Seven Little Australians | Page 6

of you are to go to the pantomime. The seats were taken for
Thursday night, and now, you very foolish children, you will all have
to stay at home."
There was a perfect howl of dismay for a minute or two. They had all
been looking forward to this treat for nearly a month, and the
disappointment was a really bitter one to them all.
"Oh, I say, Esther, that's too bad, really! All the fellows at school have
been." Pip's handsome face flushed angrily. "And for such a little thing,
too!"
"Just because you had roast fowl for dinner," said Judy, in a
half-choked voice. "Oh, Esther, why couldn't you have had cow, or
horse, or hippopotamus--anything but roast fowl?"
"Couldn't you get round him, Esther?" Meg looked anxiously at her.
"Dear Esther, do!"
"Oh, you sweet, beautiful Essie, do try!"
They clung round her eagerly. Baby flung her arms round her neck and
nearly choked her; Nell stroked her cheek; Pip patted her back, and
besought her to "be a good fellow"; Bunty buried his nose in her back
hair and wept a silent tear; Meg clasped her hand in an access of
unhappiness; the General gave a series of delighted squeaks; and Judy
in her wretchedness smacked him for his pains.
Esther would do her best, beg as she had never done before, coax,
beseech, wheedle, threaten; and they let her go at last with that
assurance.
"Only I'd advise you all to be preternaturally good and quiet all day,"
she said, looking back from the doorway. "That would have most effect
with him, and he is going to be at home all day."
GOOD! It was absolutely painful to witness the virtue of those children

for the rest of the day.
It was holiday-time, and Miss Marsh was away, but not once did the
sound of quarrelling, or laughing, or crying fly down to the lower
regions.
"'Citizens of Rome, the eyes of the world are upon you!'" Judy had said
solemnly, and all had promised so to conduct themselves that their
father's heart could not fail to be melted.
Pip put on his school jacket, brushed his hair, took a pile of school
books, and proceeded to the study where his father was writing letters,
and where he was allowed to do his home-lessons.
"Well, what do you want?" said the Captain, with a frown. "No, it's no
good coming to the about that pup, sir--I won't have you keep it."
"I came to study, sir," said Pip mildly. "I feel I'm a bit backward with
my mathematics, so I won't waste all the holidays, when I'm costing
you so much in school fees."
The Captain gave a little gasp and looked hard at Pip; but the boy's face
was so unsmiling and earnest that he was disarmed, and actually
congratulated himself that his eldest son was at last seeing the error of
his ways.
"There are those sets of problems in that drawer that I did when I was
at school," he said graciously. "If they are of any use to you, you can
get them out."
"Thanks awfully--they will be a great help," said Pip gratefully.
He examined them with admiration plainly depicted upon his face.
"How very clearly and correctly you worked, Father," he said with a
sigh. "I wonder if ever I'll get as good as this! How old were you,
Father, when you did them?"
"About your age," said the Captain, picking up the papers.
He examined them with his head on one side. He was rather proud of
them, seeing he had utterly forgotten now how to work decimal
fractions, and could not have done a quadratic equation to save his life.
"Still, I don't think you need be quite discouraged, Pip. I was rather
beyond the other boys in my class in these subjects, I remember. We
can't all excel in the same thing, and I'm glad to see you are beginning
to realize the importance of work."
"Yes, Father."
Meg had betaken herself to the drawing-room, and was sitting on the

floor before the music canterbury with scissors, thimble, and a roll of
narrow blue ribbon on her knee, and all her father's songs, that he so
often complained were falling to pieces, spread out before her.
He saw her once as he passed the door, and looked surprised and
pleased.
"Thank you, Margaret: they wanted it badly. I am glad you can make
yourself useful, after all," he said.
"Yes, Father."
Meg stitched on industriously.
He went batik to his study, where Pip's head was at a studious,
absorbed angle, and pyramids of books and sheaves of paper were on
the table. He wrote two more letters, and there came a little knock at
the door.
"Come in,"