Page:The Story of the Treasure Seekers.djvu/134

102 always does. I wonder he didn't begin long before&mdash;but Alice fetched him one of the dried fruits we gave Father for his birthday. It was a green walnut. I have noticed the walnuts and the plums always get left till the last in the box; the apricots go first, and then the figs and pears; and the cherries, if there are any.

So he ate it and shut up. Then we explained his position to him, so that there should be no mistake, and he couldn't say afterwards that he had not understood.

"There will be no violence," said Oswald&mdash;he was now Captain of the Bandits, because we all know H. O. likes to be Chaplain when we play prisoners&mdash;"no violence. But you will be confined in a dark, subterranean dungeon where toads and snakes crawl, and but little of the light of day filters through the heavily mullioned windows. You will be loaded with chains. Now don't begin again, Baby, there's nothing to cry about; straw will be your pallet; beside you the gaoler will set a ewer&mdash;a ewer is only a jug, stupid; it won't eat you&mdash;a ewer with water; and a mouldering crust will be your food."

But Albert-next-door never enters into the spirit of a thing. He mumbled something about tea-time.