thank god we shall be all under one roof again at last three months later punch no longer black sheep has discovered that he is the veritable owner of a real live lovely mamma who is also a sister and friend and that he must protect her till the father comes home deception does not suit the part of a protector and when one can do anything without question where is the use of deception mother would be awfully cross if you walked through that ditch says continuing a conversation mother s never angry says punch she d just say you re a little and that s not nice but fu show punch walks through the ditch and himself to the knees mother dear he shouts i m just as dirty as i can ji ly be black then change your clothes as quickly as you j ly can rings out mother s clear voice from the house and don t be a little � there told you so says punch it s all different now and we are just as much mother s as if she had never gone not altogether o punch for when young lips have drunk deep of the bitter waters of hate suspicion and despair all the love in the world will not wholly take away that knowledge though it may turn darkened eyes for a while to the light and teach faith where no faith was majesty the king his majesty the king where the word of a king is there is power and who may say unto him � what thou and to sleep at ve foot of ve bed and pink book and ve � cause i will be in ve night � and s all miss and now give me one kiss and i ll go lo sleep � so quiet ow ve pink book has under ve pillow and ve iu miss miss i m sa come and me up miss his majesty the king was going to bed and poor patient miss who had advertised herself humbly as a young person european accustomed to the care of little children was forced to wait upon his royal the going to bed was always a process because his majesty had a convenient of forgetting which of his many friends from the s son to the s daughter he had prayed for and lest the deity should take offence was used to toil through his little prayers in all reverence five times in one evening his majesty the king believed in the of prayer as devoutly as he believed in the patient or miss who could reach him down his gun � with caps � one � from the upper shelves of the big nursery cupboard at the door of the nursery his authority stopped beyond lay the empire of his father and mother � two very terrible people who had no time to waste u on his majesty the king his voice was lowered when he passed the frontier of his his majesty the king his actions were and his soul was filled with awe because of the grim man who lived among a wilderness of pigeon holes and the most fascinating pieces of red and the wonderful woman who was always getting into or stepping out of the big carriage to the one belonged the mysteries of the to the other the great reflected wilderness of the s room where the shiny scented hung on miles and miles up in the air and the just seen of the revealed an of bags and white headed there was no room for his majesty the king either in official reserve or he had discovered that ages and ages ago � before even came to the house or miss had ceased over a packet of greasy letters which appeared to be her chief treasure on earth his majesty the king therefore wisely confined himself to his own where only miss and she feebly disputed his sway from miss he had picked up his simple and it to the legends of gods and devils that he had learned in the servants quarters to miss he confided with equal trust his tattered garments and his more serious she would make everything whole she knew exactly how the earth had been born and had reassured the trembling soul of his majesty the king that terrible time in july when it rained for seven days and seven nights and � there was no ark ready and all the had flown away she was the most powerful person with whom he was brought into contact � always excepting the two remote and silent people beyond the nursery door how was his majesty the king to know that six years ago in the summer of his birth mrs turning over her husband s papers hj d come upon the letter of a his majesty the king foolish woman who had been carried away by the silent man s strength and personal beauty how could he tell what evil the overlooked slip of note paper had wrought in the mind of a desperately jealous wife how could he despite his wisdom guess that his mother had chosen to make of it excuse for a bar and a division between herself and her husband that strengthened and grew harder to break with each year that she having skeleton in the cupboard had trained it into a household god which should be about their path and about their bed and poison all their ways these things were beyond the province of his majesty the king he only knew that his father was daily absorbed in some mysterious work for a thing called the and that his mother was the victim alternately of the and the to these she was escorted by a captain man for whom his majesty the king had no regard he doesn t laugh he argued with miss who 