Pray tell us if you have? Did he run after you,-and did you run away ?" Lord Rockville tried more than he had ever done in his life to look grave, but it would not do. Gradually his face relaxed into a smile, till at last he burst into loud peals of laughter, joined most heartily by Harry, Laura, and Lady Rockville. Nobody recovered any gravity during the rest of that evening, for whenever they tried to think or talk quietly about anything else, Harry and Laura were sure to burst forth again upon the subject, and even after being safely stowed in their beds for the night, they both laughed themselves to sleep at the idea of Lord Rockville himself having been obliged, after all, to run away from that "most respectable, quiet, well-disposed animal, "THE MAD BULL!" CHAPTER VIII. THE BROKEN KEY. First he moved his right leg, Then he said, "I pardon beg," And sat upon his seat. "OH! uncle David! uncle David!" cried Laura, when they arrived from Holiday House, "I would jump out of the carriage window with joy to see you again; only the persons passing in the street might be surprised!" "Not at all! They are quite accustomed to see people jumping out of the windows with joy, whenever I appear." "We have so much to tell you," exclaimed Harry and Laura, each seizing hold of a hand, "we hardly know where to begin!" "Ladies and gentlemen! If you both talk at once, I must get a new pair of ears! So you have not been particularly miserable at Holiday House?" "No! no! uncle David! we did not think there had been so much happiness in the world," answered Laura, eagerly. "The last two days we could do nothing but play and laugh, and" "And grow fat! Why! you both look so well fed, you are just fit for killing! I shall be obliged to shut you up two or three days, without anything to eat, as is done to pet lapdogs, when they are getting corpulent and gouty." "Then we shall be like bears living on our paws," replied Harry, "and uncle David! I would rather do that, than be a glutton like Peter Grey. He went to a cheap shop lately, where old cheese-cakes were sold at half-price, and greedily devoured nearly a dozen, thinking that the dead flies scattered on the top were currants, till Frank shewed him his mistake!" "Frank should have let him eat in peace! There is no accounting for tastes. I once knew a lady who liked to swallow spiders! She used to crack and eat them with the greatest delight, whenever she could catch one." "Oh! what a horrid woman! That is even worse than grandmama's story about Dr. Manvers having dined on a dish of mice, fried in crumbs of bread!" "You know the old proverb, Harry, one man's meat 13 another man's poison.' The Persians are disgusted at our eating lobsters; and the Hindoos think us scarcely fit to exist, because we live on beef; while we are equally amazed at the Chinese for devouring dog pies, and birds'-nest soup. You turn up your nose at the French for liking frogs; and they think us ten times worse with our singed sheep's head, oat cakes, and haggis." "That reminds me," said Lady Harriet, "that when Charles X. lived in what he called the dear Canongate,' His Majesty was heard to say, that he tried every sort of Scotch goose, 'the solan goose, the wild goose, and the tame goose; but the best goose of all, was the hag-goose.'" "Very polite, indeed, to adopt our national taste so completely," observed uncle David, smiling. "When my regiment was quartered in Spain, an officer of ours, a great epicure, and not quite so complaisant, used to say that the country was scarcely fit to live in, because there it is customary to dress almost every dish with sugar. At last, one day, in a rage, he ordered eggs to be brought up in their shells for dinner, saying, that is the only thing the cook cannot possibly spoil.' We played him a trick, however, which was very like what you would have done, Harry, on a similar occasion. I secretly put pounded sugar into the salt-cellar, and when he tasted his first mouthful, you should have seen the look of fury with which he sprung off his seat, exclaiming, 'the barbarians eat sugar even with their eggs!'" "That would be the country for me to travel in," said Harry. "I could live in a barrel of sugar; and my little pony, Tom Thumb, would be happy to accompany me there, as he likes anything sweet." “All animals are of the same opinion. I remember the famous rider, Ducrow, telling a brother-officer of mine, that the way in which he gains so much influence over his horses, is merely by bribing them with sugar. They may be managed in that way like children, and are quite aware, if it be taken from them as a punishment for being restive." "Oh! those beautiful horses at Ducrow's! How often I think of them since we were there!" exclaimed Harry. "They were quite like fairies, with fine arched necks, and long tails !" "I never heard before of a fairy with a long tail, Master Harry; but perhaps in the course of your travels you may have seen such a thing." "How I should like to ride upon Tom Thumb, in Ducrow's way, with my toe on the saddle !" "Fine doings, indeed !" exclaimed Mrs. Crabtree, who had entered the room at this moment. "Have you forgotten already, Master Harry, how many of the nursey plates you broke one day when I was out, in trying to copy that there foolish Indian juggler, who tossed his plates in the air, and twirled them on his thumb! There must be no more such nonsense; for if once your neck is broke by a fall off Tom Thumb, no doctor that I know of can mend it again. Remember what a terrible tumble you had off Jessy last year!" "You are always speaking about that little overturn, Mrs. Crabtree; and it was not worth recollecting above a week! Did you never see a man thrown off his horse before?" "A man and horse indeed!" said uncle David, laughing, when he looked at Harry. "You and your charger were hardly large enough then for a toy-shop; and you must grow a little more, Captain Gulliver, before you will be fit for a dragoon regiment." Harry and Laura stayed very quietly at home for several weeks after their return from Holiday House, attending so busily to lessons, that uncle David said he felt much afraid they were going to be a pair of little wonders, who would die of too much learning. "You will be taken ill of the multiplication table some day, and confined to bed with a violent fit of geography! Pray take care of yourselves, and do not devour above three books at once," said Major Grahamn one day, entering the room with a note in his hand. "Here is an invitation that I suppose you are both too busy to accept, so perhaps I might as well send an apology; eh, Harry?" Down dropped the lesson-books upon the floor, and up sprung Harry in an ecstacy of delight. "An invitation! Oh! I like an invitation so very much! Pray tell us all about it!" month with Dr. They breakfast "Perhaps it is an invitation to spend a Lexicon. What would you say to that? upon Latin grammars at school, and have a dish of real French verbs, smothered in onions, for dinner every day." "But in downright earnest, uncle David! where are we going?" "Must I tell you? Well! that good-natured old lady, Mrs. Darwin, intends taking a large party of children next week, in her own carriage, to pass ten days at Ivy Lodge, a charming country house about twenty miles off, where you are all to enjoy perfect happiness. I wish I could be ground L |