The Story Of The Treasure Seekers Chapter 7: Bedtime Story

Hello,

Dear ones,

And welcome to today's reading,

The Story of the Treasure Seekers by Edith Nesbitt.

Chapter 7.

Being Bandits Noel was quite tiresome for ever so long after we found the princess.

He would keep on wanting to go to the park when the rest of us didn't,

And though we went several times to please him,

We never found that door open again.

And all of us,

Except for him,

Knew from that first that it would be a no-go.

So now we thought it was time to do something to rouse him from the stupor of despair,

Which is always done to heroes when anything baffling has occurred.

Besides,

We were getting very short of money again.

The fortunes of your house cannot be restored.

Even by the £1.

08 we got when we had the good hunting.

We spent a good deal of that on presents for Father's birthday.

We got him a new paperweight,

Like a glass bun,

With a picture of Lewisham Church at the bottom,

And a blotting pad,

And a box of preserved fruits,

And an ivory pen holder,

With a view of Greenwich Park in the little hole where you look through at the top.

He was most awfully pleased,

And surprised,

And when he heard how Noel and Oswald had earned the money to buy the things,

He was even more surprised still.

Nearly all the rest of our money went to get fireworks for the 5th of November.

We got six Catherine wheels and four rockets,

Two hand lights,

One red and one green,

And a six-penny maroon,

Two Roman candles they cost a shilling,

Some Italian streamers,

And a fairy fountain.

I think crackers and squibs are a mistake.

It's true you get a lot of them for your money,

And they are not bad fun for the first two or three dozen,

But you do get jolly sick of them before you've let off your six pence worth.

It always seems a long time till the evening when you have got fireworks in the house,

And I think,

As it was a rather foggy day,

We should have been decided to let them off directly after breakfast.

Only father had said he would help us to let them off at eight o'clock after he had cooked his dinner,

And you ought never to disappoint your father if you can help it.

You see,

We had three good reasons for trying HO's idea of restoring the fallen fortunes of our house by becoming bandits on the 5th of November.

We had a fourth reason as well,

And that was the best reason of the lot.

You remember Dora thought it would be wrong to be bandits,

And the 5th of November came while Dora was away at Stroud,

Staying with her godmother.

Stroud is in Gloucestershire.

We were determined to do it while she was out of the way,

Because we did not think it was wrong,

And beside,

We meant to do it anyhow.

We held a council,

Of course,

And laid our plans very carefully.

We let HO be captain,

Because it was his idea.

Oswald was lieutenant.

Our plan was this.

We were all to go up to the heath.

Our house is in the Lewisham Row,

But it's quite close to the heath if you cut up the short way opposite the confectioners,

Past the nursery gardens and the cottage hospital,

And turn to the left again,

And then afterwards to the right.

You come out then at the top of the hill,

Where the big guns are,

With the iron fence around them,

And where the bands play on Thursday evenings in the summer.

We were to lurk in ambush there,

And waylay an unwary traveller.

We were to call upon him to surrender his arms,

And then bring him home and put him in the deepest dungeon below the castle moat.

Then we were to load him with chains,

And send to his friends for ransom.

You may think we had no chains,

But you are wrong,

Because we used to keep two other dogs once,

Beside Pincher,

Before the fall of the fortunes of the ancient house of Bastable,

And they were quite big dogs.

It was late-ish in the afternoon before we started.

We thought we could lurk better if it was nearly dark.

It was rather foggy,

And we waited a good while beside the railings,

But all the belated travellers were either grown-up or else they were bored school children.

We weren't going to get into a row with grown-up people,

Especially strangers,

And no true bandit would ever stoop to ask a ransom from the relations of the poor and the needy.

So we thought it better to wait.

As I said,

It was Guy Fawkes's day,

And if it had not been,

We should never have been able to be bandits at all,

For the unwary traveller we did catch had been forbidden to go out,

Because he had a cold in his head.

But he would run out to follow a guy without even putting on a coat or a comforter,

And it was very damp,

Foggy,

And nearly dark.

So you see,

It was his own fault entirely,

And it served him jolly well right.

We saw him coming over the heath,

Just as we were deciding to go home to tea.

He had followed that guy right across to the village.

We call Blackheath the village,

I don't know why,

And he was coming back dragging his feet and sniffing.

An unwary traveller approaches,

Whispered Oswald.

Muffle your horses' heads and see to the priming of your pistols,

Muttered Alice.

She will always play boys' parts,

And she makes Alice cut her hair short on purpose.

Alice is a very obliging hairdresser.

Steal softly upon him,

Said Noel,

For lo,

It is dusk,

And no human eyes can mark our deeds.

So we ran out and surrounded the unwary traveller.

It turned out to be Albert next door,

And he was very frightened indeed,

Until he saw who we were.

Surrender,

Hissed Oswald in a desperate-sounding voice,

As he caught the arm of the unwary,

And Albert next door said,

Alright,

I'm surrendering as hard as I can,

You needn't pull my arm off.

We explained to him that resistance was useless,

And I think he saw that from the first.

We held him tight by both arms,

And we marched him home down the hill in a hollow square of five.

He wanted to tell us about the guy,

But we made him see that it was not proper for prisoners to talk to the guard,

Especially about guys that the prisoner had been told not to go after because of his cold.

When we got to where we lived,

He said,

Alright,

I don't want to tell you,

You'll just wish I had afterwards,

You never saw such a guy.

I can see you,

Said H.

O.

It was very rude,

And Oswald told him at once,

Because it is his duty as an elder brother,

But H.

O.

Is very young and does not know better yet,

And besides,

It wasn't bad for H.

O.

Albert next door said,

You haven't got any manners,

And I want to go in to my tea,

Let go of me.

But Alice told him,

Quite kindly,

That he was not going in to tea,

But coming with us.

No I'm not,

Said Albert next door,

I'm going home,

Now let me go,

I've got a bad cold,

And you are making it worse.

Then he tried to cough,

Which was very silly,

Because we'd seen him in the morning,

And he'd told us where the cold was,

That he wasn't to go out.

When he had tried to cough,

He said,

Let go of me,

You see,

My cold's getting worse.

You should have thought of that before,

Said Dickie,

You're coming with us.

Noel said,

You know we told you at the very beginning,

That resistance was useless.

There is no disgrace in yielding,

We are five to your one.

By this time,

Eliza had opened the door,

And we thought it best to take him in,

Without any more parlaying.

To parlay with a prisoner is not done by bandits.

Directly,

We got him safe into the nursery.

H.

O.

Began to jump about and say,

Now you're a prisoner really and truly.

And Albert next door began to cry.

He always does.

I wonder he didn't begin long before.

But Alice fetched him one of the dried fruits we gave father for his birthday.

It was a green walnut.

I have noticed the walnuts and the plums always get left till the last in the box.

The apricots always go first,

And then the figs and pears,

And the cherries,

If there are any.

So he ate it and shut up,

And then we explained his position to him,

So that there would be no mistake,

And he couldn't say afterwards that he had not understood.

There will be no violence,

Said Oswald.

He was now captain of the bandits.

But you will be confined in a dark subterranean dungeon,

Where toads and snakes crawl.

And but little of the light of day filters through the heavily mullioned windows.

You will be loaded with chains.

Oh now don't begin again,

Baby.

There's nothing to cry about.

But Albert next door never enters into the spirit of a thing,

And he mumbled something about tea time.

Now,

Oswald,

Although stern,

Is always just.

And besides,

We were all rather hungry,

And tea was ready.

So we had it at once.

Albert next door and all.

And we gave him what was left of the four pound jar of apricot jam that we got with the money that Noel got for his poetry.

And we saved our crusts for the prisoner.

Albert next door was very tiresome.

Nobody could have had a nicer prison than he had.

We fenced him into a corner with the old wire nursery fender and all the chairs,

Instead of putting him in the coal cellar as we had first intended.

And when he said the dog chains were cold,

The girls were kind enough to warm his fetters thoroughly at the fire before we put them on him.

And even then,

Albert couldn't be happy,

Just like the rest of us.

He howled and cried and tried to get out.

And he knocked us over,

And he stamped on the crusts.

So we tied him up with the clothesline from the back kitchen,

And we had to hurry up,

Which was a pity for him.

We might have had him rescued by a devoted page if he hadn't been so tiresome.

In fact,

Noel was actually dressing up for the page when Albert next door kicked over the prison water jug.

We got an old sheet of paper out of an exercise book,

And we made HO prick his own thumb,

Because he is our little brother,

And it is our duty to teach him to be brave.

We none of us mind pricking ourselves.

We've done it heaps of times.

HO didn't like it,

But he agreed to do it,

And I helped him a little,

Because he was so slow.

And when he saw the red bead of blood getting fatter and bigger as I squeezed his thumb,

He was very,

Very pleased,

Just as I had told him he would be.

This is what we wrote with HO's blood,

Only the blood gave out when we got to Restored,

And we had to write the rest with Crimson Lake,

Which is not the same colour,

Though I always use it myself for painting wounds.

While Oswald was writing it,

He heard Alice whispering to the prisoner that it would all soon be over,

And it was only play.

The prisoner left off howling,

So I pretended not to hear what she said.

A bandit captain has to overlook things sometimes.

This was the letter.

Albert Morrison is held a prisoner by bandits.

On payment of £3,

000 he will be restored to his sorrowing relatives,

And all will be forgotten and forgiven.

I was not sure about the last part,

But Dickie was certain he had seen it in the paper,

So I suppose it must have been all right.

We let HO take the letter.

It was only fair,

As it was his blood that it was written with,

And we told him to leave it next door for Mrs.

Morrison.

HO came back quite quickly,

And Albert next door's uncle came with him.

What is all this,

Albert?

He cried.

Alas,

Alas,

My nephew!

Do I find you the prisoner of a desperate band of brigades?

Bandits,

Said HO.

You know it says bandits.

I beg your pardon,

Gentlemen,

Said Albert next door's uncle.

Bandits it is,

Of course.

This,

Albert,

Is the direct result of the pursuit of the guy on an occasion when your doting mother had expressly warned you to forgo the pleasure of the chase.

Albert said it wasn't his fault,

And he hadn't wanted to play.

So,

Where's this dungeon?

Asked his uncle.

So we showed him the dungeon.

Well,

This is very pretty and complete,

He said.

Albert,

You are more highly privileged than ever I was.

No one ever made me a nice dungeon when I was your age.

I think I had better leave you where you are.

Albert began to cry again and said he was sorry and that he would be a good boy.

So,

You expect me to ransom you,

Do you?

Honestly,

My nephew,

I doubt whether you are worth it.

Besides,

The sum mentioned in this document strikes me as excessive.

Albert really is not worth three thousand pounds.

Also,

By a strange and unfortunate chance,

I haven't the money about me.

Couldn't you take less?

We said perhaps that we could.

Say eightpence,

Suggested Albert next door's uncle,

Which is all the small change I happen to have on my person.

I'll thank you very much,

Said Alice as he held it out.

But are you sure you can spare it?

It was only play after all.

I am quite sure.

Now,

Albert,

The game is over.

You had better run home to your mother and tell her how much you've enjoyed yourself.

When Albert next door had gone,

His uncle turned to us and said,

Look here,

Young'uns,

I like to see you play and enjoy yourselves and I don't think it hurts Albert to enjoy himself too.

I don't think he did enjoy himself much,

Said H.

O.

But what about Albert's mother?

Didn't you think how anxious she would be at him not coming home?

As it happens,

I saw him come in with you,

So we knew it was all right.

But if I hadn't,

Eh?

He only talks like that when he is very serious,

Or even angry.

Other times he talks like people in books,

To us I mean.

We,

None of us,

Said anything.

But I was thinking.

And then Alice spoke.

Girls seem not to mind saying things that we don't say.

She put her arms around Albert next door's uncle's neck and said,

We are very sorry,

Very,

Very sorry.

We didn't think about his mother.

You see,

We try very hard not to think about other people's mothers because.

.

.

Just then we heard father's key in the door and Albert next door's uncle kissed Alice's forehead and put her down and we all went out to meet father.

As we went,

I thought I heard Albert next door's uncle say something that sounded like,

Poor little beggars.

He couldn't have meant us when we'd been having such a jolly good time and chestnuts and fireworks to look forward to after dinner and everything.