Just then he caught my eye, smiled rapturously, hurried to me and laid his rascally soft cheek confidingly against mine, while an audible sensation pervaded the church.  What to do or say to him I scarcely knew; but my quandary was turned to wonder, as Miss Mayton, her face full of ill-repressed mirth, but her eyes full of tenderness, drew the little scamp close to her, and Mssed him soundly.  At the same instant, the minister, not without some little hesitation, said, “Let us pray.”  I hastily bowed my head, glad of a chance to hide my face; but as I stole a glance at the cause of this irreligious disturbance, I caught Miss Mayton’s eye.  She was laughing so violently that the contagion was unavoidable, and I laughed all the harder as I felt that one mischievous boy had undone the mischief caused by another.

After the benediction, Budge was the recipient of a great deal of attention, during the confusion of which I embraced the opportunity to say to Miss Mayton:—­

“Do you still sustain my sister in her opinion of my nephews, Miss Mayton?”

“I think they’re too funny for anything,” replied the lady, with great enthusiasm.  “I do wish you would bring them to call upon me.  I’m longing to see an original young gentleman.”

“Thank you,” said I.  “And I’ll have Toddie bring a bouquet by way of atonement,”

“Do,” she replied, as I allowed her to pass from the pew.  The word was an insignificant one, but it made me happy once more.

“You see, Uncle Harry,” exclaimed Budge, as we left the church together, “the Sunday-school wasn’t open yet, an’ I wanted to hear if they’d sing again in church; so I came in, an’ you wasn’t in papa’s seat, an’ I knew you was SOMEwhere, so I looked for you.”

“Bless you,” thought I, snatching him into my arms as if to hurry him into Sabbath school, but really to give him a kiss of grateful affection, “you did right—­exactly right.”

My Sunday dinner was unexceptional in point of quantity and quality, and a bottle of my brother-in-law’s claret proved to be most excellent; yet a certain uneasiness of mind prevented my enjoying the meal as thoroughly as under other circumstances I might have done.  My uneasiness came of a mingled sense of responsibility and ignorance.  I felt that it was the proper thing for me to see that my nephews spent the day with some sense of the requirements and duties of the Sabbath; but how I was to bring it about, I hardly knew.  The boys, were too small to have Bible-lessons administered to them, and they were too lively to be kept quiet by any ordinary means.  After a great deal of thought, I determined to consult the children themselves, and try to learn what their parents’ custom had been.

“Budge,” said I, “what do you do Sundays when your papa and mama are home?  What do they read to you,—­what do they talk about?”

“Oh, they swing us—­lots!” said Budge, with brightening eyes.