E. Nesbit

“ I never was one of those who called Martin a sneak because he did the only sensible thing and bunked off home to fetch help. Nor was I one of those who considered it cowardly of Clifford to seek escape from his desperate situation by the only means possible. And before you begin to be down on people for things, you should consider what you would do yourself if it had happened to happen to you.
Clifford was perfectly sick of holding his breath in that beastly cupboard. ”

“ We got down to the house, and Clifford collared the book—he knew just where to lay his hand on it—and he and Martin were just going out, when there was a step outside. Clifford thought it was the others trying to take a rise out of us, so he said “Hist!” and pulled Martin into the corner cupboard, and we held our breaths there, intending to jump out on the others if they were trying to frighten us, but otherwise just to emerge gently and reasonably with biscuits in our hands,
Judge of our horror and dismay when we heard through the dark the deep bass voice of a perfect stranger. ”

“ Clifford now cautiously endeavoured, by every means in his power, to remove his collar. This is very difficult when the collar is of brick. Also it hurt. And anyhow his efforts were quite vain. He sat astride of the roof, with the ends of the thatch pricking his stockinged feet and that fatal brick collar holding his young throat in its heavy embrace, and wondered what would happen next. He could still hear from under the thatch the stealthy murmurings and movings of the two desperate characters from which he was seeking to escape. All too well he knew that such characters stick at nothing. ”

“ Clifford was never so glad to see any one before; though if it had been Martin with bricks round his neck I do not suppose Clifford would have choked with laughter and nearly fallen off the roof on account of it, even if the moon did choose that moment for coming out and illuminating the brick collar with Dianitic splendours. ”

“ Mother said it was not because of Miss Knox. But perhaps mother does not know father quite as well as we do.
Even if we had never built our house we should have had a ripping time, for mother let us go out all day long and take lunch in the donkey and cart which are our own.
It was much more difficult than you would have thought to find exactly the right place for a house. There was a willow wood close by the river; but Olive thought it would be damp, although your boots only went in about an inch, and not right over your ankles as you would have thought to hear the way she went on about it. ”

“ So Clifford, ever a slave to duty—and besides it was his fault it was taken down there at all, and he would have caught it hot if discovered—said he'd go and get it; and Martin said he'd come too. Clifford owns he was not sorry. He is not afraid of the dark, any more than you are, but woods are very lonely at night, if you are alone in them. And they are dark, too. ”

“ Then they unlocked the door, and two men came out. They were quite small, not much bigger than Martin, and if you had measured Clifford against the taller of them I know which I think would have made the best show. Just poor little tramps they were, for all the bassness of their voices, and everything they said was true.
It turned out that our cottage wasn't ours at all. It wasn't even on my father's land. It was in the strip of land that goes with the Rectory—the Parson's Shave, they call it. And the parson, being a good old sort, used to let tramps sleep there. ”

“ WE live at the big red house in Yalding, and I should hate living anywhere else. It is not everywhere that there is a. house and garden like ours, and a stream to fish in, and the real river not a mile away. ”

“ Already William was up the thatch and Jackson after him. And when they saw the brick collar round Clifford's neck they laughed: with criminals eminent below, and Clifford having gone through what he had, they could laugh! Such, alas! is poor human nature. But they got the bricks off all right, and then we all got down—on the windowless side, and then Bilson said, “Now for these 'ere criminals. Surrender, or I fire!” The revolver was not loaded, some people think, but strict truth is wasted on the truly vicious.
“Criminal yourself,” was the unexpected reply from inside the house. ”

“ And now look at you,” said the bass voice, getting angrier. “First foxes in the furniture, and then ghosties round the walls with howls in the chimbley to follow, toppin' up with hostriches roostin' on the roof and spittin' out the stones what they eats all down the thatch. And then you!”
“If what you're saying's correct, you come along of us to the parson—and you best come quiet,” said the police. ”

“ Our noble steed was unharnessed and tethered in a grassy spot with a few nettles in reach, because we know donkeys like them, and though ours always eats grass instead, we never know when he may feel that he simply must have a nettle. The girls were arranging the lunch on another grassy vicinity. Alan had got hold of the “Swiss Family Robinson,” the only book we allowed on exploring expeditions, because when people get into books they can't be got out for work or play or anything else. So Martin and I just went for an explore on our own. ”

“ Our names are Clifford, Martin, Olive, Alan, Lottie, and Madeline, who is only a cousin, and not exactly like us, somehow. What the author is now about to narrate happened in the summer. A person called Miss Knox was staying with us. Father and we don't like her, but mother says she has seen better days, and we must be kind to her. We try to, but we cannot like her, whatever she may have seen. I should say, myself, the fairest sights were thrown away on Miss Knox. ”

“ It is a great gift when a chap has a brick for his mother. And all the things she gave us William carried for us in the luggage-cart to that vicinity spot I told you about.
It is impossible to carry much furniture through the wood without making a path. ”

“ Even a proper brick one, and even if you're not going to live in it yourself. But when it comes to a house in the woods that you're going to build yourself, rubies are simply not in it.
So we talked about it till tea and through tea and after tea, and then Clifford said he would be a deputation to father about it. He was. And father said All right, but where should we get the building materials? And I said the old chicken-house. And he said All right, but the boards were to be scrubbed, because hens are not so particular as they look outside their feathers, and William might do it. ”

“ Clifford responded.
And then there were voices and lanterns, and the rescue party arrived. There was William and Bilson, who is our coachman, and the police, whose private name is Jackson. the police had got his truncheon, and William had got an old gun that hadn't been let off for twenty years—for he told me afterwards, and Bilson had got father's revolver out of his shaving-stand drawer; and behind them came the person who had given him the revolver, and this person was a woman. And the woman was Miss Knox. ”

“ And the match went out as he pointed to the fallen chair.
“A fox. You may lay to it it was an ole fox,” said Mr. Bass, “come in for shelter like—and smelt human flesh and went out again.”
“Good thing 'e didn't go for us, then,” said Mr. ”

“ But we found a gate in the paling and pressed forward through the nettles, trampling the fallen foes sideways. They were fine Saracens, and we cut off their heads with our good swords—which were sticks just before—shouting “St. ”