"It looks as if there were some creatures in danger of being drowned," remarked the elderly gentleman.
"Oh, not at all. That's Pauline's rock. She and Birdie always go out when the tide is out, and spend the whole day wading there, and they come back when the tide runs out again."
"My God!" cried the elderly gentleman.
Looking later up to the stable roof, he saw three little golden heads bent over cards.
"What's that?" he blankly asked.
"Those are the three youngest, playing beggar-my-neighbour on the roof."
"What extraordinary children!" muttered the elderly gentleman.
She devised a notable and original punishment for me whenever I flew into one of my diabolical rages. She would order Miss Kitty, the sentimental little stitcher, to hold my feet, a servant to hold my head, and while I lay thus on the ground in durance vile, she would piously besprinkle me with holy water, and audibly beseech the Lord and my guardian angel to deliver me of the devil. It would be difficult for me to conceive an operation more suitable as entertainment of the devil than my sister's pious and fiendish method of obtaining his dismissal. The first thing I inevitably did, when liberated, was to go into the yard, and pump all the holy water off my wicked person. Then, dripping like a Newfoundland, I would return to the house and decline to change my dress or shoes, in the vociferated hope of immediate death from consumption.