"Young gentlemen," said Uncle John, with an emphasis which brought the blood to Basil's cheek, "dinner will be ready"--he looked at his watch--"in an hour. I daresay they would like something now, Margaret; crackers and cheese, gingerbread,--what? You'll find them something." Mr. Montfort nodded kindly, and strode away to his study. Margaret was left alone with the three strange children, feeling shyer than ever before in her life. The meeting with the three cousins of her own age, two years ago, was nothing to this. "Are you hungry, boys?" she asked. "Starving!" said Merton. "He isn't," said Susan D. "He's been eating all the way, ever since we left home. He's a greedy,--that's what he is." Then, scared at her own voice, she hung her head down, and put her finger in her mouth. "Oh, well," said Margaret, "I daresay you would all be hungry before dinner-time, so suppose we come into the pantry and see what we can find. Will you come with me, Susan, dear?" She held out her hand, but the little girl evaded it, and followed in the rear, holding her own hands behind her back. "Will you call me Cousin Margaret?" the girl went on. "And shall I call you Susie, or do you like Susan better?" Susan not replying, Basil replied for her. "Susan D. we call her; but Puppa calls her Sudden Death when she acts bad; she mostly does act bad." "Don't neither!" muttered Susan D., scowling. "Do teither!" retorted both brothers in a breath. "She ain't shy!" Basil went on. "She's sulky, that's all. Merton's shy, and I ain't. I'll tell you things, when you ask me; they won't, half the time." "Well, I haven't asked you anything, yet, have I?" said Margaret, smiling, and feeling more at ease with this boy, somehow, than with either of the others. "What can you tell me that is pleasant about them?" "That's so!" said Basil, and his lips parted suddenly in a smile that positively transfigured his plain face. "Well, Mert's the best boxer, and he can sing and draw. I'm the best runner, of course, 'count of my legs being long, you see." He held up a long, thin leg for Margaret's inspection. "Some fellows called me Spider once, and Susan D. scratched their faces for 'em. She's great at scratching, Susan D. is." "My dear!" said poor Margaret. "I thought you were going to tell me the pleasant things, Basil." "Ain't I?" said the boy, innocently. "She was standing up for me, you see. She always stands up for me; Mert is a sne---- well, what I was going to say, she's a pretty good runner, for a girl, and she can shin a rope too, better than any of us. Mert can hang on longest with his teeth." "What _do_ you mean, child?" cried Margaret, laughing. Basil flashed his brilliant smile on her again. "Tables," he explained. "Yes, please, crackers; and quite a lot of cheese, please." "Greedy Gobble!" interjected Merton.