “All of it, indeed! Well, you _are_ a nice fellow! Didnʼt I tell you so, Viley? Why, youʼve left out altogether the most important point of all, Job. The wood must be a clear bright yellow, or else a very rich gold colour, and Iʼm to pay for it next Tuesday, because I spent my weekʼs money yesterday, as soon as ever I got it, and—oh, Viley! canʼt you lend a fellow sixpence”? “No, not to save my life, sir. Why, Craddy, you know I wouldnʼt let you go tick if I could”. The boys rushed at one another, half in fun and half in affection, and, seizing each other by the belt of the light–plaid tunic, away they went dancing down the hall, while Hogstaff whistled a polka gently, with his old eyes glistening after them. A prettier pair, or better matched, never set young locks afloating. Each put his healthy, clear, bright face on the shoulder of the other, each flung out his short–socked legs, and pointed his dainty feet. You could see their shapely calves jerked up as they went with double action, and the hollow of the back curved in, as they threw asunder recklessly, then clasped one another again, and you thought they must both reel over. Sir Cradock Nowell hated trousers, and would not have their hair cropped, because it was like their motherʼs; otherwise they would not have looked one quarter so picturesque. Before the match was fairly finished—for they were used to this sort of thing, and the object always was to see which would give in first—it was cut short most unexpectedly. While they were taking a sharp pirouette down at the end of the hall—and as they whirled round I defy their father to have known the one from the other—the door of the stewardʼs room opened suddenly, and a tall dark woman came out. The twins in full merriment dashed up against her, and must have fallen if she had not collared them with strong and bony arms. Like little gentlemen, as they were, every atom of them, they turned in a moment to apologise, and their cheeks were burning red. They saw a gaunt old woman, wide–shouldered, stern, and forcible.