nursery in spite of all my provision for them! That ends my compunctions.
I'll take him, and you that big fellow munching a cabbage-leaf. We'll
count three--now, one, two--" The two reports rang out as one, and the
watchers at the window saw the flashes, and thrilled at the reverberating
echoes.

"It's almost as exciting as if they were shooting Indians, robbers, or
giants," cried Johnnie, clapping her hands and jumping up and down.

"Back," said Webb to Alf, who was about to rush forward to secure the
game; "we may get another shot."

They waited a few moments in vain, and then succumbed to the cold. To Alf
was given the supreme delight of picking up the game that lay on the
snow, making with their blood the one bit of color in all the white
garden.

"Poor little chaps!" Webb remarked, as he joined the family gathered
around Alf and the rabbits in the sitting-room. "It's a pity the world
wasn't wide enough for us all."

"What has come over you, Webb?" asked Burt, lifting his eyebrows. "Has
there been a hidden spring of sentiment in your nature all these years,
which has just struck the surface?"

It was evident that nearly all shared in Webb's mild regret that such a
sudden period had been put to life at once so pretty, innocent, and
harmful. Alf, however, was conscious of only pure exultation. Your boy is
usually a genuine savage, governed solely by the primal instinct of the
chase and destruction of wild animals. He stroked the fur, and with eyes