Our Indian uncle was away; Father was away; Mrs Blake was going away, and the housemaid had an afternoon off.

Oswald's first conscious act was to get rid of the white mice--I mean the little good visitors.

He explained to them that there would be a play in the afternoon, and they could be what they liked, and gave them the Jungle Book to read the stories he told them to--all the ones about Mowgli.
He led the strangers to a secluded spot among the sea-kale pots in the kitchen garden and left them.

Then he went back to the others, and we had a jolly morning under the cedar talking about what we would do when Blakie was gone.

She went just after our dinner.
When we asked Denny what he would like to be in the play, it turned out he had not read the stories Oswald told him at all, but only the 'White Seal' and 'Rikki Tikki'.
We then agreed to make the jungle first and dress up for our parts afterwards.