The Wouldbegoods: Being the Further Adventures of the Treasure Seekers

birthday on the Saturday, so that his Father could be there. A birthday when there are only many happy returns is a little like Sunday or Christmas Eve. Oswald had a birt

and presently he tossed one over to Dora, and said,

letter went into the place where the bacon had been, and where now only a frozen-looking lake of bacon f

g now-all grease and stickin

TY OF ANTIQUITI

14,

-At a meet

pot crawling in a hurry over the paper without stopping to rub its feet properly on the mat. So Osw

you little silly,' he s

ncle, 'and I never call names at breakfast myse

Alice, 'and you got it out of

n where he had b

TY OF "ANTIQUARI

14,

nity. Our president, Mr Longchamps, F.R.S., has obtained permission to open a barrow in the Three Trees pasture. We venture to ask whether you would allow the members of the Society to walk through your grounds and to inspec

TURNBULL (H

of the Maidstone Antiquities to profane these sacred solitudes,

is all grass

h, do let them come!'

hey'll be very tired coming

dull dogs, the Antiquities, stuffy old gentlemen with amphorae in their but

look it up in the dicker. It's not a flower, though it sounds like on

thought it wou

ecorate the table with flowers. We could have tea in the

said; and he went off to write the invitation to tea to the Maidstone Antiquities. I know t

uncle came in to tea wi

I asked casually how many we might expect. I thought we might need at least the ful

only about sixty,' was the groaning rejoinder. 'Perhap

t, we presently decide

never given su

s boys be there, though I cannot see any harm in putting your finger in a cake before it is baked, and then licking your finger

pair. He drove in to Maidstone one day. Wh

inly tear it out by double handfuls in the extremity of my

nd things to give the Antiquities their tea out of; though he did

to make up for the pistol that was taken away after the adventure of the fox-hunting. These gave us boys something

rrows, because they had the cakes that we were cut off

ll and ate nuts. And as we sat there, we saw coming through the beet-field two labourers with picks and shovels, and a

Roman wall, and the men took thei

fully when we asked him, and then we saw the men were cutting turfs and turning them over and rolling them

reliminary excavation in

to-morrow?'

se to open this bar

the Antiquiti

said the gentleman, s

' Dora said, and added anxiously, 'how

or ninety, I should thin

who notices many things that would pass unobserved by the ligh

er since the fox-hunt day. He called a council as if he had been used to calling such things all his life, and having them come, too; wherea

d a figure of speech.

as we were all there, and the straw had stopp

hing to do with

in a hurry: 'qu

g wrong,' said Dora

bird thou never wert",' said Denny. 'I m

ur luck. Go on, De

u know a book call

did

ied and wore black watered silk and silver ornaments. So her baby died, and then she was sorry she had not been a good mother to it. And-' Here Dicky got up and said he'd got some snares to attend to, and he'd receive a report of the Counc

struggle with Dicky, Oswald heard the voice of D

Across the stormy water, And I'll forgive you

icky had agreed to go through

ne of the boys dresses up like a lady and comes to call, and another t

er boys. He would never have learnt such words as 'rip

sy Chain. It is a first-rate b

lk about The Daisy Chain

lark?' Denny got

tell you directly. L

ent in thought, and then opened them and

now Albert's uncle said they were going to open the barrow, to look for Roma

hey will,'

d he said 'Primus!

tist we

pottery there they'd made themselves, and Harry's old medal of the Duke of Wellington. The doctor helped

reak, you

e if yo

cent of t

g round i

he Antiquities thoroughly would be indeed splendiferous. Of course Dora made haste to point out that we had not got an old medal of the Duke of Wellington, and that w

And most of the things were such queer shapes that they should have done for almost anything-Roman or Greek, or even Egyptian or antediluvian, or household milk-jugs of the cavemen, Albe

ll concealed in their pinafores, while the men members carried digging tools. H. O. and Daisy were sent on ahead as scouts to see if the coast was clea

ir stomachs on the walls and give a long,

grudged time or trouble when a lark was at stake. We put the things in as naturally as we could, and shoved the dirt back, till everything looked just as b

ed to Oswald on the stai

or when the others are a

d?' And she replied

and pulling his hair-for he shrinks fr

ep of innocent youth, he got up and w

oman-they were on top of the cupboard in the library. If you'll come w

daring act, but Os

s

ipped a few peppermints into his pocket in case of catching cold. It is

oonlight act some other day. We got out of the front door, which is never locked till Albert's uncle goes to b

afraid if it had been dark. But the moonligh

the spade and a s

up and scratched the earth under, and took it out very carefully in handfuls on to the newspaper, till the hole was deepish. Then we put in the jugs, and filled it up with earth and flattened the turf

s was very wet-chuckling through the peppermint, and got

girls decorated the tables with flowers-blue larkspur and white Canterbury bells. And at about three there was a noise of people walking in the road, and presently the Antiquities began to come in at the front gate, and stood about on the lawn by twos and threes and sixes and sevens, looking shy and uncomf

t's the Commit

-and Albert's uncle received the Committee like

, and Julius Caesar, and Roman remains, and lych gates and churches, and dog's-tooth moulding till the brain of Oswald reeled.

ingle unsuspecte

ldn't. We thought at first she was from a deaf-and-dumb asylum, where her kind teachers had only managed to teach the afflicted to say 'Yes' and 'No'. But afterwards we knew better, for Noel heard her say to her mother, 'I wish you hadn

about the Moat House, which we couldn't understand, and other people made speeches we couldn't

d Mrs Pettigrew poured out the t

r when he found there were one hundred and twenty-three Antiquities present,

tiquities. Many of them had umbrellas and overcoats, though the weather was fiery and without a cloud. That is the sort of people they were. The ladies al

he digging went on; but Albert's uncle

ts. The hosts and hostesses retire to the gallery, whence,

ssed round for the Antiquities to look at. And we knew they must be our Roman remains; but the Antiquities did not seem to care for them much, though we heard sounds of pleased laughter. And at last Alice

the house and we were aware that all would soon be over. So we cut home

ng. Oh, really, you ought to h

melted off the lawn; the party was over, and only the dirty teacups an

dwiches and cakes and things that were over; and as we watche

's t

t we helped him a little in the narrating of the fell plot, because

said, 'Well, it amused you; and you'll be glad to

re Roman?' Daisy said; 'th

the Treasurer and Secretary were charmed by yo

hem to be disappo

treasure you had prepared for them they found two specimens of REAL Roman pottery which sent

getting the jugs and burying them in the moonlight, and the mound; and the others listened with deeply resp

ce's recital; and he now had the sensation of something being up, which has on other occa

r sensitive brother's delicate feelings had already

y cupboard ARE Roman pottery. The amphorae which you hid in the mound are probably-I can't say for certain, mind-priceless. They are the property of the owner of t

thers added to our pained position by some ungenerous murmurs

m pleasing silence. Then

e a sec; I want

ered no advice, Oswald di

d wished they had never tried to have a private lark of their very own with the Antiquities-'A Private Sale',

wh

the lawn, where, heartless in their youngness, they were playing tag. I don't know how they could. Oswald wo

ds he thought it was only

, and Alice and Oswald still sat exhausted with hard thinking, but they coul

outh to say the same thing-and said, 'Of course-how s

carelessly if Alice and he might go into Maidstone the next day to buy

swald would not have been able to bear to leave the bailiff without seeing the pigs bought. But now it was different. For he and Alice had the weight on their b

t, but the maid-servant kindly told us where the President lived, and ere long the trembling

otions, in a large room with books and swords and glass bookcases with rotten-looking odds and ends in them. Mr

kind. He remembered us very well, he

ds in which to own himself the ass he had been.

it would be such a pity for you and all the other poor dear Antiquities to come all that wa

at us; 'a harmless joke, my dear! Youth's the season for jesting. There's no harm done-p

f one who would fain be rid of his guests and get b

ugs you took away; we put them there; they aren't ours. We didn't know they were real R

eman. 'I suppose you'd know the-t

onfidential rashness of one who doe

d beckoned us to follow. We found ourselves amid shelves and shelves of pottery of a

veiled menacing sort of smile, li

id, 'I do

ould know if I ha

lice tried to look inside them. And one after another she shook her

s shuddered

dn't. I would rather you didn't read it. I didn't know it would be a nice old gentleman like you w

unerringly. 'Well, well-boys will be boys-girls, I mean. I won'

t she said, 'This is one'-and two jugs

btained yesterday. If your uncle will call on me I will return them to h

t one he said nothing.

, it appears, am I. Next time you have a Sale of Antiquities, take care that you yourself are not "sold". Good-day to you, my dear. Don't

to see the pigs

jugs, and she owned that just to make the lark complete she had writ

ever we have any Antiquities to tea again, they shan't fi

think he behaved exceedingly well. Oswald can picture a very different scene having

ill not distress you by drawing it for you. Y