r had washed it away, for they put wires down, and the pipe
was quite clear.

While we were being told this Oswald's trembling fingers felt at the wet
cricket-ball in his pocket. And he _knew_, but he _could_ not tell. He
heard them wondering what the obstruction could have been, and all the
time he had the obstruction in his pocket, and never said a single word.

I do not seek to defend him. But it really was an awful thing to have
been the cause of; and Mrs. Pettigrew is but harsh and hasty. But this,
as Oswald knows too well, is no excuse for his silent conduct.

That night at tea Albert's uncle was rather silent too. At last he
looked upon us with a glance full of intelligence, and said:

"There was a queer thing happened yesterday. You know there was an
angling competition. The pen was kept full on purpose. Some mischievous
busybody went and opened the sluices and let all the water out. The
anglers' holiday was spoiled. No, the rain wouldn't have spoiled it
anyhow, Alice; anglers _like_ rain. The 'Rose and Crown' dinner was half
of it wasted because the anglers were so furious that a lot of them took
the next train to town. And this is the worst of all--a barge, that was
on the mud in the pen below, was lifted and jammed across the river, and
then the water tilted her over, and her cargo is on the river bottom. It
was coals."

During this speech there were four of us who knew not where to turn our
agitated glances. Some of us tried bread and butter, but it seemed dry
and difficult, and those who tried tea choked and spluttered and were
sorry they had not let it alone.

When the speech stopped Alice said, "It was us."

And with deepest feelings she and the rest of us told all about it.
Oswald did not say much. He was turning the obstruction round and round
in his pocket, and wishing with all his sentiments that he had owned up
like a man when Albert's uncle asked him before tea to tell him all
about what had happened during the night.

When they had told all, Albert's uncle told us four still more plainly,
and exactly, what we had done, and how much pleasure we had spoiled, and
how much of my father's money we had wasted--because he would have to
pay for the coals being got up from the bottom of the river, if they
could be, and if not, for the price of the coals. And we saw it _all_.

And when he had done Alice burst out crying over her plate and said:

"It's no use! We _have_ tried to be good since we've