There was a step on the stair, the firm, well-known step of his father, and he paused a moment with a look of conscious virtue on his small shiny face.
But it fled all at once, and a look of horror replaced it.

He had stuck the bottle on a great armchair for convenience, as he was sitting on the floor, and now he noticed it had fallen on its side and a black, horrid stream was issuing from its neck.
And it was the chair with the uniform on, and one of the sleeves was soaked with the stuff, and the beautiful white shirt that lay there, too, waiting for a button, was sticky, horrible! Bunty gave a wild, terrified look round the room for some place to efface himself, but there were no sheltering corners or curtains, and there was not time to get into the bedroom and under the bed.
Near the window was a large-sized medicine chest, and in despair Bunty crushed himself into it, his legs huddled up, his head between his knees, and an ominous rattle of displaced bottles in his ears.

The next minute his father was in the room.
"Great Heavens! God bless my soul!" he said, and Bunty shivered from head to foot.
Then he said a lot of things very quickly--"foreign language" as Judy called it; kicked something over, and shouted "Esther!" in a terrifying tone.

But Esther was down in one of the paddocks with the General, so there was no reply.
More foreign language, more stomping about.
Bunty's teeth chattered noisily; he put up his hand to hold his mouth together, and the cupboard, overbalanced, fell right over, precipitating its occupant right at his father's feet, and the bottles everywhere.
"I didn't--I haven't--'twasn't me--'twasn't my fault!" he howled, backing towards the door.

"Hoo--yah--boo-hoo-ooo! Esther--boo--yah--Judy--oh--oh--h! oh--oh--h--h--h--h!" As might be expected, his father had picked up a strap that lay conveniently near, and was giving his son a very fair taste of it.
"Oh--h--h--h! o--o--h! o--o--h! ah--h--h! 'twasn't me--'twasn't my fault--its Pip and Judy--oh--h--h--h! hoo--the pant'mime! boo-hoo! ah--h--h--h--you're killing me! hoo-boo! I was only d--doin' it--oh--hoo--ah--h--h! d--oin' it to p--please--boo--oo--oo! to p--please you!" His father paused with uplifted strap.