off. Oswald's first conscious act was to get rid of the white
mice--I mean the little good visitors. He explained to them that
there would be a play in the afternoon, and they could be what they
liked, and gave them the Jungle Book to read the stories he told
them to--all the ones about Mowgli. He led the strangers to a
secluded spot among the sea-kale pots in the kitchen garden and
left them. Then he went back to the others, and we had a jolly
morning under the cedar talking about what we would do when Blakie
was gone. She went just after our dinner.

When we asked Denny what he would like to be in the play, it turned
out he had not read the stories Oswald told him at all, but only
the 'White Seal' and 'Rikki Tikki'.

We then agreed to make the jungle first and dress up for our parts
afterwards. Oswald was a little uncomfortable about leaving the
strangers alone all the morning, so he said Denny should be his
aide-de-camp, and he was really quite useful. He is rather handy
with his fingers, and things that he does up do not come untied.
Daisy might have come too, but she wanted to go on reading, so we
let her, which is the truest manners to a visitor. Of course the
shrubbery was to be the jungle, and the lawn under the cedar a
forest glade, and then we began to collect the things. The cedar
lawn is just nicely out of the way of the windows. It was a jolly
hot day--the kind of day when the sunshine is white and the shadows
are dark grey, not black like they are in the evening.

We all thought of different things. Of course first we dressed up
pillows in the skins of beasts and set them about on the grass to
look as natural as we could. And then we got Pincher, and rubbed