“Let’s find a few more,” said William, “an’ I’ll tell you all about it.”
It being Saturday afternoon they soon collected the few more, and the company returned to the summer-house at the end of William’s garden. The company consisted chiefly of younger brothers of the members of the gathering upstairs.
William rose to address them with one hand inside his coat in an attitude copied faithfully from Jameson Jameson.
“They’ve gotter ole society,” he said, “an’ they’ve made me a Branch, so I can make all you Branches. So, now you’re all Branches. See? Well, they say how we’re all ’uman bein’s an’ equal. Well, they say if we’re equal we oughtn’t to have less money an’ things than other folks, and more work to do, an’ all that. That’s wot I heard ’em say.”
Here the cat from next door, drawn by the familiar sound of William’s voice, peered into the summer-house, and was promptly dismissed by a well-aimed stick. It looked reproachfully at William as it departed.
“And to-day they said,” went on William, “that now is the time for Action, an’ how we’d only the mean bit of money our fathers gave us; and then they found me an’ I bit his leg, and they threw me out, an’ I bet I’ve got a big ole bruise on my side, an’ I bet he’s got a bigger ole bite on his leg.”
He sat down, amid applause, and George, acting with a generosity born of a sudden feeling of comradeship, took a stick of rock from his pocket and passed it round for a suck each. This somewhat disturbed the harmony of the meeting, as “Ginger,” William’s oldest friend, was accused of biting a piece off, and the explanation, that it “came off in his mouth,” was not accepted by the irate owner, who was already regretting his generosity. The combatants were parted by William, and peace was sealed by the passing round of a bottle of liquorice water belonging to Victor Jameson.
Then William rose for a second speech.
“Well, we’re all Branches, so let’s do same as them. They’re goin’ to get equal cause they’re ’uman bein’s; so let’s try and get equal too.”
“Equal with what?” demanded Douglas, whose elder brother had joined Jameson Jameson’s society, and had secretly purchased a red tie, which he did not dare to wear in public, but which he donned behind a tree on his way to William’s house, and doffed in the same place on his way from William’s house.