'Run and fetch them,' suggested her aunt, 'and then we can choose.
Oh,' she added, with some relief at the thought, 'if it is an object
to dispose of Cockie, we could manage him.'

The two younger ones were gratified, but Gillian and Mysie both
exclaimed that Cockie's exclusive affections were devoted to Macrae,
and that they could not answer for his temper under the separation.
To break up such a household was decidedly the Goose, Fox, and
Cabbage problem. As Mysie observed, in the course of the search for
the kittens, in the make-the-best-of-it tone, 'It was not so bad as
the former moves, when they were leaving a place for good and all.'

'Ah, but no place was ever so good as this,' said poor Valetta.

'Don't be such a little donkey,' said Fergus consequentially. 'Don't
you know we are going to school, and I am three years younger than
Wilfred was?'

'It is only a petticoat school,' said Val, 'kept by ladies.'

'It isn't.'

'It is; I heard Harry say so.'

'And yours is all butchers and bakers and candlestick makers.'

On which they fell on each other, each with a howl of defiance.
Fergus grabbed at Val's pigtail, and she was buffeting him vehemently
when Harry came out, held them apart, and demanded if this were the