You said there couldn't possibly be a frog in my bread-and-milk; there
_was_ a frog in my bread-and-milk," he repeated, with the insistence of a
skilled tactician who does not intend to shift from favourable ground.

So his boy-cousin and girl-cousin and his quite uninteresting younger
brother were to be taken to Jagborough sands that afternoon and he was to
stay at home. His cousins' aunt, who insisted, by an unwarranted stretch
of imagination, in styling herself his aunt also, had hastily invented
the Jagborough expedition in order to impress on Nicholas the delights
that he had justly forfeited by his disgraceful conduct at the breakfast-
table. It was her habit, whenever one of the children fell from grace,
to improvise something of a festival nature from which the offender would
be rigorously debarred; if all the children sinned collectively they were
suddenly informed of a circus in a neighbouring town, a circus of
unrivalled merit and uncounted elephants, to which, but for their
depravity, they would have been taken that very day.

A few decent tears were looked for on the part of Nicholas when the
moment for the departure of the expedition arrived. As a matter of fact,
however, all the crying was done by his girl-cousin, who scraped her knee
rather painfully against the step of the carriage as she was scrambling
in.

"How she did howl," said Nicholas cheerfully, as the party drove off
without any of the elation of high spirits that should have characterised
it.

"She'll soon get over that," said the _soi-disant_ aunt; "it will be a
glorious afternoon for racing about over those beautiful sands. How they
will enjoy themselves!"

"Bobby won't enjoy himself much, and he won't race much either," said
Nicholas with a grim chuckle; "his boots are hurting him. They're too
tight."

"Why didn't he tell me they were hurting?" asked the aunt with some
asperity.

"He told you twice, but you weren't listening. You often don't listen
when we tell you important things."

"You are not to go into the gooseberry garden," said the aunt, changing
the subject.

"Why not?" demanded Nicholas.

"Because you are in disgrace," said the aunt loftily.

Nicholas did not admit the flawlessness of the reasoning; he felt
perfectly capable of being in disgrace and in a gooseberry garden at the
same moment. His face took on an expression of considerable obstinacy.
It was clear to his aunt that he was determined to get into t