--it
was a new idea, and would have distressed him greatly had he quite taken
it in that big boys could be anything but good to little ones.

"Thoo doesn't knock Ted about, and thoo is big, Percy," he said,
remonstratingly.

"No, of course I don't, but that's different. You're like my brother,
you know."

"And bruvvers _couldn't_ knock theirselves about," said Ted with an air
of satisfaction.

"N-no, I suppose not," said Percy. Boy as he was, he felt somehow that
he could not bear to destroy little Ted's beautiful faith. "But never
mind about that just now," he added; "let's run down the bank and see
how the cabbages and cauliflowers are getting on. They were just put
in when I was here last;" and for some time both boys were intensely
interested in examining the state of the vegetable beds.

"Ted likes f'owers best," said the child, after a few moments' silence.
"When Ted----"

"Why don't you say 'I' and 'I like,' Teddy?" said Percy. "You're getting
such a big boy--four years old."

"Ted _means_ I," persisted the small man. "_I_ sall have all f'owers in
Ted's garden, when me is big."

Percy was obliged to leave off what he was about--hunting for the slugs
and caterpillars among the cabbages--in order that he might stand still
and laugh.

"I'm afraid you wouldn't get the prize for grammar at our school, Ted,"
he said. But Ted only laughed too.

"I haven't learnt grammar," he said slowly and distinctly. "But please,
Percy, Ted doesn't like cabbages. Come and see the f'owers. There was
lots of c'ocodiles at that side. Ted likes zem best of all, but zem's
done now."

"_Crocodiles_," said Percy. "What can crocodiles be?"

"Little f'owers with pointy leaves," said Ted. "P'raps it isn't
c'ocodiles but somesing like coc--coco----"

"Crocuses perhaps," said Percy, as they made their way up to the house.
"Yes, they're very pretty, but they're soon done."

"When I'm big I'll have a garden where they'll _never_ be done," said
Ted. "I'll have c'ocodiles and towslips for muzzer and--and----"

"Come in to breakfast, my man," called out his father from the
dining-room. "What have you been about this morning?"

"We'se been in the garden," said Ted, "and Percy's been 'samining the
cabbages. He's caught slugs upon slugs, worms upon worms, earwigs upon
earwigs."

"My dear little boy," said Ted's father, though he couldn't help
laughing, "you mustn't learn to exaggerate."

"What's 'saggerate?" began Ted, but lookin