“Wanterbean-a-a-tive,” she screamed.
“All right,” said William desperately. “Be a native. I don’t care. Be a native. Get the blacking from Ginger. I don’t care. Be one an’ don’t blame me. The next is the amusements, ladies an’ gentlemen.”
There were three amusements. The first consisted in climbing a tree and lowering oneself from the first branch by a rope previously fastened to it by William. The second consisted in being wheeled once round the field in a wheelbarrow by William. The third consisted in standing on a plank at the edge of the pond and being gently propelled into the pond by William. The entrance fee to each was one penny.
“Yes,” said the tallest boy indignantly, “an’ s’pose we fall off the plank into the water?”
“That’s part of the amusement,” said William wearily.
The smallest boy decided after much thought to have a penny ride in a wheelbarrow....
IV
Mrs. Bott was walking proudly up the lane. She had in train, not an earl exactly, but distantly related to an earl. At any rate he was County—most certainly County. So far County had persistently resisted the attempts of Mrs. Bott to “get in” with it. Mrs. Bott had met him and captured him and was bringing him home to tea. She had brushed aside all his excuses. He walked beside her miserably, looking round for some way of escape. Already in her mind’s eye Mrs. Bott was marrying Violet Elizabeth to one of his nephews (she came to the reluctant conclusion that he himself would be rather too old when Violet Elizabeth attained a marriageable age) and was killing off all his relations in crowds by earthquakes or floods or wrecks or dread diseases to make quite sure of the earldom. Ivory charmeuse for Violet Elizabeth of course and the bridesmaids in pale blue georgette....
Suddenly they came to a paper notice pinned very crookedly on a stile in the hedge:
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