the others felt the same.

And then everybody said nothing for a short time. At last Father
said--

'You may go--but remember--'

The words that followed I am not going to tell you. It is no use
telling you what you know before--as they do in schools. And you
must all have had such words said to you many times. We went away
when it was over. The girls cried, and we boys got out books and
began to read, so that nobody should think we cared. But we felt
it deeply in our interior hearts, especially Oswald, who is the
eldest and the representative of the family.

We felt it all the more because we had not really meant to do
anything wrong. We only thought perhaps the grown-ups would not be
quite pleased if they knew, and that is quite different. Besides,
we meant to put all the things back in their proper places when we
had done with them before anyone found out about it. But I must
not anticipate (that means telling the end of the story before the
beginning. I tell you this because it is so sickening to have
words you don't know in a story, and to be told to look it up in
the dicker).

We are the Bastables--Oswald, Dora, Dicky, Alice, Noel, and H. O.
If you want to know why we call our youngest brother H. O. you can
jolly well read The Treasure Seekers and find out. We were the
Treasure Seekers, and we sought it high and low, and quite
regularly, because we particularly wanted to find it. And at last