The Terrible Twins

d a very pretty sight, since twenty-three kittens could not feed together without many pauses to gambol and play. The only thing about the home which was not quite to the liking of Lady Ryehamp

rt the feelings of the Terror by showin

ard over the door ought to be uniform-the same as the boards over the en

them over," said the Terror readily, anxious t

Ryehampton quickly. "I'll have a board made, and painted in London-exactly

will save me a great deal of trouble. P

her brains and strained all the resources of her simple establishment to make the lunch worthy of its giver. As she told her neighbors later, nobody kn

it to the cats' home, wrote a check for ten pounds payable to the Terror

ith the eight cats he had brought with him, remained to be settled. He felt that he could not saddle the Twins with their care and up-keep, s

rror, looking at the question from the cold monetary point of view, wished to be relieved of them. In the end it was decided that Sir

r salaries to three shillings a week. The cautious Terror would only raise them to ninepence each. Then, keeping rather more than four pounds for current expenses, he put

; the neatly painted board came from Lady Ryehampton and was fixed up in the place of the Terror's handiwork; the

h they began to consider the important ma

he sleep of repletion which always followed their meals; but the Twins saw them with unsmiling eyes, for the graver matter wholly filled their minds. They could see their

ons of a hair-brush and a tortoise-shell comb to set in the hair, when E

" said the Te

sigh when she looked at it. She used to have beautiful furs once-when father was alive. But she s

ly, too; and he said in a tone of

g about it-it's three gui

Stubbs says," said the Terror; a

ering face. "I should like to. It must be hard on Mum not to have nice things-much harder than for us, because w

e Terror, without relaxing his thoughtful frown. "But you're ri

a lot to think out," sa

r firmly. "And if you come to think of it, Mum's stole is really m

to have bicycles-you said

Terror in a tone of finality; and the matter se

said Ereb

ey always do," said the Terr

o their hutches. Half-way through

any of these kittens? Doe

reepence each for t

the home. We should never have bought a kitten but for

e rich and hadn't got any," sa

o know: girls will buy kittens," said the Terror i

empty the home

ap, for threepence each, and sell these at a shil

d Erebus; then she added in a somewhat

ould we be, if I did

o sell them to? Everybo

, frowning again. "Well, we shall

lked back to the house, pondering. The Terror collected t

to sell them is Rowington. The people round here sell most of th

hem for us-in the marke

hings, too!" cried the Terror; and he went of

ad left them to marry a small farmer. She had an affection for them, especially for the Terror; and she had not lost touch with them. She welcomed them warmly, ushered them into her littl

t any one would want to buy kittens. But unmoved by her open incredulity, he was very patient with her and persuaded her to try, at any rate, to sell their kittens at her stall in Rowington market. El

nd did not share her despondency. Erebus, on the other hand,

even if we don't sell those kittens, we can always buy the stole. There's all that cats'

y for anything but the cats' home. I promised Mum I wouldn't. Besides, sh

y. "If we sold all the kittens, it w

hing else to sell," said

from Little Deeping they came upon Tom Cobb leaning over a g

ng souls often said that Tom Cobb had never done an honest day's work in his life. Yet he w

se who have them fed. Tom Cobb waged war, a war of varying fortunes against the sacred bird. Sometimes for a whole season he would sell the victims of the carnage of the war with never a check to his ardor. In another season some pr

s of mutual respect. They rode on a few yards; and then the Terror said, "By Jove!" stopped

d the Terror. "I've always wanted to know how to make

em a little knowledge was a dangerous thing-for others. He foresaw trouble for the sacred bird; he foresaw trouble for his na

Master Terror, I'll be very 'appy

to-morrow afternoon, about tw

es!" cried Erebus happily as they rode on

fur stole before

Cobb's cottage to share the lesson in the art of making snares. But the Terr

he said rather sadly: "I've still a lot to learn.

o get the kittens ready for Ellen to sell. At Rowington the Terror bought copper

o the surprise and disgust of those kittens, they washed them thoroughly in the kit

rebus, ever sanguine, supposed that they would make snares at once. The Terror had

through which the rabbits from the common were wont to enter their garden to eat the cabbages. He was up betimes next

s adorned the neck of each with a bow of blue ribbon. Knowing the ways of kittens, she sewed on the bows, and sewed them on firmly. It could not be doubted that they looked much f

urn to their lessons. After lunch they made three more snares; and the Terror found

in; and when they came to Ellen's stall, they found to their

Terror, you were right, and I was wrong. I've sold them kitties-every one-and I've ha

out six shillings, and he

ay you a shilling for selling them

ere, I sold more butter and eggs and fowls than any one else in the market. I haven't had su

illing, but she remained firm. The Twin

ares in the hedge of the garden about

y thoughtful as he helped feed the kit

y: "It's sometimes rather a

id Erebus

'd only give me sixpence each for them. But if I were to sell them myself here, I could get eightpence, or perhaps ninepence each for them. But, you see, a Dangerfield can't go abo

nly rotting," sai

id it was the family tradition, too. I

. "And you can't say he isn't a gentleman, though

the Terror, in a tone of great relief. "Game must be

rode out on a tour of the neighborhood. The Terror went to the back doors of their well-to-do neighbors and offered his ra

ing toward them. They had already eight shilling

that they went on. It was the fault of the rabbit market. At the fifteenth rabbit, when they had but eighteen shillings and

sing to buy the fifteenth rabbit, said: "Now, if you was to bring me a nice fat

fully; then he said: "And how mu

had learned in her village school, saw her way to a profit of threepence,

e saw her profit of threepence, perhaps ninepence, and said: "All rig

Of course, sir,

ne else who'd buy

as the management of the housekeeping money like I do. I think she

error. "And thank y

m he had already sold rabbits. He made a direct offer to her of two pheasants a week at two

catching those pheasants by himself. Snaring rabbits was a harmless enterprise; snaring pheasants was poaching; and p

f a new Eldorado, she said: "But wher

r, embracing the horizo

horizon with greedy eyes

ng pheasants. And I don't like to ask Tom Cobb: he might ta

s nobody el

ul things besides higher mathematics. The only thing is, we must do it in

ould do that. He's really

stand what I'm drivin

tion, that two rival poultry-sellers had both brought three kittens to sell. The Twins at once went to inspect them, and came back with the cheering assurance that those kittens wer

Carrington by seeming accident; but it was not till the third afternoon that they

s humor. In Erebus, this respect often took the form of wriggling in his presence. She did not know what he might say about her

Mr. Carrington did not like pheasants, except from the point of view of eating; and he dwelt at length on the devastation the sacred bird was working in the Englis

and he bewailed the degeneracy of the British rustic, his slow reversion to the type of neolithic man, owing to the fact that

words. He discussed the methods of the gang of poachers and the single poacher with intelligent relish and more sympathy than was

out of Rowington was a small clump of trees on a hill. At the foot of the hill, a hundred yards below the clump, lay Great Deeping wood, acre upon acre. It had lately passed, along with the rest of the Great Deeping estate, into the hands of Mr. D'Arcy Rosenheimer, a pudding-faced, but stanch young Briton of the old Pomeranian strain. He was

eep watch, he stole down the hedge to the clump, crawled through a gap into it, and walked through it. One pheasant scuttled out of it, down the hedgerow to the wood below. The occurrence pleased him. He crawled out of the clump on the farther side, an

h from the wood to the clump. But this evening he set a snare in the hedge of the clump. Just above the end of the ditch. Later