| Title | The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists |
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| Page | 853 |
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| Chapter | -- |
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| Text |
When they had filled themselves up with the `cocoa-tea' and cakes and bread and jam, Elsie Linden and Nellie Newman helped to clear away the cups and saucers, and then Owen lit the candles on the Christmas tree and distributed the toys to the children, and a little while afterwards Philpot - who had got a funny-looking mask out of one of the bon-bons - started a fine game pretending to be a dreadful wild animal which he called a Pandroculus, and crawling about on all fours, rolled his goggle eyes and growled out he must have a little boy or girl to eat for his supper. He looked so terrible that although they knew it was only a joke they were almost afraid of him, and ran away laughing and screaming to shelter themselves behind Nora or Owen; but all the same, whenever Philpot left off playing, they entreated him to `be it again', and so he had to keep on being a Pandroculus, until exhaustion compelled him to return to his natural form. |
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