"Do you know?"--he picked one up and examined it carefully--"these are exactly what the wild men used to make when they lived here a couple of thousand years ago and used to go about naked just as you do." They listened eagerly, with wide unwinking eyes, which asked for more. "They used to stain themselves all blue"--the idea so evidently commended itself to them that he hastened to add--"but you'd better not try that or you'll be killing yourselves. They used the juice of a plant which you can't get and it did them no harm. Can you swim?" Both heads shook a reluctant negative. "Can't? Oh, you ought to swim. You can fight, I know, and you are splendid shots--and good runners, I'll be bound. Why haven't you learnt to swim?" "Won't let us." "Who won't let you?" "HIM." "Who's 'him'?" "Sir Denzil." "Is that your father?" "Gran'ther "I see. I wonder if he'd let me teach you. Every boy ought to learn to swim. You'd like to?" The black heads left no possible doubt on that point. "Well, I'll call on him and ask his permission. Now, what are your names?" "Denzil Carr'n." "And you?" "Denzil Carr'n." "But you can't both be Denzil Carr'n." "I'm Jack." "I'm Jim." "And how am I to tell who from which? You're as like as two peas." They looked at one another as if it had never struck them. "Stand up and let me see who's the biggest. No"--with a shake of the head, as they stood side by side--"that doesn't help. You're both of a tires Now, let me see. Jack's got a big bump on the forehead,"--at which Jim grinned with reminiscent enjoyment. "That will identify him for a few days, anyhow, and by that time I shall have got to know you. Why hasn't your grandfather let you learn to swim?" "Devil of a coast," said Jack, loosing his tongue at last. "Damned quicksands," said Jim in emulation. "Suck and suck and never let go." "We must be careful, then. You must tell me all about them. My name's Eager--Charles Eager. I've come to take Mr. Smythe's place at Wyvveloe. Do you two go to school?" Emphatically No from both shaggy heads, and undisguised aversion to the very thought of such a thing. "But you can't go on like this, you know. What will you do when you grow up?" "Go fighting," said Jack of the bumped forehead. "Quite so. But you don't want to go as privates, I suppose. And to be officers you must learn many things." This was a new view of the matter. It seemed to make a somewhat unfavourable impression. It provided food for thought to Eager himself also, and he sat looking at them musingly with new and congenial vistas opening before him. He had in him a great passion for humanity--for the uplifting and upbuilding of his fellows. Here apparently was virgin soil ready to his hand, and he wanted to set to work on it at once. "You know how to read and write, I suppose?" "We can read _Robinson Crusoe_--round the pictures." "Of course. Good old Robinson Crusoe! He's taught many a boy to read."