on crying, for just
then nurse came upstairs. _She_ was not actually crying, of course, but
she did look very worried, so Clem and Blanche's faces did not clear up
at all. Nor did mine, I suppose. I really did not know what to think, I
was waiting to see what the others thought, for we three younger ones
looked up to Clement and Blanche a good deal, and we still do. They are
twins, and they seem to mix together so well. Blanche is quick and
clever, and Clement is awfully sensible, and they are both very kind,
though Clem is the gentlest. They are nearly sixteen now, and I am
thirteen past, so at the time I am writing about they were twelve and I
was going to be ten my next birthday, and Peterkin was eight and Elvira
five. I won't say much about what sort of a boy Peterkin was, for as my
story is mostly about him and the funny things he did and thought, it
will show of itself.

He _was_ a funny child; a queer child in some ways, I mean, and he still
is. Mamma says it is stupid to say 'funny' when we mean queer or odd,
but I think it says it better than any other word, and I am sure other
children will think so too.

Blanche was the first to speak to nurse.

'Is mamma really frightened about Peterkin, nurse?' she asked. 'Tell us
what it is.'

But nurse had caught sight of her darling pet baby's red eyes.

'Miss Blanchie,' she said, 'I asked you to look after Miss Elvira, and
she's been crying.'

'You asked me to see that she didn't spill her tea, and she hasn't spilt
it. It's some nonsense she has got in her head about policemen taking
strayed children to prison that she has been crying about,' replied
Blanche, rather crossly.

'I only wish,' began nurse, but the rest of her sentence she mumbled to
herself, though I heard part of it. It was wishing that the policemen
_had_ got Peterkin safely.

'Of course, your poor mamma is upset about it,' she went on, though I
could see she did not want to say very much for fear of Elf's beginning
to cry again. 'It was this way. Your mamma had to go round by Belton
Street, and she did not want to keep Master Peterkin out so late to miss
his tea, so she dropped him at the corner of Lindsay Square, and told
him to run home. It's as straight as straight can be, and he's often run
that far alone. So where he's got to or gone to, there's no guessing.'

'And what is mamma doing?' asked Blanche.

'She has sent Mr. Drew and James off in different directions,' said
nurse, 'and she