So one morning, just before Christmas, the eldest boy ran in with a countenance of great delight.
"Mother, mother, the lake bears!" (It was rather a compliment to call it a lake, it being only about twenty yards across and forty long.) "The lake really bears!"
"Who says so?"
"Bill. Bill has been on it for an hour this morning, and has made us two such beautiful slides, he says—an upslide and a down-slide. May we go directly?"
The mother hesitated.
"You promised, you know," pleaded the children.
"Very well, then; only be careful."
"And may we slide all day long, and never come home for dinner or any thing?"
"Yes, if you like. Only Gardener must go with you, and stay all day."
This they did not like at all; nor, when Gardener was spoken to, did he.