"You won't?" he demanded.

"No."

"Then I'll put it in myself, and if they suspect me, I shall say that you did it."

"And they'll cut my throat, and you won't have anyone to play with."

He thought this over, but he went and put the frog in Agrippina's bed. By that time I had fled.

Butter wouldn't have melted in Little Boots' mouth that evening at supper. He was so angelic that Germanicus was apprehensive concerning the state of his health. "What do you suppose is the matter with Caligula?" he demanded.

Everybody looked at Little Boots: his mother, his grandmother, and his two brothers, Nero and Drusus.

"Are you ill, darling?" inquired Agrippina.

"Yes," lied Little Boots.

"If the child is ill, he should not be permitted to eat anything more today. He should be put right to bed," said Antonia.

"I'm not that ill," said Little Boots hurriedly.

As usual at mealtimes, I was standing directly behind him, and I had difficulty in suppressing a grin-a grin tempered by apprehension. I could not get that frog out of my mind.

"The little pig has probably been stealing pastries from the pantry," suggested Drusus, giving Caligula a dirty look.

"If you will look around, you will probably find that he has been drawing pictures on Grandmother's walls again," suggested Nero.

"I have not," yelled Little Boots at the top of his lungs. "I have not. But I know what you've been doing, and if you aren't careful, I'll tell. Yah!" and he stuck out his tongue at Nero. A great light burst suddenly upon my consciousness and my throat suddenly felt much safer.

"Shut up, brat!" snapped Nero.

"Children! Children!" chided Germanicus.

"Just what have you been doing, Nero?" demanded Agrippina.

"Nothing," replied Nero, sullenly; but then, as he was always sullen, this aroused no comment.

Antonia sent a slave to inspect her walls.

Supper passed off without further incident, Agrippina keeping up a steady stream of adverse criticism of practically everybody who was unfortunate enough to be mentioned and especially of the Emperor Tiberius, principally, I gathered, due to the fact that he was descended from a line of scrofulous ancestors rather than from one that was divine, epileptic, and insane. Of course, she didn't put it exactly that way.

An hour after supper they sent Little Boots off to bed, and of course I had to go along with him. Our room was off the balcony right across the peristyle from Agrippina's, and Nero and Drusus each had a room on the same side.