And now the six little Cavendishes appeared on the scene. The
pore gentleman had come to--sho! He had got his senses back
--sho! he wa'n't goin' to die after all; he could talk. Sho! a
body could hear him plain! Excited beyond measure they scurried
about in their fluttering rags of nightgowns for a sight and
hearing of the pore gentleman. They struggled madly to climb
over their parents, and failing this--under them. But the
opening that served as a door to the shanty being small, and
being as it was completely stoppered by their father and mother
who were in no mood to yield an inch, they distributed themselves
in quest of convenient holes in the bark edifice through which to
peer at the pore gentleman. And since the number of youthful
Cavendishes exceeded the number of such holes, the sound of
lamentation and recrimination presently filled the morning air.

"I kin see the soles of his feet!" shrieked Keppel with
passionate intensity, his small bleached eye glued to a crack.

He was instantly ravished of the sight by Henry.

"You mean hateful thing!--just because you're bigger than Kep!"
and Constance fell on the spoiler. As her mother's right-hand
man she had cuffed and slapped her way to a place of power among
the little brothers.

Mr. Cavendish appeared to allay hostilities.

"I 'low I'll skin you if you don't keep still! Dress!--the whole
kit and b'ilin' of you!" he roared, and his manner was quite as