"I wish you'd tell us how you came to choose our house for your
burglaring to-night. I'm awfully glad you did. You _have_ been so kind.
I don't know what we should have done without you," she added, hastily.
"We all love you ever so. Do tell us."
The others added their affectionate entreaties, and at last the burglar
said:--
"Well, it's my first job, and I didn't expect to be made so welcome,
and that's the truth, young gents and ladies. And I don't know but what
it won't be my last. For this 'ere cow, she reminds me of my father,
and I know 'ow 'e'd 'ave 'ided me if I'd laid 'ands on a 'apenny as
wasn't my own."
"Look here," said Cyril, "these cats are very valuable--very, indeed.
And we will give them all to you if only you will take them away."
"I see they're a breedy lot," replied the burglar; "but I don't want no
bother with the coppers. Did you come by them honest, now--straight?"
"They are all our very own," said Anthea. "We wanted them; but the
confidement----"
"Consignment," whispered Cyril.
"----was larger than we wanted, and they're an awful bother. If you got
your barrow and some sacks or baskets we would be awfully pleased. My
father says Persian cats are worth pounds and pounds each."
"Well," said the burglar, and he was certainly moved by her remarks, "I
see you're in a hole; I've got a pal--I'll fetch him along, and if he
thinks they'd fetch anything above their skins, I don't mind doin' you
a kindness."
Then he went, and Cyril and Robert sent the girls to bed and sat up
to wait for his return. It soon seemed absurd to await him in a state
of wakefulness, but his stealthy tap on the window awoke them readily
enough when he returned. And he did return, with the pal and the barrow
and the sacks. The pal approved of the cats, now dormant in Persian
repletion, and they were bundled into the sacks and taken away on the
barrow, mewing indeed, but with mews too sleepy to attract public
attention.
[Illustration: "THEY WERE BUNDLED INTO THE SACKS."]
"I'm a fence, that's what I am," said the burglar, gloomily; "I never
thought I'd come down to this and all acause er my kind 'art."
Cyril knew that a fence is a receiver of stolen goods, and he replied,
briskly:--
"I give you my word the cats aren't stolen. What do you make the time?"
"I ain't got the time on me," said the pal; "but it was just about
chucking-out time as I come by the Bull and Gate. I shouldn't wonder if
it was nigh upon one now."
When the cats had been removed and the boys and the burglar had parted
with warm expressions of friendship there remained only the cow.
"She must stay all night," said Robert. "Cook'll have a fit when she
sees her."
"All night?" said Cyril. "Why, it's to-morrow morning if it's one. We
can have another wish!"
So the carpet was urged, in a hastily-written note, to remove the cow
to wherever she belonged and to return to its proper place on the
nursery floor. And the cow could not be got to move on to the carpet.
So Robert got the clothes-line out of the back kitchen and tied one end
very firmly to the cow's horns and the other end to a bunched-up corner
of the carpet, and said, "Fire away!"
And carpet and cow vanished together, and the boys went to bed tired
out, and only too thankful that the evening at last was over.
Next morning the carpet lay calmly in its place, but one corner was
very badly torn. It was the corner that the cow had been tied on to.
_What Is a Good Advertisement?_
What is a good advertisement? The question was recently asked of the
readers of _Tit-Bits_, who were desired to select the best twelve
advertisements which appeared in this magazine during six months--the
competitor selecting the greatest number of advertisements which
corresponded to the choice of the majority being rewarded with a
substantial prize. The grounds on which the competitors based their
opinions were probably, consciously or unconsciously, very much alike
in most instances. It is interesting to consider what these grounds
were. We reproduce on this and following pages reduced facsimiles of
the twelve winning advertisements, which will serve to illustrate the
several points which go to make up a good advertisement.
[Illustration: THIS ADVERTISEMENT SECURED THE FIRST PLACE ON THE VOTING
LIST.
_WE ASKED YOU TO_
_WATCH THIS EGG_
_YOU ARE ENTERING FOR "TIT-BITS" GREAT COMPETITION._
_PAUSE!_
_HERE'S_
_100 100 100 POUNDS_
_FOR YOU_
_PURE_
_COOK'S SOAPS_
We, as advertisers, are so convinced of the excellence of the
"Tit-Bits" Great Competition as a method of gauging the public taste in
advertisements, that we have decided to add
_100_ (One Hundred Pounds) to the FIRST PRIZE.
_50_ (Fifty Pounds) to the SECOND PRIZE.
and we will send a Case of our High-class Toilet Soaps--value _ONE GUINEA_
--to each of the other Prize Winners
_EDWARD COOK & CO., Ld._ The Soap Specialists. _LONDON._
_YOU SEE, COOK'S ADVICE LIKE COOK'S SOAP IS AS GOOD AS GOLD._
]
[Illustration: THIS SECURED THE SECOND PLACE.