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.
So we said, Hallo!
And he said, What are you up to?
Were digging for treasure, said Alice; an ancient parchment revealed to us the place of concealment. Come over and help us. When we have dug deep enough we shall find a great pot of red clay, full of gold and precious jewels.
Albert-next-door only sniggered and said, What silly nonsense! He cannot play properly at all. It is very strange, because he has a very nice uncle. You see, Albert-next-door doesnt care for reading, and he has not read nearly so many books as we have, so he is very foolish and ignorant, but it cannot be helped, and you just have to put up with it when you want him to do anything. Besides, it is wrong to be angry with people for not being so clever as you are yourself. It is not always their faults.
So Oswald said, Come and dig! Then you shall share the treasure when weve found it.
But he said, I shantI dont like diggingand Im just going in to my tea.
Come along and dig, theres a good boy, Alice said. You can use my spade. Its much the best
So he came along and dug, and when once he was over the wall we kept him at it, and we worked as well, of course, and the hole got deep. Pincher worked toohe is our dog and he is very good at digging. He digs for rats in the dustbin sometimes, and gets very dirty. But we love our dog, even when his face wants washing.
I expect we shall have to make a tunnel, Oswald said, to reach the rich treasure. So he jumped into the hole and began to dig at one side. After that we took it in turns to dig at the tunnel, and Pincher was most useful in scraping the earth out of the tunnelhe does it with his back feet when you say Rats! and he digs with his front ones, and burrows with his nose as well.
At last the tunnel was nearly a yard long, and big enough to creep along to find the treasure, if only it had been a bit longer. Now it was Alberts turn to go in and dig, but he funked it.
Take your turn like a man, said Oswaldnobody can say that Oswald doesnt take his turn like a man. But Albert wouldnt. So we had to make him, because it was only fair.
Its quite easy, Alice said. You just crawl in and dig with your hands. Then when you come out we can scrape out what youve done, with the spades. Comebe a man. You wont notice it being dark in the tunnel if you shut your eyes tight. Weve all been in except Doraand she doesnt like worms.
I dont like worms neither. Albert-next-door said this; but we remembered how he had picked a fat red and black worm up in his fingers and thrown it at Dora only the day before. So we put him in.
But he would not go in head first, the proper way, and dig with his hands as we had done, and though Oswald was angry at the time, for he hates snivellers, yet afterwards he owned that perhaps it was just as well. You should never be afraid to own that perhaps you were mistakenbut it is cowardly to do it unless you are quite sure you are in the wrong.
Let me go in feet first, said Albert-next-door. Ill dig with my bootsI will truly, honour bright.
So we let him get in feet firstand he did it very slowly and at last he was in, and only his head sticking out into the hole; and all the rest of him in the tunnel.
Now dig with your boots, said Oswald; and, Alice, do catch hold of Pincher, hell be digging again in another minute, and perhaps it would be uncomfortable for Albert if Pincher threw the mould into his eyes.
You should always try to think of these little things. Thinking of other peoples comfort makes them like you. Alice held Pincher, and we all shouted, Kick! dig with your feet, for all youre worth!
So Albert-next-door began to dig with his feet, and we stood on the ground over him, waitingand all in a minute the ground gave way, and we tumbled together in a heap: and when we got up there was a little shallow hollow where we had been standing, and Albert-next-door was underneath, stuck quite fast, because the roof of the tunnel had tumbled in on him. He is a horribly unlucky boy to have anything to do with.
It was dreadful the way he cried and screamed, though he had to own it didnt hurt, only it was rather heavy and he couldnt move his legs. We would have dug him out all right enough, in time, but he screamed so we were afraid the police would come, so Dicky climbed over the wall, to tell the cook there to tell Albert-next-doors uncle he had been buried by mistake, and to come and help dig him out.
Dicky was a long time gone. We wondered what had become of him, and all the while the screaming went on and on, for we had taken the loose earth off Alberts face so that he could scream quite easily and comfortably.
Presently Dicky came back and Albert-next-doors uncle came with him. He has very long legs, and his hair is light and his face is brown. He has been to sea, but now he writes books. I like him.
He told his nephew to stow it, so Albert did, and then he asked him if he was hurtand Albert had to say he wasnt, for though he is a coward, and very unlucky, he is not a liar like some boys are.
This promises to be a protracted if agreeable task, said Albert-next-doors uncle, rubbing his hands and looking at the hole with Alberts head in it. I will get another spade, so he fetched the big spade out of the next-door garden tool-shed, and began to dig his nephew out.
Mind you keep very still, he said, or I might chunk a bit out of you with the spade. Then after a while he said
I confess that I am not absolutely insensible to the dramatic interest of the situation. My curiosity is excited. I own that I should like to know how my nephew happened to be buried. But dont tell me if youd rather not. I suppose no force was used?
Only moral force, said Alice. They used to talk a lot about moral force at the High School where she went, and in case you dont know what it means Ill tell you that it is making people do what they dont want to, just by slanging them, or laughing at them, or promising them things if theyre good.
Only moral force, eh? said Albert-next-doors uncle. Well?
Well, Dora said, Im very sorry it happened to AlbertId rather it had been one of us. It would have been my turn to go into the tunnel, only I dont like worms, so they let me off. You see we were digging for treasure.
Yes, said Alice, and I think we were just coming to the underground passage that leads to the secret hoard, when the tunnel fell in on Albert. He is so unlucky, and she sighed.
Then Albert-next-door began to scream again, and his uncle wiped his facehis own face, not Albertswith his silk handkerchief, and then he put it in his trousers pocket. It seems a strange place to put a handkerchief, but he had his coat and waistcoat off and I suppose he wanted the handkerchief handy. Digging is warm work.
He told Albert-next-door to drop it, or he wouldnt proceed further in the matter, so Albert stopped screaming, and presently his uncle finished digging him out. Albert did look so funny, with his hair all dusty and his velvet suit covered with mould and his face muddy with earth and crying.
We all said how sorry we were, but he wouldnt say a word back to us. He was most awfully sick to think hed been the one buried, when it might just as well have been one of us. I felt myself that it was hard lines.