A sufficiently spacious room for any ordinary purpose, but it did not look half large enough now for the litter that was in it.

Wardrobes and drawers were standing open, their contents half out, half in; chairs, tables, bed, were strewed; and boxes and portmanteaus were gaping open on the floor.

John Massingbird, the elder brother, was stowing away some of this litter into the boxes; not all sixes and sevens, as it looked lying there, but compactly and artistically.

John Massingbird possessed a ready hand at packing and arranging; and therefore he preferred doing it himself to deputing it to others.

He was one year older than his brother, and there was a great likeness between them in figure and in feature.