[It was no other than Peter Perry's dog, Bounce.]
["A dwarf!" Tom exclaimed, and stopped to look at him.]
Hurrah for Peter Perry!
[CHAPTER I]
THE BEGINNING OF THE HOLIDAYS
"WE'RE not to go to the seaside? Oh, Mother, why not?"
"Because, dear, we can't afford it. I'm very, very sorry, but you must try to enjoy your holidays at home; and, please, Tom, don't let your father guess that you greatly mind—of course, it's only natural that you should be disappointed."
The scene was the comfortable though decidedly shabby sitting-room at No. 3 Ladysmith Terrace, a row of new houses on the outskirts of Chilaton, a large provincial town; and the speakers were Mrs. Burford, a pretty, rather delicate-looking woman of thirty, and her ten-year-old son, Tom, whose usually bright face was now wearing an expression of mingled amazement and dismay. It was a pleasant afternoon at the close of July, and on the previous day the school, which Tom attended as a day-scholar, had broken up for the long holiday. Always, hitherto, Mr. Burford, who was a clerk in a bank in Chilaton, had taken his holiday in August, and gone with his family to the seaside; but Mrs. Burford had just told Tom that that programme could not be carried out this year.
"You see," she continued, "we have had extra expenses to cope with— Nellie's illness, for instance, and—"
"Dr. Brewer said that a change of air would set Nellie up quicker than anything!" Tom broke in, eagerly; "you haven't forgotten that, Mother?"