ended the catch with wire and whip cord and it opened
wide.'

'And I suppose they didn't want it mended,' said Oswald. He knew but too
well that grown-up people sometimes like to keep things far different
from what we would, and you catch it if you try to do otherwise.

'I shouldn't have minded THAT,' Dicky said, 'because I could easily have
taken it all off again if they'd only said so. But the sillies went and
propped up a milk-pan against the window. They never took the trouble to
notice I had mended it. So the wretched thing pushed the window open all
by itself directly they propped it up, and it tumbled through into the
moat, and they are most awfully waxy. All the men are out in the fields
and they haven't any spare milk-pans. If I were a farmer, I must say
I wouldn't stick at an extra milk-pan or two. Accidents must happen
sometimes. I call it mean.'

Dicky spoke in savage tones. But Oswald was not so unhappy, first
because it wasn't his fault, and next because he is a far-seeing boy.

'Never mind,' he said kindly. 'Keep your tail up. We'll get the beastly
milk-pan out all right. Come on.' He rushed hastily to the garden and
gave a low, signifying whistle, which the others know well enough to
mean something extra being up.

And when they were all gathered round him he spoke.

'Fellow countrymen,' he said, 'we're going to have a rousing good time.'

'It's nothing naughty, is it,' Daisy asked, 'like the last time you had
that was rousingly good?'

Alice said 'Shish', and Oswald pretended not to hear.

'A precious treasure,' he said, 'has inadvertently been laid low in the
moat by one of us.'

'The rotten thing tumbled in by itself,' Dicky said.

Oswald waved his hand and said, 'Anyhow, it's there. It's our duty to
restore it to its sorrowing owners. I say, look here--we're going to
drag the moat.'

Everyone brightened up at this. It was our duty and it was interesting
too. This is very uncommon.

So we went out to where the orchard is, at the other side of the moat.
There were gooseberries and things on the bushes, but we did not take
any till we had asked if we might. Alice went and asked. Mrs Pettigrew
said, 'Law! I suppose so; you'd eat 'em anyhow, leave or no leave.'

She little knows the honourable nature of the house of Bastable. But she
has much to learn.

The orchard slopes gently down to the dark waters of the moat. We sat
there in the sun and talked about dragging the moat, till Denny sa