Uncle David shook his walking-stick at them, and made a terrible face, when they entered; but Harry jumped upon his knee with joy at seeing him again, while Laura forgot all her distress, and rushed up to Lady Harriet, who folded her in her arms, and kissed her most affectionately.

Not a word was said that day about the tea-party, but next morning, Major Graham asked Harry, very gravely, “if he had read in the newspapers the melancholy accounts about several of his little companions, who were ill and confined to bed from having ate too much at a certain tea-party on Saturday last. Poor Peter Grey has been given over, and Charles Forrester, it is feared, may not be able to eat another loaf of bread for a fortnight!”

“Oh! uncle David! it makes me ill whenever I think of that party!” said Harry, colouring perfectly scarlet; “that was the most miserable evening of my life!”

“I must say it was not quite fair in Mrs. Crabtree to starve all the strange little boys and girls, who came as visitors to my house, without knowing who had invited them,” observed Lady Harriet. “Probably those unlucky children [33] ]will never forget, as long as they live, that scanty supper in our dining-room.”

And it turned out exactly as Lady Harriet had predicted; for though they were all asked to tea, in proper time, the very next Saturday, when Major Graham showered torrents of sugar-plums on the table, while the children scrambled to pick them up, and the side-board almost broke down afterwards under the weight of buns, cakes, cheesecakes, biscuits, fruit, and preserves, which were heaped upon each other—yet, for years afterwards, Peter Grey, whenever he ate a particularly enormous dinner, always observed, that he must make up for having once been starved at Harry Graham’s; and whenever any one of those little boys or girls again happened to meet Harry or Laura, they were sure to laugh and say, “When are you going to give us another

“GRAND FEAST?”

[34]
]CHAPTER III.
THE TERRIBLE FIRE.

Fire rages with fury wherever it comes,

If only one spark should be dropped;

Whole houses, or cities, sometimes it consumes,