THE GABLED FARM;
OR,
Young Workers for the King.
[CHAPTER I.]
A HOT DAY AT NO. 8.
A JULY sun was blazing down on a square in Bloomsbury, and seemed particularly to blaze on No. 8, with its wide windows and warm west aspect. At any rate the children thought so, who were listlessly playing in the drawing room. Since early morning the blinds had been down; since middle-day the sun-blinds had been unrolled; but nothing would keep out the burning rays, and the house seemed baked through and through.
"It is perfectly intolerable!" said a boy of fourteen, laying himself flat on the hearthrug, and stretching out both arms as far as they would go, with a long, low whistle, indicating extreme heat.
"If we only had something to look forward to!" said Ada, a girl of thirteen, who was pretending to read, but felt too hot to do anything in earnest.