p--please--boo--oo--oo! to p--please you!"

His father paused with uplifted strap. "And that's why all
the others are behaving in so strange a fashion? Just for me
to take them to the pantomime?"

Bunty wriggled himself free. "Boo--hoo--yes! but not me--I
didn't--I never--true's faith--oh-h-h-hoo-yah! it wasn't my
fault, it's all the others--boo--hoo--hoo! hit them the rest."

He got three more smart cuts, and then fled howling and yelling
to the nursery, where he fell on the floor and kicked and rolled
about as if he were half killed.

"You sn--n--n--n--neaks!" he sobbed, addressing the others,
who had flown from all parts at his noisy outcry, "you m-m---
mean p--p--p--pigs! I h--hadn't n--n--no fo--o--ow-l, and I've
h--h--had all the b--b--b--beating! y--you s--s--sn--n-neaks!
oh--h--h--h! ah--h--h--h! oh--h--h--h! oh--h--h-h! I'm b--b--
bleeding all over, I kno--o--o--ow!"

They couldn't help laughing a bit; Bunty was always so
irresistibly comic when he was hurt ever so little; but still
they comforted him as well as they could, and tried to find out
what had happened.

Esther came in presently, looking very worried. "Well?" they
said in a breath.

"You really are the most exasperating children," she said