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garden laughing.

4
THE THIRD TROUBLE
    D avid was filthy. He had to wash and climb into more of Cousin Ronald’s wide castoffs before he dared to go down to supper. The odd thing about washing in a hurry is that soap and water only loosen the dirt. Most of it comes off on the towel afterward. David looked rather nervously at the reddish-black smears on Mrs. Thirsk’s bright white towel, but he was in too much of a hurry to do anything about it. The gong had gone before he started to wash.
    He hurried downstairs, thinking about Luke and Luke’s odd jokes. If Luke had not come along, there was no doubt David would at this moment be crawling downstairs in the most hideous state of guilt, wondering how he was going to confess to having cursed a wall down. As it was, he felt much better. Rebuilding the wall had wiped away his misery and also the horror of the way the curse had worked. He thought of the flames and the snakes, but all they did was to remind him of Luke’s joke about kindling a flame. David grinned as he came to the bottom of the stairs, because someone—Astrid probably—had left a box of matches on the stand beside the gong. David slipped them into his pocket as he passed. If Luke wanted him to strike a match as a signal, then he would. But it was no good asking for matches. That would only remind his relations to forbid him to have them.
    He went into the dining room. Astrid was saying: “And my leg never left me in peace, the whole afternoon.”
    â€œ Both my legs,” said Uncle Bernard. Then he saw David in the doorway and abandoned the contest. David walked to his place and sat down in a silence heavier and nastier than any he had known. It was clear the row was still going on. Unless, David thought rather nervously as he picked up his soup spoon, they had found out about the wall and were angry about that now. The soup was burned. David could see black bits floating in it. It tasted burned.
    Cousin Ronald broke the silence at last by saying reproachfully: “We are waiting to hear you say sorry, David.”
    â€œSorry,” David said, wondering why they could not have told him that straightaway.
    There was another heavy silence.
    â€œWe want to hear you apologize,” said Aunt Dot.
    â€œI apologize then,” said David.
    â€œI don’t call that an apology,” said Uncle Bernard.
    â€œWell, I said sorry and I said I apologize,” David pointed out. “What else do you want me to say?”
    â€œYou might take back your words,” suggested Astrid.
    â€œAll right. I take them back,” David said, hoping this would now mean peace. But he thought as he said it that it was just like Astrid to say the silliest thing of the lot. “How can you take back words anyway? I mean, once you’ve said them they’ve gone, haven’t they, and—?”
    â€œThat will do,” said Cousin Ronald. There was more silence, broken by the reluctant clinking of spoons, during which David began to wish that his curse had really been a curse and working at this moment. Then Cousin Ronald cleared his throat and said: “David, there is something we have to tell you. We have decided, solely on your account, not to go to Scarborough after all. We shall stay here, and you shall stay with us.”
    David could hardly believe his ears. “You mean not go to Mr. Scrum?”
    â€œI mean not go to Mr. Scrum,” said Cousin Ronald.
    â€œOh, brilliant !” said David. His relief and delight and gratitude were so enormous that he could almost have hugged Cousin Ronald. “Thanks!” What a good thing it had not been a curse! Now he was free to do what he liked and see as much of Luke as he could. “That’s marvelous!” David beamed round the table at his relations. They looked solemnly and reproachfully back.
    â€œDavid,” Cousin Ronald said reproachfully, “I hope you realize that we are all making a