The children were tired, and stood panting. Sir Toady was unexpectedly pessimistic. Maid Margaret looked rather world-weary. Both had begun to think that, after all, there were better ways of spending five shillings than shooting for cocoa-nuts.
"What rot!" said Sir Toady, shaking one disgustedly close to his ear. "Can't eat them all—make us ever so sick, and I have to join on Friday! No time to get better! Bah!"
"It was all your fault, Toady," moaned the Maid, "and I want my half-crown back!"
"Nonsense!" cried Toady. "I never will go into partnership with a girl again. They always are sorry afterwards, whatever a chap does for them! There is your bag full of nuts, good and sound. What more do you want?"
Maid Margaret wanted much more. She began to express her wants in terms of candies and chocolates.
"Candies!" cried Mrs. Donnan; "why, if I weren't so busy, I would make you two candy to dream about—and of those very cocoa-nuts too!"
"Do—oh, do make us some!"
"Well, come into the bakehouse, and we shall see!"
They went, Elizabeth Fortinbras and I smilingly assisting with the bags of nuts. Elizabeth could not be spared out of the front shop, but I stopped to watch, and of course Sir Toady and Maid Margaret pushed and elbowed for good front seats.
Mrs. Donnan, quietly smiling as ever, seized a skewer, and with several skillful taps made a hole in the end of the nut through which she let the milk drop into a basin. Then with a heavy hammer she smashed the shell into pieces.