disturbing effect of ill-humour, and had guessed, perhaps, that I
thirsted for comfort and consolation, and would not criticise
too closely the source from which they came. Unthinkingly I
grasped the golden fraud, which collapsed at my touch, and
squirted its contents into my eyes and over my collar, till the
nethermost parts of me were damp with the water that had run down
my neck. In an instant I had Harold down, and, with all the
energy of which I was capable, devoted myself to grinding his
head into the gravel; while he, realizing that the closure was
applied, and that the time for discussion or argument was past,
sternly concentrated his powers on kicking me in the stomach.

Some people can never allow events to work themselves out
quietly. At this juncture one of Them swooped down on the scene,
pouring shrill, misplaced abuse on both of us: on me for ill-
treating my younger brother, whereas it was distinctly I who was
the injured and the deceived; on him for the high offence of
assault and battery on a clean collar--a collar which I had
myself deflowered and defaced, shortly before, in sheer desperate
ill-temper. Disgusted and defiant we fled in different
directions, rejoining each other later in the kitchen-garden; and
as we strolled along together, our short feud forgotten, Harold
observed, gloomily: "I should like to be a cave-man, like Uncle
George was tellin' us about: with a flint hatchet and no clothes,
and live in a cave and not know anybody!"

"And if anyone came to see us we didn't like," I joined in,
catching on to the points of the idea, "we'd hit him on the head
with the hatchet till he dropped down dead."