The Wouldbegoods: Being the Further Adventures of the Treasure Seekers

e Society of the Wouldbegoods beg

g of, that is-for over a week, and that it was high time to begin

e we did when we were Treasure Seekers. Then when everybody's had their go-in we'll write every single thing down in the Golden Deed book, and we'll draw two lines

y did not welcome this wise idea

ld is really firm, opposingness

ool-children from the village and give them tea and games

epsakes for the soldiers, as well as having to stump up heavily over the coal barge. And it is in vain being noble and generous when someone else is

aking a bit of a row. Anyhow, Oswald for one, does no

But if you could whistle, or stamp with your feet, or shriek or howl

, 'We're awfully s

which, for good or ill, must influence her whole subsequent career. You wouldn't

'No, we w

should commend itself to you this brig

is not nearly so white-micey as she was at first, but she stil

y when he's making his heroine decide right would be a noble act, and fit to writ

id 'Yes,

a silent

said; 'fear not to lay bare the utmo

augh right out or hold their tongues. Their kind

e. Everybody had an animal, and they had to go how they liked, and the one that got in first got th

prize worth bothering about. And though you may be ever ready and willing to do anything fo

. Dicky yawned and said, 'Let's g

s not hurt straw to be messed

she was in double harness with it. This is the noble bull-dog's gentle and affectionate nature coming out. We all enjoyed the ratting that day, but it ended, as usual, in the girls crying because of the poor rats. Girls can

o be thumped on the back, passed the time very agreeably till dinne

nly effaced ourselves effectually

the afternoon, for he told us his heroi

at first care if you never play any runabout game ever any more. But after a

he orchard, but now he turned over on hi

here; let's d

e she was still thinking about that animal race. So I explained to her that it would be

H. O. w

ls is prime, if they only

dding faded from Oswald's memory, and

or H. O.

heavy weight of memory, and

rabbits and the guinea-pigs, and even all the bright, glass-eyed, stuffed denizens of our

ght words. And Albert's uncle says your style is always altered a bit by what you read. An

ings. A circus where the performing creatures hadn't learned performing would b

who do not understand that when you want to do a thing you do want to,

thing was to collect t

that they have hidden talents hither

d wrote a list of the ani

MALS REQUIS

ARE GOIN

s-one to be Learned, and the other to play with the clown. Turkeys, as many as possible, because they can make a noise that The do

s partly her idea, but she let Oswald be, beca

very place, because the hedge is good all round. When we've got the performers all there we'll make

ive in the cowhouse with the other horned people; he has a house all to himself two fields away. Oswald and Alice went

to get one of the hor

al was full o

will be shy at first, and he'll

s hurt,'

l,' Oswald said; 'his po

nd to it,' Alice asked

k I shall ride the bull,' the brave boy went on. 'A bull-fight, where an intrepid rid

said; 'at least, not if thei

wood and prickly furze bushes, and he has a yard to his house

out in his yard, and he was swinging his tail becaus

so glad to get out for a walk he'll drop his head in my

t pay attention. But the bull did not pay a farthing's worth of it. So then Oswald leaned over the iron gate of the bull's yard and just flicked the bull with the whiplash. And then the bull DID pay attention. He star

h to annoy the bull any more, and they ran as fast as they

one paralysing blow, and was now tearing across the field after him and Alice, with the broken gate balanced

the bull. He did not seem to want to

etween laughi

nd we did not tell the others how we had hurried to get back

in the bull-fight, but to let her be the Elephant. The Elephant's is a nice quiet part, and she was quite big enough for a young one. Th

ding him in the halter. The dogs we

the turkeys for the applau

they wanted to go into the paddock, where the circus was to be. This is done by pretending to drive them the other way. A pig only knows two ways-the way you want him to go, and the other. But

ds, nasty, unobliging things, because now they won't see th

est of us, Dicky had found three sheep who seeme

left the dumb circus performers to make

with Albert's uncle's pyjamas, and flour on your hair

cked daring, riding either a pig or a sheep, whichever we found was freshest and most skittish. Dora was dressed for the Haute ecole, which means a riding-habit and a high hat. She took Dick's topper that he wears with his Etons, and a skirt of Mrs Pettigrew's. Daisy, dressed the same as Alice, taking the muslin from Mrs Pettigre

n, Oswald!' and he bounded l

p for the other clown. He had only his shirt and knickerbockers and his braces on. He came down as he was-as indeed we all did. And no wonder, for in the paddock, where the circus wa

so much, because the sheep could walk away from her easily. She has no pace and no wind. But Lady is a deer-hound. She is used to pursuing that fleet and antlered pride of the forest-the stag-and she can go like billyo. She

o see Lady pull down her quarry, and we know what a lot of mon

wards it was because his brown-paper boots came undone and tripped him up. Alice came in third. She held on the dressing-table muslin and ran jolly well. But ere we reached the fatal spot all was very nearly up with

he sheep struggling in the water. It is not very deep, and I believe the sheep coul

d me as we sat on the bank. It kicked all the time we were hauling. It gave one extra kick at last, that raised it up, and I tell you that sopping wet, heavy, panting, silly donkey of a sheep sa

alled us every name you can

come along. He would ha' c

hers away. And the calves too. He did not se

or just then, so we sat in the sun and dried ourselve

GRA

, and real precipice. The gallant rescue. O. A. and D. Bastable. (We thought w

iza. A. Bastable. 3. Amusing clown interlude, introducing train

d only one donkey, so Dicky said H. O. could be th

aute ecole, on Clover, the incomparative tr

e the Andes out of hurdles and things, and so we could have but for what always happens. (This is the unexpected. (Thi

knows something,' Alice said, 'if we can only

e nearly dry-all except Dick's brown-paper top-boots, w

the iron trough where the sheep have their

Learned Pig, when we heard screams from the back part of the house, and suddenly we saw that Billy, the acrobatic goat, had got loose from the tree we ha

We hastily proceeded in the direction of the screams, and, guided by the sound, threaded our way into the kitchen. As we

m-siren and waving a broom, occupied the foreground. In the distance the maid was shrieking in a hoarse

ned and tossed his head in a way that showed us some mysterious purpose was hidden beneath his calm exterior. The next moment he put his off-horn neatly behind the end plate o

wned in the discarding crash and crackl

rror and polite regret, preserv

t the goat in a timid yet cross way, he sprang forward, c

t fell against another row of plates, righted itself hastily in the gloomy ruins of the soup tureen and the sauce-boats, and then fell again, this time towards Dicky. The two

ained thumb and a lump on his head like a

was brought to the scene of ruin by her screams. Few words escaped our lips. There are t

e let go, we all went out. Then Alice said distracted

boxes-no, I don't mean that-the creatures in their places-

ten. But he gave in to Alice, as the others said so too, and we went ou

ied up after the first act, when the intrepid sheep bounded, as it says in the programme. The two white pigs were there, but the donkey was gone. We heard his hoofs down the road, growing fainter and fainter, in the direction of the 'Rose and Crown'. And just round the

ted quietly down the road; it looked very black against the white road, and the ends on the top, where the Union Jac

(I daresay you won't swallow this, but you may safely. It's as true as true, and so's all that

to help us, but they only waved their arms and roared with laughter. One chap on a bicycle almost tumbled off his machine, and then he got off it and propped it against a gate and sat down in the hedge to laugh properly. You remember Alice was still dressed u

ckers belonging to his Norfolks. He had tied the pyjamas round his neck, to carry them easily. He was afraid to leave them in a ditch, as Alice suggested, because he did not know the roads, and for

ircled by the dauntless banner of our country. All the same, I think if I had seen a band of youthful travellers in bitter distress about a pig

blacksmith's was wet with, and not his fair brow alone. It ran down his face and washed the red off in streaks, and when he rubbed his eyes he only made it worse. Alice had to run holding the equestrienne skirts on with b

kind-hearted man. I think, perhaps, he had a pig of

t-wheeled through a gate into a private garden and cantered up the

s way. It turned first to the right and

ng his failing voice to give the word of c

d him. He edged off

ald, as the pig got on to a bed of yellow

the pig was a captive. Alice and Oswald had their arms round him under the ruins of a table that had had teacups on it, and around the hunters and their prey stood the startled members of a parish society for making clothes for the poor heathen, that that pig had led us into the very midst of. They were reading a missionary report or so

g, and asked pardon quite properly for any alarm the ladies had felt; and Alice said how sorry we were but really it was

House asked for our names and addresses, and said she should write to our Father. (She did, and we heard of i

ad asked for a piece of

ur nice room,' Alice said. 'And that

on as the pig had agreed to let us tie it round his neck we came away

meanderi

rustled and opened, and the little girl

must be hungry if you

tea after all the trouble you've had.

at circuses,' she sai

d done she said perhaps it was better to hear abo

ntie had given yo

es for grown-up people. When we parted she said she would never forget us, an

only thing out of that day that was put in the Golden Deed b

to write our own good actions, but I suppose Dicky was dull wi

red to the pig). Nor will I tell you a word of all that was said and done to the intrepid hunters of the Black an