“Oh no. Never do. We shall have to take it and grin and bear it, whether it’s the cane or impositions. Worst of it is, it’ll mean ever so much keeping in. I wouldn’t care if it had been a month or two ago.”
“What difference would that have made?”
“Why, it was all wet weather then. Now it’s so fine, I want for us to go and collect things, and I’m not going to be beaten over that stuffing. Next time I shall look at a live bird ever so long before I try to stuff one, and then you’ll see. We’ll be on the watch next time, so that old Eely shan’t catch us, and—ha, ha, ha! Oh my! oh my! oh my!” he cried, sitting down on the edge of his bed, rocking himself to and fro, and kicking up his bare feet and working his toes about in the air.
“What are you laughing about?” I said, feeling glad to see that he too was getting rid of the depression.
“Wait a bit,” he whispered. “Won’t we astonish them! Oh, my nose, how it does hurt!” he added, covering the swollen organ with his hand, and speaking in a snuffling tone. “I shall aim straight at old Eely’s snub all the time, so as to make it twice as big as mine is. He will be so mad, for he’s as proud of himself as a peacock, and thinks he’s handsome. What do you think he does?”
“I don’t know,” I said.
“Puts scent on his handkerchief every morning—musk. Oh, he is a dandy! But wait a bit! Seventeen shillings! Isn’t it a lot for two pairs of gloves? And, I say!”
“Yes.”
“He’s an awful dandy about his gloves too. By and by, when he’s had his licking,—two lickings, for you shall give him one too,—I’ll tell you what we’ll always say to him.”
“Well?”