"I wish they had just kept him," said Hugh John, unexpectedly; "then we wouldn't have had to paraphrase the beastly thing at school. It is as full of jaw-breakers as a perch is full of bones."
"Was little Harry really stolen by gipsies, or was he killed over the cliff?" queried Maid Margaret.
"Of course he was stolen, silly," broke in Sir Toady Lion, sagely; "look how much more of the book there has got to be all about him. Think there would be all that, if he got killed right at the beginning, eh?"
"Do any people smuggle nowadays?" demanded Hugh John.
"Of course they do—in Spain," interjected Sir Toady Lion, "father got put in prison there once."
"That was all owing to a mistake," I explained hastily (for really this had nothing to do with Scott); "it was only because your parent happened to be wearing the same kind of hat as a certain well-known smuggler, a very desperate character."
"Hum-m!" said Sir Toady Lion, suddenly developing a cold in the nose.
"Well, anyway, they do smuggle—though not much in this country now," said Sweetheart, "and I'm glad father knew a man who smuggled in Spain. It makes this book so much more real."
"Getting put in prison instead of him made it almost too real," said Sir Toady. He is a most disconcerting and ironical boy. One often wonders where he gets it from.
So to shut off further questioning, I proceeded immediately with the telling of the second tale from Guy Mannering.