"Oh, here it is--a mutton bone, barer than usual, and a few potatoes. I thought we'd have a real feast. Did father give you any of the needful when he was going away to-day, Dumps?" "Why, yes," I said, "he gave me five shillings." "And he gave me the same." "And me the same," said Charley. "You'll have to pay us back your share of the grub to-morrow," said Alex; "but we bought it beforehand." "Well, we can't cook without cooking things," I said. "Sakes!" replied Alex; "do you suppose that while you were wandering about London by yourself--highly improper for any young lady, I call it--that we were idle? Charley and Von Marlo and I went down into the kitchen and purloined a frying-pan, a saucepan, a kettle, cups and saucers, glasses, knives and forks galore, and plates. Table-cloths don't matter. Now then, to see the array of eatables." Alex produced out of his bag first of all, in a dirty piece of paper, a skinned rabbit, next a pound of sausages, next a parcel of onions. "These will make a jolly good fry," said Alex, smacking his lips as he spoke. From Charley's pockets came a great piece of butter, while Von Marlo rid himself of a huge incubus in the shape of a loaf of very fresh bread. "There are lots of things beside," said Charley: "potatoes--we're going to fry them after the rabbit and sausages--and fruit and cakes. We thought if we had a good, big, monstrous fry, and then satisfied the rest of our appetites with cake and fruit, as much as ever we can eat, that we'd do." "What about tea or coffee?" I said. "Bother tea or coffee!" said Alex. "We'll have ginger-beer. We brought in a whole dozen bottles. It was that that nearly killed us. If it hadn't been for Von Marlo we'd never have done it. Now then, Dumps, who'll cut up the rabbit, and who'll put it into the pan with the sausages? They ought to be done in a jiffy. We'll cut up the onions and strew them over the rabbit and sausages. I want our fry to be real tasty." I became quite interested. What girl would not? To have the whole of the great house to ourselves, to have three lively, hungry boys gloating greedily over the food, and to think that I alone knew how to cook it! But, alas and alack! my pride was soon doomed to be humiliated; for Von Marlo, who had poached the egg so beautifully, now came forward and told me that I was not cutting up the rabbit with any sense of its anatomical proportions. He took a sharp clasp-knife out of his pocket, and in a minute or two the deed was done. He then objected to my mode of preparing the sausages, declaring that they ought to be pricked and the skins slightly opened. In the end he said it would be much better for him to prepare the fry, and I left it to him. "Yes, yes," I said; "and I'll put on the table-cloth. Oh, but there isn't a table-cloth!" "Who wants a table-cloth?" said Alex. "Let's have newspapers. Here's a pile."