So, of course, she had to whip him for doing it, or pretend to, which
came to the same thing. And then he had to whip her, which did not
only mean pretence.
He beat her with a stick he found near, he smacked her face and pulled
her hair and bumped himself up and down on her chest, and all in such
solemn, painstaking earnestness that she could only laugh even when
he really hurt her.
"Dood now?" he said at last anxiously. And she began to weep noisily,
with covered face and shaking shoulders, in the proper, penitent way.
And then he put his darling arms round her neck and hugged her, and
said "Ju-Ju" in a choking little voice, and patted her cheeks, and
gave her a hundred eager, wide, wet kisses till she was better.
Then they played chasings, and the General fell down twenty times,
and scratched his little knees and hands, and struggled up again.
and staggered on.
Presently Judy stood still in a hurry; there was a tick working
its slow way into her wrist. Only its two back legs were left out
from under the skin, and for a long time she pulled and pulled without
any success. Then it broke in two, and she had to leave one half in
for little Grandma and kerosene to extract on their return.
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