The Brownies didn’t speak another word that afternoon. They sat down round the corner of the school-house with their backs against the wall and watched the clock in the church tower tick the sunny hours away.
At last the clock struck six.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The school-house door opened and out trooped the children. As they started home, the Brownies followed and watched them as they went.
Some of them peeped in the Toy Shop window and rattled the latch. Some of them stood on tiptoe and knocked the knocker on the Candy Shop door. Some of them ran away from their big brothers and sisters and sat on the beach and made holes in the sand with their fingers and piled up little heaps. And some of the children even ran down and put their toes in the water, they did so want a little pleasure and fun.
But their big brothers and sisters were frightened.
‘The King will see you!’ said they. ‘Come home! The King will catch you!’
So the Children were taken home, and soon after their supper the candles were lighted in their bedrooms and the Brownies could see the children in their night-gowns going to bed.
As it grew dusk, the Brownies sat flat on the lonely beach with no one but the sandpipers and the seagulls to keep them company.
What did it all mean? Who was the King? Why were the children treated so?