He's got a very important part, and he
said nothing about it at home. I call it very nice and modest of him.
And what a dear little girl."

Bettine, standing on the platform with William's hand holding hers and
the Maypole dancers dancing round her, was radiant with pride and
happiness.

* * * * *

And Evangeline Fish in the wood-shed was just beginning the last
currant cake.

CHAPTER IX

THE REVENGE

William was a scout. The fact was well known. There was no one within
a five-mile radius of William's home who did not know it. Sensitive
old ladies had fled shuddering from their front windows when William
marched down the street singing (the word is a euphemism) his scout
songs in his strong young voice. Curious smells emanated from the
depth of the garden where William performed mysterious culinary
operations. One old lady whose cat had disappeared looked at William
with dour suspicion in her eye whenever he passed. Even the return of
her cat a few weeks later did not remove the hostility from her gaze
whenever it happened to rest upon William.

William's family had welcomed the suggestion of William's becoming a
scout.

"It will keep him out of mischief," they had said.

They were notoriously optimistic where William was concerned.

William's elder brother only was doubtful.

"You know what William is," he said, and in that dark saying much was
contained.

Things went fairly smoothly for some time. He took the scouts' law of
a daily deed of kindness in its most literal sense. He was to do one
(and one only) deed of kindness a day. There were times when he forced
complete strangers, much to their embarrassment, to be the unwilling
recipients of his deed of kindness. There were times when he answered
any demand for help with a cold: "No, I've done it to-day."

He received with saint-like patience the eloquence of his elder sister
when she found her silk scarf tied into innumerable knots.

"Well, they're jolly _good_ knots," was all he said.

He had been looking forward to the holidays for a long time. He was to
"go under canvas" at the end of the first week.

The first day of the holidays began badly. William's father had been
disturbed by William, whose room was just above and who had spent most
of the night performing gymnastics as instructed by his scout-master.

"No, he didn't _say_ do it at nights, but he said do it. He said it
would make us grow up stro