"Well, then, you take it."

  Wendy had a splendid idea. "Why not both take it at the same time?"

  "Certainly," said Mr. Darling. "Are you ready, Michael?"

  Wendy gave the words, one, two, three, and Michael took his
medicine, but Mr. Darling slipped his behind his back.

  There was a yell of rage from Michael, and "O father!" Wendy
exclaimed.

  "What do you mean by 'O father?'" Mr. Darling demanded. "Stop that
row, Michael. I meant to take mine, but I- I missed it."

  It was dreadful the way all the three were looking at him, just as
if they did not admire him. "Look here, all of you," he said
entreatingly, as soon as Nana had gone into the bathroom, "I have just
thought of a splendid joke. I shall pour my medicine into Nana's bowl,
and she will drink it, thinking it is milk!"

  It was the colour of milk; but the children did not have their
father's sense of humour, and they looked at him reproachfully as he
poured the medicine into Nana's bowl. "What fun!" he said
doubtfully, and they did not dare expose him when Mrs. Darling and
Nana returned.

  "Nana, good dog," he said, patting her, "I have put a little milk
into your bowl, Nana."

  Nana wagged her tail, ran to the medicine, and began lapping it.
Then she gave Mr. Darling such a look, not an angry look: she showed
him the great red tear that makes us so sorry for noble dogs, and
crept into her kennel.

  Mr. Darling was frightfully ashamed of himself, but he would not
give in. In a horrid silence Mrs. Darling smelt the bowl. "O
George," she said, "it's your medicine!"

  "It, was only a joke," he roared, while she comforted her boys,
and Wendy hugged Nana. "Much good," he said bitterly, "my wearing
myself to the bone trying to be funny in this house."

  And still Wendy hugged Nana. "That's right," he shouted. "Coddle
her! Nobody coddles me. Oh dear no! I am only the breadwinner, why
should I be coddled- why, why, why!"

  "George," Mrs. Darling entreated him, "not so loud; the servants
will hear you." Somehow they had got into the way of calling Liza
the servants.

  "Let them!" he answered recklessly. "Bring in the whole world. But I
refuse to allow that dog to lord it in my nursery for an hour longer."

  The children wept, and Nana ran to him beseechingly, but he waved
her back. He felt he was a strong man again. "In vain, in vain," he
cried; "the: proper place for you is the yard, and there you go to
be tied up this instant."

  "George, George," Mrs. Darling whispered, "remember what I told
you about that boy."

  Alas, he would not listen. He was determined to show who was
master in that house, and when commands would not draw Nana from the
kennel, he lured her out of it with honeyed words, and seizing her
roughly, dragged her from the nursery. He was ashamed of himself,
and yet he did it. It was all owing to his too affectionate nature,
which craved for admiration. When he had tied her up in the back-yard,
the wretched father went and sat in the passage, with his knuckles
to his eyes.

  In the meantime Mrs. Darling had put the children to bed in unwonted
silence and lit their night-lights. They could hear Nana barking,
and John whimpered, "It is because he is chaining her up in the yard,"
but Wendy was wiser.

  "That is not Nana's unhappy bark," she said, little guessing what
was about to happen; "that is her bark when she smells danger."

  Danger!

  "Are you sure, Wendy?"

  "Oh yes?."

  Mrs. Darling quivered and went to the window. It was securely
fastened. She looked out, and the night was peppered with stars.
They were crowding round the house, as if curious to see what was to
take place there, but she did not notice this, nor that one or two
of the smaller ones winked at her. Yet a nameless fear clutched at her
heart and made her cry, "Oh, how I wish that I wasn't going to a party
to-night!"

  Even Michael, already half asleep, knew that she was perturbed,
and he asked, "Can anything harm us, mother, after the night-lights
are lit?"

  "Nothing, precious," she said; "they are the eyes a mother leaves
behind her to guard her children."