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“Please, sir, you never called me, sir,” expostulated the boy, wriggling in the master’s grip.

“Why, I’ve been shouting ‘Dumpkins’ all over the field for the last five minutes!”

“But, please sir, my name is Jones!”

“Why did you tell me Jones’s name was Dumpkins, you, Peter?” the master indignantly demanded of Tod some minutes later.

“I couldn’t have done that, sir,” said Tod, gravely, “for there’s nobody called Dumpkins in the school.”

It was this young master who rechristened the twins when Peter next day insisted that “a point has position but no gratitude.”

Strangely enough “The Merry Men” finds even greater favor with them than “Treasure Island,” and with the enigmatical decision of childhood their favorite of all the stories is “Markheim,” not “Will o’ the Mill,” beloved of critics. It is doubtful if they understand much of it, but nevertheless they read it over and over again to each other aloud, or silently with their curly heads pressed together, till they knew it by heart. To be sure, “Thrawn Janet” has a dreadful fascination for them, and they acted one of the principal scenes with somewhat direful results.