The Knights of the White Shield eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 202 pages of information about The Knights of the White Shield.

The Knights of the White Shield eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 202 pages of information about The Knights of the White Shield.

“Aunt Stanshy,” said Charlie, that night, “do you know where my rabbit is?”

“I don’t know.  Now I told you, when Miss Persnips came down here, that thing in her arms, and she smilin’ and blinkin’, as if she had an armful of gold, that she was givin’ you an elephant rather than a rabbit.  Nobody knows where the critter is or what it is up to.”

Charlie found the white pet, and asked Will what he thought the rabbit looked like.

“Looks more like a rabbit than any thing else, Charlie.”

“Aunt Stanshy called it an elephant.”

“Well, you might say elephant, the white elephant of Siam—­sort of a distant cousin.  Why, what do you ask the question for?”

Charlie grinned, but made no reply.

Every thing was made ready for the sale.  Aunt Stanshy’s two rooms were the scene of much bustle, and while the boys were at their tables, Miss Barry in a tastily-draped corner was ready for a reasonable sum to serve out refreshments to every applicant.

The Helping-Hand Sale had various attractions.  Among them was Charlie’s “maginary.”  It was a box covered with white cloth, a piece of workmanship at which Charlie had been secretly tinkering for two days.  It was labeled “A Distant Cousin of the White Elephant of Siam.  Price to see, three cents, and don’t tell when you’ve seen it.”

This attracted great attention.

“Miss Persnips,” said Charlie to the shopkeeper, who came to patronize the sale, “do you want to see my maginary?  Only three cents, and don’t tell.”

“Your menagerie?  Yes.  What have you got there?  Some dreadful animal!  I’m afraid to.”

Charlie lifted the cover of the box, and there, fat and sleepy, was—­Miss Persnips told the rest.

“Did you ever!  That darling, sweet pet I gave you.  Quite an idea, really, and here’s another cent.”

The white elephant’s relative was a conspicuous character—­after the lifting of the cover—­that evening.

The next morning Charlie appeared before Will, hanging out a long, dismal face, and speaking with difficulty.

“She’s gone!”

“Who, Aunt Stanshy?”

“No, Bunny!”

“Your rabbit?  How?”

“I don’t know.  I left her all right in the maginary, last night.”

“Let me go out and look round.  But where did you put your box?”

“Well, Aunt Stanshy thought it would do just as well if I put the box out into the wood-shed—­and—­”

“Was the door left open?”

“I saw it open this morning.”

“I will look about.”

Will went into the wood-shed, and there before the door he saw two cats licking their chops, and their guilty eyes seemed to him to say, “Rabbit stew for breakfast!  Keep dark!”

“Charlie,” said Will, entering the house again, “I think two cats out there took your rabbit, and we will catch them and box them and exhibit them.”

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Project Gutenberg
The Knights of the White Shield from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.