"Hello, you fellows, get out." And wheeling suddenly, he drove them all into the hall and to the upper regions of the house, from whence sounds of a wild frolic soon floated down below. "Supper is ready, ladies," said Mrs. Negus, returning to the room. "We won't wait for Mr. Huntington. Hark though, isn't he coming now?" and she ran nimbly to the front door. It was Mr. Huntington returning from a solitary walk. "We'll go right on, dear boy," said Mrs. Negus. "Please send the children down-stairs, and I'll get them to the table, and do you come as soon as you can." Mr. Huntington did not look into the room as he went up the staircase. Presently, at his bidding, the merry group of children came filing down, breathing hard and fast, and making vain efforts to subdue their high spirits. Mrs. Negus scanned them through her glasses, shook her head till her curls danced, and said, apologetically, to Miss Gastonguay, "They are always frisky in frosty weather." "So are my horses," said Miss Gastonguay. "And remember, Mary Potts Negus, that I was once a child." Mrs. Negus marshalled her family to the table, requested Captain White to take the baby to Rebecca in the kitchen, then invited Miss Gastonguay to say grace. "I'll not do it," said her guest. "Captain White, then," said the little woman, again nodding her head. Captain White also refused, so she was forced to ask for a blessing on the food herself, which she did with great amiability and reverence. When a few minutes passed and Mr. Huntington did not come, she sent one of the twins for him. "He was reading," said the lad; "he had forgotten all about supper, but when I told him who was here he wouldn't come." "Flattering for us," said Miss Gastonguay, with such appreciative irony that the children, thinking a joke was intended, laughed uproariously. Captain White in some anxiety was surveying the table. There were on it sundry stacks of bread and butter, that would fly like chaff before the whirlwind when the boys got at them, a small pyramid of cheese cut in squares, and only part of a plum loaf in wedge-shaped pieces. Miss Gastonguay, as the most honoured guest, had been asked to carve, and sat in composed gravity behind a joint of cold beef that, judging from its appearance, had already figured at the dinner-table. She was also, being unused to planning, carving it in too generous slices. "Beg pardon, ma'am," he remarked, "but you're not going to make this spin out. This family is larger than usual this evening." Sensitive, gentle Marion quivered with excitement. She it was who had proposed having the cold meat for supper. "Cheese is good enough for a relish," Mrs. Negus had said during the progress of a somewhat impassioned interview in the pantry. "But those people are accustomed to late dinner," Marion had pleaded. "I think we ought to have meat and potato for them."