The next day the children sat down to keep their promise of writing home an account of their experiences.  The three letters were very different in style, but they were all filled with the delight of their writers at the beauty and magnificence of the villa, and with the pleasures they enjoyed and the kindness they received.  They hoped they should stay twelve weeks instead of six.  These were the letters.  But into each letter was secretly slipped a private note, addressed to Aunty, begging her to persuade papa to allow the visit to be prolonged as much as possible.  Fred added that if the time fixed should be a year, and then a cipher added to the number of days, three thousand six hundred and fifty would not be one too many for him.

CHAPTER IV.

IN THE FISHERMAN’S HUT.

The next morning, Oscar was early on hand at the iron gate; waiting to see the baker’s boy, when he brought the bread.  The boy came along with a huge basket on his arm, from which issued an agreeable smell of freshly baked loaves.  Oscar went to meet him, and asked abruptly:—­

“Which canton are you from?”

“That is none of your business,” answered the boy.

Oscar was not a whit surprised or daunted by this reply.

“You needn’t be so rough,” he said; “I’ve a very good reason for asking.”  And he went on to explain to the boy what he had in mind, and to enlarge on the pleasure of collecting as many Swiss as possible; and of holding a festival in honor of their country.  Then it appeared that the fellow was not a bad fellow at all, and had only answered in that rude way to show his independence.  He received Oscar’s proposal with great interest, though he owned that he knew but very few Swiss in the neighborhood.  He had come from Lucerne only about six months before, to work for the baker, whose wife was his cousin.  A shoemaker’s boy from Uri lived near by, and a porter at the “Bunch of Grapes” came from Schwyz.  Then there was the great factory down by the canal, which belonged to some Swiss gentlemen.  He carried bread there every day, and had often seen two boys playing ball in the garden, but they had never spoken to him.  Oscar was well pleased with this information.  He asked the boy to invite the shoemaker’s boy and the porter to join the society, and he would see the others himself.  He would appoint the day, and decide on other particulars later; as the baker’s boy came every day to the house, there would be no difficulty in keeping him informed.

Highly delighted with his success, Oscar told the other children of his plans, and asked Fani to go with him to the factory to see the two boys.  Fani refused decidedly.  Mrs. Stanhope, he said, did not allow him and Elsli to visit people with whom she was not acquainted, especially in the neighborhood.  But when Elsli saw how badly Oscar felt at this refusal, she said:—­