ms Darling has been stolen away; its wicked stealers have deserted
the Precious. We've got it. Perhaps its ancestral halls are miles and
miles away. I vote we keep the little Lovey Duck till it's advertised
for.'

'If Albert's uncle lets you,' said Dicky darkly.

'Oh, don't say "you" like that,' Dora said; 'I want it to be all of our
baby. It will have five fathers and three mothers, and a grandfather and
a great Albert's uncle, and a great grand-uncle. I'm sure Albert's uncle
will let us keep it--at any rate till it's advertised for.'

'And suppose it never is,' Noel said.

'Then so much the better,' said Dora, 'the little Duckyux.'

She began kissing the baby again. Oswald, ever thoughtful, said--'Well,
what about your dinner?'

'Bother dinner!' Dora said--so like a girl. 'Will you all agree to be
his fathers and mothers?'

'Anything for a quiet life,' said Dicky, and Oswald said--

'Oh, yes, if you like. But you'll see we shan't be allowed to keep it.'

'You talk as if he was rabbits or white rats,' said Dora, 'and he's
not--he's a little man, he is.'

'All right, he's no rabbit, but a man. Come on and get some grub, Dora,'
rejoined the kind-hearted Oswald, and Dora did, with Oswald and the
other boys. Only Noel stayed with Alice. He really seemed to like the
baby. When I looked back he was standing on his head to amuse it, but
the baby did not seem to like him any better whichever end of him was
up.

Dora went back to the shepherd's house on wheels directly she had had
her dinner. Mrs Pettigrew was very cross about her not being in to it,
but she had kept her some mutton hot all the same. She is a decent sort.
And there were stewed prunes. We had some to keep Dora company. Then we
boys went fishing again in the moat, but we caught nothing.

Just before tea-time we all went back to the hut, and before we got half
across the last field we could hear the howling of the Secret.

'Poor little beggar,' said Oswald, with manly tenderness. 'They must be
sticking pins in it.'

We found the girls and Noel looking quite pale and breathless. Daisy was
walking up and down with the Secret in her arms. It looked like Alice in
Wonderland nursing the baby that turned into a pig. Oswald said so, and
added that its screams were like it too.

'What on earth is the matter with it?' he said.

'_I_ don't know,' said Alice. 'Daisy's tired, and Dora and I are quite
worn out. He's been crying for hours and hours. YOU take