Explorers of the Dawn

gle of wicker chairs and table legs, we none of us quite lost sight of the adventure in store for us. S

again than we set about

alarm clock, so I s'pose we'll just have to take turns in keeping w

watch!" put in Th

estions, young man," said Angel, out of the side

oster; the door shut upon the world of Mrs. Handsomebody, a

sleep, John, and I'll wake you when the clock strike

dusk and talked till the familiar harsh voi

whispered Angel in a drowsy vo

y arm about the slumbering Se

to an enjoyable dream in which I was the only customer in an ice-cream parlour, wher

" whispered Angel, hoa

in the strawberry ice," I moan

en the old clock strikes ten? You've been sleepin' like a

"I'll go and look at the schoolroom cl

ttered Angel, clutching

's really ten you nee

arer eleven, but you're

still we clung desperately to each other, our small bodies pressed hotly together, Angel's nose flattened against my ear. The Seraph snuggled up to us. "Just you wait"-breathed Angel-his hands tightened on me,

ay with a sort of Saga of his exploits of the day before, usually meaningless to us but fraught with colour from his own peculiar sphere. At last he laughed outright

staring at the slanting beam and s

ain"-I said. "But however ar

usual landmarks of porridge, arithmetic, spelling, scoldings, mutton, a walk wi

out the mystery so soon to be explored by us. I told the first story, a long-drawn adventure o

old it awfully well, John. If you like you may just tell another 'stead o' me. Or

over me, so that he might be in the middl

t was the bwavest an' stwongest of the fwee. He was as stwong as two bull

with a pillow. The Seraph was wont to accept such discipline, at our hands, philosophically, with no unseemly outcries or struggles; as a matter of fact, when we u

e. I heard the sound of footsteps in the street below, echoing, with a lonely sound; the rattle of a loose shutter in a sud

plaster; and suddenly opening my eyes, I saw the ghost of g