‘Who! I?’ exclaimed the Marquis. ‘I never was wider awake. What are you waiting for, Reginald? I thought you were going to take wasps’ nests.’
‘You are much too tired, I am sure,’ said Emily.
‘Tired! not in the least, I have done nothing to-day to tire me,’ said Lord Rotherwood, walking up and down the room to keep himself awake.
The whole party went out, and found Wat Greenwood waiting for them with a bundle of straw, a spade, and a little gunpowder. Maurice carried a basket containing all his preparations, on which Wat looked with supreme contempt, telling him that his puffs were too green to make a smeech. Maurice, not condescending to argue the point, ran on to a nest which Reginald had marked on one of the green banks of the ancient moat.
‘Take care that the wasps are all come in; mind what you are about, Maurice,’ called his father.
‘Master Maurice,’ shouted Wat, ‘you had better take a green bough.’
‘Never mind, Wat,’ said Lord Rotherwood, ‘he would not stay long enough to use it if he had it.’
Reginald ran after Maurice, who had just reached the nest.
‘There is one coming in, the evening is so warm they are not quiet yet.’
‘I’ll quiet them,’ said Maurice, kneeling down, and putting his first puff-ball into the hole.