"I ain't got 'em," said the old man.

"No, but you've hid them away somewhere; so tell us directly."

"Stilts--stilts," said Sam, wonderingly; "what's stilts?"

"Why, you know well enough," said Philip; "and I know you've hid them
away somewhere, because you thought we should forget them and not want
them any more; so come now, Sam, tell us where they are, or we'll all
begin to plague you."

"No, I weant," said Sam, throwing off all disguise. "You don't want
them, and you'll only go `brog--brog' all down the walks, making the
place full of holes, and worse than when people has been down 'em in
pattens. I weant tell ee, theer," said the old man, defiantly, in his
broad Lincolnshire dialect.

"Yes, you will," said Harry; "now come."

"I weant," said the old man again, beginning to mow.

"Never mind," said Harry, "we'll go and have a look at the wasps' nest,
and see if they are all killed, and then I know what we'll do. I say,
Fred," he said loudly, "Phil and I will show you how they thin grapes."

"Oh! laws," said old Sam to himself, and bursting out into a cold
perspiration, for his grapes were the greatest objects of his pride, and
he used to gain prizes with them at the different horticultural shows in
the district. Even Mr Inglis himself never thought of laying a
profaning hand upon his own grapes, until Sam had cut them and brought
them in for dessert; and now the young dogs were talking of thinning
them, and the sharp-pointed scissors lay all ready; and what was worse,
the key was in the door of the green-house.

"Oh dear! oh dear!" said Sam, throwing down his scythe, and hobbling off
after the boys, who kept provokingly in front, and popped into the
green-house just before him. "There," he said, "I'm bet out with you;
come out, and I'll tell ee wheer the stilts are."

"Honour bright, Sam?" said Harry.

"Oh! ah! yes," said Sam. And then the boys coming out from beneath the
pendent green bunches of grapes which hung thickly from the roof, the
old man locked the door up, and seemed to breathe more freely when he
had the key safely in his pocket.

"I knew he'd hid them," said Philip.

"Now, then," said Harry, "where are they?"

"I've a good mind not to tell ee, you young dogs," said Sam.

"We'll get in at the windows, then," said Harry and Philip in a breath.

The old man glanced over his shoulder, and saw how easily the threat
could be executed, and then, with a grunt of despair, said--

"No