The children had been wandering across the field as Ann spoke,
stopping to pull a rose here and there, too busy and too happy to
notice where their feet were taking them. All at once they looked up
and saw that they had come to the end of the pale blue field where it
bordered on a broad brown road. Just ahead of them stood a little
white tent, and from the door of the tent two tin soldiers suddenly
sprang out, shouldered arms, and cried: "Halt!"

Of course the children halted. There was nothing else to do, so
astonished were they to meet any one when they had supposed themselves
to be in quite a wild and uninhabited country. Besides, though these
were small and tinny-looking, yet soldiers are soldiers wherever you
meet them, and have an air about them which makes people feel
respectful. These two handled their little guns in a most businesslike
manner. The taller of the two, who seemed by his uniform to be a
superior officer, now stepped forward and snapped out: "Give the
countersign!"

The children stood still and stared, Peter with his thumb in his
mouth.

"We haven't got any, sir, so we can't give it to you," said Ann at
last.

"Silly! He means _say_ it," whispered Rudolf in her ear.

"We can't say it either," Ann went on, "because we don't know it. But
we know lots of other things," she added, looking pleadingly at the
officer. "Rudolf, he can say the whole of ''Twas the night before
Christmas, and all through the house not a creature was stirring, not
even a mouse'--and I can say 'The Gentle Cow all Red and White I Love
with all my Heart',--and Peter he says 'I have a Little Shadow',--he
knows it all, every word!"

The little officer turned sharply to his companion. "Make a note of
that, Sergeant," he snorted. "Head it, suspicious information: first
prisoner, probably dangerous burglar burgling on Christmas eve; second
prisoner, cattle thief; third prisoner--"

"But we aren't anything like that," broke in Rudolf hastily. "You're
entirely mistaken, we--"

"Say what you are, then," snapped the officer, "and where you have
come from and where you are going and what you are going to do when
you get there; say it, quick!" And raising his little gun, the officer
pointed it straight at Rudolf's nose.

"We have come from Catnip Island where we were captured by the cat
pirates," began Rudolf, stumbling over the words in his excitement,
"and we--we don't know exactly where we are going, and we--we aren't
doing