I was completely nonplussed.  “I felt quite sure I could do nothing with him, he would be so heavy; but I felt equally certain that this was not the answer which Rupert expected, so I left the question to Henrietta’s readier wit.  She knitted her thick eyebrows for some minutes, partly with perplexity, and partly because of the sunshine reflected from the cucumber frame, and then said,

“We should bury him in a vault; Charlie and I couldn’t dig a grave deep enough.”

I admired Henrietta’s foresight, but Rupert was furious.

“How silly you are!” he exclaimed, knocking over the top of the rhubarb-pot table and the empty glass in his wrath.  “Of course I don’t mean a dead man.  I mean what would you do to bring a partly drowned man to life again?”

“That wasn’t what you said,” cried Henrietta, tossing her head.

“I let you come to my lecture,” grumbled Rupert bitterly, as he stooped to set his table right, “and this is the way you behave!”

“I’m very sorry, Rupert dear!” said Henrietta.  “Indeed, I only mean to do my best, and I do like your lecture so very much!”

“So do I,” I cried, “very, very much!” And by a simultaneous impulse Henrietta and I both clapped our hands vehemently.  This restored Rupert’s self-complacency, and he bowed and continued the lecture.  From this we learned that the drowned man should be turned over on his face to let the canal water run out of his mouth and ears, and that his wet clothes should be got off, and he should be made dry and warm as quickly as possible, and placed in a comfortable position, with the head and shoulders slightly raised.  All this seemed quite feasible to us.  Henrietta had dressed and undressed lots of dolls, and I pictured myself filling a hot-water bottle at the kitchen boiler with an air of responsibility that should scare all lighter-minded folk.  But the directions for “restoring breathing” troubled our sincere desire to learn; and this even though Henrietta practised for weeks afterwards upon me.  I represented the drowned man, and she drew my arms above my head for “inspiration,” and counted “one, two;” and doubled them and drove them back for “expiration;” but it tickled, and I laughed, and we could not feel at all sure that it would have made the drowned man breathe again.

Meanwhile Rupert went on with the course of lectures, and taught us how to behave in the event of a fire in the house, an epidemic in the neighbourhood, a bite from a mad dog, a chase by a mad bull, broken limbs, runaway horses, a chimney on fire, or a young lady burning to death.  The lectures were not only delightful in themselves, but they furnished us with a whole set of new games, for Henrietta and I zealously practised every emergency as far as the nature of things would allow.  Covering our faces with wet cloths to keep off the smoke, we crept on our hands and knees to rescue a fancy cripple from