"There are one or two things that I am not up to yet," he answered, with a laugh in the corner of his eye, as he waxed his thread with a flourish.
"I should like to know what?"
"Bread and button-holes, ma'am."
CHAPTER XVII.
GOOD BARGAINS.
IT was a rainy Sunday afternoon, and four boys were trying to spend it quietly in the "liberry," as Jamie called the room devoted to books and boys, at Aunt Jessie's. Will and Geordie were sprawling on the sofa, deep in the adventures of the scapegraces and ragamuffins whose histories are now the fashion. Archie lounged in the easy chair surrounded by newspapers; Charlie stood upon the rug, in an Englishman's favorite attitude, and, I regret to say, both were smoking cigars.
"It is my opinion that this day will never come to an end," said Prince, with a yawn that nearly rent him asunder.
"Read and improve your mind, my son," answered Archie, peering solemnly over the paper behind which he had been dozing.