till we were perfectly satisfied, and then retired to a little
distance behind the wainscot, determined there to sleep, and to
breakfast on the cake the next day.

Early in the morning I waked, and calling my brothers, we all
marched forward, and soon arrived at the delightful cake, where we
highly enjoyed ourselves without the least disturbance, till our
appetites were fully satisfied. We then retired, took a little
run round some other parts of the house, but met with nothing
worth relating. At noon we again made our way into the closet,
intending to dine on the dish on which we breakfasted; but, to our
no small mortification, the delicious dainty was removed. This
you may be sure was a sad disappointment; yet as we were not
extremely hungry, we had time to look about for more. We were not
long in finding it; for upon the same shelf from which the cake
was removed, there was a round tin box, the lid of which was not
quite close shut down; into this we all crept, and were highly
regaled with some nice lumps of sugar. But it would be endless to
enumerate all the various repasts which we met with in this
closet, sometimes terrified by the entrance of people, and
sometimes comfortably enjoying ourselves without alarm: it is
sufficient to inform you, that, unmindful of our mother's advice,
we continued to live upon the contents of the same cupboard for
above a week; when, one evening, as we were as usual hastening to
find our suppers, Softdown, who happened to be first, ran eagerly
to a piece of cheese, which he saw hanging before him. 'Come
along,' said he, 'here is some nice cheese, it smells most
delightfully good!' Just as he spoke these words, before any of
us came up to him, a little wooden door on a sudden dropped down,
and hid him and the cheese from our sight.