To such an audience a story may be told a hundred 

 times, but it must be told, as Kipling says, " Just so ! " 

 that is, in the same way ; because, even a romance 

 (what a three-year-old once excused as " only a play 

 tell ") must be true to itself ! 



Once Jock had taken the field it was not long before 

 the narrator found himself helped or driven over the 

 pauses by quick suggestions from the Gallery ; but 

 there were days of fag and worry when thoughts 

 lagged or strayed, and when slips were made, and then 

 a vigilant and pitiless memory swooped like the 

 striking falcon on its prey. There came a night when 

 the story was of the Old Crocodile, and one in the 

 Gallery one of more exuberant fancy seeing the 

 gate open ran into the flower-strewn field of romance 

 and by suggestive questions and eager promptings 

 helped to gather a little posy : " And he caught the 

 Crocodile by the tail, didn't he ? " " And he hung 

 on and fought him, didn't he ? " " And the Old 

 Crocodile flung him high into the air ? High ! " 

 and, turning to the two juniors, added " quite as high 

 as the house ! " And the narrator accessory by 

 reason of a mechanical nod and an absent-minded 

 " Yes " passed on, thinking it could all be put right 

 next time. But there is no escape from the ' tangled 

 web ' when the Little People sit in judgment. It 

 was months later when retribution came. The critical 

 point of the story was safely passed when Oh ; the 

 irony and poetic justice of it it was the innocent 

 tempter himself who laid his hand in solemn protest 

 on the narrator's shoulder and, looking him reproach- 



viii 



