here being no work nowadays for an honest man. At last he
dropped asleep in the middle of a story about a vestry he worked for
that hadn't acted fair and square by him like he had by them, or it (I
don't know if vestry is singular or plural), and we went home. But
before we went we held a hurried council and collected what money we
could from the little we had with us (it was ninepence halfpenny), and
wrapped it in an old envelope Dicky had in his pocket and put it gently
on the billowing middle of the poor tramp's sleeping waistcoat, so that
he would find it when he woke. None of the dogs said a single syllable
while we were doing this, so we knew they believed him to be poor but
honest, and we always find it safe to take their word for things like
that.

As we went home a brooding silence fell upon us; we found out afterwards
that those words of the poor tramp's about free drinks had sunk deep in
all our hearts, and rankled there.

After dinner we went out and sat with our feet in the stream. People
tell you it makes your grub disagree with you to do this just after
meals, but it never hurts us. There is a fallen willow across the stream
that just seats the eight of us, only the ones at the end can't get
their feet into the water properly because of the bushes, so we keep
changing places. We had got some liquorice root to chew. This helps
thought. Dora broke a peaceful silence with this speech:

"Free drinks."

The words awoke a response in every breast.

"I wonder some one doesn't," H. O. said, leaning back till he nearly
toppled in, and was only saved by Oswald and Alice at their own deadly
peril.

"Do for goodness sake sit still, H. O.," observed Alice. "It would be a
glorious act! I wish _we_ could."

"What, sit still?" asked H. O.

"No, my child," replied Oswald, "most of us can do that when we try.
Your angel sister was only wishing to set up free drinks for the poor
and thirsty."

"Not for all of them," Alice said, "just a few. Change places now,
Dicky. My feet aren't properly wet at all."

It is very difficult to change places safely on the willow. The changers
have to crawl over the laps of the others, while the rest sit tight and
hold on for all they're worth. But the hard task was accomplished and
then Alice went on:

"And we couldn't do it for always, only a day or two--just while our
money held out. Eiffel Tower lemonade's the best, and you get a jolly
lot of it for your money too. There mu