Jack thanked him, but said that he should soon be able to tackle him, if he could not just now. He would try at all events. "That's it," cried Terence enthusiastically. "That's just what I like. If you are knocked down you can but get up again and try once more." "So my papa says," observed Jack. "He's a first-rate father, let me tell you. He never would let any of us give in except to himself. He used to throw us into a pond, and tell us to swim, and unless we had actually been drowning, nothing would have made him help us; so we all very soon learned, and now there isn't a chap of my size I wouldn't swim against. We live down in Northamptonshire. My papa has a place there. We are all very jolly. There are a number of us, sisters and brothers. You must come down and see them some holidays. You'll like them, I know. There's no nonsense about them." Terence said he should like it very much, if he did not go back to Ireland. He had three brothers and a sister, but they were all older than himself. His papa was the Honourable Mr Adair, and he had an uncle, Lord Derrynane. He did not know whether they were rich or not. They lived in a big house, and had a number of servants, and people were constantly coming and going; so he supposed they were. The truth was, as I heard afterwards, they were living a great deal too fast, and Terence had nothing left as his share of his father's property, except, as he said, his debts. That, however, was no fault of his. "I say," observed Jack, "don't let us leave that poor fellow alone any longer. He seems very low-spirited about his mother. It's natural, you know; though I don't like to see a fellow blubbering just because he has hurt himself, or lost a peg-top, or anything of that sort." So they went up to Alick Murray, and began talking to him, and Terence said something funny and made him laugh. "I wonder what games they have here?" asked Jack. "Coach-and-horses," said a biggish fellow, who had just entered the playground with some long strips of leather over his arm and a whip in his hand. "Now, if you three fellows will just be harnessed, you'll make a very good unicorn." They all looked at each other, and as the big boy spoke in a good-natured tone, they agreed to do as he wished. Jack and Alick were harnessed together; Terence insisted on going as unicorn. "I say, though," cried Jack, looking back; "what are you called? I always like to know the name of the driver." "Ben Trotter when I'm not called Master Benjamin Trotter," was the answer.