"We'll ask Dreamikins about it," said Daffy; "but she never seems to get punished for anything."
"That old stranger ought to be punished, not us," said Freda. "We gave him a nice bed and food, and he stole Mum's candlesticks and other things."
"Nurse makes out the bed and the food weren't ours to give him," said Daffy. "She treats us as if we're thieves."
"Perhaps we are," said Freda thoughtfully.
Her busy brain was hard at work. She felt shaken in her self-confidence.
It was two or three days later that Fibo asked them to tea, and though Nurse was almost against their going, their mother said they might do so.
Dreamikins greeted them with her usual joyous welcome.
"Cherubine and me have been longing to see you. I've had a beautiful stranger staying in my bed, and Fibo liked him so much he stayed two days."
"Oh!" groaned Freda. "Everything is all right with you. We took in a stranger who was a thief, and Nurse hardly thinks us out of disgrace yet, though it was days and days ago!"
They began to compare their experiences, and then somehow or other they found themselves pouring it all out to Fibo, and Daffy asked him when he had heard all: