ke to come very much, but he
was not to trouble to get such a nice dinner as ours, because we could
do very well with cold mutton and rice pudding. We do not like these
things, but Oswald knows how to behave. Then the poor Indian went away.

We had not got any treasure by this party, but we had had a very good
time, and I am sure the Uncle enjoyed himself.

We were so sorry he was gone that we could none of us eat much tea;
but we did not mind, because we had pleased the poor Indian and enjoyed
ourselves too. Besides, as Dora said, 'A contented mind is a continual
feast,' so it did not matter about not wanting tea.

Only H. O. did not seem to think a continual feast was a contented mind,
and Eliza gave him a powder in what was left of the red-currant jelly
Father had for the nasty dinner.

But the rest of us were quite well, and I think it must have been the
coconut with H. O. We hoped nothing had disagreed with the Uncle, but we
never knew.

CHAPTER 16. THE END OF THE TREASURE-SEEKING

Now it is coming near the end of our treasure-seeking, and the end was
so wonderful that now nothing is like it used to be. It is like as
if our fortunes had been in an earthquake, and after those, you know,
everything comes out wrong-way up.

The day after the Uncle speared the pudding with us opened in gloom and
sadness. But you never know. It was destined to be a day when things
happened. Yet no sign of this appeared in the early morning. Then all
was misery and upsetness. None of us felt quite well; I don't know why:
and Father had one of his awful colds, so Dora persuaded him not to go
to London, but to stay cosy and warm in the study, and she made him some
gruel. She makes it better than Eliza does; Eliza's gruel is all little
lumps, and when you suck them it is dry oatmeal inside.

We kept as quiet as we could, and I made H. O. do some lessons, like the
G. B. had advised us to. But it was very dull. There are some days
when you seem to have got to the end of all the things that could ever
possibly happen to you, and you feel you will spend all the rest of your
life doing dull things just the same way. Days like this are generally
wet days. But, as I said, you never know.

Then Dicky said if things went on like this he should run away to sea,
and Alice said she thought it would be rather nice to go into a convent.
H. O. was a little disagreeable because of the powder Eliza had given
him, so he tried to read two books