was our Newfoundland dog, and the gardener dropped a beam on him, and
killed him as dead as JULIUS CÆSAR. Oh, Mr. JOYNSON, _when_ did JULIUS
CÆSAR die?"

Happily my presence of mind does not desert me. I reply, severely,--

"What! Don't you know your Roman History better than that?"

"No," he answers--"do you?" Then a sudden thought strikes him. "Oh,
I'll ask Miss MYRTLE" (Miss MYRTLE is the Governess)--"_she_'ll be
sure to know. _She_ isn't a muff."

_Query_--What is the best line to take with a remark like that?
Before I decide the point, HERBIE rushes out into the garden, and
is immediately sent spinning into a cucumber-frame by his kind elder
brother, who then disappears into the house.

Yells from HERBIE. Go in and send the Governess to him. Relief from
children for about ten minutes.

_At Breakfast_.--Mother cross. Seems to think that _I_ ought to have
prevented ERNIE from mutilating HERBIE. HERBIE appears with head
bandaged, still sobbing. French again, thank Heaven!--so children
silent. Never felt the advantage of foreign languages till now.

Mamma, with a courage worthy of a better cause, asks me, "What time
lessons will begin?" I reply, evasively, "that I shall be in the
library, and that I will ring for _ERNEST_ (I lay stress on the word
ERNEST, as excluding the two others) when I am ready for him."