"It-—I suppose I am not to hear what till it has come to perfection.
Is it the same that was in hand last time?"

"No, papa, much better," said Janet, emphatically.

"What I want to see," said Dr. Brownlow, "is something finished. I'd
rather have that than ever so many magnificent beginnings."

Here he was seized upon by Robert, with his knitted brow and a book
in his hands, demanding aid in making out why, as he said, the tide
swelled out on the wrong side of the earth.

His father did his best to disentangle the question, but Bobus was
not satisfied till the clock chimed his doom, when he went off with
Jock, who was walking on his hands.

"That's too tough a subject for such a little fellow," said the
grandmother; "so late in the day too!"

"He would have worried his brain with it all night if he had not
worked it out," said his father.

"I'm afraid he will, any way," said the mother. "Fancy being
troubled with dreams of surging oceans rising up the wrong way!"

"Yes, he ought to be running after the tides instead of theorising
about them. Carry him off, Mother Carey, and the whole brood,
without loss of time."

"But Joe, why should we not wait for you? You never did send us away