At this point Mrs.Dyke was called in, both father and daughter, children both, crying out that she was to come in and look, look.

She arrived out of breath from the kitchen, the potato masher in her hand.

"Such children," she murmured, shaking her head at them, amused for all that, tucking the potato masher under her arm and clapping her hands.

In the end, it was part of the game that Sidney should tumble down upon Dyke, whereat he invariably vented a great bellow as if in pain, declaring that his ribs were broken.

Gasping, his eyes shut, he pretended to be in the extreme of dissolution--perhaps he was dying.