's up?'

'I've got an idea,' the Dentist said. 'Let's call a council.' The
Dentist had grown quite used to our ways now. We had called him Dentist
ever since the fox-hunt day. He called a council as if he had been used
to calling such things all his life, and having them come, too; whereas
we all know that his former existing was that of a white mouse in a
trap, with that cat of a Murdstone aunt watching him through the bars.

(That is what is called a figure of speech. Albert's uncle told me.)

Councils are held in the straw-loft. As soon as we were all there, and
the straw had stopped rustling after our sitting down, Dicky said--

'I hope it's nothing to do with the Wouldbegoods?'

'No,' said Denny in a hurry: 'quite the opposite.'

'I hope it's nothing wrong,' said Dora and Daisy together.

'It's--it's "Hail to thee, blithe spirit--bird thou never wert",' said
Denny. 'I mean, I think it's what is called a lark.'

'You never know your luck. Go on, Dentist,' said Dicky.

'Well, then, do you know a book called The Daisy Chain?'

We didn't.

'It's by Miss Charlotte M. Yonge,' Daisy interrupted, 'and it's about
a family of poor motherless children who tried so hard to be good,
and they were confirmed, and had a bazaar, and went to church at the
Minster, and one of them got married and wore black watered silk and
silver ornaments. So her baby died, and then she was sorry she had not
been a good mother to it. And--' Here Dicky got up and said he'd got
some snares to attend to, and he'd receive a report of the Council after
it was over. But he only got as far as the trap-door, and then Oswald,
the fleet of foot, closed with him, and they rolled together on the
floor, while all the others called out 'Come back! Come back!' like
guinea-hens on a fence.

Through the rustle and bustle and hustle of the struggle with Dicky,
Oswald heard the voice of Denny murmuring one of his everlasting
quotations--

'"Come back, come back!" he cried in Greek, "Across the stormy water,
And I'll forgive your Highland cheek, My daughter, O my daughter!"'

When quiet was restored and Dicky had agreed to go through with the
Council, Denny said--

'The Daisy Chain is not a bit like that really. It's a ripping book. One
of the boys dresses up like a lady and comes to call, and another tries
to hit his little sister with a hoe. It's jolly fine, I tell you.'

Denny is learning to say what he thinks, just like other boys. He would
neve