insure privacy except from the ubiquitous boy of an inquiring turn of mind. But Lee had fallen upon a good plan to get rid of this nuisance.
Had the urchins merely come to have a look across the fence and gone away quietly it would not have mattered very much; but it had been their custom not only to look but to settle down to games, and shout and scream. Wallace had often been sent to reason with them; but they got used to him at last, and even Bruin lost all petrifying power over them. But one day, behold a placard stuck up some distance from the camp, which read thus:
BEWARE
OF THE
DREADED DOOROOCOOLIE.
The usual crowd of urchins seemed to gather that afternoon from all directions simply to read this notice, and various were the theories advanced concerning it.
'Mebbe there's nae dooroo—— What is't ca'ed, Jock?'
'The dooroocoolie, Wullie,' said Jock, spelling it out.
'Maybe it's just put up there to frighten us,' said another boy. 'I'm gaun to stop and ha'e some fun. I'm nae flegged at [afraid of] dooroocoolies.'
'And so am I.'
'And so am I.'