ere our toys and books were kept and
where our soberer hours were passed, there was given up to our use at
the top of the house a large attic, which was called our play-room.

It is quite desirable for children to run wild at times, it is good for
them to shout, to scream, to jump, to ramp--good for girls as well as
boys. And if you girls who read this have not a big garden where you
may do these things unmolested, I counsel you to demand respectfully of
your parents a play-room such as was this of ours. I don't for a minute
advise you to copy Willy and me in aught--for we were often and often a
naughty pair--I only suggest that your parents should copy ours in
making over to you an empty room.

We had not many toys there. On looking back I think we spent our time
mostly in struggles on the floor, rolling over and over each other with
screams and shouts; with roarings as of wild animals emphasising the
fact that we were not Willy and his little sister Polly, but a great
large lion and a huge black bear in mortal combat. We played at French
and English too. It takes a lot of yelling from lusty lungs, a lot of
stamping and jumping on hollow boards, for one little girl to represent
at all adequately a mighty and victorious army. Of Willy, as not only
his countless followers but as Napoleon at their head, a good deal was
also required. With all our vigour, we were only ordinary flesh and
blood and we always grew tired at last, and then we sat down quietly
upon the floor and looked through our closed window at the window
opposite.

There was only a narrow passage between our house and the next; walking
through it with outstretched arms you could touch the house walls on
either side. Unless you leaned quite out of the window, so high up were
we, you could not see the little dark-paved court beneath; and a close
wire screen covering the window was believed to prevent the possibility
of our looking out at all. But Willy, to whose bold, adventurous spirit
I felt my own but a feeble companion, had contrived with his
pocket-knife to undo the four screws which attached the wooden
framework of the screen to the window-frame. So that the obstacle being
at will removed, and I holding desperately to his knickerbockered legs,
the boy could look out upon the black pavement beneath, or drop a
marble from his pocket upon the head of a passer-by.

It was not the dark passage, however, which as a rule claimed our
attention, but the windo