"How d'you know I did?" she cried.
"Because I saw them hit. There were three at least, and the rule was that we weren't to fire more than two at a time."
"There weren't three, then," retorted the girl, laughing, and shaking back her tangled locks with an impatient movement of her head. "There were six! Ha! ha! I put them all in my mouth at once, and you never noticed."
"Oh, you little cheat!" cried the boy. "I'll lick you."
The threat had evidently no terrors for her. She danced wildly round the table, crying, "Six! six! six!" and when at length he caught her, and held her by the waist, she turned round and rapped him smartly on the head with a tin pea-shooter.
At this stage of the proceedings a lady, who had been sitting in a low chair by the fire, looked up from her book.
"Come, come!" she said pleasantly. "I thought the day was past when generals fought single combats in front of their men. Isn't that true, Valentine?"
The tussle ceased at once; the boy released his sister, who laughed, and shook herself like a small kitten.
"She's been cheating!" he exclaimed.
"I fired six peas instead of two!" cried the culprit, evidently delighted with her little piece of wickedness. "And I knocked over two of his silly old soldiers."