hutter and said 'Well?' very
crossly. Then Oswald said--

'I am very sorry, and I beg your pardon. We wanted to be detectives, and
we thought a gang of coiners infested your house, so we looked through
your window last night. I saw the lettuce, and I heard what you said
about the salmon being three-halfpence cheaper, and I know it is very
dishonourable to pry into other people's secrets, especially ladies',
and I never will again if you will forgive me this once.'

Then the lady frowned and then she laughed, and then she said--

'So it was you tumbling into the flower-pots last night? We thought it
was burglars. It frightened us horribly. Why, what a bump on your poor
head!'

And then she talked to me a bit, and presently she said she and her
sister had not wished people to know they were at home, because--And
then she stopped short and grew very red, and I said, 'I thought you
were all at Scarborough; your servant told Eliza so. Why didn't you want
people to know you were at home?'

The lady got redder still, and then she laughed and said--

'Never mind the reason why. I hope your head doesn't hurt much. Thank
you for your nice, manly little speech. _You've_ nothing to be ashamed
of, at any rate.' Then she kissed me, and I did not mind. And then she
said, 'Run away now, dear. I'm going to--I'm going to pull up the blinds
and open the shutters, and I want to do it at _once_, before it gets
dark, so that every one can see we're at home, and not at Scarborough.'

CHAPTER 4. GOOD HUNTING

When we had got that four shillings by digging for treasure we ought, by
rights, to have tried Dicky's idea of answering the advertisement about
ladies and gentlemen and spare time and two pounds a week, but there
were several things we rather wanted.

Dora wanted a new pair of scissors, and she said she was going to get
them with her eight-pence. But Alice said--

'You ought to get her those, Oswald, because you know you broke the
points off hers getting the marble out of the brass thimble.'

It was quite true, though I had almost forgotten it, but then it was H.
O. who jammed the marble into the thimble first of all. So I said--

'It's H. O.'s fault as much as mine, anyhow. Why shouldn't he pay?'

Oswald didn't so much mind paying for the beastly scissors, but he hates
injustice of every kind.

'He's such a little kid,' said Dicky, and of course H. O. said he wasn't
a little kid, and it very nearly came to being a ro