Page:The Strand Magazine (Volume 17).djvu/607

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610
THE STRAND MAGAZINE.

"DISAPPEARING DOWN THE WASTE-PIPE."


And what did father and mother say when Effie and Harry got home?

My dear, that is the sort of silly question you children always will ask. However, just for this once I don't mind telling you.

Mother said: "Oh, my darlings, my darlings, you're safe you're safe! You naughty children—how could you be so disobedient? Go to bed at once!"

And their father the doctor said:—

"I wish I had known what you were going to do! I should have liked to preserve a specimen. I threw away the one I got out of Effie's eye. I intended to get a more perfect specimen. I did not anticipate this immediate extinction of the species."

The professor said nothing, but he rubbed his hands. He had kept his specimen—the one the size of an earwig that he gave Harry half a crown for—and he has it to this day.

You must get him to show it to you!