leased when he gave him
the pipe.

You see that made it very difficult, as we had to get something that Father
would like and Jakes too, as he still had thirteen children; and then I
remembered that Mrs. Jakes had once looked at a woollen jumper that I had
on, and said that it would be just the thing for her Mary Ann, who had a
delicate chest, and Jakes would be sure to like what Mrs. Jakes liked, or
else he wouldn't have married her. Of course a jumper wasn't really the
sort of thing that Father could wear, but I thought he might wrap his foot
up in it when he next had gout, and besides I shouldn't be wanting it much
more myself, as the summer was coming on.

Angela said that she thought that would do well, and she wouldn't mind
giving Father her jumper next month if he said "Rabbits," and it would do
for Mrs. Jakes' next little girl.

So that was decided, and then we had to arrange the plan. The most
important thing was for us to wake before Father, so that we could wake him
and remind him before he had time to say anything else, and Angela
remembered that Ellen, that's the housemaid, had an alarm clock, which she
used to set at a quarter to six each morning. We waited until Ellen had
gone downstairs and then took it and hid it in Angela's bed.

Next morning the clock went off. We were both rather frightened, and it was
very cold and the room looked funny, as the blinds hadn't been pulled up,
but we put our dressing-gowns on. Then Angela said that she had heard that
if you woke a person who was walking in their sleep they sometimes called
out, so I took a pair of stockings from the basket that had just come back
from the wash to hold over Father's mouth while we woke him. They were
waiting to be mended and had a hole in them, but that didn't matter much,
as I screwed them up tight, and then we went into Father's room. They were
both asleep, and Father had his mouth open all ready for the stockings,
which was very lucky, as I was wondering how I could get them in.

We crept up to the bed, and I know I shivered, and I think Angela did too,
as I was holding her hand. Then she called out "Boo" as loud as she could,
and I stuffed the stockings into Father's mouth, and then they both woke
up, and everything went wrong.

Mother thought the house was on fire and screamed, and it made Angela begin
to cry. I quite forgot to tell Father to say "Rabbits," and just pressed
the stockings further into his mouth.

Father strug