In this hilarious novel, Harry Burton, a bachelor white-goods salesman, goes to take care of his sister Helen's two little boys for ten days while she and her husband are out of town. Helen says, "The children won't give you the slightest trouble; they're the best children in the world!" but, as you can imagine, Toddie and Budge are always up to something, and all sorts of comic mischief ensues. It just so happens that there's a lovely young lady in the neighborhood whom Harry admires very much, but she always seems to be passing by when he's deep in some terrible mess of the boys' making...

By : John Habberton (1842 - 1921)

1 - Part 01

2 - Part 02

3 - Part 03

4 - Part 04

5 - Part 05

6 - Part 06

7 - Part 07

8 - Part 08

9 - Part 09

10 - Part 10

11 - Part 11

12 - Part 12

The first cause, so far as it can be determined, of the existence of this book may be found in the following letter, written by my only married sister, and received by me, Harry Burton, salesman of white goods, bachelor, aged twenty-eight, and received just as I was trying to decide where I should spend a fortnight's vacation:

Dear Harry:—Remembering that you are always complaining that you never have a chance to read, and knowing you won't get it this summer, if you spend your vacation among people of your own set, I write to ask you to come up here. I admit that I am not wholly disinterested in inviting you. The truth is, Tom and I are invited to spend a fortnight with my old school-mate, Alice Wayne, who, you know, is the dearest girl in the world, though you didn't obey me and marry her before Frank Wayne appeared. Well, we're dying to go, for Alice and Frank live in splendid style; but as they haven't included our children in their invitation, and have no children of their own, we must leave Budge and Toddie at home. I've no doubt they'll be perfectly safe, for my girl is a jewel, and devoted to the children, but I would feel a great deal easier if there was a man in the house. Besides, there's the silver, and burglars are less likely to break into a house where there's a savage-looking man. (Never mind about thanking me for the compliment.) If you'll only come up, my mind will be completely at rest. The children won't give you the slightest trouble; they're the best children in the world—everybody says so.

"Tom has plenty of cigars, I know, for the money I should have had for a new suit went to pay his cigar-man. He has some new claret, too, that he goes into ecstasies over, though I can't tell it from the vilest black ink, except by the color. Our horses are in splendid condition, and so is the garden—you see I don't forget your old passion for flowers. And, last and best, there never were so many handsome girls at Hillcrest as there are among the summer boarders already here; the girls you are already acquainted with here will see that you meet all the newer acquisitions.

"Reply by telegraph right away. Of course you'll say 'Yes.'

"In great haste, your loving

"Sister Helen.