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Then he would wonder to himself what he should do if Rumpty-Dudget were suddenly to appear. He must not, at all events, let the fire go out; and every once in a while he took a faggot from the pile that he and Hilda had heaped up and put it in the leaping flame; but he was very careful to avoid stepping outside the circle which Tom the Cat had drawn with the tip of his tail.
They had never heard of Rumpty-Dudget; and this is not so strange as it might at first seem; for it often happens in the world that our worst enemies live so close to us that we are not aware of them until after we have fallen into their power. Hilda, Harold, and Hector, at all events, went on playing together very kindly; for up to this time they had never had a quarrel.
Rumpty-Dudget knew this; and as he was even more cunning than he was ugly he had made up his mind to profit by it. 'My dear young people, he said, holding out his hands, 'I am very glad to meet you. It has grieved me to see you all playing here on this ugly lawn, when there is a garden so much more beautiful just on the other side of the hedge.
'What makes that noise? Hilda asked. 'That is Rumpty-Dudget cutting down the trees, Tom replied; 'and unless we can stop him he will cut down every one of them. However, he will hardly get so far as this to-night. Now, children, sit down and listen.
Moreover, Rumpty-Dudget would then be able to steal the fire-blackened logs and blacken poor Hector's face all over with them, so that he never could be saved. Therefore Harold kept himself awake, partly by sitting on a pine-needle which he had found stuck in the moss cushion, and partly by putting fresh faggots into the flame, which went on burning blue, yellow, and red.
But, since Rumpty-Dudget was entirely made of mischief, when all the mischief was squeezed out of him of course there was no Rumpty-Dudget left no, not so much as one of his shoe-buckles!
It is always so with the mud that Rumpty-Dudget throws; it seems to grow down into you until it fastens a root in your heart. Such was the effect of Rumpty-Dudget's three mud-spots.
Meanwhile the great red ball of the sun was slowly dropping downwards; and now his lower rim was just resting on the edge of the world. But Rumpty-Dudget had no power to do this so long as the children stayed on their side of the prickly hedge; he must first tempt them to creep through the opening, and then, when they were upon his own grounds, he could do with them what he pleased.
And, by the way, he asked me to tell you if I saw you that he hoped you and your sister would come and join; for that Rumpty-Dudget is the pleasantest fellow in the world, and not at all like what you had been made to believe him. 'Oh-h! exclaimed Harold, staring at Rumpty-Dudget with wide-open eyes. 'I don't see how that can be true. Who are you? 'A friend, replied Rumpty-Dudget.
And the great red ball of the sun kept going down further and further, and now all his lower half was out of sight beneath the edge of the world. 'Now, my dear, said Rumpty-Dudget to Princess Hilda, 'will you step through first? Ladies always go first, you know. 'Not through holes in the hedges, replied Hilda, drawing back. 'It is always the men who go first then.
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