CHAPTER VI.

THE SHADOW OF A SHADE.


"The world would lose its finest joys
Without its little girls and boys;
Their careless glee and simple ruth,
And innocence and trust and truth;
Ah! what would your poor poet do
Without such little folk as you?"

Locker.

"Well, anyhow," observed Mr. Nicholas Swan, the gardener, when the
children came home and told him how Peter had cried--"anyhow, there's
one less on you now to run over my borders. He was as meek as Moses,
that child was, when first he came, but you soon made him as audacious
as any of you."

"So they did, Nicholas dear," said one of the twins, a tall, dark haired
child.

"Oh, it's Nicholas _dear_, is it, Miss Barbara? Well, now, what next?"

"Why, the key of the fruit-house--we want the key."