But Roy’s lesson this morning was not interesting, and he was unusually talkative.

“It’s no good trying to master this sum, it’s all those nines.  They’re nasty, lanky, spiteful little brutes, I should like to tear them out of the sum-books.”

“Expel them from arithmetic,” said Dudley, looking up from a latin exercise, his sunny smile appearing.  “Don’t you wish we could have a huge dust hole to empty all the nasty people and things in that we don’t like?”

“Yes—­I’d shovel the nines in fast enough, and a few eights to keep them company, and then I would throw in all my medicine bottles, and my great coat, and—­and Mrs. Selby on the top of them!”

This last clause was added in a whisper, for if there was any one that Roy really disliked, it was his tutor’s wife.  She was a kind-hearted woman, but fidgety and fussy to the last degree, and was always in a bustle.  Having no children, she expended all her energies on the parish, and there was not a domestic detail in any village home that escaped her eye.  She had spoken sharply to the boys that morning for bringing in muddy footprints, and her words were still rankling in Roy’s breast.

“It’s so awfully hot,” Roy continued; “let us open the window, Dudley.  Old Selby won’t mind for once; it’s like an oven in here.”

The window was opened with some difficulty, and the fresh air blowing in seemed delicious to the boys.  Roy clambered up on the old window-seat, slate in hand, but his eyes commanded the view of the village street, and the sum made slow progress in consequence.

“I say!  Tom White’s pig has broken loose, and that stupid Johnnie Dent is driving it straight into old Principle’s!  I expect he’ll come out in an awful rage.  No—­the door must be shut, he can’t get in.  There seems quite a crowd round old Principle’s.  He’s giving them a lecture, I expect.  Here comes old Mother Selby tearing up the street, her bonnet strings are flying and she’s awfully excited!”

A minute after the door was thrown open.

“John, it’s the most extraordinary thing—­oh, you are not here!—­Where is Mr. Selby?  I always knew something would happen to that old man roaming over the hills half the night, and digging holes big enough to bury himself!  John!  Where are you?”

She disappeared as quickly as she had come, banging the door violently behind her; but Roy sprang down from his seat instantly.

“Dudley, it’s old Principle!  Something must have happened to him, do let us go and see.”

Dudley dashed down his pen, and was vaulting out of the window, when he suddenly stopped.

“Roy get your great coat, quick.  Aunt Judy made me promise to look after you.  I’ll wait while you get it.”