suspect that an army of invasion is coming."

"Daddy," cried Patsy, "you hush up. We mean business."

"If you win," said the Major, "I'll run for alderman on a petticoat
platform, and hire your services."




CHAPTER II

THE ARTIST


To most people the great rambling mansion at Elmhurst, with its ample
grounds and profusion of flowers and shrubbery, would afford endless
delight. But Kenneth Forbes, the youthful proprietor, was at times
dreadfully bored by the loneliness of it all, though no one could better
have appreciated the beauties of his fine estate.

The town, an insignificant village, was five miles distant, and
surrounding the mansion were many broad acres which rather isolated it
from its neighbors. Moreover, Elmhurst was the one important estate in
the county, and the simple, hard-working farmers in its vicinity
considered, justly enough, that the owner was wholly out of their class.

This was not the owner's fault, and Kenneth had brooded upon the matter
until he had come to regard it as a distinct misfortune. For it isolated
him and deprived him of any social intercourse with his neighbors.