******
The White Elephant stall contained the usual medley of battered household goods, unwanted Christmas presents, old clothes and derelict sports apparatus.
Mrs. Brown stood, placid and serene, behind it. William stood at the side of it surveying it scornfully.
The other Outlaws who had no official positions were watching him from a distance. He had an uncomfortable suspicion that they were jeering at him, that they were comparing his insignificant and servile position as potential errand-goer at the corner of a stall of uninspiring oddments with his glorious dream of tending a flock of snow-white elephants. Pretending not to notice them he moved more to the centre of the stall, and placing one hand on his hip assumed an attitude of proprietorship and importance.... They came nearer. Still pretending not to notice them he began to make a pretence of arranging the things on the stall....
His mother turned to him and said, “I won’t be a second away, William, just keep an eye on things,” and departed.
That was splendid. Beneath the (he hoped) admiring gaze of his friends he moved right to the centre of the stall and seemed almost visibly to swell to larger proportions.
A woman came up to the stall and examined a black coat lying across the corner of it.
“You can have that for a shilling,” said William generously.
He looked at the Outlaws from the corner of his eye hoping that they noticed him left thus in sole charge, fixing prices, selling goods and generally directing affairs. The woman handed him a shilling and disappeared with the coat into the crowd.
William again struck the attitude of sole proprietor of the White Elephant stall.