Then the boys had to examine their own little gardens, which John Bawdon had been empowered to keep free from weeds during their absence; and Jack, much to his delight, discovered a pink monthly rose blooming on the bush in the middle of his flower-bed, which he gathered and presented to his mother at the breakfast-table.
"I wonder if Aunt Selina and Aunt Penelope will be here to-day?" Theodore said, addressing his father. "I expect Aunt Pen will be fussing about our lessons as soon as she sees us."
"I think not," Mr. Barton replied. "I may as well tell you I mean to get a tutor for you boys, to prepare you for a public school. I have written to Aunt Penelope, and she owns she finds you rather too great a responsibility to undertake your education any longer."
There was a short silence. The boys felt a little dismay at the prospect of a tutor at first; but in a few moments Theodore's face brightened.
"Yes, we ought to be taught by a man. We're too old for a governess now. I shall soon be nine." And he fell to thinking of the watch which his father had promised him on his next birthday, and of the conversation he had had with Jack on the subject, that never-to-be-forgotten day on the moor.
Later on, when he found himself alone with his father, he seized the opportunity of speaking to him about the promised present.
"I should so like Jack to have a watch, too," he said wistfully. "Do you think you could manage it, father?"
"I will see," Mr. Barton answered, smiling.
"Because," Theodore proceeded, "I want Jack to have one the same as me, just as though we were real brothers!"
Mr. Barton looked at the bright face of his son, at the clear grey eyes that met his so fearlessly, and his heart filled with tender affection and fatherly pride.