“I can best answer that question by reading a portion of this letter,” replied Don. “It came more than a week ago. Father and mother have consulted about it, and have finally consented, most reluctantly, to accept the proposition it contains. I am afraid it was a bad day for us when they did so. Our fun is all knocked in the head. In the first place the letter is from Uncle Bob, and relates to our cousins, Clarence and Marshall Gordon.” “Are they coming here?” asked Bert, his face brightening with joyous anticipation. Don looked sharply at his brother for a minute or two before he spoke. “Yes, they’re coming,” said he. “I don’t know what you may think about it, but I am sorry; and so are father and mother.” “Then why do they let them come?” “Because they can’t help it. Father is under heavy obligations to Uncle Bob, who has done him numberless good turns, and he says he can’t well refuse to grant this, the only favor that Uncle Bob has ever asked of him.” “But why don’t they want Clarence and Marshall here?” asked Bert, who could not see why his parents should object to the visit of relatives whom he and his brother had not seen for many years--so many, in fact, that he could not remember of ever having met them at all. They (that is, Clarence and Marshall) had always lived with their parents in Europe; and it was only about a year ago that they had taken up their abode in a northern city where their father was engaged in business. “This will explain everything,” said Don; and as he spoke, he settled back in his chair and opened the letter. CHAPTER VII. THE NEW COMERS. That portion of the letter which Don read was as follows:-- “And now I come to the matter about which I sat down to write to you. It relates to my two boys, Clarence and Marshall--more particularly to the first. I am very anxious to remove them both from the temptations to which they are exposed in this big city. Since we returned from Europe they have been a source of constant anxiety to their mother and myself. The first thing they did was to make acquaintances and friends among those I should not have chosen for their companions, if I had had the power of selection in my own hands. Being completely engrossed in the cares of business, I could not give the attention to their training that I ought to have done; and the first thing that brought me to a sense of my duty and my neglect in this matter, was the visit of a police officer, who called at my office, and informed me that Clarence had been arrested in a saloon for engaging in a brawl over a game of cards----” “Gracious!” gasped Bert. “O, he’s a nice bird,” said Don, in great disgust. “And that isn’t the worst of it. He is untruthful and dishonest. His father doesn’t say so, but you can gain that idea from the language he uses. Listen to this:-- “‘For engaging in a brawl over a game of cards, and that he would be held until his examination came off, unless I was willing to go his bail.’”