et up, and an
apple-pie bed at night."

But Dora would not hear of it, and I own she was right.

"Suppose," she said, "we could get up a good play--like we did when we
were Treasure Seekers."

We said, "Well, what?" But she did not say.

"It ought to be a good long thing--to last all day," Dicky said; "and if
they like they can play, and if they don't--"

"If they don't, I'll read to them," Alice said.

But we all said: "No, you don't; if you begin that way you'll have to go
on."

And Dicky added: "I wasn't going to say that at all. I was going to say
if they didn't like it they could jolly well do the other thing."

We all agreed that we must think of something, but we none of us could,
and at last the council broke up in confusion because Mrs. Blake--she is
the housekeeper--came up and turned off the gas.

But next morning when we were having breakfast, and the two strangers
were sitting there so pink and clean, Oswald suddenly said:

"I know; we'll have a jungle in the garden."

And the others agreed, and we talked about it till brek was over. The
little strangers only said "I don't know" whenever we said anything to
them.

After brekker Oswald beckoned his brothers and sisters mysteriously
apart and said:

"Do you agree to let me be captain to-day, because I thought of it?"

And they said they would.

Then he said: "We'll play jungle-book, and I shall be Mowgli. The rest
of you can be what you like--Mowgli's father and mother, or any of the
beasts."

"I don't suppose they know the book," said Noel. "They don't look as if
they read anything, except at lesson times."

"Then they can go on being beasts all the time," Oswald said. "Any one
can be a beast."

So it was settled.

And now Oswald--Albert's uncle has sometimes said he is clever at
arranging things--began to lay his plans for the jungle. The day was
indeed well chosen. Our Indian uncle was away; father was away; Mrs.
Blake was going away, and the housemaid had an afternoon off. Oswald's
first conscious act was to get rid of the white mice--I mean the little
good visitors. He explained to them that there would be a play in the
afternoon, and they could be what they liked, and gave them the
jungle-book to read the stories he told them to--all the ones about
Mowgli. He led the strangers to a secluded spot among the sea-kale pots
in the kitchen garden and left them. Then he went back to the others,
and we had a jolly morning under the ced