at, and whoever gets the right number
gets the Goat. I wish it was me.'

'We ought to advertise it, though,' Dicky said. 'Have handbills printed,
and send out sandwich-men.'

Oswald inquired at the printers in Greenwich, and handbills were an
awful price, and sandwich-men a luxury far beyond our means. So he went
home sadly; and then Alice thought of the printing-press. We got it out,
and cleaned it where the ink had been upset into it, and mended the
broken parts as well as we could, and got some more printers' ink, and
wrote the circular and printed it. It was:

SECRET LOTTERY.
EXCEPTIONABLE AND RARE CHANCE.
_An Object of Value--_

'It ought to be object of _virtue_,' said Dicky. 'I saw it in the old
iron and china and picture shop. It was a carved ivory ship, and there
was a ticket on it: "Rare Object of Virtue."'

'The Goat's an object, certainly,' Alice said, 'and it's valuable. As
for virtue, I'm not so sure.'

But Oswald thought the two V's looked well, and being virtuous is
different to being valuable; but, all the same, the Goat might be both
when you got to know him really well. So we put it in.

SECRET LOTTERY.
EXCEPTIONABLE AND RARE CHANCE.
_An Object of Value and Virtue_

will be lotteried for on Saturday next, at four o'clock. Tickets
one or two shillings each, according to how many people want them.
The object is not disclosed till after the Lottery, but it cost a
lot of money, and is honestly worth three times as much. If you win
it, it is the same as winning money. Apply at Morden House,
Blackheath, at 3 o'clock next Saturday. Take tickets early to
prevent disappointment.

We printed these, and though they looked a bit rum, we had not time to
do them again, so we went out about dusk and dropped them in people's
letter-boxes. Then next day Oswald, who is always very keen on doing the
thing well, got two baking-boards out of the kitchen and bored holes in
them with an auger I had, and pasted paper on them, and did on them
with a paint-brush and ink the following lines:

SECRET LOTTERY.

OBJECT OF VALUE AND VIRTUE.

_Tickets 1/- and 2/-._

If you win, it will be the same as winning money.

Lottery at Morden House, Blackheath.

Saturday at 4. Come at 3.

And he slung the boards round his neck, and tied up his mouth in one of
those knitted comforters he despises so much at other times, and,
pulling a cap of