arnt
such cunning; you say you are sure he was told of nurse's having lost a
half-sovereign?"

"Oh, yes," said Mott; "he confesses to that much himself."

"Floss told me," said Carrots.

"Then how can you pretend you didn't know this was nurse's--taking it
out of her drawer, too," said his father.

"I don't know. I didn't take it out of her drawer; it was 'aside Floss's
doll," said Carrots.

"He's trying to equivocate," said his father. Then he turned to the
child again, looking more determined than ever.

"Carrots," he said, "I must whip you for this. Do you know that I am
ashamed to think you are my son? If you were a poor boy you might be put
in prison for this."

Carrots looked too bewildered to understand. "In prison," he repeated.
"Would the prison-man take me?"

"What does he mean?" said Captain Desart.

Floss, who had been waiting unobserved in her corner all this time,
thought this a good opportunity for coming forward.

"He means the policeman," she said. "Oh, papa," she went on, running up
to her little brother and throwing her arms round him, the tears
streaming down her face, "oh, papa, poor little Carrots! he _doesn't_
understand."

"Where did _you_ come from?" said her father, gruffly but not unkindly,
for Floss was rather a favourite of his. "What do you mean about his not
understanding? Did you know about this business, Floss?"

"Oh no, papa," said Floss, her face flushing; "I'm too big not to
understand."

"Of course you are," said Captain Desart; "and Carrots is big enough,
too, to understand the very plain rule that he is not to touch what
does not belong to him. He was told, too, that nurse had lost a
half-sovereign, and he might then have owned to having taken it and
given it back, and then things would not have looked so bad. Take him up
to my dressing-room, Maurice, and leave him there till I come."

"May I go with him, papa?" said Floss very timidly.

"No," said her father, "you may not."

So Mott led off poor weeping Carrots, and all the way upstairs he kept
sobbing to himself, "I never touched nurse's sovereigns. I never did. I
didn't know she had any sovereigns."

"Hold your tongue," said Mott; "what is the use of telling more stories
about it?"

"I didn't tell stories. I said I hided the sixpenny my own self, but I
never touched nurse's sovereigns; I never did."

"I believe you're more than half an idiot," said Mott, angry and yet
sorry--angry with himself, too, som