Esther reddened a little now.

"That's the General, Judy: he always pulls the buttons off my
wrappers when I play with him. But I'm forgetting. Children,
I have bad news for you."

There was a breathless silence. Everyone crowded round her knees.

"Sentence has been proclaimed," said Judy dramatically: "let us
shave our heads and don sackcloth."

"Your father says he cannot allow such conduct to go unpunished,
especially as you have all been unusually tiresome lately;
therefore: you are all--"

"To be taken away and hanged by the neck until we are dead!"

"Be quiet, Judy. I have tried my best to beg you off, but it
only makes him more vexed. He says you are the untidiest, most
unruly lot of children in Sydney, and he will punish you each time
you do anything, and--"

"There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

"Oh, shut up, Judy! Can't you let us hear?" Pip put his hand
over her mouth and held her by the hair while Esther told the
news.

"None of you are to go to the pantomime. The seats were taken for