Theodore gazed at him doubtfully for a moment. Last night Jack had seemed so eager to rise early, and now he declined to do so. It was too bad! How could he want to sleep with the sun streaming in the windows!
"Get up! If you don't I'll pull the bedding off!" Theodore threatened. "I mean it! What a miserable little owl you are, Jack!"
"Oh, Theo, don't! Please don't!"
It was no good to protest, for Theodore was as good as his word. The next minute the bedclothes lay in a heap on the floor, and Jack had perforce to jump out of bed. He began to dress, grumbling a little after such treatment, as was only natural; but he was a good-tempered boy, and not in the least resentful, besides he remembered he had agreed to rise early.
"It is a beautiful day," he said presently. "I do hope we are going to have fine weather whilst we're here! I think I'm glad you made me get up, Theo!"
"I knew you would be. Are you ready to go downstairs?"
"Not quite. I haven't said my prayers."
Theodore had forgotten all about his prayers in his eagerness to be out of doors. He had the grace to blush with shame as his stepbrother knelt down by the window-sill, and reverently buried his face in his hands. He knelt down too, and repeated the form of prayer he was in the habit of saying in the morning, and then glanced at his stepbrother again. It was several minutes before Jack rose from his knees.
"What long prayers you say," Theodore remarked; "mine don't take half the time!"
"You see there's so much I want to tell God," Jack responded smiling, "and so many things to thank Him for."