‘We are adopting Diamond Jubilee so as to save him from becoming a thief and burglar,’ said Emmeline. ‘We are going to train him into a good, noble man. I wonder if you two understand what a great, beautiful work it is we have begun to-day!’ Emmeline’s eyes shone with enthusiasm.
Micky and Kitty looked greatly impressed and elated. ‘Poor Diamond Jubilee!’ said Kitty, softly. ‘I’m so glad we can give him our supper.’
‘And I don’t mind much,’ said Micky, ‘and I’ll train him first-rate—just you see if I don’t!’
CHAPTER VIII
DIAMOND JUBILEE’S SUPPER
A tray on which were three glasses of cold milk and three biscuits was always placed on the schoolroom table punctually at eight o’clock, the twins’ bedtime. Emmeline, who was allowed to sit up till a quarter to nine, usually let her supper wait on the table till then; to-night, however, she chose to retire with the younger ones.
‘She must be tired with the Fair and all the excitement,’ thought Aunt Grace, little suspecting all the plotting and planning that was going on at that moment in the schoolroom.
‘The question is, how we are to get the milk out to him without either Aunt Grace or the servants hearing us,’ Emmeline was saying. ‘If we go out at the side-door they’ll hear in the kitchen, and if we go out at the front-door Aunt Grace will hear in the drawing-room. I think on the whole the side-door will be the safest, though, for Aunt Grace has such awfully quick ears. But either way it’s very risky.’
‘I know what!’ exclaimed Micky. ‘Do you remember that American chap who was in a French prison, and who kept his gaolers so amused with his stories that the other people escaped while they weren’t looking? Well, that’s what Kitty and I will do. We’ll go to the kitchen and tell Jane and Cook all the funniest stories we can think of, and while they are laughing, Emmeline, you can creep out on tiptoe with Diamond Jubilee’s supper.