Presently a window opened at the right side of the house, and a man looked out. His head was quite bald on top, and he had a straggling beard that reached almost to the middle of his waistcoat. He wore heavy horn-rimmed glasses that made his eyes look very big.
"What are you doing?" he called.
Larry went and stood under the window and spoke extremely politely.
"I hope you don't mind, sir, but our ball fell in your garden, and we're looking for it."
A gust of wind blew into the garden and flung Daisy's hair over her face. It tugged at Mr. Smellie's beard, and it rustled round the papers on the desk by him. One of them rose into the air and flew straight out of the window. Mr. Smellie made a grab at it, but didn't catch it. It fell to the ground below,
"I'll get it for you, sir," said Larry politely. He picked up the paper and handed it back to the old man.
"What a very queer paper," he said. It was thick and yellow, and covered with curious writing.
"It is parchment," said Mr. Smellie, looking at Larry out of short-sighted eyes. "This is very, very old."
Larry thought it would be a good idea to take a great
Interest in old papers. "Oh, sir!" he said. "Is it really very old? How old? How very interesting!"