aprons with tongs and things, but just a table with a table-cloth on it
for supper, and a tin of salmon and a lettuce and some bottled beer.
And there on a chair was the cloak and the hat of the mysterious
stranger, and the two people sitting at the table were the two youngest
grown-up daughters of the lady next door, and one of them was saying--

'So I got the salmon three-halfpence cheaper, and the lettuces are only
six a penny in the Broadway, just fancy! We must save as much as ever
we can on our housekeeping money if we want to go away decent next
year.'

And the other said, 'I wish we could _all_ go _every_ year, or else--Really,
I almost wish--'

And all the time Oswald was looking Dicky was pulling at his jacket to
make him get down and let Dicky have a squint. And just as she said 'I
almost,' Dicky pulled too hard and Oswald felt himself toppling on the
giddy verge of the big flower-pots. Putting forth all his strength our
hero strove to recover his equi-what's-its-name, but it was now lost
beyond recall.

'You've done it this time!' he said, then he fell heavily among the
flower-pots piled below. He heard them crash and rattle and crack, and
then his head struck against an iron pillar used for holding up the
next-door veranda. His eyes closed and he knew no more.

Now you will perhaps expect that at this moment Alice would have cried
'Murder!' If you think so you little know what girls are. Directly she
was left alone in that tree she made a bolt to tell Albert's uncle all
about it and bring him to our rescue in case the coiner's gang was a