“Yes, sir.”

“What right had you to be there?”

“None, sir. But we had nowhere else to go, and nobody seemed to want the place. We didn’t hurt anything. We swept away a multitude of dead moths, and killed a lot of live ones, and destroyed a whole granary of grubs; and the dog killed a great rat.”

“What is your name?”

“Clare—Porson,” answered Clare, with a little intervening hesitation.

“You are not quite sure?”

“Yes; that is my name; but I have another older one that I don’t know.”

“A bad answer! The name you go by is not your own! Hum! Is that boy your brother?”

“No, sir.”

“Your cousin?”