had something to complain of after all.

"Now you won't be such silly sneaks as to go and tell Madge everything
I have been saying?" observed Lewis rather anxiously when he noticed
what a serious impression his words were making. "If you are such
babies as that I shall never speak to you again. And I have not been
saying any harm either, you know." He was beginning to fear, from the
twins' solemn faces, that they would go home and repeat his words to
Madge. "Only I have always thought you two looked such jolly little
things, if your sister would give you a chance of being spoken to, or
played with," he added.

All this was excessively flattering coming from a big boy of fourteen,
and after some more remarks of the sort Betty and John began to feel
that they were very fine people, who had always, rather unjustly, been
kept in the background by their elder sister. For the first time in
their lives they looked upon Madge as a tyrant.

"I should like to come up there and play with you," continued Lewis.
"Only the wall is rather too high for me to climb now that the ladder
has gone. Oh, I have a good idea! Capital! The very thing! Why
didn't we think of it before, I wonder?"

"What is it?" cried the twins. "What have you thought of?"

Lewis did not answer, but turned away and ran quickly to the shed where
Jack had been shut up. Presently he came out again, dragging some iron
railings, which with considerable trouble he got as far as the
overhanging boughs of the beech-tree.

"There's a ladder for you!" he exclaimed proudly, as he propped the
railings against the wall.

"It's splendid! Quite splendid!" shouted the twins, forgetting in
their excitement how near they were to the terrible house with the
cellar.

"Hush! Hush!" whispered Lewis. "If you make such a noise we shall be
caught, and all our fun stopped. And it's not quite perfect either.
Not high enough. See!"

In point of fact the top bar of the railings was only five feet from
the ground, so that it did not reach more than half-way up the wall.
It was very nice as far as it went, but more of it was badly wanted.
However, Lewis was not easily discouraged. He returned to the shed,
where there were several more railings, and dragged out another. "They
are dreadfully heavy," he said; "but I don't care. I shall go on
fetching them until I get enough to reach the top of the wall. I know
there are a heap of them in the shed. They are kept ther