"I don't see why you need persist in thinking of Shuttleworth so suspiciously," Bob proceeded. "I'm sure he's as nice as possible to you now; and he told me only yesterday how sorry he was that he spoke to us so rudely over the wall that day Snip ruined his garden; but he thought we had made Snip do it on purpose, so it was no wonder he was mad."
"Oh, you may try to make excuses for him now," Kitty said, scornfully; "but I don't forget all he said and how he looked (ugh! he is an ugly boy!); and I believe he meant every word he spoke."
"I dare say he did at the time," admitted Bob; "but I'm sure he didn't afterwards."
"Come, children, don't wrangle," said their mother. "I am sure, Kitty, when you were playing with your brother and Tim this evening you all seemed the best of friends. Come and have supper, and don't trouble about the basket. It's gone, and I've no doubt the rightful owner has it. I am glad Snip did not frighten him to-night."
"Snip was in the dining-room," said Bob. "By the way, Kitty, had you not better see that your rabbit is all right? Perhaps your enemy next door has stolen Fluffy too."
Although quite aware that her brother was laughing at her, Kitty took his advice, and assured herself that her pet was safe before she joined the others at supper, during which meal she was unusually silent and preoccupied, by no means convinced that she had mistaken another boy for Tim. And, as a matter of fact, the little girl was quite right in her belief that Tim had taken the covered basket; for, after returning to his uncle's house, he had waited until the rain had ceased, and then had quietly gone out again and stolen round to the Glanvilles' back door and purloined the basket through the scullery window. He had been unable to think of any better way of regaining Deborah's property; and having placed it on the shelf inside the tool-house door, he went to bed with an easy mind, little guessing that Kitty had seen and recognised him.
On Monday Bob went to school at nine o'clock. It was a beautiful morning in the first week in May; the air was fragrant with the scent of lilac and hawthorn, and the big apple tree at the bottom of the Glanvilles' garden was one mass of bloom.
Kitty, as soon as she had seen her brother depart and had attended to the needs of Fluffy, strolled down to the apple tree, and perched herself on her favourite branch in the midst of a mass of blossoms. She wondered what Tim would do now Bob had gone to school, and if he would be very dull; she had been congratulating herself upon the fact that she had three days more holiday than her brother, but she scarcely knew how she would pass the time without a companion. By-and-by, when Tim appeared in Mr. Shuttleworth's garden, her face brightened, and she half hoped he would speak to her, so that she was rather pleased than otherwise when he came closer and suddenly glanced up. He caught sight of her immediately, and a friendly smile crossed his countenance.
"Hullo!" he cried by way of greeting. "I say you're in a regular nest of flowers," he proceeded. "Even Uncle John noticed that tree this morning—he said he had never seen it so full of bloom before. You will have a fine crop of apples later on."
"Yes, if all's well," Kitty responded; "and they are such nice apples—Blenheim oranges; we gather them early in October, and hoard them—they don't get properly ripe till nearly Christmas."