it to us, and that the defendants shall have the right to do as they like with the paddock and build a house upon it, and that the said Granny will perhaps be so very kind as to give them some stock to start us, as we have only got a few chickens and a donkey (which is really yours) to begin with.

"God save the Queen. Signed, Bunny and Curly.'"

"Oh, Bunny, how nice it sounds-only I didn't sign.".

"No, I did it for you. I thought you wouldn't write well enough. I think it would be best for me to sign for Granny too. It always looks so much better for a document to be in one handwriting."

"Then why don't you sign for her?"

"Oh, because she must agree to it first, and then somebody will sign. If I did it without leave it would be forgery."

Curly heaved a great sigh.

"Oh, Bunny, what a lot you do know! I think you ought to be a lawyer instead of a farmer."

"Well," answered Bunny, thoughtfully, "I've heard people say that a knowledge of the law is useful to everybody, whatever they are, and you see how useful it has been to us already; for if we had had to get a lawyer to draw our lease he might have charged quite half-a-crown for it, and now we've got it for nothing. But let us go and talk to Granny now."

CHAPTER IX

BUT in the end the lease was not taken straight to Granny. There was not sufficient sealing-wax in the library to satisfy Bunny's aspirations in the matter of seals, and it was judged better to submit the document first to Tor, to see what he said to it, and to enlist his help in the matter.

Tor was gradually getting over the effects of the fire, though his exertions on that night had hindered his recovery and thrown him back a good deal; but then, on the other hand, Granny had seemed to think a great deal of him ever since, was always praising him behind his back, and consulting him about different things when he found his way downstairs, and it was quite plain even to the children that their brother began to occupy an important position in their grandmother's house, and that he was appreciated as much as even they had dared to hope.

He was very kind, too, about the lease, read it through and pronounced it a first-rate article of its kind, complimented Bunny on his legal acumen—

whatever that was-and did even more than they had ventured to hope for its embellishment.

He made the most beautiful flourishes to all the capitals, which could not fail, as Bunny explained to Curly, to make it absolutely valid in the eyes of the law; and at the suggestion of the little lawyer, added the letters Q. E. D. in illuminated capitals at the end, and then he actually gave them sixpence to expend in the purchase of sealing-wax, and himself made three huge and impressive seals, such as the little brothers associated in their minds with the charters and ancient documents they had seen in the British Museum on visits there; and really when that was accomplished their cup of satisfaction seemed full, and they almost felt as if they were already the possessors of the coveted paddock.

Tor quite entered into all their plans. He came down to look at the shed, and told them just what would be wanted to make it into a sort of hut, such as backwoodsmen would live in. Indeed he did not stop short with telling only, but he got a few planks from the carpenter and some rough fir-trunks from the wood-barn, and soon began to give an air of possible habitation to the place, whilst the little brothers worked with a right good will, and were as much astonished as enchanted at the rapidity with which the shed was transformed.

It is true that there were big gaps between the