Rachel attempted to say that his mother would be much displeased, he
proceeded to tumble head over heels all round the room, as if he knew
better; which performance broke up the seance, with a resolve on her
part that when she had the books she would not be so beaten. She
tried Francis, but he really did know next to nothing, and whenever
he came to a word above five letters long stopped short, and when
told to spell it, said, "Mamma never made him spell;" also muttering
something depreciating about civilians.

Rachel was a woman of perseverance. She went to the bookseller's,
and obtained a fair amount of books, which she ordered to be sent to
Lady Temple's. But when she came down the next morning, the parcel
was nowhere to be found. There was a grand interrogation, and at
last it turned out to have been safely deposited in an empty dog-
kennel in the back yard. It was very hard on Rachel that Fanny
giggled like a school-girl, and even though ashamed of herself and
her sons, could not find voice to scold them respectably. No wonder,
after such encouragement, that Rachel found her mission no sinecure,
and felt at the end of her morning's work much as if she had been
driving pigs to market, though the repetition was imposing on the
boys a sort of sense of fate and obedience, and there was less active
resistance, though learning it was not, only letting teaching be
thrown at them. All the rest of the day, except those two hours,
they ran wild about the house, garden, and beach--the latter place
under the inspection of Coombe, whom, since the "Jolly Mariner"
proposal, Rachel did not in the least trust; all the less when she
heard that Major Keith, whose soldier-servant he had originally been,
thought very highly of him. A call at Myrtlewood was formidable from
the bear-garden sounds, and delicate as Lady Temple was considered to
be, unable to walk or bear fatigue, she never appeared to be