derstood had he tried.

Nurse knew all this by long experience; no wonder, kind though she knew
her master to be, that she trembled when Mott announced his intention of
laying the whole affair before his father.

But poor Carrots did not know anything about it. "Papa" had never been
"cross" to him before, and he was far from clearly understanding why he
was "cross" to him now. So he just sobbed and said "I don't know," which
was about the worst thing he could possibly have said in his own
defence, though literally the truth.

"No or yes, sir," said Captain Desart, his voice growing louder and
sterner--I think he really forgot that it was a poor little shrimp of
six years old he was speaking to--"no nonsense of 'don't knows.' Did you
or did you not take nurse's half-sovereign out of her drawer and keep
it for your own?"

"No," said Carrots, "I never took nucken out of nurse's drawer. I never
did, papa, and I didn't know nurse had any sovereigns."

"Didn't you know nurse had _lost_ a half-sovereign? Carrots, how can you
say so?" interrupted Mott.

"Yes, Floss told me," said Carrots.

"And Floss hid it away in your paint-box, I suppose?" said Mott,
sarcastically.

"No, Floss didn't. I hided the sixpenny my own self," said Carrots,
looking more and more puzzled.

"Hold your tongue, Maurice," said his father, angrily. "Go and fetch the
money and the tomfool paint-box thing that you say he had it in."

Mott did as he was told. He ran to the nursery and back as fast as he
could; but, unobserved by him, Floss managed to run after him and crept
into the study so quietly that her father never noticed her.

Maurice laid the old paint-box and the half-sovereign down on the table
in front of his father; Captain Desart held up the little coin between
his finger and thumb.

"Now," he said, "Carrots, look at this. Did you or did you not take this
piece of money out of nurse's drawer and hide it away in your
paint-box?"

Carrots stared hard at the half-sovereign.

"I did put it in my paint-box," he said, and then he stopped.

"What for?" said his father.

"I wanted to keep it for a secret," he replied. "I wanted to--to--"

"_What?_" thundered Captain Desart.

"To buy something at the toy-shop with it," sobbed Carrots.

Captain Desart sat down and looked at Mott for sympathy.

"Upon my soul," he said, "one could hardly believe it. A child that one
would think scarcely knew the value of money! Where can he have le