they would say, '_What have you done with the Baby?_' and then
where should we be?"

Oswald's brothers could not answer this question, but once more Oswald's
native eloquence and far-seeing discerningness conquered.

"Anyway," Dicky said, "let's shove the derelict a little further under
cover."

So we did.

Then we went on home. Dinner was ready and so were Alice and Daisy, but
Dora was not there.

"She's got a--well, she's not coming to dinner anyway," Alice said when
we asked. "She can tell you herself afterwards what it is she's got."

Oswald thought it was headache, or pain in the temper, or in the
pinafore, so he said no more, but as soon as Mrs. Pettigrew had helped
us and left the room he began the thrilling tale of the forsaken
perambulator. He told it with the greatest thrillingness any one could
have, but Daisy and Alice seemed almost unmoved. Alice said:

"Yes, very strange," and things like that, but both the girls seemed to
be thinking of something else. They kept looking at each other and
trying not to laugh, so Oswald saw they had got some silly secret, and
he said:

"Oh, all right! I don't care about telling you. I only thought you'd
like to be in it. It's going to be a real big thing, with policemen in
it, and perhaps a judge."

"In what?" H. O. said; "the perambulator?"

Daisy choked and then tried to drink, and spluttered and got purple, and
had to be thumped on the back. But Oswald was not appeased. When Alice
said, "Do go on, Oswald. I'm sure we all like it very much," he said:

"Oh no, thank you," very politely. "As it happens," he went on, "I'd
just as soon go through with this thing without having any girls in it."

"In the perambulator?" said H. O. again.

"It's a man's job," Oswald went on, without taking any notice of H. O.

"Do you really think so," said Alice, "when there's a baby in it?"

"But there isn't," said H. O., "if you mean in the perambulator."

"Blow you and your perambulator," said Oswald, with gloomy forbearance.

Alice kicked Oswald under the table and said:

"Don't be waxy, Oswald. Really and truly Daisy and I _have_ got a
secret, only it's Dora's secret, and she wants to tell you herself. If
it was mine or Daisy's we'd tell you this minute, wouldn't we, Mouse?"

"This very second," said the White Mouse.

And Oswald consented to take their apologies.

Then the pudding came in, and no more was said except asking for things
to be passed--sugar and water