she said to us, 'he's gone off into a dead faint.'

He had.

Of course we were very sorry and all that, but we never thought he'd be
such a muff as to be frightened of three Red Indians and a wigwam that
happened to upset. He was put to bed, and we had our teas.

'I wish we hadn't,' Hilda said.

'So do I,' said Hugh.

But Rupert said, 'No one _could_ have expected a cousin of ours to be a
chicken-hearted duffer. He's a muff. It's bad enough to have a muff in
the house at all, and at Christmas time, too. But a related muff!'

Still the affair had cast a gloom, and we were glad when it was
bed-time.

Next day was Christmas Day, and no presents, and nobody but the servants
to wish a Merry Christmas to.

Our cousin Sidney came down to breakfast, and as it was Christmas Day
Rupert bent his proud spirit to own he was sorry about the Indians.

Sidney said, 'It doesn't matter. I'm sorry too. Only I didn't expect
it.'

We suggested two or three games, such as Parlour Cricket, National
Gallery, and Grab--but Sidney said he would rather read. So we said
would he mind if we played out the Indian game which we had dropped, out
of politeness, when he fainted.

He said:

'I don't mind at all, now I know what it is you're up to. No, thank you,
I'd rather read,' he added, in reply to Rupert's unselfish offer to
dress him for the part of Sitting Bull.

So he read _Treasure Island_, and we fought on the stairs with no
casualties except the gas globes, and then we scalped all the
dolls--putting on paper scalps first because Hilda wished it--and we
scalped Eliza as she passed through the hall--hers was a white scalp
with lacey stuff on it and long streamers.

[Illustration: 'We scalped Eliza as she passed through the hall.']

And when it was beginning to get dark we thought of flying machines. Of
course Sidney wouldn't play at that either, and Hilda and Hugh were
contented with paper wings--there were some rolls of rather decent
yellow and pink crinkled paper that mother had bought to make lamp
shades of. They made wings of this, and then they played at fairies up
and down the stairs, while Sidney sat at the bottom of the stairs and
went on reading _Treasure Island_. But Rupert was determined to have a
flying machine, with real flipper-flappery wings, like at Hendon. So he
got two brass fire-guards out of the spare room and mother's bedroom,
and covered them with newspapers fastened on with string. Then he got a
tea-tra