Sheaves by E.F. Benson — Read

Edith was lying on a sofa under the trees at the edge of the lawn at Chalkpits, in charge, so a stranger would guess, of a private lunatic asylum. A knight in silver armour was drinking tea out of a slop basin, while Little Red Riding Hood and the gentleman in the railway-carriage in Alice in Wonderland, who was dressed entirely in paper, having finished tea, were employed in rolling down the bank on to the lawn to see who could "get giddiest. " This was not very good for the costume of the gentleman in newspaper, as he tore, and also was getting so green that Lohengrin warned him that there wouldn't be a square inch readable anywhere if he went on. But he retorted that he had read all of himself that he wanted to, and had got knickerbockers on underneath, which was an unassailable position.

Lohengrin lived in a swan, of course; Red Riding Hood in a cottage, and the other gentleman in a railway-carriage; and they were all pirates as well, and had to get trophies from each other's houses without being caught, and no householder, of course, was allowed to hang about his own front-door or else he couldn't help catching any pirate who had been paying him an official visit. Daisy and Jim finally were allowed to run, whereas Hugh might only walk, and if he got any more trophies without being caught he was going to be confined to hopping, because he had already got nine, whereas Red Riding Hood and the gentleman in newspaper had only got three each, and twelve was game. The costumes had been adopted partly because it was such fun to dress up, and partly because it was so easy in ordinary clothes to avoid being seen if you crouched among the bushes, and so nobody got caught at all.