He had possessed himself of some of Dorothy's dolls' tea things, he had begged a sponge cake from nurse, and could be heard breaking from time to time into such sentences as, "Do have a little more tweacle pudding, Mrs.Smith.

It's the best tweacle," and, "It's a nice day, isn't it!" but he was sorely interrupted by the noisy festivities of the Indians who broke, frequently, into realistic cries of "Oh! Roger, you're pulling my hair," or "I won't play if you don't look out!" It may be that these interruptions disturbed the actuality of Bim's festivities, or it may be that the rattling of the rain upon the window panes diverted his attention.

Once he broke into a chuckle.

"Isn't they banging on the window, Lucy ?" he said, but she was, it appeared, too deeply engaged to answer him.

He found that, in a moment of abstraction, he had eaten the whole of the sponge cake, so that it was obvious that the party was over.