Humphrey readily consented, and led him out of the baking sun. "Perhaps we had better give it up," said he, sighing, as he sat down by Miles in the shade, "and try again in the cool of the evening. You could do it, couldn't you, if it were not for the heat?" "Oh, yes," said Miles, eagerly. With a respite in view, he was ready to agree to anything. "Very well," said Humphrey, "then we'll give it up and come again this evening after tea. I declare," he added, suddenly breaking off, "there's a mushroom out there!" He was off in a moment, and returned in triumph. "Isn't it a lovely one, Miles? How fresh it smells and how beautiful it peels. If father were at home, we'd have had it cooked for his dinner, he _is_ so fond of mushrooms." "It wouldn't keep good till Friday, I suppose, for the wild men's dinner party?" enquired Miles. "One would be no use," answered Humphrey, "but we might come here some morning and get a lot if we brought a basket. I'll tell you what, we'll get up _quite, quite_ early to-morrow, and come and have a regular mushroom hunt. Won't it be fun!" "I'm afraid Virginie would not be awake to dress me," observed Miles. "Oh, never mind Virginie!" said Humphrey, "I'll dress you, Miles; I don't think Virginie would care to get up so early, and it would be a pity to wake her, poor thing! She goes to bed late, and is _so_ tired in the morning." "So she is, poor thing!" said Miles. "And besides, you know," continued Humphrey, "she always thinks something dreadful will happen if she doesn't come with us, and it would be a pity to frighten her for nothing." "So it would; a great pity," repeated Miles. "But what's that noise, Humphie? Is it a cock crowing or a bull roaring?" Both children listened. There was many a sound to be heard round about on that summer morning; the buzzing of bees as they flitted about among the clover, the chirrup of the grasshoppers in the long grass, the crowing of a cock from the farm, and the lowing of cattle in the distance, but that which had attracted Miles' attention was none of all these. It was the gradually approaching sound of a female voice, which, as its owner neared the meadow, assumed to the two little listeners the familiar tones of the French language. "M. Humphrey! M. Miles! M. Humphrey! où êtes-vous donc?" "It's Virginie!" they both exclaimed, jumping up. Virginie it was; and great was the horror she expressed at their having strayed so far from home, at the state of heat in which she found Miles, and at his having been taken such a long walk. Many were the reproaches she heaped upon Humphrey as they walked back to the house for having caused _her_ such a hunt in the heat of the sun, and her nerves such a shock as they had experienced when she had not found him and his brother in their usual haunts. Lastly she brought him up with the inquiry, "Et vos leçons! Savez vous qu'il est midi passé?"