"Ha! blessin's on 'em both," said Mr Bones, with a bland smile. "Come now, Tot, tell me all about the cottage--inside first, the rooms and winders, an' specially the box of treasure. Then we'll come to the garden, an' so we'll get out by degrees to the fields and flowers. Go ahead, Tot." It need scarcely be said that Abel Bones soon possessed himself of all the information he required, after which he sent Tottie home to her mother, and went his way. CHAPTER THIRTEEN. MISS LILLYCROP GETS A SERIES OF SURPRISES. What a world this is for plots! And there is no escaping them. If we are not the originators of them, we are the victims--more or less. If we don't originate them designedly we do so accidentally. We have seen how Abel Bones set himself deliberately to hatch one plot. Let us now turn to old Fred Blurt, and see how that invalid, with the help of his brother Enoch, unwittingly sowed the seeds of another. "Dear Enoch," said Fred one day, turning on his pillow, "I should have died but for you." "And Miss Lillycrop, Fred. Don't be ungrateful. If Miss Lillycrop had not come to my assistance, it's little I could have done for you." "Well, yes, I ought to have mentioned her in the same breath with yourself, Enoch, for she has been kind--very kind and patient. Now, I want to know if that snake has come." "Are you sure you've recovered enough to attend to business?" asked the brother. "Yes, quite sure. Besides, a snake is not business--it is pleasure. I mean to send it to my old friend Balls, who has been long anxious to get a specimen. I had asked a friend long ago to procure one for me, and now that it has come I want you to pack it to go by post." "By post!" echoed the brother. "Yes, why not?" "Because I fear that live snakes are prohibited articles." "Get the Post-Office Directory and see for yourself," said the invalid. The enormous volume, full six inches thick, which records the abodes and places of business of all noteworthy Londoners, was fetched. "Nothing about snakes here," said Enoch, running his eye over the paragraph referring to the articles in question,--"`Glass bottles, leeches, game, fish,' (but that refers to dead ones, I suppose) `flesh, fruit, vegetables, or other perishable substances' (a snake ain't perishable, at least not during a brief post-journey)--`nor any bladder or other vessel containing liquid,' (ha! that touches him: a snake contains blood, don't it?)--`or anything whatsoever which might by pressure or otherwise be rendered injurious to the contents of the mail-bags or to the officers of the Post-Office.'--Well, brother," continued Enoch, "I'm not quite sure that it comes within the forbidden degrees, so we'll give it the benefit of the doubt and pack it. How d'you propose doing it up? In a letter?" "No, I had a box made for it before I was taken ill. You'll find it in the shop, on the upper shelf, beside the northern diver."