Just then he heard Madge calling him.

"Come here and play, Walter," she said. "I'll be a bear among the
trees and I'll run out and catch you."

"I don't like that game, Madge," said he; "you roar so loud and then I
think it really is a bear."

"You baby!" said she. "Well, Johnny and nurse will play and you can
run away."

No, he could not do that. He would play too, and try to remember all
the time that it was only Madge roaring among the trees and not really
a bear.

The next day it happened that there was a large picnic party, to which
all the elders were invited, including Sydney, Loo, and Lena. So the
three younger children, with nurse and Baby and the other servants,
had it all to themselves. It was rather a dull day, Walter thought. He
was thinking about the wheel and wondering if it was turning merrily
in the stream, or if Sydney had put it away. He would have given
worlds to go and see, but he never got the chance. When the children
went to the kitchen garden it was to walk round with nurse.

[Illustration:]

Johnny was bemoaning that strawberries were over, and Madge was
looking vainly for gooseberries on the trees that had long ago been
stripped. But Walter cast furtive glances at the thick elder-bush by