CHAPTER I.
So we settled it all when the storm was done As comf'y as comf'y could be; And I was to wait in the barn, my dears, Because I was only three; And Teddy would run to the rainbow's foot, Because he was five and a man; And that's how it all began, my dears, And that's how it all began.
-- Big Barn Stories.
'WHAT do you think she'd do if she caught us?
We oughtn't to have it, you know,' said Maisie.
'Beat me, and lock you up in your bedroom,' Dick answered, without hesitation.

'Have you got the cartridges ?' 'Yes; they're in my pocket, but they are joggling horribly.

Do pin-fire cartridges go off of their own accord ?' 'Don't know.

Take the revolver, if you are afraid, and let me carry them.' 'I'm not afraid.' Maisie strode forward swiftly, a hand in her pocket and her chin in the air.

Dick followed with a small pin-fire revolver.
The children had discovered that their lives would be unendurable without pistol-practice.