of a garden, two or three paddocks, numberless sheds for
hide-and-seek, and, best of all, the water. Their father kept
three beautiful horses, one at he barracks and a hunter and a
good hack at Misrule; so, to make up, the children--not that they
cared in the slightest--went about in shabby, out-at-elbow clothes,
and much-worn boots. They were taught--all but Pip, who went to
the grammar school--by a very third-class daily governess, who
lived in mortal fear of her ignorance being found out by her
pupils. As a matter of fact, they had found her out long ago, as
children will, but it suited them very well not to be pushed on
and made to work, so they kept the fact religiously to
themselves.



CHAPTER II Fowl for Dinner


"Oh, don't the days seem lank and long
When all goes right and nothing wrong;
And isn't your life extremely flat
With nothing whatever to grumble at?"

I hope you are not quite deafened yet, for though I have got
through the introductions, tea is not nearly finished, so we must
stay in the nursery a little longer: All the time I have been
talking Pip has been grumbling at the lack of good things. The
table was not very tempting, certainly; the cloth looked as if it
had been flung on, the china was much chipped and battered, the tea
was very weak, and there was nothing to eat but great thick slices