"Oh, indeed! Then you've still the love for exploration. How is your
friend old Principle? Is he still unearthing wonders and keeping them in
his kettles?"

"He is busy in a cave now," said Dudley, eagerly; "would you like to
come and see it one day?"

"No, thank you. And are you lads still devoted friends?"

"David and Jonathan, still," said Miss Bertram; and the old general
laughed heartily.

Before he left, he also gave Roy a sovereign, which made the little
fellow confide to Dudley,

"I've put granny's in my right hand pocket, and the general's in my
left, they won't mix together well, because hers is such a solemn one,
and his is so jolly!"

It was a happy little party that set off for Norrington Court. The boys
were on their ponies, and Miss Bertram in her pony trap, with Rob
sitting behind, proud in the consciousness of a new suit of clothes, and
delighted at being included in the number.

Up a long stately avenue of elms and beeches, with bracken and ferns
covering mossy glades in the distance, and then Roy and Dudley flung
themselves off their ponies before an old stone house with ivy-covered
walls and turrets. Everything had been brightened up for their visit.
The flowers on the terraces were one mass of sweet perfume and color,
the drives weeded and rolled, and the velvet turf in only such a