'Confiscate them,' was the reply, in a very awful voice, which
impressed Fergus the more because he did not understand the word.

'You need not look so much alarmed, Fergus,' said Gillian; 'you are
not at all the likely one to transgress.'

'No,' said Valetta gravely. 'Fergus is what Lois calls a regular old
battledore.'

'I won't be called names,' exclaimed Fergus.

'Well, Lois said so---when you were so cross because the poker had got
on the same side as the tongs! She said she never saw such an old
battledore, and you know how all the others took it up.'

'Shuttlecock yourself then!' angrily responded Fergus, while both
aunt and sister were laughing too much to interfere.

'I shall call you a little Uncle Maurice instead,' said Aunt Jane.
'How things come round! Perhaps you would not believe, Gill, that
Aunt Ada was once in a scrape, when she was our Mrs. Malaprop, for
applying that same epithet on hearsay to Maurice.'

This laugh made Gillian feel more at home with her aunt, and they
went up happily together for the introduction to the lumber-room, not
a very spacious place, and with a window leading out to the leads.
Aunt Jane proceeded to put the children on their word of honour not
to attempt to make an exit thereby, which Gillian thought
unnecessary, since this pair were not enterprising.