“I shall take over the thrush,” said Andrew, decidedly. “I’m the eldest, and besides, I was the only one amongst you who paid sixpence towards his ransom.”
“Yes,” said Faith, “I think it would be fair for Andrew to have it.”
“We’ll settle that when the bird comes,” said Jack, with the voice of an oracle.
CHAPTER XVI.
“A COWARD’S TRICK.”
“WAIT a minute, Aaron,” shouted Tubbs, a minute after his son had disappeared. “I’ll come and help you with that bird.”
Throwing aside his tools and scrooping back his wooden stool, the old cobbler vanished in his turn into the back regions of the establishment.
“I wish between them they’d be a little quicker,” sighed Fay, who regretted the delay in the winding up of this transaction.
She was terribly afraid that the boys, finding no outlet for the warlike intentions they had been nursing so zealously, would relieve their disappointment by indulging in a little civil war amongst themselves of a singularly uncivil type. “I do wish they wouldn’t be so slow,” she repeated.
“I suppose they will bring it,” said Phoena.
“I say, are you hatching the thrush?” shouted Jack.