was a poky little shop, and the man was arranging furniture outside
on the pavement very cunningly, so that the more broken parts
should show as little as possible. And directly he saw the
children he knew them again, and he began at once, without giving
them a chance to speak.

'No you don't' he cried loudly; 'I ain't a-goin' to take back no
carpets, so don't you make no bloomin' errer. A bargain's a
bargain, and the carpet's puffik throughout.'

'We don't want you to take it back,' said Cyril; 'but we found
something in it.'

'It must have got into it up at your place, then,' said the man,
with indignant promptness, 'for there ain't nothing in nothing as
I sell. It's all as clean as a whistle.'

'I never said it wasn't CLEAN,' said Cyril, 'but--'

'Oh, if it's MOTHS,' said the man, 'that's easy cured with borax.
But I expect it was only an odd one. I tell you the carpet's good
through and through. It hadn't got no moths when it left my
'ands--not so much as an hegg.'

'But that's just it,' interrupted Jane; 'there WAS so much as an
egg.'

The man made a sort of rush at the children and stamped his foot.

'Clear out, I say!' he shouted, 'or I'll call for the police. A