THE WOULDBEGOODS
"A farm in Greek history it was, I expect," Denny murmured.
"Civilized warriors do not burn farms nowadays," Alice said, sternly, "whatever they did in Greek times. You ought to know that."
The soldier said things had changed a good deal since Greek times. So we said good-morning as quickly as we could: it is proper to be polite even to your enemy, except just at the moments when it has really come to rifles and bayonets or other weapons.
The soldier said, "So long!" in quite a modern voice, and we retraced our footsteps in silence to the ambush—I mean the wood. Oswald did think of lying in the ambush then, but it was rather wet, because of the rain the night before, that H. O. said had brought the army-seed up. And Alice walked very fast, saying nothing but "Hurry up, can't you!" and dragging H. O. by one hand and Noël by the other. So we got into the road.
Then Alice faced round and said, "This is all our fault. If we hadn't sowed those dragon's teeth there wouldn't have been any invading army."
I am sorry to say Daisy said, "Never mind, Alice, dear. We didn't sow the nasty things, did we, Dora?"
But Denny told her it was just the same. It was we had done it, so long as it was any of us, especially if it got any of us into trouble. Oswald was very pleased to see that the Dentist was be-
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