t high pressure
in school, doing his homework conscientiously in the evening, being
exquisitely polite to his family and instructors--and the vision
failed utterly to attract. Moreover, he hadn't yet tried turning off
the water at the main, or locking the cook into the larder, or--or
hundreds of things.

There came a gentle voice from the garden.

"William, where are you?"

William looked down and met the earnest gaze of Deborah.

"Hello," he said.

"William," she said. "You won't forget that you're going to start
to-morrow, will you?"

William looked at her firmly.

"I can't jus' to-morrow," he said. "I'm puttin' it off. I'm puttin' it
off for a year or two."

CHAPTER XIII

WILLIAM AND THE ANCIENT SOULS

The house next William's had been unoccupied for several months, and
William made full use of its garden. Its garden was in turns a jungle,
a desert, an ocean, and an enchanted island. William invited select
parties of his friends to it. He had come to look upon it as his own
property. He hunted wild animals in it with Jumble, his trusty hound;
he tracked Red Indians in it, again with Jumble, his trusty hound; and
he attacked and sank ships in it, making his victims walk the plank,
again with the help and assistance of Jumble, his trusty hound.
Sometimes, to vary the monotony, he made Jumble, his trusty hound,
walk the plank into the rain tub. This was one of the many unpleasant
things that William brought into Jumble's life. It was only his
intense love for William that reconciled him to his existence. Jumble
was one of the very few beings who appreciated William.

The house on the other side was a much smaller one, and was occupied
by Mr. Gregorius Lambkin. Mr. Gregorius Lambkin was a very shy and
rather elderly bachelor. He issued from his front door every morning
at half-past eight holding a neat little attache case in a
neatly-gloved hand. He spent the day in an insurance office and
returned, still unruffled and immaculate, at about half past six. Most
people considered him quite dull and negligible, but he possessed the
supreme virtue in William's eyes of not objecting to William. William
had suffered much from unsympathetic neighbours who had taken upon
themselves to object to such innocent and artistic objects as
catapults and pea-shooters, and cricket balls. William had a very soft
spot in his heart for Mr. Gregorius Lambkin. William spent a good deal
of his time in Mr. Lambkin's garden