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One does not like to be outdone by an uncle, even by such an uncle; but it is not very easy to learn to live like Godfather Bayard.

Sometimes I wish my grandmother had not brought up her sons to such a very high pitch, and sometimes I wish my mother had let that unlucky name become extinct in the family, or that I might adopt my nickname. One could live up to Backyard easily enough. It seems to suit being grumpy and tyrannical, and seeing no further than one’s own nose, so well.

But I do try to learn unselfishness; though I sometimes think it would be quite as easy for the owl to learn to respect the independence of a mouse, or a cat to be forbearing with a sparrow!

I certainly get on better with the others than I used to do; and I have some hopes that even my father’s godmother is not finally estranged through my fault.

Uncle Patrick went to call on her whilst he was with us. She is very fond of “that amusing Irishman with the crutch,” as she calls him; and my father says he’ll swear Uncle Patrick entertained her mightily with my unlucky entertainment, and that she was as pleased as Punch that her cockatoo was in the thick of it.

I am afraid it is too true; and the idea made me so hot, that if I had known she was really coming to call on us again, I should certainly have kept out of the way. But when Uncle Patrick said, “If the yellow chariot rolls this way again, Bayard, ye need not be pursuing these archaeological revivals of yours in a too early English costume,” I thought it was only his chaff. But she did come.

I was pegging out the new gardens for the little ones. We were all there, and when she turned her eye over us (just like a cockatoo), and said, in a company voice–

“What a happy little family!”

I could hardly keep my countenance, and I heard Edward choking in Benjamin’s fur, where he had hidden his face.

But Lettice never moved a muscle. She clasped her hands, and put her head on one side, and said–in her company voice–“But you know brother Bayard is so good to us now, and that is why we are such A HAPPY FAMILY.”