"Maps," said Bobbie.

"Right," said Mr. Lenox. "I wish I was coming with you."

"Do," they all cried.

"I can't," said Mr. Lenox. "If I were to go away before September, I should
get the sack, and then I should starve. His Lordship is sufficiently cross
with me now, because I had to give him out leg-before at the annual estate
match last Saturday, when I was umpiring. He couldn't stand anything else."

That night Mrs. Avory, Uncle Christopher, Mr. Scott, and Mr. Lenox were
talking after dinner.

"It's a very wonderful present," said Mrs. Avory; "but there are two things
about it that are not quite satisfactory. One is that one likes to know
where such gifts come from, and the other is that for a party of children
to go away alone, with only Kink, is a great responsibility." (That's a
word which mothers are very fond of.) "Suppose they're ill?"

"It's a risk you must take," said Uncle Chris. "Don't anticipate trouble."

"Because," Mrs. Avory went on, "I should not go with them, although I might
arrange to meet them here and there on their journey. They would like me to
be with them, I know, and they would like to be without me, I know."

"I shouldn't worry about the giver of the present," said Mr. Scott. "You
have many friends from whom you would have no objection to accept a
caravan, and there's no harm in one of those friends wishing to be
anonymous. As for the other matter, I don't see much risk so long as Kink