about it till the day they should be going to the toy-shop to buy their hoops. Once or twice he had been on the point of showing it to her, but had stopped short, thinking how much more delightful it would be to "surprise" her. He had quite left off puzzling his head as to where the little coin had come from; he had found it in Floss's drawer, that was quite enough. If he had any thoughts about its history, they were that either Floss had had "the sixpenny" a long time ago and had forgotten it, or that the fairies had brought it; and on the whole he inclined to the latter explanation, for you see there was something different about this sixpenny to any he had ever seen before.
Very likely "fairies' sixpennies" are always that pretty yellow colour, he thought.
One day, about a week after the loss of the half-sovereign, Maurice happened to come into the nursery just at the little ones' tea-time. It was a half-holiday, and he had been out a long walk with some of his companions, for he still went to school at Sandyshore, and now he had come in tremendously hungry and thirsty.
"I say, nurse," he exclaimed, seating himself unceremoniously at the table, "I'm awfully hungry, and mamma's out, and we shan't have tea for two hours yet. And Carrots, young man, I want your paint-box; mine's all gone to smash, and Cecil won't lend me hers, and I want to paint flags with stars and stripes for my new boat."
"Tars and tipes," repeated Carrots, "what's tars and tipes?"
"What's that to you?" replied Mott, politely. "Bless me, I am so thirsty. Give me your tea, Carrots, and nurse will make you some more. What awful weak stuff! But I'm too thirsty to wait."
He seized Carrots' mug and drank off its contents at one draught. But when he put the mug down he made a very wry face.
"What horrible stuff!" he exclaimed. "Nurse, you've forgotten to put in any sugar."
"No, she hasn't," said Carrots, bluntly.
Nurse smiled, but said nothing, and Floss looked fidgety.
"What do you mean?" said Mott. "Don't you like sugar – eh, young 'un?"
"Yes, I do like it," replied Carrots, but he would say no more.
Floss grew more and more uneasy.
"Oh, Mott," she burst out, "please don't tease Carrots. It's nothing wrong; it's only something we've planned ourselves."
Mott's curiosity was by this time thoroughly aroused.
"A secret, is it?" he exclaimed, pricking up his ears; "you'd best tell it me. I'm a duffer at keeping secrets. Out with it."
Floss looked ready to cry, and Carrots shut his mouth tight, as if determined not to give in. Nurse thought it time to interfere.
"Master Maurice," she said, appealingly, "don't tease the poor little things, there's a good boy. If it is a secret, there's no harm in it, you may be sure."
"Tease!" repeated Mott, virtuously, "I'm not teasing. I only want to know what the mystery is – why shouldn't I? I won't interfere."
Now Mott was just at the age when the spirit of mischief is most apt to get thorough hold of a boy; and once this is the case, who can say where or at what a boy will stop? Every opposition or contradiction only adds fuel to the flames, and not seldom a tiny spark may thus end in a great fire. Nurse knew something of boys in general, and of Mott in particular; and knowing what she did, she decided in her own mind that she had better take the bull by the horns without delay.
"Miss Floss," she said seriously, "and Master Carrots, I think you had better tell your brother your secret. He'll be very kind about it, you'll see, and he won't tell anybody."
"Won't you, Mott?" said Floss, jumping up and down on her chair in her anxiety. "Promise."
"Honour bright," said Mott.
Carrots opened his mouth as if about to speak, but shut it down again.
"What were you going to say?" said Mott.
"Nucken," replied Carrots.
"People don't open their mouths like that, if they've 'nucken' to say," said Mott, as if he didn't believe Carrots.
"I didn't mean that I wasn't going to say nucken," said Carrots, "I mean I haven't nucken to say now."
"And what were you going to say?" persisted Mott.
Carrots looked frightened.
"I was only sinking if you knowed, and nurse knowed, and Floss knowed, and I knowed, it wouldn't be a secret."
Mott burst out laughing.
"What a precious goose you are," he exclaimed. "Well, secret or no secret, I'm going to hear it; so tell me."
Floss looked at nurse despairingly.
"You tell, nurse, please," she said.
So nurse told, and Maurice looked more amused than ever. "What an idea!" he exclaimed. "I don't believe Carrots'll hold out for a month, whatever Floss may do, unless he has a precious lump of ac – ac – what is it the head people call it? – acquisitiveness for his age. But you needn't have made such a fuss about your precious secret. Here, nurse, give us some tea, and you may put in all the sugar Floss and Carrots have saved by now."
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