The Wouldbegoods: Being the Further Adventures of the Treasure Seekers

ought up in the country we should have known that it is not done-to hunt the fox in August. But in

course, if a man were at bay in a cave, and had to defend girls from the simultaneous attack of a herd of savage foxes it would be different. A man is bound to protect girls and take care of them-they can jolly well take c

ce from harmless

tests rise from

things-threefold, like the clover or trefoil, and the c

Indian uncle coming down to the country to see us. The second was Denny's tooth. The third was only our wanting to g

ut Dora. She said she was certain our uncle missed us, and that he fe

bad habits that excellent Indian man has, and this habit has en

ything particularly amusing to do. So that, as it happened to be dinner-time and we had just washed our

knees, was our Indian relative so much beloved. He looked very smart, with a rose in his buttonhole. How different from what he looked in other days when he helped us to pretend that our currant pudding was a wild boar we were killing with our forks. Yet, though tidier,

blood boil to

eryone else we had told it to had owned, wh

ia we learn how to freeze our blo

counts for Indian tempers, though not for the curry and pepper they eat. But I mus

ood-bye he tipped us all half a quid, without any insidious distinctions about age or considering w

tude! So we cheered the driver too for this rare virtue, and then went home to talk about what we should do with our money. I cannot tell you all that we did with it, because money melts away 'like snow-wreaths in thaw-jean', as Denny says, and somehow the more you

hen Oswald felt the uncomfortable inside sensation that reminds y

d one that will go off, too-not those rotten flintlocks.

practise with it far from the house, so as not to frighten the gr

er. We got it while the others were grubbing at the pastry-cook's in the High Street, and we said nothing til

council in the straw

I have go

d out that shop in Maidstone where peppermint rock is four

ant to hear the secret you'd better bunk.

y used about real things, and never

ahead! I thought yo

up long before, when he had found the first thr

tell, I will

touch, or t

called a be

t secret I e

y, but it is a very binding promise.

Dicky said,

murmur of awful amazement and respect from every one of the council. The pistol was not l

e song, but we thought it would be more modest not to wind horns or anything noisy, at any rate not until we had run down our prey. But h

he slept with it under his pillow, but not loaded, for fear he should

tooth. The toothache got worse, and Albert's uncle looked at it, and said it was very loose, and Denny owned he had tried to crack

the bird had flown and the nest was cold. The pistol was not in the nest either, but Oswald found it afterwards under the looking-glass on the dressing-table. He had just awakened the others (with a hair-brush

the bottom of the mystery. And we found a note from

hours. He's off to the dentist to have it

enny's gone t

n,' H. O. said. 'Denny m

lly does try very hard. He wants to be a c

hether he'll get a shillin

ng in gloomy silence, no

the drive too. So it's quite fair for us to have the fox-hunt

ed that it woul

ne another time if he

could not do this-but H. O. had the old red football jersey th

' he said grievingly. 'I shoul

but he answered, 'I didn't want to

use we all know H. O.'s watch is broken, and when you wi

with 'Moat House Fox-Hunters' on it; and we tied red flannel round all the dogs' necks to show they were fox-hounds. Yet it did not s

idges into his pocket. He knew, of course

we may not meet a b

ng the hedge of another field, and so we got into the wood, through a ga

tarted in pursuit; but the rabbit went and hid, so that even Pincher could not find him, and we went on. But we saw no foxes. So at last we ma

we could, when we suddenly came barking round a corner in full chase and stopped short, for we saw that our fox

in tones that thri

not to muddle the narration-pointed to the

up its head was bleeding. It had evidently been shot through the brain and expired instantly. Oswald explained this

l and its little feet. Dicky strung the dogs on the leas

never see again out of its poor litt

h the wood again, lend me y

en-roost or a trap or anything excit

and Noel began to walk up and down making faces, the way he always does when he's maki

ht to cut off its tail, I'm quite certain. Only, I've broken

ehow we all felt we did not want to play fox-hunting any more that day

t wasn't true

, and now she said, 'I should like

might pray God to take care of the fox's poor little babies,

up and find it was a ho

ith dogs, but it is true. The fox's feet looked so helpless. And there was a dusty mark on

'This is the pi

oor Reynard

t come to

ll the hun

the day tha

the da

ke hunting, an

bury it without bloodying our jackets. Girls' clothes are silly in one way, but I think they are useful too. A boy cannot take off more than his jacket and waistco

e fox. It was very heavy. When we go

s over its grave for ever, and the other foxes can come and cry if they wan

we could bury it here, and then he co

rked, 'that's what it is.' But he went o

lose to a lane-and while they waited for the digging or fatigue party to come back, they collected a lot of moss and gre

e fox in. We did not bring the dogs back, because they were too i

he girls sat stroking the clean parts of the fox's fur till the grave was deep enough. At last it was; then Daisy threw in the leaves and grass, and Alice and Dora took the poor dead fox by his two ends and we helped to put him in the grave. We could

X'S BU

you had lived you'd not have been (Been proper friends with us, I mean), But now you're laid upon the shelf, Poor fox, you cannot help yourself, So, as I say, we are your loving friends-And here your Burial Ode, dear Foxy,

make it look like the rest of the wood. People might think it was a treasure, and dig it up, if they th

Dora's bloodstained pink cotton petti

e behind us, and a scrabbling and whining, and a gentleman with two fox-terriers

re digging-we could see their tails wagging and

p your dogs digging

leman sa

had a funeral, and

t trained like Pincher, who was brought up by Oswald

ird, eh?' said the gentleman, kindly. H

l of us, in a rush of blushes and uncomfortableness, that burying a

aid dr

in the wood, And dug a grave

ere all jumping about with the jumps of unrestrained anguish, and sayi

, but his prudent counsels had been overruled. Now these busy-bodying, meddling, mischief-making fox-terriers (how different from Pincher

t a word, it seemed to be

. O. hid in the hedge. Oswald, to whose noble breast sneakishness is, I am thankful to say, a stranger, would

o' he added sternly

s command, to continue their vile and degrading occupation; holding on all the time to the ears of Dic

sir. We won't cut. I giv

ays, when people drew their bright blades and fought duels, I would have ha

f Oswald's brothers at the sound of his firm, unswerving tones. He

umped up a

ery big about words of hono

we shot it, you're wrong.

ned suddenly to H. O. and p

ury to the ends of his large ears, as he pointed to the ca

rabbit that hid, so my brother was being the fox; and then we found the fox shot dead,

and I'll have you up for trespass and damage. Come along now, no nonsense! I'm a magistrate and I'm Master of the Hounds

it was vain. The Master of the Hounds made him empty h

a harsh laugh of succ

s your licence? You come with

done it, but we all thought then

spoke up. His teeth were chatt

o believe us till you've found us out in a lie. We

d the White-Whiskered.

you are a horrible tyrant like Caligula, and Herod, or Nero, and the Spanish Inquisi

at,' and he turned up the lane with the fox hanging from

nt. But he bore up nobly-exactl

ate. At the end of the lane there was Alice. She had bunked home, obeying the orders of her thoughtful brother, but she

Mr Magistra

e you tak

magistrate said, 'To priso

le-at least he's not-but it's the same thing. We didn't kill the fox, if that's what you think-indeed we didn't. Oh, dear, I do wish yo

of these objects the fox-hound

oel's ear and Alice snuggled up

between white whiskers, and they were red-that wound in at our gate and into th

re of the departed. Dora looked at us all, and she saw that it was serious. She pulled out th

, but did

ilence that was not comforting,

o bolt. Speak the truth

id we

out a knife and the girls hid their faces. Even Oswald did not care to look. Wounds i

hief and then laid it on the table, and put one of my cart

nd it was too true. The

n he is innocently accused of a crime and the judge is putting on the bla

, 'we didn't kill it, and

fox-hounds, but he was not master of his temper, which is

epeat, much less in his own conversing, and besi

pairing reflections. The M.F.H. got up and told his tale: it was mainly lies, or,

said Albert's uncle,

asking for the c

tainly,' fuming, the fox

w Oswald, I know I can trust

swal

ert's uncle, and I felt this would be a trial to his faith far

in. He looked at t

it, then?

lbert's uncle said, 'One moment, D

' said D

o, don't whisper to Oswald. This boy,' he said to the injured fox-master, 'has been wi

, though again and again

mething,' he said at last. White W

sper, old chap. Ask me what

an't without breaki

nd he said, 'Break away for al

toothache I got up and went out early this morning. And I took the pistol. And I loaded it just for fun. And down in the wood I heard a whining like a dog, and I went, and ther

n't you tell

ake when I went

your uncle if you've been

e oath,' H

called a b

t secret I e

kers actua

was an accident, my boy.' T

doubting your word-all of

ll right and he

g Albert's uncle to shoot rabbits; but we did not really forgive him till the day when he sent the fo

t no punishment, because our conduct had not been ex

the cartridges

nly have himself to thank if we are rapidly overpowered, because it will be his fault