The Wouldbegoods: Being the Further Adventures of the Treasure Seekers

y for a little while, and we knew right enough that it wasn't a punishment, though Mrs Blake said it was, because we had been punished thoroughly for taking the stuffed anim

d to us that all ill-feeling between him and us was wiped out entirely by the bread and water we had endured. And what with the bread and water and

that was because the authors do not tell you what you truly want to know. However, dull or n

in. It is a very odd house: the front door opens straight into the dining-room, and there are red curtains and a black-and-white marble floor like a chess-board, and there is a secret staircase, only it is not secret now-only rather rickety. It is not very big, but there is a watery moat all round it with a brick bridge that leads to the front door. Then,

oat House. And Albert's uncle took it, and my father was to come down sometimes from Saturday to Monday, and Albert's uncle was to live with us all the time

to it went right down the house, through our bedroom to the dining-room. H. O. saw the rope and pulled it while he was washing his

When he came back he said-'The whole village, or half of it, has come up to see why th

's unc

do no more mischief to-night, sir. To-morrow I will point o

supper, and that was why we

eemed to have awakened in a new world rich in surprises

doors were locked. There were green curtains, and honeycomb for breakfast. After brekker my father went back to town, and Albert's uncle went too, to see publishers. We saw them to the station, and Father gave us a long list of what we weren't

n was quite out of sight. Then we started to walk home. Daisy was tir

ke you,

e we found the hayloft, but we pulled ourselves together to make a fort with the trusses of hay-great square things-and we were having a jolly good time, all of us, when suddenly a trap-door opened and a head bobbed up with a straw

poiling of that there hay, that's all.' A

ardly believe now that once we really did not know that it spoiled

remembe

d the handle of the chaff-cutting machine, and nobody got hurt, thou

lf chopped hay, and those there was room for hung their legs down out of the top door, and we l

Alice

are tired enough to sit still for

ell you.' H. O., don't wriggle so; sit on

so he can never be quite a

aid, getting very red, and loo

and then

and we have written it down because it is easier t

read it, and though she gabbled a bit we all heard

TY FOR BE

t jungle day, we thought a great deal about our naughty sins, and we made our minds up to be good for ever after. And we talked

to do good things they always make a society. Th

vention of something or other, and the Young Me

P.G.?' Osw

of the Jews, of course,' said

t; but do le

did

surer and secretary, and keep a journal-book saying what we

oodness. We wish to spread our wings'-here Alice read very fast. She told me afterwards Daisy had helped her with that part, and she thought when she came to the wings t

arefully. Now he nodd

s of kindnes

deeds

s earth

he one

an eagle does have wings, and we wanted to hear the re

and Daisy said-'Don't yo

red, 'who is president and w

s it is proper to talk about, especially before strangers. But the girls and Denny seemed to like it, so

aid, 'if we made it a sort of play

because we all wanted to be Mr Greatheart, except H. O., who wanted t

e; he really felt just as Oswald did about it, he told me afterwards. But the girl

up the rules of the society, and choo

e modestly consented. She was secretary, an

k us all the afterno

U

is to be as go

n necessary about being good. (Os

our doing some kind action t

every day, or as

to people we don't li

Society without the cons

ept a profound secret fro

e of our S

alled the Society for Humane Improvement; Denny said the Society for Reformed

d, 'Call it th

for Being Good

ety of Goods

ld; 'besides, we don't know

ed, 'we only said if we

to dust the chopped hay off himself, 'call it the

e out the rules, and took H. O. with them, and Noel went to write some poetry to put in the minute book. That's what you call the book that a society's secretary writes what it does in. Denny went with him to help. He knows a lot of poet

our foot down at the beginning,' Dicky

s,' Oswald said, for

ing sisterly warnings". I tell you what it is, Oswald, we'll have

aw this

ry very hard, though. Still, there must be

muff, generally. Anyhow I'm not going to smooth the pillows of the si

'but I suppose we must play the game fair. Let's begin by looking out for something

ling wood and save their pen

about something else.' And Oswald was glad to,

and the others yawned. I don't know when we've had such a gloomy evening. And ever

ung lives. Oswald could have answered and said, 'It is the Society of the Wouldbegoods that is the blight,' but of course he didn't and Albert's uncle s

s snoring like a kettle when it sings. Oswald could not remember at first what was the matter with him, and then he remembered the Wouldbegoods, and wished he hadn't. He felt at first as if there was nothing you could do

th one of his socks. And he might just as well have let it alone, for the servants cleaned it again with the other things in the morning, and he could never find

ast Albert's

y before 1.30 sharp. Nothing short of bloodshed will warrant the intrus

ought to play out of doors so as not to disturb him; we should

going out Dicky

long here a mi

ook him into the other parlour an

hat is vulgar, and he would not have said i

old you how it would be.' And Osw

n't be all d

about a bit, an

you know that dairy window that wouldn't open-only a little bit like th

too well that grown-up people sometimes like to keep things far diffe

ook the trouble to notice I had mended it. So the wretched thing pushed the window open all by itself directly they propped it up, and it tumbled through into the moat, and they are most awfully waxy

ot so unhappy, first because it wasn't his fa

out all right. Come on.' He rushed hastily to the garden and gave a low, signif

e all gathered ro

said, 'we're going to ha

aisy asked, 'like the last time

', and Oswald pre

, 'has inadvertently been laid

tumbled in by it

. It's our duty to restore it to its sorrowing owne

It was our duty and it was inter

s and things on the bushes, but we did not take any till we had asked if we might. Alice went

e nature of the house of Basta

he moat. We sat there in the sun and talked about drag

es about a moat being dragged for missing heirs and lost wil

eve,' Denny said, 'but I don't sup

n heard of them. I think myself he meant s

keep floating on the top of the water, and when we tried sewing stones into one end of it, it stuck on something in the bottom, and when we got it up it was torn. We were very sorry, and the shee

, 'knows half the treasures

that part very well, because of the bushes that grow between the cracks of the stones where the house goes down into the moat. And opposite the

tied the torn parts together in a bunch

ll! One, two, three,' when suddenly Dora dropped her

em wriggle.' And she was out of the water al

o went right in was only H. O.; but Dora made an awful fuss and said it was our fault. We told her what we thought, and it ended in the girls going in with H. O. to change his things. We had some more go

hall we

felt it when Dora did. And besides, the milk-pan is sticking a bi

d. But Alice explained that the dairy was now loc

nd we might as well do it now. I saw an old door in that corner sta

t the

ut the way to make rafts is better des

r rotten little things, but the gimlet worked all right, so we managed to make holes in the edges of the tubs and fasten them with string under the four corners of the old door. This took us a long time. Albert's uncle asked us at

th the last shove of the launching. But Oswald waded out and towed her back; he is not afraid of worms. Yet if he had known of the ot

up to our full strength, because if more than four got on the water cam

h once he was not very keen. Alice promised Noel her best paint-brush if he'd give up and not go, because we knew well that the vo

n then, every time we moved the water swished up over the raf

stand together in the middle and hold on to each other to keep steady. Then we christened our gallant vessel. We called it the Richard, a

hich we had had to use to dry our legs and feet when we put on our stockings for dinner, and slowly and

wind's eye. That is to say, she went where we did not want, and once she bumped her corner against the barn wall, and all the crew had to sit down suddenly to avoid

nder the dairy window and there was the milk-pan, for whose sake we had en

th reached out to get it. Anyone who has pursued a naval career will see that of course the raft capsized. For a moment it felt l

ming Baths at the shallow end, and Dicky is nearly as good; but just then we did

muddy water out of his eyes he

ifting gently away towards the front of the house, where the bridge is, and Dora and Alice were ri

nd besides that a feminine voice, looki

ve the c

y we were in such a situation that she would be able to get at

ora staggered a little in the water, and suddenly shrieked,

d not see us properly; they did not know what was happening. N

I caught hold of Dora. She screamed without stopping. I shoved her along to where there was a ledge of bric

eat-tin, and she had put her foot right into it. Oswald got it off, and directly he did so blood began to pour from

en, and I thought she was going to fa

reeable moments in his life. For the raft was gone, and she couldn't have wad

not been idle. She is

rk archway a little further up under the house. It was the boathouse, and Albert's uncle had got the punt and took us bac

ose who had not been on the raft the same as the others, for the

rday. Father gave us a ta

, so they sent for the doctor, and Dora had to l

r had gone Ali

our little joys and sorrows and things, and about the sweet influence from a sick bed that can be felt all over t

Because this sort of jaw was exactly the sort o

bs off the garden railings. They turned out to be b

t not all the perfumes of somewhere or other

selves, but because it was our duty. But that made no difference to our