LD ALICE'S AND NOEL'S HANDS" " 84

"DICKY DRAGGED THE TWO HEAVY BARS" " 98

"'OH, DEAR! OH, DEAR!'" " 104

"HE SAT DOWN IN THE HEDGE TO LAUGH PROPERLY" " 128

"FOUND HIMSELF THE DEGRADED NURSE-MAID
OF A SMALL BUT FURIOUS KID" " 172

"'WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?'" " 192

"THEN WE PUT IN THE JUGS AND FILLED
IT UP WITH EARTH" " 212

"'I THINK YOU MUST LET ME LOOK INSIDE'" " 222

"OSWALD ACTUALLY HIT OUT AT THE BIG MAN" " 240

"A DOG-CART WITH A YOUNG LADY IN IT" " 256

"SO WE LED HIM ALONG TO THE AMBUSH" " 282

THE COUNCIL IN THE APPLE-TREE " 292

"'AND ARE YOU GOING TO MARRY THIS LADY?'" " 304

THE WOULDBEGOODS

THE JUNGLE

"Children are like jam: all very well in the proper place, but you can't
stand them all over the shop--eh, what?"

These were the dreadful words of our Indian uncle. They made us feel
very young and angry; and yet we could not be comforted by calling him
names to ourselves, as you do when nasty grown-ups say nasty things,
because he is not nasty, but quite the exact opposite when not
irritated. And we could not think it ungentlemanly of him to say we were
like jam, because, as Alice says, jam is very nice indeed--only not on
furniture and improper places like that. My father said, "Perhaps they
had better go to boarding-school." And that was awful, because we know
father disapproves of boarding-schools. And he looked at us and said, "I
am ashamed of them, sir!"

Your lot is indeed a dark and terrible one when your father is ashamed
of you. And we all knew this, so that we felt in our chests just as if
we had swallowed a hard-boiled egg whole. At least, this is what Oswald
felt, and father said once that Oswald, as the eldest, was the
representative of the family, so, of course, the others felt the same.

And then everybody said nothing for a short time. At last father said:

"You may go--but remember--" The words that followed I am not going to
tell you. It is no use telling you what you know before--as they do in
schools. And you must all have had such words said to you many times. We
went away when it was over. The girls cried, and we b