Oswald spoke first. I think we might stop people on Blackheathwith crape masks and horse-pistolsand say Your money or your life! Resistance is useless, we are armed to the teethlike Dick Turpin and Claude Duval. It wouldnt matter about not having horses, because coaches have gone out too.
Dora screwed up her nose the way she always does when she is going to talk like the good elder sister in books, and said, That would be very wrong: its like pickpocketing or taking pennies out of Fathers great-coat when its hanging in the hall.
I must say I dont think she need have said that, especially before the little onesfor it was when I was only four.
But Oswald was not going to let her see he cared, so he said
Oh, very well. I can think of lots of other ways. We could rescue an old gentleman from deadly Highwaymen.
There arent any, said Dora.
Oh, well, its all the samefrom deadly peril, then. Theres plenty of that. Then he would turn out to be the Prince of Wales, and he would say, My noble, my cherished preserver! Here is a million pounds a year. Rise up, Sir Oswald Bastable.
But the others did not seem to think so, and it was Alices turn to say.
She said, I think we might try the divining-rod. Im sure I could do it. Ive often read about it. You hold a stick in your hands, and when you come to where there is gold underneath the stick kicks about. So you know. And you dig.
Oh, said Dora suddenly, I have an idea. But Ill say last. I hope the divining-rod isnt wrong. I believe its wrong in the Bible.
So is eating pork and ducks, said Dicky. You cant go by that.
Anyhow, well try the other ways first, said Dora. Now, H. O.
Lets be Bandits, said H. O. I dare say its wrong but it would be fun pretending.
Im sure its wrong, said Dora.
And Dicky said she thought everything wrong. She said she didnt, and Dicky was very disagreeable. So Oswald had to make peace, and he said
Dora neednt play if she doesnt want to. Nobody asked her. And, Dicky, dont be an idiot: do dry up and lets hear what Noels idea is.
Dora and Dicky did not look pleased, but I kicked Noel under the table to make him hurry up, and then he said he didnt think he wanted to play any more. Thats the worst of it. The others are so jolly ready to quarrel. I told Noel to be a man and not a snivelling pig, and at last he said he had not made up his mind whether he would print his poetry in a book and sell it, or find a princess and marry her.
Whichever it is, he added, none of you shall want for anything, though Oswald did kick me, and say I was a snivelling pig.
I didnt, said Oswald, I told you not to be. And Alice explained to him that that was quite the opposite of what he thought. So he agreed to drop it.
Then Dicky spoke.
You must all of you have noticed the advertisements in the papers, telling you that ladies and gentlemen can easily earn two pounds a week in their spare time, and to send two shillings for sample and instructions, carefully packed free from observation. Now that we dont go to school all our time is spare time. So I should think we could easily earn twenty pounds a week each. That would do us very well. Well try some of the other things first, and directly we have any money well send for the sample and instructions. And I have another idea, but I must think about it before I say.
We all said, Out with itwhats the other idea?
But Dicky said, No. That is Dicky all over. He never will show you anything hes making till its quite finished, and the same with his inmost thoughts. But he is pleased if you seem to want to know, so Oswald said
Keep your silly old secret, then. Now, Dora, drive ahead. Weve all said except you.
Then Dora jumped up and dropped the stocking and the thimble (it rolled away, and we did not find it for days), and said
Lets try my way now. Besides, Im the eldest, so its only fair. Lets dig for treasure. Not any tiresome divining-rodbut just plain digging. People who dig for treasure always find it. And then we shall be rich and we neednt try your ways at all. Some of them are rather difficult: and Im certain some of them are wrongand we must always remember that wrong things
But we told her to shut up and come on, and she did.
I couldnt help wondering as we went down to the garden, why Father had never thought of digging there for treasure instead of going to his beastly office every day.
CHAPTER 2. DIGGING FOR TREASURE
I am afraid the last chapter was rather dull. It is always dull in books when people talk and talk, and dont do anything, but I was obliged to put it in, or else you wouldnt have understood all the rest. The best part of books is when things are happening. That is the best part of real things too. This is why I shall not tell you in this story about all the days when nothing happened. You will not catch me saying, thus the sad days passed slowly byor the years rolled on their weary courseor time went onbecause it is silly; of course time goes onwhether you say so or not. So I shall just tell you the nice, interesting partsand in between you will understand that we had our meals and got up and went to bed, and dull things like that. It would be sickening to write all that down, though of course it happens. I said so to Albert-next-doors uncle, who writes books, and he said, Quite right, thats what we call selection, a necessity of true art. And he is very clever indeed. So you see.
I have often thought that if the people who write books for children knew a little more it would be better. I shall not tell you anything about us except what I should like to know about if I was reading the story and you were writing it. Alberts uncle says I ought to have put this in the preface, but I never read prefaces, and it is not much good writing things just for people to skip. I wonder other authors have never thought of this.
Well, when we had agreed to dig for treasure we all went down into the cellar and lighted the gas. Oswald would have liked to dig there, but it is stone flags. We looked among the old boxes and broken chairs and fenders and empty bottles and things, and at last we found the spades we had to dig in the sand with when we went to the seaside three years ago. They are not silly, babyish, wooden spades, that split if you look at them, but good iron, with a blue mark across the top of the iron part, and yellow wooden handles. We wasted a little time getting them dusted, because the girls wouldnt dig with spades that had cobwebs on them. Girls would never do for African explorers or anything like that, they are too beastly particular.
It was no use doing the thing by halves. We marked out a sort of square in the mouldy part of the garden, about three yards across, and began to dig. But we found nothing except worms and stonesand the ground was very hard.
So we thought wed try another part of the garden, and we found a place in the big round flower bed, where the ground was much softer. We thought wed make a smaller hole to begin with, and it was much better. We dug and dug and dug, and it was jolly hard work! We got very hot digging, but we found nothing.
Presently Albert-next-door looked over the wall. We do not like him very much, but we let him play with us sometimes, because his father is dead, and you must not be unkind to orphans, even if their mothers are alive. Albert is always very tidy. He wears frilly collars and velvet knickerbockers. I cant think how he can bear to.