THE WOULDBEGOODS
any, or else about when you were little. You wouldn't be so horrid if you did."
I don't know which, if either, of these objects the fox-hound master thought of, but he said:
"Well, lead on," and he let go Noël's ear and Alice snuggled up to Noel and put her arm round him.
It was a frightened procession, whose cheeks were pale with alarm—except those between white whiskers, and they were red—that wound in at our gate and into the hall, among the old oak furniture and black and white marble floor and things. Dora and Daisy were at the door. The pink petticoat lay on the table, all stained with the gore of the departed. Dora looked at us all, and she saw that it was serious. She pulled out the big oak chair and said:
"Won't you sit down?" very kindly to the white-whiskered magistrate.
He grunted, but did as she said.
Then he looked about him in a silence that was not comforting, and so did we.
At last he said:
"Come, you didn't try to bolt. Speak the truth, and I'll say no more."
We said we had.
Then he laid the fox on the table, spreading out the petticoat under it, and he took out a knife and the girls hid their faces. Even Oswald did not care to look. Wounds in battle are all very well, but it's different to see a dead fox cut into with a knife.
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