e didn't care. He wanted his cricket ball back. And the girls
said it was a horrid shame.

If they had not said that, Oswald might yet have consented to let Noel
have the beastly ball, but now, of course, he was not going to. He
said--

'Oh, yes, I daresay. And then you would be wanting the coconut and
things again the next minute.'

'No, I shouldn't,' Noel said. It turned out afterwards he and H. O.
had eaten the coconut, which only made it worse. And it made them worse
too--which is what the book calls poetic justice.

Dora said, 'I don't think it was fair,' and even Alice said--

'Do let him have it back, Oswald.'

I wish to be just to Alice. She did not know then about the coconut
having been secretly wolfed up.

We were in the garden. Oswald felt all the feelings of the hero when
the opposing forces gathered about him are opposing as hard as ever they
can. He knew he was not unfair, and he did not like to be jawed at just
because Noel had eaten the coconut and wanted the ball back. Though
Oswald did not know then about the eating of the coconut, but he felt
the injustice in his soul all the same.

Noel said afterwards he meant to offer Oswald something else to make up
for the coconut, but he said nothing about this at the time.

'Give it me, I say,' Noel said.

And Oswald said, 'Shan't!'

Then Noel called Oswald names, and Oswald did not answer back but
just kept smiling pleasantly, and carelessly throwing up the ball and
catching it again with an air of studied indifference.

It was Martha's fault that what happened happened. She is the bull-dog,
and very stout and heavy. She had just been let loose and she came
bounding along in her clumsy way, and jumped up on Oswald, who is
beloved by all dumb animals. (You know how sagacious they are.) Well,
Martha knocked the ball out of Oswald's hands, and it fell on the grass,
and Noel pounced on it like a hooded falcon on its prey. Oswald would
scorn to deny that he was not going to stand this, and the next moment
the two were rolling over on the grass, and very soon Noel was made to
bite the dust. And serve him right. He is old enough to know his own
mind.

Then Oswald walked slowly away with the ball, and the others picked Noel
up, and consoled the beaten, but Dicky would not take either side.

And Oswald went up into his own room and lay on his bed, and reflected
gloomy reflections about unfairness.

Presently he thought he would like to see what the