The Wouldbegoods: Being the Further Adventures of the Treasure Seekers

in the proper place, but you can't st

e 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 imprope

t in our chests just as if we had swallowed a hard-boiled egg whole. At least, this is what Oswald felt, and Father

nothing for a short ti

go-but

ad such words said to you many times. We went away when it was over. The girls cried, and we boys got out books and began to read, so that nobod

fferent. Besides, we meant to put all the things back in their proper places when we had done with them before anyone found out about it. But I must not anticipate (that means t

wanted to find it. And at last we did not find it, but we were found by a good, kind Indian uncle, who helped Father with his business, so that Father was able to take us all to live in a jolly big red house on Blackheath, instead of in the Lewisham Road, where we lived when we were onl

h vineries and pineries, and gas and water, and shrubberies and stabling, and replete with every modern convenience, like

the chairs, and the tables not scratched, and the silver not dented; and lot

very unhappy if it had been taken away from me. And the same with new clothes and nice dinners and having enough of everything. You soon get used to it all, and it does not make you extra happy, although, if you had it all taken away, you would be very dejected. (That is a good word, and one I have never used before.) You get used to everything, as I said, and then you want something m

t about Easter we knew the deceitfulness of riches in the vac., when there was nothing much on, like pantomimes and things. Then there was the summer term, and we swotted more than ever; and it was boiling hot, and maste

to feel as if we had forgotten something, and did not know what it was. We wanted someth

two. You know-the kids who came at Christmas. You must be jol

hite mice, with very bright eyes. They had not been to our house since Christmas,

'Don't' than even a general. So the girls had to chuck it. Jane only let them put flowers in the pots on the visitors' mantelpieces, and the

a mistake, because their aunt was with them, and she wore black with beady things and

astables; we've come t

nd it made us sorry for Daisy a

haps, because we'd been playing brigands in the shrubbery; and we knew we

But Daisy said, 'Of course they are,' an

old the man where to drive, and put

go too, if you like, but y

and turned haughtily away, before she could begin, and so did the others. No one but that kind of black beady tight lady would say 'little boys'. She is like Miss Murdstone in David Co

saying 'Yes' and 'No', and 'I don't know'. We boys did not say anything. We stood at the window and looked out till the gong went for our dinner. We felt it was going to be awful-and it was. The newcomers would never have

te very neatly, and always wiped their mouths before the

ner it got wo

toys, and they said 'Thank you, it's very nice' to everything. And it got less and less pleasant, and towards

but while late dinner was going on-I shall never forget it. Oswald felt like the hero of a book-'almo

nd Denny said he couldn't sleep without the gas being left a little bit on) we held a council in the girls' room. We all sat on th

olly nice,

o-morrow,' Alice sai

y well, but you needn't be

ou see we're all stran

shan't eat them. What have they got

nd princess who'd been turned into white rabbits, and t

told him

'The thing is: what are we going to DO? We can't h

ng for ever. Perhaps they've got into the habit of it wit

er day like today. We must do something to rouse them from their snive

e first thing when they get up,

hear of it, and I

get up a good play-like we did

what? But sh

ast all day,' Dicky said, 'and if they

I'll read to t

don't-if you begin that w

at all. I was going to say if they didn't lik

s could, and at last the council broke up in confusion because

ast, and the two strangers were sitting the

have a jungle

ll brek was over. The little strangers only said

ed his brothers and sisters

e be captain today, be

said th

l be Mowgli. The rest of you can be what you like

said Noel. 'They don't look as if they

easts all the time,' Oswald

was se

first conscious act was to get rid of the white mice-I mean the little good visitors. He explained to them that there would be a play in the afternoon, and they could be what they liked, and gave them the Jungle Book to read the stories he told them to-all the ones abou

, it turned out he had not read the stories Oswald told

dy with his fingers, and things that he does up do not come untied. Daisy might have come too, but she wanted to go on reading, so we let her, which is the truest manners to a visitor. Of course the shrubbery was to be the jungle, and the lawn under the ced

e grass to look as natural as we could. And then we got Pincher, and rubbed him all over with powdered slate-pencil, to m

t in, and then the slate-pencil stuff stuck all right, and he rolled in the dust-bin of his own accord, which made him just the right colour. He is a very clever dog, but so

e paper birds to put in

ers, and quickly he made quite a lot of large paper birds with r

s he suddenly said, or

g-something like a bull and something like a minotaur-and I don't

Oswald who thought of it. He is not ashamed of having THOUGHT of it. That was rather clever of him. But he knows now tha

h string. The duck-bill-what's its name?-looked very well sitting on his tail with the otter snarling at him. Then Dicky had an idea; and though not nearly so much was said about it afterwards as there was about the stuffed things, I think myself it was just as bad, though it was a good idea, too. He just got the hose and put the end over a branch of the cedar-tree. Then we got the steps they clean windows with, and let the hose rest on the top of the steps and run. It was to be a waterfall, but it ran b

orns made out of The Times. They got away somehow, and before they were caught next day they had eate

ng to tie the paper on to. He thought we were kidding until we showed him, and then he said, 'Well, n

One of the guinea-pigs was never seen again, and the same with the tortoise when we had done his shell with vermilion paint. He cr

of beauty, what with the stuffed creatures and the p

a sleeping tiger getting ready to make a spring out at you. It is difficult to prop up tiger-s

sters and string we fastened insides to the tigers-and they were really fine. Th

irls only tucked up their frocks and took their shoes and stockings off. H. O. painted his legs and his hands with Condy's fluid-to make him brown, so that he mig

now you've done it, you've simply got to go and be a beaver,

want to be beave

ronze statue in the palace garden

own. So then Dicky and Oswald and I did ourselves brown too, and dried H. O. as well as we could with ou

se that was on the ground was Kaa, the Rock Python, and Pincher was Grey Brother, only we couldn't fin

tly occurred, which was not really

g them along to fright each other. Of course, this is not in the Mowgli book at all: but they did look jolly like real tigers, and I am very far from wishing to blame the girl,

ed short, and uttering a shriek like a ra

perhaps after all she did know how to play, 'I myself will protect thee.'

ndian maiden

knight does battle for us.' Dora might have remembered that we were savages, bu

olet-colour and her eyes half shut. She looked horrid. Not at all like fair fainting damse

unconscious brow. The girls loosened her dress, though it was only the kind that comes down straight without a waist. And we

Alice. But whoever it was did not. There were feet on the grav

his we shall find our young barbarians

the uncle, three other gentlemen

knew which. And all the stuffed animals were there staring the uncle in the face. Most of them had got a sprinkling, and the ott

how it would strike the uncle, and his brave young

what?' said the tones

, and he didn't know what was up with Daisy. He explain

udden attack. Oswald and H. O. caught it worst. The other boys were under the tigers

wretched captives might have given way but for the gutter that you can crawl along from our room to the girls'. But I will not dwell on this because you might try it yourselves, and it really is dangerous. When my father came home we g

glad of this-Daisy and Denny too. This we bore nobly. We knew we had deserved it. We w

hinks now that perhaps we made a mistake in trying so very har

not really dead at all. It wa

found on the dr

the jungle-for instance, about the elephants' tusks and