MISS MOUSE AND HER BOYS

'OH, WHAT A LOT OF BOYS!'—p. 2. Front.

MISS MOUSE AND HER BOYS

BY MRS. MOLESWORTH

ILLUSTRATED BY L. LESLIE BROOKE

LONDON: MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD

NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

1897

To the dear memory of

MY BROTHER-IN-LAW

Sir CRAVEN CHARLES GORING, Bart.

WHOSE UNFAILING INTEREST IN MY WORK

HAS BEEN AN ENCOURAGEMENT THROUGH MANY YEARS

19 Sumner Place, S.W.,

May 1897.

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

CHAPTER I

'WHAT A LOT OF BOYS!'

It was before the days of sailor suits and knickerbockers. Nowadays boys would make great fun of the quaint little men in tight-fitting jackets, and trousers buttoning on above them, that many people still living can remember well, for it is not so very long ago after all.

And whatever the difference in their clothes, the boys of then were in themselves very like the boys of now—queer, merry, thoughtless fellows for the most part, living in the pleasant present, caring much less for the past or the future than their girl-companions, seldom taking trouble of any kind to heart, or if they did, up again like a cork at the first chance. But yet how dull the world, now as then, would be without them and their bats and balls, and pockets full of rubbish, and everlasting scrapes and mischief, and honest old hearts!

I always like to hear any one, young or old, man or woman or girl, say, as one often does hear said, 'I do love boys.'

There were five of them—of the Hervey boys. They began at thirteen and ended at three, or began at three and ended at thirteen, if you like to put it that way. But when they were all together in the nursery, or playroom as they called it more often—to see them, still more to hear them, you would certainly have said there were at least