o you needn't be so jolly clever.'

Anthea was rummaging in the corner-drawers of her mind for a very
disagreeable answer, when she remembered what a wet day it was, and how
the boys had been disappointed of that ride to London and back on the
top of the tram, which their mother had promised them as a reward for
not having once forgotten, for six whole days, to wipe their boots on
the mat when they came home from school.

So Anthea only said, 'Don't be so jolly clever yourself, Squirrel. And
the fireworks look all right, and you'll have the eightpence that your
tram fares didn't cost to-day, to buy something more with. You ought to
get a perfectly lovely Catharine wheel for eightpence.'

'I daresay,' said Cyril, coldly; 'but it's not YOUR eightpence anyhow--'

'But look here,' said Robert, 'really now, about the fireworks. We don't
want to be disgraced before those kids next door. They think because
they wear red plush on Sundays no one else is any good.'

'I wouldn't wear plush if it was ever so--unless it was black to be
beheaded in, if I was Mary Queen of Scots,' said Anthea, with scorn.

Robert stuck steadily to his point. One great point about Robert is the
steadiness with which he can stick.

'I think we ought to test them,' he said.

'You young duffer,' said Cyril, 'fireworks are like postage-stamps. You
can only use them once.'

'What do you suppose it means by "Carter's tested seeds" in the
advertisement?'

There was a blank silence. Then Cyril touched his forehead with his
finger and shook his head.

'A little wrong here,' he said. 'I was always afraid of that with poor
Robert. All that cleverness, you know, and being top in algebra so
often--it's bound to tell--'

'Dry up,' said Robert, fiercely. 'Don't you see? You can't TEST seeds if
you do them ALL. You just take a few here and there, and if those
grow you can feel pretty sure the others will be--what do you call
it?--Father told me--"up to sample". Don't you think we ought to sample
the fire-works? Just shut our eyes and each draw one out, and then try
them.'

'But it's raining cats and dogs,' said Jane.

'And Queen Anne is dead,' rejoined Robert. No one was in a very good
temper. 'We needn't go out to do them; we can just move back the table,
and let them off on the old tea-tray we play toboggans with. I don't
know what YOU think, but _I_ think it's time we did something, and
that would be really useful; because then we shouldn't just HO