et you can always understand what he means. I think he is more like
us, inside of his mind, than most grown-up people are. He can pretend
beautifully. I never met anyone else so good at it, except our robber,
and we began it, with him. But it was Albert's uncle who first taught
us how to make people talk like books when you're playing things, and he
made us learn to tell a story straight from the beginning, not starting
in the middle like most people do. So now Oswald remembered what he had
been told, as he generally does, and began at the beginning, but when he
came to where Alice said she was the priestess, Albert's uncle said--

'Let the priestess herself set forth the tale in fitting speech.'

So Alice said, 'O high priest of the great idol, the humblest of thy
slaves took the school umbrella for a divining-rod, and sang the song of
inver--what's-it's-name?'

'Invocation perhaps?' said Albert's uncle. 'Yes; and then I went about
and about and the others got tired, so the divining-rod fell on a
certain spot, and I said, "Dig", and we dug--it was where the loose
board is for the gas men--and then there really and truly was a
half-sovereign lying under the boards, and here it is.'

Albert's uncle took it and looked at it.

'The great high priest will bite it to see if it's good,' he said, and
he did. 'I congratulate you,' he went on; 'you are indeed among those
favoured by the Immortals. First you find half-crowns in the garden, and
now this. The high priest advises you to tell your Father, and ask if
you may keep it. My hero has become penitent, but impatient. I must pull
him out of this scrape. Ye have my leave to depart.'

Of course we know from Kipling that that means, 'You'd better bunk, and
be sharp about it,' so we came away. I do like Albert's uncle.

I shall be like that when I'm a man. He gave us our Jungle books, and he
is awfully clever, though he does have to write grown-up tales.

We told Father about it that night. He was very kind. He said we
might certainly have the half-sovereign, and he hoped we should enjoy
ourselves with our treasure-trove.

Then he said, 'Your dear Mother's Indian Uncle is coming to dinner here
to-morrow night. So will you not drag the furniture about overhead,
please, more than you're absolutely obliged; and H. O. might wear
slippers or something. I can always distinguish the note of H. O.'s
boots.'

We said we would be very quiet, and Father went on--

'This Indian U