n the middle of the street, until the ball had landed twice in
two minutes on the same balcony to the great annoyance of the 'skivvy,'
who was with debonair assurance invited to bung it down for a mere
lordly 'thank you' from the offenders. Sometimes the ball would early in
the afternoon strike a sun-flamed window, and with exquisite laughter
Michael and Alan would retreat to Number 64, until the alarmed lady of
the house was quietly within her own doors again. Another pleasant
diversion with a football was to take drop-kicks from close quarters at
the backs of errand-boys, especially on wet days when the ball left a
spheroid of mud where it struck the body.

"Yah, you think yourselves--funny," the errand-boy would growl.

"We do. Oh, rather," Michael and Alan would reply and with smiling
indifference defeat their target still more unutterably.

When dusk turned to night, Michael and Alan would wonder what to do and,
after making themselves unbearable in the kitchen, they would sally out
into the back-garden and execute some devilry at the expense of
neighbours. They would walk along the boundary walks of the succeedant
oblongs of garden that ran the whole length of the road; and it was a
poor evening's sport which produced no fun anywhere. Sometimes they
would detect, white in the darkness, a fox-terrier, whereat they would
miaow and rustle the poplar trees and reduce the dog to a state of
hysterical yapping which would be echoed in various keys by every dog
within earshot. Sometimes they would observe a lighted kitchen with an
unsuspicious cook hard at work upon the dinner, meditating perhaps upon
a jelly or flavouring anxiously the soup. Then if the window were open
Michael and Alan would take pot-shots at the dish with blobs of mould or
creep down into the basement, if the window were shut, and groan and
howl to the cook's pallid dismay and to the great detriment of her
family's dinner. In other gardens they would fling explosive
'slap-bangs' against the wall of the house or fire a gunpowder train or
throw gravel up to a lighted bath-room window. There was always some
amusement to be gained at a neighbour's expense between six and seven
o'clock, at which latter hour they would creep demurely home and dress
for dinner, the only stipulation Mrs. Fane made with Michael in exchange
for leave to ask Alan to stay with him.

At dinner in the orange glow of the dining-room, Michael and Alan would
be completely charming a