You could not have found anywhere two happier boys than were Charlie and Selwyn Kingsley one Saturday morning early in June.  In their delight they threw their arms around each other and danced up and down the piazza, they tossed their hats in the air and hurrahed, they sprang down the stone steps two at a time, dashed about the grounds in a wild fashion that excited their dog Fritz, and set him barking in the expectation of a frolic, then raced across to their special chum and playmate, Ned Petry.  They arrived there almost out of breath, but with such beaming faces that before they reached the hammock where he lay swinging Ned called out, “Halloa! what’s happened?  Something good, I know.”

“We’re going—­” panted Charlie, dropping down on the grass beside him.

“To Europe!” supplemented Selwyn.

“No!” cried Ned, springing up.  “Isn’t that just jolly!  When do you sail, and who all are going?  Let’s sit in the hammock together.  Now tell me all about it.”  The three boys crowded into the hammock, and for a few minutes questions and answers flew thick and fast.

“You know we’ve always wanted to go.” said Charlie.  Ned nodded.  “And the last time papa went he promised he’d take us the next trip, but we didn’t dream he was going this summer.”

“Though we suspected something was up,” broke in Selwyn, “because for about a week past whenever Charlie and I would come into the room papa and mamma’d stop talking; but we never thought of Europe.”

“Until this morning,” continued Charlie, “after breakfast, when papa said, ’Boys, how would you like a trip to Europe with your mother and me?’”

“At first we thought he was joking,” again interrupted eager little Selwyn, “because his eyes twinkled just as they do when he is telling a joke.”

“But he wasn’t,” resumed his brother, “and the long and short of the matter is that we are all—­papa, mamma, sister Agatha, Selwyn, and I—­to sail in the Majestic, June 17, so we’ve only about a week more to wait.”

“Oh! oh! it’s too splendid for anything!” cried Selwyn, clapping his hands in delight and giving the hammock a sudden impetus, which set it swaying rapidly.  “We’re to spend some time with Uncle Geoffrey Barrington—­you know, Ned, Rex’s father—­and we’re to see all the sights of ’famous London town’—­the Houses of Parliament, the Zoo, Westminster Abbey, and the dear old Tower!  Just think of it, Ned, papa’s going to show us the very cells in which Lady Jane Grey and Sir Walter Raleigh were shut up!  Oh, don’t I wish you were going, too!”

“Wouldn’t it be splendid!” said Charlie, throwing his arm across Ned’s shoulders.

“Wouldn’t it!” echoed Ned, ruefully.  “I wonder when our turn will come; soon, I hope.  I shall miss you fellows awfully.”

“Never mind, Ned, we’ll write to you,” cried both boys, warmly, “and tell you all about everything.”