“You must read, and hunt, and fish, and ride on horseback,” replied Marshall, in a tone of voice that would have made Bert open his eyes if he could have heard it. “That is the way our worthy cousins put in their leisure moments.”
“They must find it highly entertaining. I should expect it of them. Did you ever see two such country bumpkins? Wouldn’t they cut a pretty figure in the city? Why, when we were introduced to them they were as dumb as clams.”
“Yes; but you’d better take advice now for once in your life, and be very careful of your language and your behavior when you are in the presence of those same country bumpkins. That Don is pretty broad-shouldered, and I notice he’s got a grip like a young blacksmith. I found that out when I shook hands with him. If you are as tyrannical and overbearing with him as you are with me sometimes, you may get yourself into business.”
Just then the ringing of a bell in the hall brought Clarence to his feet. “What’s that for, I wonder?” he exclaimed.
“Dinner, most likely.”
“Dinner at twelve!” said Clarence, glancing at his watch. “And supper at six and bed at half-past eight, I suppose!”
“Probably; and what will trouble you still more, breakfast at six every morning,” said Marshall. “You can’t lie in bed here till ten or eleven o’clock and then have breakfast sent up to you.”
Clarence said something more about “country bumpkins,” repeated the resolution he had so suddenly formed that his sojourn under his uncle’s roof should be a very short one, and then made all haste to get ready for dinner.