“Hum. And what have you two been doing, without any one to look after you?”
“Playing, sir.”
“Playing where?”
A spasm crossed Jane’s face. She swallowed hard and began to talk very fast.
“We’ve just been playing out in the orchard with my dolls—where I play most every afternoon, grandfather. Juno brings her pups out there and——” She swallowed hard again.
Christopher collapsed suddenly into the nearest chair and bent double with a howl of pain. Jane began to cry.
“Playing in the orchard,” repeated grandfather gravely, looking at them each in turn. “Oh, why didn’t I have Perk stay in from the fields to look after you! Kit, how many green apples did you eat?”
“I don’t exactly know, sir,” came a small voice from the depths of a big chair. “I lost count after the eighth but it wasn’t many more.”
“More than eight!”
It was grandfather’s turn to drop into a chair. The chair was not very near so that he almost dropped on to the floor. But the twins were too miserable to laugh.