“Oh, Tommy! ’e’s caught a f’y!”
The next moment every bird had gone, while the complete figures belonging to the moon faces arose, as it were out of the ground. Both wore knickers, both had short hair, but it was plainly the master male who administered swift and primitive punishment.
“There, you’ve done it again!”
“I forgot—I——” Sobs, bitter and violent, stopped the lament.
The boy pocketed his hands and moved off.
“Jes’ like a woman,” he called over his shoulder.
The other small figure followed him at a humble distance, wailing aloud till both disappeared from view.
Mr. Fothersley shuddered.
“How can you bear it?” he asked, his little pink face really concerned. “Even Dick——”
“Stopped short at Germans,” Ruth ended for him. “Well, it has its compensations. And after all, what can one do? I know that playground under the dust soot! And I have all this. One could not bear it, if one didn’t have them down.”