"We will have a crack together, uncle. That's what Maxwell calls it,
when Mrs. Maxwell and I talk over the fire. May I tell you all about
Tommy now?"

"You may," was the amused reply.

"Well, you know, I ran as fast as I could down to the wood this morning,
and Sarah ran after me, and Mrs. Maxwell saw me coming and she ran to
the door. I was rather out of breath, you see, so she just smoothed me
down a little, and we kissed each other, and she cried a tiny bit, for I
felt her tears on my face. Then she took me in to see Tommy--Maxwell was
out, and Tommy was in the kitchen in one of Maxwell's great-coats, and
he was eating some bacon at the table for his breakfast. He got up when
he saw me--he's a nice big man, uncle, but I think his hair wants
cutting. We shook hands, and I told him I'd been expecting him ever so
long. He looked rather shy, but after he had quite finished his
breakfast, we had a very nice talk, and Mrs. Maxwell went bustling about
getting dinner ready. Tommy told me all about himself from the very
beginning, but I really quite forget some of it. He never kept any pigs
at all, but he kept some sheep instead--he went out to America and did
it--and then he was a railway man, and then he had a fever, and then he
got into bad company, and at last he came to London, and he was an
omnibus man there, and then a cabman, and then he drank too much beer,
and his money all went away, and he was ashamed of himself, and so he
wouldn't write home, and then he smashed his cab against the lamp-post,
and then he drank too much again."

"I don't think you need tell me any more of his misdoings," said Sir
Edward, drily.