For the next few weeks, the children happily explored outdoors.
Now that they were living in the country, they had stopped going to school.
Mother was mostly in her room, writing stories.
She sold stories for money because she said the family was poor now.
The children still had nice clothes and there was enough to eat, so they didn't mind.
They did not forget their father, but they had stopped talking about him.
They knew such talk made Mother unhappy.
In June it rained for three days.
It was very cold, and nobody went outside.
One day they went up to Mother's room.
"Can we light a fire?" Bobbie asked. "It's freezing!"
"I'm sorry, Bobbie, coal is too expensive," Mother replied.
"But Mother, we only need a little coal to make a fire!" Bobbie pleaded.
"We can't afford it!" said Mother.
"Please run along. I'm busy."
"Mother is always busy," Phyllis whispered to Peter.
Peter shrugged. He was thinking.
After tea Peter told his sisters, "I have an idea."
"What's your idea?" Bobbie asked.
"I won't tell you," was Peter's answer.
"Oh, very well," said Bobbie.
"Don't then," Phyllis said. "We don't care."
Peter looked angry and said, "There's a reason why I won't tell you.
My idea might be wrong."
"Don't do it if it's wrong," Bobbie replied.
"No," said Peter, "I'm going to do it.
Some people might think it's wrong, but I don't think it is.
If Mother asks where I am, tell her I'm playing a game called 'coal mining.'"
Two days later Peter said, "Come quickly, and bring the pram!"
Earlier they had seen an old pram in a shed behind the house.
The girls got it and followed Peter to the train station.
On the hill above the station, there was a small pile of coal in the grass.
"I just found the coal," said Peter.
"Help me carry it to the house."
Bobbie, Peter, and Phyllis packed the pram full of coal and made three trips to the house.
They put the coal in the pile by the back door.
Afterward Peter went out alone.
He came back dirty and looking mysterious.
Peter went out every night, and the children told nobody.
A week later Mrs. Viney said that there was more coal than she thought.
The children were very happy—so happy they forgot Peter's actions might be wrong.
Then came the awful night when the stationmaster hid in the shadows.
He watched Peter climb onto the coal pile.
"Now I've caught you, thief!" shouted the stationmaster.
He grabbed Peter's jacket.
"Come with me to the station!"
"I'm not a thief," said Peter, but his voice shook.
"The police station?" said another voice.
The voice was Bobbie's.
Bobbie and Phyllis stepped out of the darkness.
"It was our fault too," Bobbie said.
The stationmaster looked at them.
"You're all from the white house on the hill.
Why are you stealing coal?" he asked.
"I didn't think it was stealing.
There's so much coal here," said Peter.
"Mother says we're too poor to have a fire."
The stationmaster thought for a minute and said, "I won't do anything this time.
But remember, this is the railway's coal.
Taking the coal is stealing."
The children nodded.
They knew he was right.