“Oh!” he said, in a very loud, clear voice. “Freda has taken the golden star.”
And all the other children began to shout and tell each other that Freda had taken the golden star. And Freda’s nurse heard the noise, and came quickly to see what had happened.
“What’s the matter, Miss Freda?” she said. “What did you do?”
“Nothing,” said Freda.
“She did,” said a little girl who had just lost all her front teeth. “She took the golden star off the top of the cake.”
“Put it back at once,” said Freda’s nurse.
“Shan’t!” said Freda.
And then the nurse saw it in her hand and tried to take it from her. And Freda never stopped to think what the star might be made of, but put it very quickly into her mouth, and crunched it into three bits, and swallowed them all with one swallow.
“I’ve swallowed it,” she said.
Her nurse turned first pink, then white, and then green in the face.