"
Mrs. Brown ascended to his room.
Upon his bed was a large pop-gun, a football, a dormouse in a cage, a
punchball on a stand, a large box of "curios," and a buckskin which
was his dearest possession and had been presented to him by an uncle
from South Africa.
Mrs. Brown sat down weakly on a chair.
"You can't possibly take any of these things," she said faintly but
firmly.
"Well, you _said_ put my things on the bed for you to pack an' I've
put them on the bed, an' now you say----"
"I meant clothes."
"Oh, _clothes_!" scornfully. "I never thought of _clothes_."
"Well, you can't take any of these things, anyway."
William hastily began to defend his collection of treasures.
"I _mus'_ have the pop-gun 'cause you never know. There may be pirates
an' smugglers down there, an' you can _kill_ a man with a pop-gun if
you get near enough and know the right place, an' I might need it. An'
I _must_ have the football to play on the sands with, an' the
punchball to practise boxin' on, an' I _must_ have the dormouse,
'cause--'cause to feed him, an' I _must_ have this box of things and
this skin to show to folks I meet down at the seaside, 'cause they're
int'restin'."
But Mrs. Brown was firm, and William reluctantly yielded.
In a moment of weakness, finding that his trunk was only three-quarter
filled by his things, she slipped in his beloved buckskin, while
William himself put the pop-gun inside when no one was looking.
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