She hardly knew what she expected to see.

What she did see was a boy about ten years old, in a flannel shirt and a pair of ragged breeches, busily weeding a row of carrots; for this was the vegetable garden, which lay behind the currant-bushes.

On one side of the boy was a huge heap of weeds; on the other lay a tattered book, at which he glanced from time to time, though without leaving his work.

"A-n, an," he was now saying; "t-i, ti,--anti; c-i-p, cip,--anticip; a-t-e, ate,--anti_cip_ate.

'To expect.' Well! that _is_ a good un.