CHAPTER I.

RUPERT'S LECTURES--THE OLD YELLOW LEATHER BOOK.


We were very happy--I, Rupert, Henrietta, and Baby Cecil. The only
thing we found fault with in our lives was that there were so few
events in them.

It was particularly provoking, because we were so well prepared for
events--any events. Rupert prepared us. He had found a fat old book in
the garret, bound in yellow leather, at the end of which were
"Directions how to act with presence of mind in any emergency;" and he
gave lectures out of this in the kitchen garden.

Rupert was twelve years old. He was the eldest. Then came Henrietta,
then I, and last of all Baby Cecil, who was only four. The day I was
nine years old, Rupert came into the nursery, holding up his handsome
head with the dignified air which became him so well, that I had more
than once tried to put it on myself before the nursery looking-glass,
and said to me, "You are quite old enough now, Charlie, to learn what
to do whatever happens; so every half-holiday, when I am not playing
cricket, I'll teach you presence of mind near the cucumber frame, if
you're punctual. I've put up a bench."

I thanked him warmly, and the next day he put his head into the
nursery at three o'clock in the afternoon, and said--"The lecture."

I jumped up, and so did Henrietta.