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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:41:54 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:41:54 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/13337-0.txt b/13337-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0e31c1f --- /dev/null +++ b/13337-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5192 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13337 *** + +[Illustration: "Two funny fair-haired children with their fingers in +their mouths"] + + + + +MILLY AND OLLY + + +New Revised Edition + + +BY + +MRS. HUMPHRY WARD + + + +Illustrated by RUTH M. HALLOCK + + + +GARDEN CITY NEW YORK +DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY +1914 + + + + +DEDICATION + + +TO F.A., IN THE NAME OF THE CHILDREN OF FOX HOW, THIS REVIVAL OF A +CHILD'S STORY WRITTEN TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS AGO, UNDER THE SPELL OF ROTHA +AND FAIRFIELD, IS INSCRIBED BY THE WRITER. + + + + +PREFACE + + +After many years this little book is once more to see the light. The +children for whom it was written are long since grown up. But perhaps +the pleasure they once took in it may still be felt by some of the +Millys and Ollys of to-day. Up in the dear mountain country which it +describes, the becks are still sparkling; "Brownholme" still spreads its +green steeps and ferny hollows under rain and sun; the tiny trout still +leap in its tiny streams; and Fairfield, in its noble curve, still +girdles the deep valley where these children played: the valley of +Wordsworth and Arnold--the valley where Arnold's poet-son rambled as a +boy--where, for me, the shy and passionate ghost of Charlotte Brontë +still haunts the open door-way of Fox How--where poetry and generous +life and ranging thought still dwell, and bring their benediction to the +passers-by. "Aunt Emma" in her beautiful home, unchanged but for its +vacant chairs, is now as she ever was, the friend of old and young; and +the children of to-day still press to her side as their elders did +before them. The parrot alas! is gone where parrots may; but amid the +voices that breathe around Fox How--the voices of seventy years--his +mimic speech is still remembered by the children who teased and loved +him. For love, while love lasts, gives life to all things small and +great; and in those who have once felt it, the love of the Fairfield +valley, of the gray stone house that fronts the fells, and of them that +dwell therein, is "not Time's fool--" + + "Or bends with the remover to remove." + + +MARY A. WARD. + +September 18, 1907. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + I. Making Plans + + II. A Journey North + + III. Ravensnest + + IV. Out on the Hills + + V. Aunt Emma's Picnic + + VI. Wet Days at Ravensnest + + VII. A Story-telling Game + + VIII. The Story of Beowulf + + IX. Milly's Birthday + + X. Last Days at Ravensnest + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + "Two funny fair-haired children with their fingers in their mouths" + + "'I can't do without my toys, Nana'" + + "The flowers Milly gathered for her mother" + + "So they put Olly up on a tall piece of rock, and he sang" + + "He was quite sure that h-a-y spelt 'ham' and s-a-w spelt 'was'" + + "'Suppose we have a story-telling game'" + + "Haymaking" + + "'Haven't you got a bump?' asked Olly" + + + + +CHAPTER I + +MAKING PLANS + + +"Milly, come down! come down directly! Mother wants you. Do make haste!" + +"I'm just coming, Olly. Don't stamp so. Nurse is tying my sash." + +But Master Olly went on stamping, and jumping up and down stairs, as his +way was when he was very much excited, till Milly appeared. Presently +down she came, a sober fair-haired little maiden, with blue eyes and a +turn-up nose, and a mouth that was generally rather solemn-looking, +though it could laugh merrily enough when it tried. Milly was six years +old. She looked older than six. At any rate she looked a great deal +older than Olly, who was nearly five; and you will soon find out that +she was a good deal more than a year and a half wiser. + +"What's the matter, Olly? What made you shout so?" + +"Oh, come along, come along;" said the little boy, pulling at his +sister's hand to make her run. "Mother wants to tell us something, and +she says it's a nice something, and I kissed her like anyfing! but she +wouldn't tell me without you." + +Then the two children set off running, and they flew down a long passage +to the drawing-room, and were soon scrambling about a lady who was +sitting working by the window. + +"Well, monkeys, don't choke me before I tell you my nice something. Sit +on my knee Olly. Now, Milly, guess--what have father and I just been +talking about?" + +"Sending Olly to school, perhaps," said Milly. "I heard Uncle Richard +talking about it yesterday." + +"That wouldn't be such a nice something," said Olly, making a long face. +"I wouldn't like it--not a bit. Boys don't never like going to school. I +want to learn my lessons with mother." + +"I know a little boy that doesn't like learning lessons with mother very +much," said the lady, laughing. "But my nice something isn't sending +Olly to school, Milly. You're quite wrong--so try again." + +"Oh, mother! is it a strawberry tea?" cried Milly. "The strawberries are +just ripe, I know. Gardener told nurse so this morning. And we can have +tea on the lawn, and ask Jacky and Francis!" + +"Oh, jolly!" said Oliver, jumping off his mother's knee and beginning to +dance about. "And we'll gather them ourselves--won't you let us, +mother?" + +"But it isn't a strawberry tea even," said his mother. "Now, look here, +children, what have I got here?" + +"It's a map--a map of England," said Milly, looking very wise. Milly had +just begun to learn geography, and thought she knew all about maps. + +"Well, and what happens when father and I look at maps in the +summertime?" + +"Why," said Milly, slowly, "you and father pack up your things, and go +away over the sea, and we stay behind with nurse." + +"I don't call _that_ a nice something," said Olly, standing still again. + +"Oh, mother, _are_ you going away?" said Milly, hanging round her +mother's neck. + +"Yes, Milly, and so's father, and so's nurse"--and their mother began to +laugh. + +"So's nurse?" said Milly and Olly together, and then they stopped and +opened two pairs of round eyes very wide, and stared at their mother. +"Oh, mother, mother, take us too!" + +"Why, how should father and I get on, travelling about with a pair of +monkeys?" said their mother, catching hold of the two children and +lifting them on to her knee; "we should want a cage to keep them in." + +"Oh, mother, we'll be _ever_ so good! But where are we going? Oh, do +take us to the sea!" + +"Yes, the sea! the sea!" shouted Olly, careering round the room again; +"we'll have buckets and spades, and we'll paddle and catch crabbies, and +wet our clothes, and have funny shoes, just like Cromer. And father'll +teach me to swim--he said he would next time." + +"No," said Mrs. Norton, for that was the name of Milly's and Oliver's +mother. "No, we are not going to the sea this summer. We are going to a +place mother loves better than the sea, though perhaps you children +mayn't like it quite so well. We're going to the mountains. Uncle +Richard has lent father and mother his own nice house among the +mountains and we're all going there next week--such a long way in the +train, Milly." + +"What are mountains?" said Olly, who had scarcely ever seen a hill +higher than the church steeple. "They can't be so nice as the sea, +mother. Nothing can." + +"They're humps, Olly," answered Milly eagerly. "Great, big humps of +earth, you know; earth mixed with stone. And they reach up ever so high, +up into the sky. And it takes you a whole day to get up to the top of +them, and a whole day to get down again. Doesn't it, mother? Fräulein +told me all about mountains in my geography. And some mountains have got +snow on their tops all year, even in summer, when it's so hot, and we're +having strawberries. Will the mountains we're going to, have snow on +them?" + +"Oh, no. The snow mountains are far away over the sea. But these are +English mountains, kind, easy mountains, not too high for you and me to +climb up, and covered all over with soft green grass and wild flowers, +and tiny sheep with black faces." + +"And, mother, is there a garden to Uncle Richard's house, and are there +any children there to play with?" + +"There's a delightful garden, full of roses, and strawberries and +grapes, and everything else that's nice. And it has a baby river all to +itself, that runs and jumps and chatters all through the middle of it, +so perhaps Olly may have a paddle sometimes, though we aren't going to +the sea. And the gardener has got two little children, just about your +age, Aunt Mary says: and there are two more at the farm, two dear little +girls, who aren't a bit shy, and will like playing with you very much. +But who else shall we see there, Milly? Who lives in the mountains too, +near Uncle Richard?" + +Olly looked puzzled, but Milly thought a minute, and then said quickly, +"Aunt Emma, isn't it, mother? Didn't she come here once? I think I +remember." + +"Yes, she came once, but long ago, when you were quite small. But now we +shall see a great deal of her I hope, for she lives just on the other +side of the mountain from Uncle Richard's house, in a dear old house, +where I spent many, many happy days when I was small. Great-grandpapa +and grandmamma were alive then. But now Aunt Emma lives there quite +alone. Except for one creature, at least, an old gray poll-parrot, that +chatters away, and behaves as if it were quite sensible, and knew all +about everything." + +"Hasn't she got any pussies, mother?" asked Olly. + +"Yes, two I believe; but they don't get on with Polly very well, so they +live in the kitchen out of the way--" + +"I like pussies better than pollies," said Olly gravely. + +"Why, what do you know about pollies, old man?" + +"Pollies bite, I know they do. There was a polly bited Francis once." + +"Well, and pussies scratch," said Milly. + +"No, they don't, not if you're nicey to them," said Olly; who was just +then very much in love with a white kitten, and thought there were no +creatures so delightful as pussies. + +"Well, suppose you don't make up your mind about Aunt Emma's Polly till +you've seen her," said Mrs. Norton. "Now sit down on the rug there and +let us have a talk." + +Down squatted the children on the floor opposite their mother, with +their little heads full of plans and their eyes as bright as sparks. + +"I'll take my cart and horse," began Olly; "and my big ball, and my +whistle, and my wheelbarrow, and my spade, and all my books, and the big +scrap-book, and--" + +"You can't, Olly," exclaimed Milly. "Nurse could never pack all those +up. There'd be no room for our clothes. You can take your whistle, and +the top, and the picture books, and I can take my dolls. That'll be +quite enough, won't it, mother?" + +"Quite enough," said Mrs. Norton. "If it's fine weather you'll see--you +won't want any toys. But now, look here, children," and she held up the +map. "Shall I show you how we are going to get to the mountains?" + +"Oh yes," said Milly, "that'll be like my geography lesson--come, Olly. +Now mother'll teach _you_ geography, like Fräulein does me." + +"That's lessons," said Olly, with half a pout, "not fun a bit. It's only +girls like lessons--Boys never do--Jacky doesn't, and Francis doesn't, +and I don't." + +"Never mind about it's being lessons, Olly. Come and see if it isn't +interesting," said Mrs. Norton. "Now, Milly, find Willingham." + +Willingham was the name of the town where Milly and Oliver lived. It is +a little town in Oxfordshire, and if you look long enough on the map you +_may_ find it, though I won't promise you. + +"There it is," said Milly triumphantly, showing it to her mother and +Olly. + +"Quite right. Now look here," and Mrs. Norton took a pencil out of her +pocket and drew a little line along the map. "First of all we shall get +into the train and go to a place called--look, Milly." + +"Bletchley," said Milly, following where the pencil pointed. "What an +ugly name." + +"It's an ugly place," said Mrs. Norton, "so perhaps it doesn't deserve a +better name. And after Bletchley--look again, Milly." + +"Rugby," said Milly, reading the names as her mother pointed, "and then +Stafford, and then Crewe--what a funny name, mother!--and then Wigan, +and then Warrington, and then Lancaster. Ox-en-holme, Kendal, +Wind-er-mere. Oh, mother, what a long way! Why, we've got right to the +top of England." + +"Stop a bit, Milly, and let me tell you something about these places. +First of all we shall get out of the train at Bletchley, and get into +another train that will go faster than the first. And it will take us +past all kinds of places, some pretty and some ugly, and some big and +some small. At Stafford there is an old castle, Milly, where fierce +people lived in old days and fought their neighbours. And at Crewe we +shall get out and have our dinner. And at Wigan all the trees grow on +one side as if some one had come and given them a push in the night; and +at Lancaster there's another old castle, a very famous one, only now +they have turned it into a prison, and people are shut up inside it. +Then a little way after Lancaster you'll begin to see some mountains, +far, far away, but first you'll see something else--just a little bit of +blue sea, with mountains on the other side of it. And then will come +Windermere, where we shall get out and drive in a carriage. And we shall +drive right into the mountains, Olly, till they stand up all round us +with their dear kind old faces that mother has loved ever since she was +a baby." + +The children looked up wonderingly at their mother, and they saw her +face shining and her eyes as bright as theirs, as if she too was a child +going out for a holiday. + +"Oh! And, mother," said Olly, "you'll let us take Spot. She can go in my +box." + +Now Spot was the white kitten, so Milly and mother began to laugh. + +"Suppose you go and ask Spot first, whether she'd like it, Olly," said +Mrs. Norton, patting his sunburnt little face. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A JOURNEY NORTH + + +Milly and Oliver lived at Willingham, a little town in Oxfordshire, as I +have already told you. Their father was a doctor, and they lived in an +old-fashioned house, in a street, with a long shady garden stretching +away behind it. Milly and Oliver loved their father, and whenever he put +his brown face inside the nursery door, two pairs of little feet went +running to meet him, and two pairs of little hands pulled him eagerly +into the room. But they saw him very seldom; whereas their mother was +always with them, teaching them their lessons, playing with them in the +garden, telling them stories, mending their frocks, tucking them up in +their snug little beds at night, sometimes praising them, sometimes +scolding them; always loving and looking after them. Milly and Olly +honestly believed that theirs was the best mother in the whole world. +Nobody else could find out such nice plays, or tell them such wonderful +stories, or dress dolls half so well. Two little neighbours of theirs, +Jacky and Francis, had a poor sick mother who always lay on the sofa, +and could hardly bear to have her little boys in the room with her. +Milly and Oliver were never tired of wondering how Jacky and Francis got +on with a mother like that. "How funny, and how dreadful it must be. +Poor Jacky and Francis!" It never came into their, heads to say, "Poor +Jacky's mother" too, but then you see they were such little people, and +little people have only room in their heads for a very few thoughts at a +time. + +However, Milly had been away from her mother a good deal lately. About +six months before my story begins she had been sent to school, to a +kindergarten, as she was taught to call it. And there Milly had learnt +all kinds of wonderful things--she had learnt how to make mats out of +paper, blue mats, and pink mats, and yellow mats, and red mats; she had +learned how to make a bit of soft clay look like a box, or a stool, or a +bird's nest with three clay eggs inside it; she had begun to add up and +take away; and, above all, she had begun to learn geography, and +Fräulein--for Milly's mistress was a German, and had a German name--was +just now teaching her about islands, and lakes, and capes, and +peninsulas, and many other things that all little girls have to learn +about some time or other, unless they wish to grow up dunces. + +As for Milly's looks, I have told you already that she had blue eyes and +a turn-up nose, and a dear sensible little face. And she had very thick +fair hair, that was always tumbling about her eyes, and making her look, +as nurse told her, like "a yellow owl in an ivy bush." Milly loved most +people, except perhaps John the gardener, who was rather cross to the +children, and was always calling to them not to walk "on them beds," and +to be sure not to touch any of his fruit or flowers. She loved her +father and her mother; she loved Olly with all her whole heart, though +he was a tease, she loved her nurse, whom she and Olly called Nana, and +who had been with them ever since Milly was born; and she loved +Fräulein, and was always begging flowers from her mother that she might +take them to school for Fräulein's table. So you see Milly was made up +of loving. And she was a thoughtful little girl too, tidy with her +dress, quick and quiet at her lessons, and always ready to sit still +with her fairy-book or her doll, when mother was busy or tired. But +there were two things in which Milly was not at all sensible in spite of +her sensible face. She was much too ready to cry when any little thing +went wrong, and she was dreadfully afraid of creatures of all sorts. She +was afraid of her father's big dog, she was afraid of the dear brown cow +that lived in the field beyond the garden, she was afraid of earwigs. I +am even ashamed to say she was afraid of spiders. Once she ran away as +if a lion were behind her from a white kitten that pulled her dress with +its frolicsome paws to make her play with it; but that, Milly would tell +you, was "when I was little," and she was quite sure she was a good deal +braver now. + +Now what am I to tell you about Olly? + +Olly was just a round ball of fun and mischief. He had brown hair, brown +eyes, a brown face, and brown hands. He was always touching and meddling +with everything, indoors and out, to see what was inside it, or what it +was made of. He liked teasing Milly, he liked his walks, he liked his +sleep in the morning, he liked his dinner, he liked his tea, he liked +everything in the world, except learning to read, and that he hated. He +could only do one thing besides mischief. He could sing all kinds of +tunes--quick tunes, slow tunes, and merry tunes. He had been able to +sing tunes ever since he was quite a tiny baby, and his father and +mother often talked together of how, in about a year, he should be +taught to play on the piano, or perhaps on the violin, if he liked it +better. You might hear his sharp, shrill little voice, singing about the +house and the garden all day long. John the gardener called it +"squealin'," and told Olly his songs were "capital good" for frightening +away the birds. + +Now, perhaps, you know a little more about Milly and Olly than you did +when I began to tell you about them, and it is time you should hear of +what happened to them on that wonderful journey of theirs up to the +mountains. + +First of all came the packing up. Milly could not make up her mind about +her dolls; she had three--Rose, Mattie, and Katie--but Rose's frocks +were very dirty, Mattie had a leg broken, and Katie's paint had been all +washed off one wet night, when Olly left her out on the lawn. Now which +of these was the tidiest and most respectable doll to take out on a +visit? Milly did not know how to settle it. + +[Illustration: "'I can't do without my toys, Nana'"] + +"I think, Nana," she said at last to her nurse, who was packing the +children's trunk, "I will take Katie. Mother always sends us away when +we get white faces to make us look nice and red again; so, perhaps, if I +take Katie her colour will come back too, you know." + +"Perhaps it will, Miss Milly," said nurse, laughing; "anyhow, you had +better give me the doll you want directly, for it is time I packed all +the toys now. Now, Master Olly, you know I can't let you take all those +things." + +For there was Olly dragging along his wheelbarrow heaped up with toys +with one hand, and his cart and horse with a box of bricks standing up +in it with the other. He would not listen to what Milly said about it, +and he would scarcely listen to nurse now. + +"I can't do without my toys, Nana. I _must_ do mischief if you won't let +me take all my toys; I can't help it." + +"I haven't got room for half those, Master Olly, and you'll have ever so +many new things to play with when we get to Ravensnest." + +"There'll be the new children, Olly," said Milly, "and the little rivers +and all the funny new flowers." + +"Those aren't toys," said Olly, looking ready to cry. "I don't know +nothing about them." + +"Now," said nurse, making a place in the box, "bring me your bricks and +your big ball, and your picture-books. There, that's all I can spare +you." + +"Wait one minute," said Olly, rushing off; and just then Mrs. Norton +called nurse away to speak to her in the drawing-room. When nurse came +back she saw nobody in the nursery. Milly had gone out in the garden, +Olly was nowhere to be seen. And who had shut down the trunk, which was +open when she left it? Me-ow, sounded very softly from somewhere close +by. + +"Why--Spot! Spot!" called nurse. + +Me-ow, Me-ow, came again; a sad choky little mew, right from the middle +of the children's trunk. "Master Olly and his tricks again," said nurse, +running to the box and opening it. There, on the top, lay a quantity of +frocks that nurse had left folded up on the floor, thrown in anyhow, +with some toys scattered among them, and the frocks and toys were all +dancing up and down as if they were bewitched. Nurse took out the +frocks, and there was the children's collar-box, a large round +cardboard-box with a lid, jumping from side to side like a box in a +fairy tale; and such dreadful pitiful little mews coming from the +inside! Nurse undid the lid, and out sprang Spot like a flash of +lightning, and ran as if she were running for her life out of the door +and down the stairs, and safe into the kitchen, where she cuddled +herself up in a corner of the fender, wishing with all her poor +trembling little heart that there were no such things in the world as +small boys. And then nurse heard a kind of kicking and scuffling in the +china cupboard, and when she opened it there sat Olly doubled up, his +brown eyes dancing like will-o'-the-wisps, and his little white teeth +grinning. + +"Oh! Nana, she _did_ make a funny me-ow! I just said to her, Now, +Spottie, _wouldn't_ you like to go in my box? and she said, Yes; and I +made her such a comfy bed, and then I stuck all those frocks on the top +of her to keep her warm. Why did you let her out, Nana?" + +"You little mischief," said Nana, "do you know you might have smothered +poor little Spot? And look at all these frocks; do you think I have got +nothing better to do than to tidy up after your tricks?" + +But nurse never knew how to be very hard upon Olly; so all she did was +to set him up on a high chair with a picture-book, where she could see +all he was doing. There was no saying what he might take a fancy to pack +up next if she didn't keep an eye on him. + +Well, presently all the packing was done, and Milly and Olly had gone to +say good-bye to Fräulein, and to Jacky and Francis. Wednesday evening +came, and they were to start early on Thursday morning. Olly begged +nurse to put him to bed very early, that he might "wake up krick"--quick +was a word Olly never could say. So to bed he went at half-past six, and +his head had scarcely touched the pillow two minutes before he had gone +cantering away into dreamland, and was seeing all the sights and hearing +all the delicious stories that children do see and hear in dreamland, +though they don't always remember them when they wake up. Both Milly and +he woke up very early on Thursday morning; and directly his eyes were +open Olly jumped out of bed like an india-rubber ball, and began to put +on his stockings in a terrible hurry. The noise of his jump woke nurse, +and she called out in a sleepy voice: + +"Get into bed again, Master Olly, directly. It is only just six o'clock, +and I can't have you out of bed till seven. You'll only be under my +feet, and in everybody's way." + +"Nana, I won't be in _anybody's_ way," exclaimed Olly, running up to her +and scrambling on to her bed with his little bare toes half way into his +stockings. "I can't keep still in my bed all such a long time. There's +something inside of me, Nana, keeps jumping up and down, and won't let +me keep still. Now, if I get up, you know, Nana, I can help you." + +"Help me, indeed!" said nurse, kissing his little brown face, or as much +of it as could be seen through his curls. "A nice helping that would be. +Come back to bed, sir, and I'll give you some picture-books till I'm +ready to dress you." + +So back to bed Master Olly went, sorely against his will, and there he +had to stay till nurse and Milly were dressed, and the breakfast things +laid. Then nurse gave him his bath and dressed him, and put him up to +eat his bread and milk while she finished the packing. Olly was always +very quiet over his meals, and it was the only time in the day when he +was quiet. + +Presently up rattled the cab, and down ran the children with their +walking things on to see father and John lift the boxes on to the top; +and soon they were saying good-bye to Susan the cook, and Jenny the +housemaid, who were going to stay and take care of the house while they +were away; and then crack went the whip, and off they went to the +station. On the way they passed Jacky and Francis standing at their +gate, and all the children waved their hats and shouted "Hurrah! +hurrah!" At the station nurse kept tight hold of Olly till father had +got the tickets and put all the boxes into the train, and then he and +Milly were safely lifted up into the railway carriage, and nurse and +father and mother came next, with all the bags and shawls and umbrellas. + +Such a settling of legs and arms and packages there was; and in the +middle of it "whew" went the whistle, and off they went away to the +mountains. + +But they had a long way to go before they saw any mountains. First of +all they had to get to Bletchley, and it took about an hour doing that. +And oh! what a lovely morning it was, and how fresh and green the fields +looked as the train hurried along past them. Olly and Milly could see +hundreds and thousands of moon-daisies and buttercups growing among the +wet grass, and every now and then came great bushes of wild-roses, some +pink and some white, and long pools with yellow irises growing along the +side; and sometimes the train went rushing through a little village, and +they could see the little children trotting along to school, with their +books and slates tucked under their arms; and sometimes they went along +for miles together without seeing anything but the white-and-brown cows +in the fields, and the great mother-sheep with their fat white lambs +beside them. The sun shone so brightly, the buttercups were so yellow, +the roses so pink, and the sky so blue, it was like a fairy world. Olly +and Milly were always shouting and clapping their hands at something or +other, for Milly had grown almost as wild as Olly. + +Sh-sh-sh-sh went the train, getting slower and slower till at last it +stopped altogether. + +"Bletchley, Bletchley!" shouted Olly, jumping down off the seat. + +"No, my boy," said his father, catching hold of him, "we shall stop five +more times before we get to Bletchley; so don't be impatient." + +But at last came Bletchley, and the children were lifted out into the +middle of such a bustle, as it seemed to Milly. There were crowds of +people at the station, and they were all pushing backward and forward, +and shouting and talking. + +"Keep hold of me, Olly," said Milly, with an anxious little face. "Oh, +Nana, don't let him go!" + +But nurse held him fast; and very soon they were through the crowd, and +father had put them safe into their new train, into a carriage marked +"Windermere," which would take them all the way to their journey's end. + +"That was like lions and bears, wasn't it, mother?" said Olly, pointing +to the crowd in the station, as they went puffing away. Now, "lions and +bears" was a favourite game of the children's, a romping game, where +everybody ran about and pretended to be somebody else, and where the +more people played, and the more they ran and pushed and tumbled about, +the funnier, it was. And the running, scrambling people at the station +did look rather as if they were playing at lions and bears. + +And now the children had a long day before them. On rushed the train, +past towns and villages, and houses and trains. The sun got hotter and +hotter, and the children began to get a little tired of looking out of +window. Milly asked for a story-book, and was soon very happy reading +"Snow White and Rose Red." She had read it a hundred times before, but +that never mattered a bit. Olly came to sit on nurse's knee while she +showed him pictures, and so the time passed away. And now the train +stopped again, and father lifted Olly on his knee to see a great church +far away over the houses, and taught him to say "Lichfield Cathedral." +And then came Stafford; and Milly looked out for the castle, and +wondered whether the castles in her story-books looked like that, and +whether princesses and fairy godmothers and giants ever lived there in +old times. + +After they had left Stafford, Olly began to get tired and fidgety. First +he went to sit on his father's knee, then on mother's, then on +nurse's--none of them could keep him still, and nothing seemed to amuse +him for long together. + +"Come and have a sleep, Master Olly," said nurse. "You are just tired +and hot. This is a long way for little boys, and we've got ever so far +to go yet." + +"I'm not sleepy, Nana," said Olly, sitting straight up, with a little +flushed face and wide-open eyes. "I'm going to keep awake like father." + +"Father's going to sleep, then," said Mr. Norton, tucking himself up in +a shady corner; "so you go too, Olly, and see which of us can go +quickest." + +When Olly had seen his father's eyes tight shut, and heard him give just +one little snore--it was rather a make-believe snore--he did let nurse +draw him on to her knee; and very soon the little gipsy creature was +fast asleep, with all his brown curls lying like a soft mat over nurse's +arm. Milly, too, shut her eyes and sat very still; she did not mean to +go to sleep, but presently she began to think a great many sleepy +thoughts: Why did the hedges run so fast? and why did the telegraph +wires go up and down as if they were always making curtsies? and was +that really mother opposite, or was it Cinderella's fairy godmother? And +all of a sudden Milly came bump up against a tall blue mountain that had +a face like a man, and cried out when she bumped upon it! + +"Crewe, I declare," exclaimed father, jumping up with a start. "Why, +Olly and I have been asleep nearly an hour! Wake up, children, it's +dinner-time." + +Nurse had to shake Olly a great many times before he would open his +sleepy eyes, and then he stood up rubbing them as if he would rub them +quite away. Father lifted him out, and carried him into a big room, with +a big table in it, all ready for dinner, and hungry people sitting round +it. What fun it was having dinner at a station, with all the grown-up +people. Milly and Olly thought there never was such nice bread and such +nice apple-tart. Nothing at home ever tasted half so good. And after +dinner father took them a little walk up and down the platform, and at +last, just as it was time to get into the train again, he bought them a +paper full of pictures, called the _Graphic_, that amused Olly for a +long way. + +But it was a long long way to Windermere, and poor Milly and Olly began +to get very tired. The trees at Wigan did make them laugh a little bit, +but they were too tired to think them as funny as they would have +thought them in the morning. They are such comical trees! First of all, +the smoke from the smoky chimneys at Wigan has made them black, and +stopped the leaves from growing, and then the wind has blown them all +over on one side, so that they look like ugly little twisted dwarfs, as +if some cruel fairy had touched them with her wand. But Olly soon forgot +all about them; and he began to wander from one end to the other of the +carriage again, scrambling and jumping about, till he gave himself a +hard knock against the seat; and that made him begin to cry--poor tired +little Olly. Then mother lifted him on to her knee, and said to him, +very softly, "Are you very tired, Olly? Never mind, poor little man, we +shan't be very long now, and we're all tired, darling--father's tired, +and I'm tired; and look at Milly there, she looks like a little white +ghost. Suppose you be brave, and try a little extra hard to be good. +Then mother'll love you an extra bit. And what do you think we shall see +soon? such a lovely bit of blue sea with white ships on it. Just you +shut your eyes a little bit till it comes, I'll be sure to tell you." + +And sure enough, after Lancaster, mother gave a little cry, and Olly +jumped up, and Milly came running over, and there before them lay the +dancing windy blue sea, covered over with little white waves, running +and tumbling over each other. And on the other side of it, what did the +children see? + +"Mother, mother! what is it?" cried Olly, pointing with his little brown +hand far away; "is it a fairy palace, mother?" + +"Perhaps it is, Olly; anyway, the hill-fairies live there. For those are +the mountains, the beautiful mountains we are going to see." + +"But how shall we get across the sea to them?" asked Milly, with a +puzzled face. + +"This is only a corner of the sea, Milly--a bay. Don't you remember bays +in your geography? We can't go across it, but we can go round it, and we +shall find the mountains on the other side." + +Oh! how fast the train seemed to go now that there was something to look +at. Everywhere mountains were beginning to spring up. And when they had +said good-bye to the sea, the mountains began to grow taller and taller. +What had happened to the houses too? They had all turned white or gray; +there was no red one left. And the fields had stone walls instead of +hedges; and inside the walls there were small sheep, about as big as the +lambs they had seen near Oxford in the morning. + +Oxenholme, Kendal, Windermere. How glad the tired children were when the +train ran slowly down into Windermere station, and they could jump out +and say good-bye to it for a long, long time! They had to wait a little, +till father had found all the boxes and put them in the carriage that +was waiting for them, and then in they tumbled, nurse having first +wrapped them up in big shawls, for it was evening now, and the wind had +grown cold. That was a nice drive home among the mountains. How tall and +dark and quiet they were. And what was this shining on their left hand, +like a white face running beside them, and peeping from behind the +trees? Why, it was a lake; a great wide lake, with tiny boats upon it, +some with white sails and some without. + +"Mother! mother! may we go in those boats some day?" shouted Olly, in a +little sharp tired voice, and his mother smiled at him, and said--"Yes, +very likely." + +How happy mother looked. She knew all the mountains like old friends, +she could tell all their names; and every now and then, when they came +to a house, she and father would begin to talk about the people who +lived in it, just as if they were talking about people they knew quite +well. And now came a little town, the town of Wanwick mother called it, +right among the mountains, with a river running round it, and a tall +church spire. It began to get darker and darker, and the trees hung down +over the road, so that the children could hardly see. On they went, and +Olly was very nearly asleep again, when the carriage began to crunch +over gravel, and then it stopped, and father called out--"Here we are, +children, here we are at Ravensnest." + +And out they all jumped. What were those bright lights shining? Olly and +Milly hardly knew where they were going as nurse took them in, and one +of Uncle Richard's servants showed them the way upstairs to the nursery. +Such a nice nursery, with candles lit, and a little fire burning, two +bowls of hot bread and milk on the table, and in the corner two little +white beds, as soft and fresh as nests! In twenty minutes Olly was in +one of these little white beds, and Milly in the other. And you may +guess whether they were long about going to sleep. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +RAVENSNEST + + +"Poor little souls! How late they are sleeping. They must have been +tired last night." + +So said nurse at eight o'clock, when she came back into the nursery from +a journey to the kitchen after the breakfast things, and found the +children still fast asleep; so fast that it looked as if they meant to +go on sleeping till dinner-time. + +"Milly!" she called softly, shaking her very gently, "Milly, it's +breakfast-time, wake up!" + +Milly began to move about, and muttered something about "whistles" and +"hedges" in her sleep. + +Then nurse gave her another little shake, and at last Milly's eyes did +try very hard to open--"What is it? What do you want, Nana? Where are +we?--Oh, I know!" + +And up sprang Milly in a second and ran to the window, her sleepy eyes +wide open at last. "Yes, there they are! Come and look, Nana! There, +past those trees--don't you see the mountains? And there is father +walking about; and oh! do look at those roses over there. Dress me +quick, dress me quick, please, dear Nana." + +Thump! bump! and there was Olly out of bed, sitting on the floor rubbing +his eyes. Olly used always to jump out of bed half asleep, and then sit +a long time on the floor waking up. Nurse and Milly always left him +alone till he was quite woke up. It made him cross if you began to talk +to him too soon. + +"Milly," said Olly presently, in a sleepy voice, "I'm going right up the +mountains after breakfast. Aren't you?" + +"Wait till you see them, Master Olly," said nurse, taking him up and +kissing him, "perhaps your little legs won't find it quite so easy to +climb up the mountains as you think." + +"I can climb up three, four, six, seven mountains," said Olly stoutly; +"mountains aren't a bit hard. Mother says they're meant to climb up." + +"Well, I suppose it's like going up stairs a long way," said Milly, +thoughtfully, pulling on her stockings. "You didn't like going up the +stairs in Auntie Margaret's house, Olly." + +Auntie Margaret's house was a tall London house, with ever so many +stairs. The children when they were staying there were put to sleep at +the top, and Olly used to sit down on the stairs and pout and grumble +every time they had to go up. + +But Olly shook his obstinate little head. + +"I don't believe it's a bit like going up stairs." + +However, as they couldn't know what it was like before they tried, nurse +told them it was no good talking about it. So they hurried on with their +dressing, and presently there stood as fresh a pair of morning children +as anyone could wish to see, with rosy cheeks, and smooth hair, and +clean print frocks--for Olly was still in frocks--though when the winter +came mother said she was going to put him into knickerbockers. + +And then nurse took them each by the hand and led them through some long +passages, down a pretty staircase, and through a swing door, into what +looked like a great nagged kitchen, only there was no fireplace in it. +The real kitchen opened out of it at one side, and through the door came +a smell of coffee and toast that made the children feel as hungry as +little hunters. But their own room was straight in front, across the +kitchen without a fireplace, a tiny room with one large window hung +round with roses, and looking out on to a green lawn. + +"Nana, isn't it pretty? Nana, I think it's lovely!" said Milly, looking +out and clapping her hands. And it _was_ a pretty garden they could see +from the window. An up-and-down garden, with beds full of bright +flowers, and grass which was nearly all moss, and so soft that no +cushion could be softer. In the distance they could hear a little +splish-splash among the trees, which came, Milly supposed, from the +river mother had told them about; while, reaching up all round the +house, so that they could not see the top of it from the window, was the +green wild mountain itself, the mountain of Brownholme, under which +Uncle Richard's house was built. + +The children hurried through their breakfast, and then nurse covered +them up with garden pinafores, and took them to the dining-room to find +father and mother. Mr. and Mrs. Norton were reading letters when the +children's curly heads appeared at the open door, and Mrs. Norton was +just saying to her husband: + +"Aunt Emma sends a few lines just to welcome us, and to say that she +can't come over to us to-day, but will we all come over to her to-morrow +and have early dinner, and perhaps a row afterward--" + +"Oh, a row, mother, a row!" shouted Olly, clambering on to his mother's +knee and half-strangling her with his strong little arms; "I can row, +father said I might. Are we going to-day?" + +"No, to-morrow, Olly, when we've seen a little bit of Ravensnest first. +Which of you remembers Aunt Emma, I wonder?" + +"I remember her," said Milly, nodding her head wisely, "she had a big +white cap, and she told me stories. But I don't quite remember her face, +mother--not _quite_." + +"I don't remember her, not one bit," said Olly. "Mother, does she keep +saying, 'Don't do that;' 'Go up stairs, naughty boys,' like Jacky's aunt +does?" + +For the children's playfellows, Jacky and Francis, had an aunt living +with them whom Milly and Olly couldn't bear. They believed that she +couldn't say anything else except "Don't!" and "Go up stairs!" and they +were always in dread lest they should come across an aunt like her. + +"She's the dearest aunt in the whole world," said mother, "and she never +says, 'Don't,' except when she's obliged, but when she does say it +little boys have to mind. When I was a little girl I thought there was +nobody like Aunt Emma, nobody who could make such plans or tell such +splendid stories." + +"And, mother, can't she cut out card dolls? asked Milly. Don't you know +those beautiful card dolls you have in your drawer at home--didn't Aunt +Emma make them?" + +"Yes, of course she did. She made me a whole family once for my +birthday, a father and a mother, and two little girls and two little +boys. And each of the children had two paper dresses and two hats, one +for best and one for every day--and the mother had a white evening dress +trimmed with red, and a hat and a bonnet." + +"I know, mother! they're all in your drawer at home, only one of the +little boys has his head broken off. Do you think Aunt Emma would make +me a set if I asked her?" + +"I can't say, Milly. But I believe Aunt Emma's fingers are just as quick +as ever they were. Now, children, father says he will take you out while +I go and speak to cook. Olly, how do you think we're going to get any +meat for you and Milly here? There are no shops on the mountains." + +"Then we'll eat fisses, little fisses like those!" cried Olly, pointing +to a plate of tiny red-spotted fish that father and mother had been +having for breakfast. + +"Thank you, Olly," said Mr. Norton, laughing; "it would cost a good deal +to keep you in trout, sir. I think we'll try for some plain mutton for +you, even if we have to catch the sheep on the mountains ourselves. But +now come along till mother is ready, and I'll show you the river where +those little fishes lived." + +Out ran the children, ready to go anywhere and see anything in this +beautiful new place, which seemed to them a palace of wonders. And +presently they were skipping over the soft green grass, each holding one +of father's hands, and chattering away to him as if their little tongues +would never stop. What a hot day it was going to be! The sky overhead +was deep blue, with scarcely a cloud, they could hear nothing in the +still air but the sleepy cooing of the doves in the trees by the gate, +and the trees and flowers all looked as if they were going to sleep in +the heat. + +"Father, why did that old gentleman at Willingham last week tell mother +that it always rained in the mountains?" asked Milly, looking up at the +blue sky. + +"Well, Milly, I'm afraid you'll find out before you go home that it does +know how to rain here. Sometimes it rains and rains as if the sky were +coming down and all the world were going to turn into water. But never +mind about that now--it isn't going to rain to-day." + +Down they went through the garden, across the road, and into a field on +the other side of it, a beautiful hay-field full of flowers, with just a +narrow little path through it where the children and Mr. Norton could +walk one behind another. And at the end of the path what do you think +they found? Why, a chattering sparkling river, running along over +hundreds and thousands of brown and green pebbles, so fast that it +seemed to be trying to catch the birds as they skimmed across it. The +children had never seen a river like this before, where you could see +right to the very bottom, and count the stones there if you liked, and +which behaved like a river at play, scrambling and dancing and rushing +along as if it were out for a holiday, like the children themselves. + +"What do you think of that for a river, children?" said Mr. Norton. +"Very early this morning, when you little sleepyheads were in bed, I got +up and came down here, and had my bath over there, look--in that nice +brown pool under the tree." + +"Oh, father!" cried both children, dancing round him. "Let us have our +baths in the river too. Do ask Nana--do, father! We can have our bathing +things on that we had at the sea, and you can come too and teach us to +swim." + +"Well, just once perhaps, if mother says yes, and it's very warm +weather, and you get up very _very_ early. But you won't like it quite +as much as you think. Rivers are very cold to bathe in, and those pretty +stones at the bottom won't feel at all nice to your little toes." + +"Oh, but, father," interrupted Milly, "we could put on our sand shoes." + +"And wouldn't we splash!" said Olly. "Nurse won't let us splash in our +bath, father, she says it makes a mess. I'm sure it doesn't make a +_great_ mess." + +"What do you know about it, shrimp?" said Mr. Norton, "you don't have to +tidy up. Hush, isn't that mother calling? Let's go and fetch her, and +then we'll go and see Uncle Richard's farm, where the milk you had for +breakfast came from. There are three children there, Milly, besides cows +and pigs, and ducks and chickens." + +Back ran Milly and Olly, and there was mother watching for them with a +basket on her arm which had already got some roses lying in it. + +"Oh, mother! where did you get those roses?" cried Milly. + +"Wheeler, the gardener, gave them to me. And now suppose we go first of +all to see Mrs. Wheeler, and gardener's two little children. They live +in that cottage over there, across the brook, and the two little ones +have just been peeping over the wall to try and get a look at you." + +Up clambered Milly and Olly along a steep path that seemed to take them +up into the mountain, when suddenly they turned, and there was another +river, but such a tiny river, Milly could almost jump across it, and it +was tumbling and leaping down the rocks on its way to the big river +which they had just seen, as if it were a little child hurrying to its +mother. + +"Why, mother, what a lot of rivers," said Olly, running on to a little +bridge that had been built across the little stream, and looking over. + +"Just to begin with," said Mrs. Norton. "You'll see plenty more before +you've done. But I can't have you calling this a river, Olly. These baby +rivers are called becks in Westmoreland--some of the big ones, too, +indeed." + +On the other side of the little bridge was the gardener's cottage, and +in front of the door stood two funny fair-haired little children with +their fingers in their mouths, staring at Milly and Olly. One was a +little girl who was really about Milly's age, though she looked much +younger, and the other was a very shy small boy, with blue eyes and +straggling yellow hair, and a face that might have been pretty if you +could have seen it properly. But Charlie seemed to have made up his mind +that nobody ever should see it properly. However often his mother might +wash him, and she was a tidy woman, who liked to see her children look +clean and nice, Charlie was always black. His face was black, his hands +were black, his pinafore was sure to be covered with black marks ten +minutes after he had put it on. Do what you would to him, it was no use, +Charlie always looked as if he had just come out of the coal-hole. + +"Well, Bessie," said Mrs. Norton to the little girl, "is your mother +in?" + +"Naw," said Bessie, without taking her fingers out of her mouth. + +"Oh, I'm sorry for that. Do you know when she's likely to be in?" + +"Naw," said Bessie again, beginning to eat her pinafore as well as her +fingers. Meanwhile Charlie had been creeping behind Bessie to get out of +Olly's way; for Olly, who always wanted to make friends, was trying to +shake hands with him, and Charlie was dreadfully afraid that he wanted +to kiss him too. + +"What a pity," said Mrs. Norton, "I wanted to ask her a question. Come +away, Olly, and don't tease Charlie if he doesn't want to shake hands. +Can you remember, Bessie, to tell your mother that I came to see her?" + +"Yis," said Bessie. + +"And can you remember, too, to ask her if she will let you and Charlie +come down to tea with Miss Milly and Master Olly, this afternoon, at +five o'clock?" + +"Yis," said Bessie, getting shyer and shyer, and eating up her pinafore +faster than ever. + +"Good-bye, then," said Mrs. Norton. + +"Good-bye, Bessie," said Milly, softly, taking her hand. + +Bessie stared at her, but didn't say anything. + +Olly, having quite failed in shaking hands, was now trying to kiss +Charlie; but Charlie wouldn't have it at all, and every time Olly came +near, Charlie pushed him away with his little fists. This made Olly +rather cross, and he began to try with all his strength to make Charlie +kiss him, when suddenly Charlie got away from him, and running to a pile +of logs of wood which was lying in the yard he climbed up the logs like +a little squirrel, and was soon at the top of the heap, looking down on +Olly, who was very much astonished. + +"Mother, _do_ let me climb up too!" entreated Olly, as Mrs. Norton took +his hand to lead him away. "I want to climb up krick like that! Oh, do +let me try!" + +"No, no, Olly! come along. We shall never get to the farm if you stay +climbing here. And you wouldn't find it as easy as Charlie does, I can +tell you." + +"Why, I'm bigger than Charlie," said Olly, pouting, as they walked away. + +"But you haven't got such stout legs; and, besides, Charlie is always +out of doors all day long, climbing and poking about. I daresay he can +do outdoor things better than you can. You're a little town boy, you +know." + +"Charlie's got a black face," said Olly, who was not at all pleased that +Charlie, who was smaller than he was, and dirty besides, could do +anything better than he could. + +"Well, you see, he hasn't got a Nana always looking after him as you +have." + +"Hasn't he got _any_ Nana?" asked Olly, looking as if he didn't +understand how there could be little children without Nanas. + +"He hasn't got any nurse but his mother, and Mrs. Wheeler has a great +deal else to do than looking after him. What would you be like, do you +think, Olly, if I had to do all the housework, and cook the dinner, and +mind the baby, and there was no nurse to wash your face and hands for +you?" + +"I should get just like shock-headed Peter," said Olly, shaking his head +gravely at the idea. Shock-headed Peter was a dirty little boy in one of +Olly's picture-books; but I am sure you must have heard about him +already, and must have seen the picture of him with his bushy hair, and +his terrible long nails like birds' claws. Olly was never tired of +hearing about him, and about all the other children in that +picture-book. + +"What a funny little girl Bessie is, mother!" said Milly. "Do they +always say _Naw_ and _Yis_ in this country, instead of saying No and +Yes, like we do?" + +"Well, most of the people that live here do," said Mrs. Norton. "Their +way of talking sounds odd and queer at first, Milly, but when you get +used to it you will like it as I do, because it seems like a part of the +mountains." + +All this time they had been climbing up a steep path behind the +gardener's house, and now Mr. Norton opened a door in a high wall, and +let the children into a beautiful kitchen-garden made on the mountain +side, so that when they looked down from the gate they could see the +chimneys of Ravensnest just below them. Inside there were all kinds of +fruit and vegetables, but gooseberry bushes and the strawberries had +nothing but green gooseberries and white strawberries to show, to Olly's +great disappointment. + +"Why aren't the strawberries red, mother?" he asked in a discontented +voice, as if it must be somebody's fault that they weren't red. "Ours at +home were ripe." + +"Well, Olly, I suppose the strawberries know best. All I can tell you +is, that things always get ripe here later than at Willingham. Their +summer begins a little later than ours does, and so everything gets +pushed on a little. But there will be plenty by-and-by. And suppose just +now, instead of looking at the strawberries, you give just one look at +the mountains. Count how many you can see all round." + +"One, two, three, five," counted Olly. "What great big humps! Should we +be able to touch the sky if we got up to the top of that one, mother?" +and he pointed to a great blue mountain where the clouds seemed to be +resting on the top. + +"Well, if you were up there just now, you would be all among the clouds, +and it would seem like a white fog all round you. So you would be +touching the clouds at any rate." + +Olly opened his eyes very wide at the idea of touching the clouds. + +"Why, mother, we can't touch the clouds at home!" + +"That comes of living in a country as flat as a pancake," said Mr. +Norton. "Just you wait till we can buy a tame mountain, and carry it to +Willingham with us. Then we'll put it down in the middle of the garden, +and the clouds will come down to sit on the top of it just as they do +here. But now, who can scramble over that gate?" + +For the gate at the other end of the garden was locked, and as the +gardener couldn't be found, everybody had to scramble over, mother +included. However, Mr. Norton helped them all over, and then they found +themselves on a path running along the green mountain side. On they +went, through pretty bits of steep hay-fields, where the grass seemed +all clover and moon-daisies, till presently they came upon a small +hunched-up house, with a number of sheds on one side of it and a +kitchen-garden in front. This was Uncle Richard's farm; a very tiny +farm, where a man called John Backhouse lived, with his wife and two +little girls and a baby-boy. Except just in the hay-time, John Backhouse +had no men to help him, and he and his wife had to do all the work, to +look after the sheep, and the cows, the pigs, the horse, and the +chickens, to manage the garden and the hayfield, and to take the butter +and milk to the people who wanted to buy it. When their children grew up +and were able to help, Backhouse and his wife would be able to do it all +very well; but just now, when they were still quite small, it was very +hard work; it was all the farmer and his wife could do to make enough to +keep themselves and their children fed and clothed. + +Milly and Olly were very anxious to see the farmer's children and looked +out for them in the garden as they walked up to the house, but there +were no signs of them. The door was opened by Mrs. Backhouse, the +farmer's wife, who held a fair-haired baby in her arms sucking a great +crust of brown bread, and when Mr. and Mrs. Norton had shaken hands with +her--"I'm sure, ma'am, I'm very pleased to see you here," said Mrs. +Backhouse. "John told me you were come (only Mrs. Backhouse said +'coom'), and Becky and Tiza went down with their father when he took the +milk this morning, hoping they would catch a sight of your children. +They have been just wild to see them, but I told them they weren't +likely to be up at that time in the morning." + +"Where are they now?" asked Mrs. Norton. "Mine have been looking out for +them as we came along." + +"Well, ma'am, I can't say, unless they're in the cherry-tree. Becky! +Tiza!" + +A faint "Yis" came from the other end of the garden, but still Milly and +Olly could see nothing but a big cherry-tree growing where the voice +seemed to come from. + +"You go along that path, missy, and call again. You'll be sure to find +them," said Mrs. Backhouse, pointing to the tree. "And won't you come +in, ma'am, and rest a bit? You'll be maybe tired with walking this hot +day." + +So Mr. and Mrs. Norton went into the farmhouse, and the children went +hand-in-hand down the garden, looking for Becky and Tiza. + +Suddenly, as they came close to the cherry-tree, they heard a laugh and +a little scuffling, and looking up, what should they see but two little +girls perched up on one of the cherry-tree branches, one of them sewing, +the other nursing a baby kitten. Both of them had coloured print +bonnets, but the smaller had taken hers off and was rolling the kitten +up in it. The little girl sewing had a sensible, sober face; as for the +other, she could not have looked sober if she had tried for a week of +Sundays. It made you laugh only to look at Tiza. From the top of her +curly head to the soles of her skipping little feet, she was the +sauciest, merriest, noisiest creature. It was she who was always playing +tricks on the cows and the horse, and the big sheep-dogs; who liked +nothing so well as teasing Becky and dressing up the kittens, and who +was always tumbling into the milkpail, or rolling downstairs, or losing +herself in the woods, without somehow ever coming to any harm. If she +and Olly had been left alone in the world together they _must_ have come +to a bad end, but luckily each of them had wiser people to take care of +them. + +"Becky," said Milly, shyly, looking up into the tree, "will you come +down and say how do you do to us?" + +Becky stuck her needle in her work and scrambled down with a red shy +face to shake hands; but Tiza, instead of coming down, only climbed a +little higher, and peeped at the others between the branches. + +"We came down to the house when fayther took the milk this morning," +said Becky. "We thought maybe we'd see you in the garden. Only Tiza said +she'd run away if she did see you." + +"Why doesn't Tiza come down?" asked Olly, looking hard up into the tree. +"I want to see her." + +Thump! What was that rattling down on Olly's head? He looked down at his +feet very much astonished, and saw a bunch of green cherries which Tiza +had just thrown at him. + +"Throw some more! Throw some more!" he cried out, and Tiza began to pelt +him fast, while Olly ran here and there picking them up, and every now +and then trying to throw them back at Tiza; but she was too high up for +him to reach, and they only came rattling about his head again. + +"She won't come down," said Becky, looking up at her sister. "Maybe she +won't speak to you for two or three days. And if you run after her she +hides in such queer places you can never find her." + +"But mother wants you and her to come to tea with us this afternoon," +said Milly; "won't Tiza come?" + +"I suppose mother'll make her," said Becky, "but she doesn't like it. +Have you been on the fell?" + +Milly looked puzzled. "Do you mean on the mountain? No, not yet. We're +going to-morrow when we go to Aunt Emma's. But we've been to the river +with father." + +"Did you go over the stepping-stones?" + +"No," said Milly, "I don't know what they are. Can we go this evening +after tea?" + +"Oh yes," said Becky, "they're just close by your house. Does your +mother let you go in the water?" + +Now Becky said a great many of these words very funnily, so that Milly +could hardly understand her. She said "doos" and "oop," and "knaw," and +"jist," and "la-ike," but it sounded quite pretty from her soft little +mouth, and Milly thought she had a very nice way of talking. + +"No, mother doesn't let us go in the water here, at least, not unless +it's very warm. We paddle when we go to the sea, and some day father +says we may have our bath in the river if it's very fine." + +"We never have a bath in the river," said Becky, looking very much +astonished at the idea. + +"Do you have your bath in the nursery like we do?" asked Milly. + +"We haven't got a nursery," said Becky, staring at her, "mother puts us +in the toob on Saturday nights. I don't mind it but Tiza doesn't like it +a bit. Sometimes she hides when it's Saturday night, so that mother +can't find her till it's too late." + +"Don't you have a bath except on Saturday?" said Milly. "Olly and I have +one every morning. Mother says we should get like shock-headed Peter if +we didn't." + +"I don't know about him," said Becky, shaking her head. + +"He's a little boy in a picture-book. I'll show him you when you come to +tea. But there's mother calling. Come along, Olly. Tiza won't come down +Becky says." + +"She's a very rude girl," said Olly, who was rather hot and tired with +his game, and didn't think it was all fun that Tiza should always hit +him and he should never be able to hit Tiza. "I won't sit next her when +she comes to tea with us." + +"Tiza's only in fun," said Becky, "she's always like that. Tiza, are you +coming down? I am going to get baby out, I heard him crying just now." + +"May you take baby out all by yourself?" asked Milly. + +"Why, I always take him out, and I put him to sleep at nights; and +mother says he won't go to sleep for anybody as quick as for me," said +Becky proudly. + +Milly felt a good deal puzzled. It _must_ be funny to have no Nana. + +"Will you and he," said Becky, pointing to Olly, "come up this afternoon +and help us call the cows?" + +"If we may," said Milly; "who calls them?" + +"Tiza and I," answered Becky; "when I'm a big girl I shall learn how to +milk, but fayther says I'm too little yet." + +"I wish I lived at a farm," said Milly disconsolately. + +Becky didn't quite know what to say to this, so she began to call Tiza +again. + +"Swish!" went something past them as quick as lightning. It was Tiza +running to the house. Olly set out to run after her as fast as he could +run, but he came bang up against his mother standing at the farmhouse +door, just as Tiza got safely in and was seen no more. + +"Ah, you won't catch Tiza, master," said Mrs. Backhouse, patting his +head; "she's a rough girl, always at some tricks or other--we think she +ought to have been a boy, really." + +"Mother, isn't Becky very nice?" said Milly, as they walked away. "Her +mother lets her do such a lot of things--nurse the baby, and call the +cows, and make pinafores. Oh, I wish father was a farmer." + +"Well, it's not a bad kind of life when the sun shines, and everything +is going right," said Mrs. Norton; "but I think you had better wait a +little bit till the rain comes before you quite make up your mind about +it, Milly." + +But Milly was quite sure she knew enough about it already to make up her +mind, and all the way home she kept saying to herself, "If I could only +turn into a little farmer's girl! Why don't people have fairy godmothers +now like Cinderella?" + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +OUT ON THE HILLS + + +Milly and Olly, and the four little Westmoreland children, had a very +pleasant tea together in the afternoon of the Nortons's first day at +Ravensnest. Bessie and Charlie certainly didn't talk much; but Tiza, +when once her mother had made her come, thought proper to get rid of a +great deal of her shyness, and to chatter and romp so much that they +quite fell in love with her, and could not be persuaded to go anywhere +or do anything without her. Nurse would not let Milly and Olly go to +call the cows, though she promised they should some other day; but she +took the whole party down to the stepping-stones after tea, and great +fun it was to see Becky and Tiza running over the stepping-stones, and +jumping from one stone to another like little fawns. Milly and Olly +wanted sorely to go too, but there was no persuading Nana to let them go +without their father to fish them out if they tumbled in, so they had to +content themselves with dangling their legs over the first +stepping-stone and watching the others. But perhaps you don't quite +known what stepping-stones are? They are large high stones, with flat +tops, which people put in, a little way apart from each other, right +across a river, so that by stepping from one to the other you can cross +to the opposite side. Of course they only do for little rivers, where +the water isn't very deep. And they don't always do even there. +Sometimes in the river Thora, where Milly and Olly's stepping-stones +were, when it rained very much, the water rose so high that it dashed +right over the stepping-stones and nobody could go across. Milly and +Olly saw the stepping-stones covered with water once or twice while they +were at Ravensnest; but the first evening they saw them the river was +very low, and the stones stood up high and dry out of the water. Milly +thought that stepping-stones were much nicer than bridges, and that it +was the most amusing and interesting way of getting across a river that +she knew. But then Milly was inclined to think everything wonderful and +interesting at Ravensnest--from the tall mountains that seemed to shut +them in all around like a wall, down to the tiny gleaming wild +strawberries, that were just beginning to show their little scarlet +balls on the banks in the Ravensnest woods. Both she and Olly went to +bed after their first day at Ravensnest with their little hearts full of +happiness, and their little heads full of plans. To-morrow they were to +go to Aunt Emma's, and perhaps the day after that father would take them +to bathe in the river, and nurse would let them go and help Becky and +Tiza call the cows. Holidays _were_ nice; still geography lessons were +nice too sometimes, thought Milly sleepily, just as she was slipping, +slipping away into dreamland, and in her dreams her faithful little +thoughts went back lovingly to Fräulein's kind old face, and to the +capes and islands and seas she had been learning about a week ago. + +[Illustration: "The flowers Milly gathered for her mother"] + +The next morning Mr. and Mrs. Norton were busy indoors till about twelve +o'clock; and the children wandered about the garden with nurse, finding +out many new nooks and corners, especially a delightful steep path which +led up and up into the woods, till at last it took the children to a +little brown summer-house at the top, where they could sit and look over +the trees below, away to the river and the hay-fields and the mountains. +And between the stones and this path grew the prettiest wild +strawberries, only, as Milly said, it was not much good looking for them +yet, for there were so few red ones you could scarcely get enough to +taste what they were like. But in a week or two, she and Olly planned +that they would take up a basket with some green leaves in it, and +gather a lot for father and mother--enough for regular dessert--and some +wild raspberries too, for these also grew in the wood, to the great +delight of the children, who had never seen any before. They began to +feel presently as if it would be nothing very extraordinary to find +trees covered with barley sugar or jam tarts in this wonderful wood. And +as for the flowers Milly gathered for her mother, they were a sight to +see--moon-daisies and meadow-sweet, wild roses and ragged-robins, and +bright bits of rhododendrons. For both the woods and the garden at +Ravensnest were full of rhododendrons of all colours, pink and red, and +white and flame colour; and Milly and Olly amused themselves with making +up bunches of different coloured flowers with as many different colours +in them as they could find. There were no rhododendrons at Willingham; +and the children thought them the loveliest, gayest things they had ever +seen. + +But at last twelve o'clock came. Nurse tidied the children, gave them +some biscuits and milk, and then sent them to the drawing-room to find +father and mother. Only Mrs. Norton was there, but she said there was no +need to wait for father, as he was out already and would meet them on +the way. They were to go straight over the mountain instead of walking +round by the road, which would have taken much longer. So off they +set--Olly skipping, and chattering as he always did; while Milly stuck +close to her mother, telling her every now and then, when Olly left off +talking, about their morning in the wood, the flowers they had gathered +and the strawberries they had found. At the top of the garden was a +little gate, and beside the gate stood Bessie and Charlie, who had +really been watching for the children all the morning, though they +didn't dare to come into the garden without leave. + +"Bessie, we are going to Aunt Emma's," said Milly, running up to them. +"Where are you and Charlie going to?" + +"Nawhere," said Bessie, who, as usual, had her pinafore in her mouth, +and never said more than one word at a time if she could help it. + +"Nowhere! what do you do all the morning, Bessie?" + +"I doan't know," said Bessie, gravely looking up at her; "sometimes I +mind the baby." + +"Do you mind the baby, too? Dear, dear! And what does Charlie do?" + +"Nawthing," said Bessie again. "He only makes himself dirty." + +"Don't you go to school ever?" + +"No, but mother's going to send us," said Bessie, whose big eyes grew +round and frightened at the idea, as if it was a dreadful prospect. "Are +you going to be away for all day?" + +"Yes; we shan't be back till quite evening, mother says. Here she is. +Good-bye, Bessie; good-bye, Charlie. Will you come and play with us +to-morrow morning?" + +Bessie nodded, but Charlie ran off without answering; for he saw Olly +coming, and was afraid he might want to kiss him. On the other side of +the gate they had to begin to climb up a steep bit of soft green grass; +and very hard work it was. After quite a little way the children began +to puff and pant like two little steam engines. + +"It _is_ a little bit like going upstairs, don't you think, Olly?" said +Milly, sitting down by her mother on a flat bit of gray stone. + +"No, it isn't a bit like going upstairs," said Olly, shaking his head; +for Olly always liked contradicting Milly if he could. "It's like--it's +like--walking up a house!" + +Suddenly they heard far above them a shout of "Hullo!" Both the children +started up and looked about them. It was like father's voice, but they +couldn't see him anywhere. + +"Where are you, father?" + +"Hullo!" again. And this time it sounded much nearer to them. Where +could it be? The children began to run about and look behind the bushes +and the rocks, till all of a sudden, just as Milly got near a big rock, +out jumped Mr. Norton from behind it with a great shout, and began to +run after her. Away ran Milly and Olly as fast as their small feet could +carry them, up and down, up and down, till at last there came a steep +place--one of Milly's feet tripped up, down she went, rolling over and +over--down came Olly on the top of her, and the two of them rolled away +together till they stopped at the bottom of the steep place, all mixed +up in a heap of legs and arms and hats and pinafores. + +"Here's a boy and girl tied up in a knot," said Mr. Norton, scrambling +down after them and lifting them up. "There's no harm done, is there?" + +"I've got a bump on my arm," said Milly, turning up her sleeve. + +"And I've got a scratch on my nose," said Olly, rubbing it. + +"That's not much for a nice tumble like that," said Mr. Norton, "you +wouldn't mind another, would you, Milly?" + +"Not a bit," said Milly, merrily skipping along beside him. "Hide again, +father." + +"Another day, not now, for we want to get to Aunt Emma's. But tomorrow, +if you like, we'll come up here and have a capital game. Only we must +choose a nice dry place where there are no bogs." + +"What are bogs?" asked Olly. + +"Wet places, where your feet go sinking deeper and deeper into the mud, +and you can't find any stiff firm bit to stand on. Sometimes people sink +down and down into a bog till the mud comes right over their head and +face and chokes them; but we haven't got any bogs as bad as that here. +Now, children, step along in front. Very soon we shall get to the top of +the mountain, and then we shall see wonderful things on the other side." + +So Milly and Olly ran on, pushing their way through the great tall fern, +or scampering over the short green grass where the little mountain sheep +were nibbling, and where a beautiful creeping moss grew all over the +ground, which, mother told Milly, was called "Stags' horn moss," because +its little green branches were so like stags' horns. + +"Now look, children," shouted their father to them from behind. "Here we +are at the top." + +And then, all of a sudden, instead of only the green mountain and the +sheep, they could see far away on the other side of the mountain. There, +all round them, were numbers of other mountains; and below, at their +feet, were houses and trees and fields, while straight in front lay a +great big blue lake stretching away ever so far, till it seemed to be +lost in the sky. + +"Look, look, mother!" cried Milly, clapping her hands, "there's +Windermere lake, the lake we saw when we were coming from the station. +Look at that steamer, with all the people on board! What funny little +black people. And oh, mother, look at that little boat over there! How +can people go out in such a weeny boat as that?" + +"It isn't such a weeny boat, Milly. It only looks so small because it's +such a long way off. When father and I take you and Olly on the lake, we +shall go in a boat just like that. And now, instead of looking so far +away, look just down here below you, and tell me what you see." + +"Some chimneys, and some trees, and some smoke, ever so far down," +shouted the children. "Is it a house, mother?" + +"That's Aunt Emma's house, the old house where I used to come and stay +when I was a little girl, and when your dear great-grandfather and +great-grandmother were alive. I used to think it the nicest place in the +world." + +"Were you a very little girl, mother, and were you ever naughty?" asked +Milly, slipping her little hand into her mother's and beginning to feel +rather tired with her long walk. + +"I'm afraid I was very often naughty, Milly. I used to get into great +rages and scream, till everybody was quite tired out. But Aunt Emma was +very good to me, and took a great deal of pains to cure me of going into +rages. Besides, it always did naughty children good to live in the same +house with great-grandmamma, and so after a while I got better. Take +care how you go, children, it's very steep just here, and you might soon +tumble over on your noses. Olly, take care! take care! where _are_ you +going?" + +Where, indeed, was Olly going? Just the moment before the little man had +spied a lovely flower growing a little way off the path, in the middle +of some bright yellow-green moss. And without thinking of anything but +getting it, off he rushed. But oh! splish, splash, splish, down went +Olly's feet, up splashed the muddy water, and there was Olly stuck in a +bog. + +"Father, pull me out, pull me out!" cried the little boy in terror, as +he felt his feet stuck fast. But almost before he could speak there was +father close beside him, standing on a round little hump of dry grass +which was sticking up out of the bog, and with one grip he got hold of +Olly under his arm, and then jump! on to another little hump of grass, +jump! on to another, and there they were safe on the path again. + +"Oh, you black boy!" cried father and mother and Milly all together. Was +there ever such a little object! All his nice clean holland frock was +splashed with black mud; and what had happened to his stockings? + +"I've got mud-stockings on," shouted Olly, capering about, and pointing +to his legs which were caked with mud up to his knees. + +"You're a nice respectable boy to take out to dinner," said Mrs. Norton. +"I think we'll leave you on the mountain to have dinner with the sheep." + +"Oh no, father," pleaded Milly, taking Olly fast by the hand. "We can +wash him at Aunt Emma's, you know." + +"Don't go too close to him, Milly!" exclaimed Mrs. Norton, "or you'll +get as black as he is. We shall have to put him under the pump at Aunt +Emma's, that's quite certain. But there's nothing to wash him with here, +so he must just go as he is for a bit. Now, Olly, run along and your +feet will soon dry. Father's going first, you go next, just where he +goes, I'm coming after you, and Milly shall go last. Perhaps in that way +we shall get you down safe." + +"Oh, but, mother, look at my flower," said Olly, holding it up +triumphantly. "Isn't it a beauty?" + +"Shall I tell you what it's called, Olly? It's called a butterwort, and +it always grows in boggy places; I wouldn't advise you to go after one +again without asking father first." + +It was a very different thing going down the mountain from climbing up +it. It seemed only a few minutes before they had got almost to the +bottom, and there was a gate leading into a road, and a little village +of white houses in front of them. They walked up the road a little way, +and then father opened a big gate and let them into a beautiful garden +full of rhododendrons like the Ravensnest garden. And who was this +walking down the drive to meet them? Such a pretty little elderly lady, +with gray hair and a white cap. + +"Dear Aunt Emma!" said Mrs. Norton, running up to her and taking both +her hands and kissing her. + +"Well, Lucy," said the little lady, holding her hands and looking at her +(Lucy was Mrs. Norton's Christian name), "it _is_ nice to see you all +here. And there's dear little Milly, I remember her. But where's Olly? +I've never seen that small creature, you know. Come, Olly, don't be shy. +Little boys are never shy with Aunt Emma." + +"Except when they tumble into bogs," said Mr. Norton, laughing and +pulling Olly forward, who was trying to hide his mud-stockings behind +his mother. "There's a clean tidy boy to bring to dinner, isn't he, Aunt +Emma? I think I'll take him to the yard and pump on him a little before +we bring him in." + +Aunt Emma put up her spectacles to look at Olly. + +"Why, Olly, I think Mother Quiverquake has been catching hold of you. +Don't you know about old Mother Quiverquake, who lives in the bogs? Oh, +I can tell you splendid stories about her some day. But now catch hold +of my hand, and keep your little legs away from my dress, and we'll soon +make a proper boy of you again." + +And then Aunt Emma took one of Milly's hands and one of Olly's, and up +they went to the house. But I must start another chapter before I begin +to tell you what the children saw in Aunt Emma's house, and of the happy +time they spent there. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +AUNT EMMA'S PICNIC + + +Instead of taking them straight into the house, however, Aunt Emma took +the children up a little shady path which very soon brought them to a +white cottage covered with honeysuckle and climbing roses. + +"This is where my coachman's wife lives," said Aunt Emma, "and she owns +a small boy who might perhaps find you a pair of stockings, Olly, to put +on while your own are washed." + +Olly opened his brown eyes very wide at the idea of wearing some other +little boy's stockings, but he said nothing. + +Aunt Emma tapped at the door, and out came a stout kind-looking woman. + +"Mrs. Tyson, do you think your Johnny could lend my little nephew a pair +of his stockings while we get his own washed? Master Olly has been +tumbling into a bog by way of making friends with the mountains, and I +don't quite know how I am to let those legs into my dining-room." + +"Dear me, ma'am, but Johnny'll be proud if he's got any clean, but I'll +not answer for it. Won't ye come in?" + +In they walked, and there was a nice tidy kitchen, with a wooden cradle +in the corner, and a little fair-haired boy sitting by it and rocking +the baby. This was Johnny, and Olly looked at him with great curiosity. +"I've got bigger legs than Johnny," he whispered solemnly at last to +Aunt Emma, while they were waiting for Mrs. Tyson, who had gone upstairs +to fetch the stockings. + +"Perhaps you eat more bread and milk than Johnny does," said Aunt Emma, +very solemnly too, "However, most likely Johnny's stockings will +stretch. How's the baby, Johnny?" + +"She's a great deal better, ma'am," said the little boy, smiling at her. +Milly and Olly made him feel shy, but he loved Aunt Emma. + +"Have you been taking care of her all the morning for mother?" + +"Yes, ma'am, and she's never cried but once," said Johnny proudly. + +"Well done! Ah! there comes Mrs. Tyson. Now, Olly, sit up on that chair, +and we'll see to you." + +Off came the dirty stockings, and Mrs. Tyson slipped on a pair of woolen +socks that tickled Olly very much. They were very thick, and not a bit +like his own stockings; and when he got up again he kept turning round +and round to look at his legs, as if he couldn't make them out. + +"Do they feel funny to you?" said Mrs. Tyson, patting his shoulder. +"Never you mind, little master; I know they're nice and warm, for I +knitted them myself." + +"Mother buys our stockings in the shop," said Olly, when they got +outside again; "why doesn't Mrs. Tyson?" + +"Perhaps we haven't so many shops, or such nice ones here, Olly, as you +have at Willingham; and the people here have always been used to do a +great many things for themselves. Some of them live in such lonely +places among the mountains that it is very difficult for them to get to +any shops. Not very long ago the mothers used to make all the stuffs for +their own dresses and their children's. What would you say, Milly, if +mother had to weave the stuff for it every time you had a new dress?" + +"Mother wouldn't give me a great many new dresses," said Milly, gravely, +shaking her head. "I like shops best, Aunt Emma." + +"Well, I suppose it's best to like what we've got," said Aunt Emma, +laughing. + +Indoors, Olly's muddy stockings were given to Aunt Emma's maid, who +promised to have them washed and dried by the time they had to go home, +and then, when Mrs. Norton had covered up the black spots on his frock +with a clean pinafore she had brought with her, Olly looked quite +respectable again. + +The children thought they had never seen quite such a nice house as Aunt +Emma's. First of all it had a large hall, with all kinds of corners in +it, just made for playing hide-and-seek in; and the drawing-room was +full of the most delightful things. There were stuffed birds in cases, +and little ivory chessmen riding upon ivory elephants. There were +picture-books, and there were mysterious drawers full of cards and +puzzles, and glass marbles and old-fashioned toys, that the children's +mother and aunts and uncles, and their great-aunts and uncles before +that, had loved and played with years and years ago. On the wall hung a +great many pictures, some of them of funny little stiff boys in blue +coats with brass buttons, and some of them of little girls with mob-caps +and mittens, and these little boys and girls were all either dead now, +or elderly men and women, for they were the great-aunts and uncles; and +over the mantelpiece hung a picture of a lovely old lady, with bright, +soft brown hair and smiling eyes and lips, that looked as if they were +just going to speak to the two strange little children who had come for +their first visit to their mother's old home. Milly knew quite well that +it was a picture of great-grandmamma. She had seen others like it +before, only not so large as this one, and she looked at it quietly, +with her grave blue eyes, while Olly was eagerly wandering round the +room, spying into everything, and longing to touch this, that, and the +other, if only mother would let go his hand. + +"You know who that is, don't you, little woman?" said Aunt Emma, taking +her up on her knee. + +"Yes," said Milly, nodding, "it's great-grandmamma. I wish we could have +seen her." + +"I wish you could, Milly. She would have smiled at you as she is smiling +in the picture and you would have been sure to have loved her; all +little children did. I can remember seeing your mother, Milly, when she +was about as old as you, cuddled up in a corner of that sofa over there, +in 'grandmamma's pocket,' as she used to call it, listening with all her +ears to great-grandmamma's stories. There was one story called 'Leonora' +that went on for years and years, till all the little children in +it--and the little children who listened to it--were almost grown up; +and then great-grandmamma always carried about with her a wonderful +blue-silk bag full of treasures, which we used to be allowed to turn out +whenever any of us had been quite good at our lessons for a whole week." + +"Mother has a bag like that," said Milly; "it has lots of little toys in +it that father had when he was a little boy. She lets us look at it on +our birthdays. Can you tell stories, Aunt Emma?" + +"Tell us about old Mother Quiverquake," cried Olly, running up and +climbing on his aunt's knee. + +"Oh dear, no!" said Aunt Emma; "it's much too fine to-day for +stories--indoors, at any rate. Wait till we get a real wet day, and then +we'll see. After dinner to-day, what do you think we're going to do? +Suppose we have a row on the lake to get water-lilies, and suppose we +take a kettle and make ourselves some tea on the other side of the lake. +What would you say to that, Master Olly?" + +The children began to dance about with delight at the idea of a row and +a picnic both together, when suddenly there was a knock at the door, and +when Aunt Emma said, "Come in!" what do you think appeared? Why, a great +green cage, carried by a servant, and in it a gray parrot, swinging +about from side to side, and cocking his head wickedly, first over one +shoulder and then over the other. + +"Now, children," said Aunt Emma, while the children stood quite still +with surprise, "let me introduce you to my old friend, Mr. Poll Parrot. +Perhaps you thought I lived all alone in this big house. Not at all. +Here is somebody who talks to me when I talk to him, who sings and +chatters and whistles and cheers me up wonderfully in the winter +evenings, when the rains come and make me feel dull. Put him down here, +Margaret," said Aunt Emma to the maid, clearing a small table for the +cage. "Now, Olly, what do you think of my parrot?" + +"Can it talk?" asked Olly, looking at it with very wide open eyes. + +"It _can_ talk; whether it _will_ talk is quite another thing. Parrots +are contradictious birds. I feel very often as if I should like to beat +Polly, he's so provoking. Now, Polly, how are you to-day?" + +"Polly's got a bad cold; fetch the doc--" said the bird at once, in such +a funny cracked voice, that it made Olly jump as if he had heard one of +the witches in Grimm's "Fairy Tales" talking. + +"Come, Polly, that's very well behaved of you; but you mustn't leave off +in the middle, begin again. Olly, if you don't keep your fingers out of +the way Polly will snap them up for his dinner. Parrots like fingers +very much." Olly put his hands behind his back in a great hurry, and +mother came to stand behind him to keep him quiet. By this time, +however, Polly had begun to find out that there were some new people in +the room he didn't know, and for a long time Aunt Emma could not make +him talk at all. He would do nothing but put his head first on one side +and then on the other and make angry clicks with his beak. + +"Come, Polly," said Aunt Emma, "what a cross parrot you are. +One--two--three--four. Now, Polly, count." + +"Polly's got a bad cold, fetch the doc--" said Polly again while Aunt +Emma was speaking. "One--two--six--seven--eight--nine--two--_Quick_ +march!" + +And then Polly began to lift first one claw and then the other as if he +were marching, while the children shouted with laughter at his +ridiculous ways and his gruff cracked voice. + +Then Aunt Emma went behind him and rapped gently on the table. The +parrot stopped marching, stuck his head on one side and listened. Aunt +Emma rapped again. + +"Come in!" said the parrot suddenly, quite softly, as if he had turned +into quite another person. "Hush--sh--sh, cat's got a mouse!" + +"Well, Polly," said Aunt Emma, "I suppose she may have a mouse if she +likes. Is that all you've got to tell us? Polly, where's gardener?" + +"Get away! get away!" screamed Polly, while all his feathers began to +stand up straight, and his eyes looked fierce and red like two little +live coals. + +"That always makes him cross," said Aunt Emma; "he can't bear gardener. +Come, Polly, don't get in such a temper." + +"Oh, isn't he like the witches on the broom-sticks in our fairy-book, +Olly?" cried Milly. "Don't you think, Aunt Emma, he must have been +changed into something? Perhaps he was a wicked witch once, or a +magician, you know, and the fairies changed him into a parrot." + +"Well, Milly, I can't say. He was a parrot when I had him first, twelve +years ago. That's all I know about it. But I believe he's very old. Some +people say he's older than I am--think of that! So you see he's had time +to be a good many things. Well, Polly, good-night. You're not a nice +bird to-night at all. Take him away, Margaret." + +"Jane! Jane!" screamed Polly, as the maid lifted up the cage again. +"Make haste, Jane! cat's in the larder!" + +"Oh, you bad Polly," said Aunt Emma, "you're always telling tales. +Jane's my cook, Milly, and Polly doesn't like cats, so you see he tries +to make Jane believe that our old cat steals the meat out of the larder. +Good-bye, Polly, good-bye. You're an ill-natured old bird, but I'm very +fond of you all the same." + +"Do get us a parrot, mother!" said Olly, jumping about round his mother, +when Polly was gone. + +"How many more things will you want before you get home, Olly, do you +think?" asked his mother, kissing him. "Perhaps you'll want to take home +a few mountains, and two or three little rivers, and a bog or two, and a +few sheep--eh, young man?" + +By this time dinner was ready, and there was the dinner-bell ringing. Up +ran the children to Aunt Emma's room to get their hands washed and their +hair brushed, and presently there were two tidy little folks sitting on +either side of Aunt Emma's chair, and thinking to themselves that they +had never felt quite so hungry before. But hungry as Milly was she +didn't forget to look out of the window before she began her dinner, and +it was worth while looking out of the window in Aunt Emma's dining-room. + +Before the windows was a green lawn, like the lawn at Ravensnest, only +this lawn went sloping away, away till there was just a little rim of +white beach, and then beyond came the wide, dancing blue lake, that the +children had seen from the top of the mountain. Here it was close to +them, so close that Milly could hear the little waves plashing, through +the open window. + +"Milly," whispered Aunt Emma when they were all waiting for pudding, "do +you see that little house down there by the water's edge? That's where +the boat lives--we call it a boathouse. Do you think you'll be +frightened of the water, little woman?" + +"No, I don't think so," said Milly, shaking her little wise head +gravely. "I am frightened sometimes, very. Mother calls me a little +goose because I run away from Jenny sometimes--that's our cow at home, +Aunt Emma, but then she's got such long horns, and I can't help feeling +afraid." + +"Well, the lake hasn't got horns, Milly," said Aunt Emma, laughing, "so +perhaps you will manage not to be afraid of it." + +How kind and nice Aunt Emma looked as she sat between the children, with +her pretty soft gray hair, and her white cap and large white collar. +Mrs. Norton could not help thinking of the times when she was a little +girl, and used always to insist on sitting by Aunt Emma at dinner-time. +That was before Aunt Emma's hair had turned gray. And now here were her +own little children sitting where she used to sit at their age, and +stealing their small hands into Aunt Emma's lap as she used to do so +long ago. + +After dinner the children had to sit quiet in the drawing-room for a +time, while Aunt Emma and father and mother talked; but they had +picture-books to look at, and Aunt Emma gave them leave to turn out +everything in one of the toy-drawers, and that kept them busy and happy +for a long time. But at last, just when Olly was beginning to get tired +of the drawer, Aunt Emma called to them from the other end of the room +to come with her into the kitchen for a minute. Up jumped the children +and ran after their aunt across the hall into the kitchen. + +"Now, children," said Aunt Emma, pointing to a big basket on the kitchen +table, "suppose you help me to pack up our tea-things. Olly, you go and +fetch the spoons, and, Milly, bring the plates one by one." + +The tea things were all piled up on the kitchen table, and the children +brought them one after another to Aunt Emma to pack them carefully into +the big basket. + +"Ain't I a useful boy, Aunt Emma?" asked Olly proudly, coming up laden +with a big table-cloth which he could scarcely carry. + +"Very useful, Olly, though our table-cloth won't look over tidy at tea +if you crumple it up like that. Now, Milly, bring me that tray of bread +and the little bundle of salt; and, Olly, bring me that bit of butter +over there, done up in the green leaves, but mind you carry it +carefully. Now for some knives too; and there are the cups and saucers, +Milly, look, in that corner; and there is the cake all ready cut up, and +there is the bread and butter. Now have we got everything? Everything, I +think, but the kettle, and some wood and some matches, and these must go +in another basket." + +"Aunt Emma," said Milly, creeping up close to her, "were you ever a +fairy godmother?" + +"Not that I know of, Milly. Would you like me better if I had a wand and +a pair of pet dragons, like old Fairy Blackstick?" + +"No," said Milly, stroking her aunt's hand, "but you do such nice +things, just like fairy godmothers do." + +"Do I, little woman? Aunt Emma likes doing nice things for good +children. But now come along, it's quite time we were off. Let us go +and fetch father and mother. Gardener will bring the baskets." + +Such a merry party they were, trooping down to the boathouse. There lay +the boat; a pretty new boat, painted dark blue, with a little red flag +floating at her bows, and her name, "Ariel," written in large white +letters on the stern. And all around the boathouse stretched the +beautiful blue water, so clear and sunny and sparkling that it dazzled +Milly's eyes to look at it. She and Olly were lifted into the boat +beside Aunt Emma and mother, father sat in the middle and took the oars, +while gardener put the baskets into the stern, and then, untying the +rope which kept the boat tied into the boathouse, he gave it a good push +with one hand and off she went out into the blue lake, rising up and +down on the water like a swan. + +"Oh! mother, mother, look up there," shouted Olly, "there's the +mountain. Isn't that where we climbed up this morning?" + +Yes, there it was, the beautiful green rocky mountain, rising up above +Aunt Emma's house. They could see it all so clearly as they got farther +out into the lake; first the blue sky, then the mountain with the little +white dots on it, which Milly knew were sheep; then some trees, and in +front, Aunt Emma's house with the lawn and the boathouse. And as they +looked all round them they could see far bigger and grander mountains +than Brownholme, some near and green like Brownholme, and some far away +and blue like the sky, while down by the edge of the lake were hayfields +full of flowers, or bits of rock with trees growing on the top of them. +The children hardly knew what it was made them so quiet; but I think it +was because everything was so beautiful. They were really in the +hill-fairies' palace now. + +"Aren't there any water-fairies in this lake, mother?" whispered Milly, +presently, looking down into the clear blue water, and trying to see the +bottom. + +"I can't tell, Milly, I never saw any. But there used to be +water-fairies in old days. After tea suppose we ask Aunt Emma to tell us +a story about a king in olden times whom the water-fairies loved; she +used to tell it to me when I was small, and I liked it best of all +stories. But, Olly, you must sit still, or the boat will go tipping over +to one side, and father won't be able to row." + +"Do let me row, father," begged Olly. + +"Not yet, old man--I must get used to the boat first, and find out how +to manage her, but presently you shall come and try, and so shall Milly +if she likes." + +On they rowed, farther and farther from the shore, till Aunt Emma's +house began to look quite small, and they could hardly see the gardener +working on the lawn. + +"Father, what a long way we've come," cried Milly, looking all round. +"Where are we going to?" + +"Well, presently, Milly, I am going to turn the boat a little bit, so as +to make her go over to that side of the lake over there. Do you see a +big rock with some trees on it, far away, sticking out into the lake?" + +"Yes," said the children, looking very hard. + +"Well, that's where we're going to have tea. It's called Birdsnest +Point, because the rocks come out in a point into the lake. But first I +thought I would bring you right out into the middle of the lake, that +you might see how big it is, and look at the mountains all round." +"Father," said Olly, "if a big stone fell down out of the sky and made +ever such a big hole in the boat, and the water came into the hole, +should we all be dead?" + +"I daresay we should, Olly, for I don't think I could carry mother, and +Aunt Emma, and Milly, and you on my back, safe home again, and you see +none of you can swim but me." + +"Then I hope a big stone won't come," said Milly, feeling just a little +bit frightened at Olly's suggestion. + +"Well, big stones don't grow in the sky generally, Milly, if that's any +comfort to you. But do you know, one day long ago, when I was out rowing +on this lake, I thought all of a sudden I heard some one shouting and +screaming, and for a long time I looked and waited, but could see +nothing; till at last I fancied I could see, a long distance off, what +looked like a pole, with something white tied to it. And I rowed, and +rowed, and rowed, as fast as I could, and all the time the shouting and +screaming went on, and at last what do you think I saw? I saw a boat, +which looked as if something was dragging it down into the water. Part +of it had already sunk down into the lake, and in the part which was +still above the water there were three people sitting, a gentleman, and +two little girls who looked about ten years old. And they were shouting +'Help! help!' at the top of their voices, and waving an oar with a +handkerchief tied to it. And the boat in which they sat was sinking +farther and farther into the water, and if I had'n't come up just when I +did, the gentleman and the two little girls would have been drowned." + +"Oh, father!" cried Milly, "what made their boat do like that? And did +they get into yours?" + +"There was a great hole in the bottom of their boat, Milly, and the +water was coming through it, and making the boat so heavy that it was +sinking down and down into the lake, just as a stone would sink if you +threw it in. How the hole came there we never quite knew: I thought they +must have knocked their boat against a sharp rock--in some parts of the +lake there are rocks under the water which you can't see--and the rock +had made the hole; but other people thought it had happened in some +other way. However, there they were, and when I took them all into my +boat you never saw such miserable little creatures as the two little +girls were. They were wet through, they were as white as little ghosts, +and when they were safe in my boat they began to cry and shake so, poor +little souls, though their father and I wrapped them up in our coats, +that I did want their mother to come and comfort them." + +"Oh, but, father, you took them safe home to their mother, didn't you? +And do tell me what she said." + +"They had no mother, Milly, they had only their father, who was with +them. But he was very good to them, and I think on the whole they were +happy little girls. The Christmas after that I got a little parcel one +morning, and what do you think was in it? Why, two photographs of the +same little girls, looking so neat and tidy and happy, I could hardly +believe they were really the same as the little drowned rats I had +pulled out of the water. Ask mother to show you the pictures when we get +home; she has them somewhere. Now, Olly, would you like to row?" + +"Oh, father, don't bump against any rocks," said Milly, whose thoughts +were very full of the little girls. + +"Don't you trouble your head about rocks, old woman. I know a good deal +more about this lake than those little girls' father did, and I won't +take you into any harm. Come along, Olly." + +Olly was helped along the boat by mother and Aunt Emma till his father +caught hold of him and pulled him on to his seat, where he let him put +his two small paws on one of the oars, and try what he could do with it. +Mr. Norton pulled too; but Olly thought it was all his doing, and that +it was really he who was making the boat go. + +"Don't we go fast, father?" he cried out presently, his little face +flushed with pleasure and excitement. "You couldn't row so fast without +me, could you, father?" + +"You little fly-on-the-wheel," said his father, smiling at him. + +"What does that mean, father?" + +"Never mind, you'll know when you're bigger. But now look, children, how +close we are coming to the shore. And quick, Milly, quick! What do you +see over there?" + +Mr. Norton pointed over the water to a place where some green rushes +were standing up out of the water, not very far from the edge. What were +those great white and gold things shining among the rushes; and what +were those large round green leaves lying on the water all about them? + +"Water-lilies! water-lilies!" cried Milly, stamping her little feet with +delight. "Oh, mother, look! it was on one of those leaves that the old +toad put little Tiny in my fairy-book, don't you remember? Only the +little fishes came and bit off the stalk and set her free. Oh, I wish we +could see little Tiny sitting on one of those leaves!" + +"Well," said Aunt Emma, "there's no saying what you may find in these +parts if you look long enough. This is a very strange country. But now, +Milly, look out for the lilies. Father's going to take us in among them, +and I'll hold you, while you gather them." + +And presently, swish went the boat up against the rushes, and there were +the lovely white lilies lying spread out on the water all round them, +some quite open and showing their golden middles, and some still buds, +with their wet green cases just falling off, and their white petals +beginning to unclose. But what slippery stalks they had. Aunt Emma held +Milly, and father held Olly, while they dived their hands under the +water and pulled hard. And some of the lilies came out with such short +bits of stalk you could scarcely hold them, and sometimes, flop! out +came a long green stalk, like a long green snake curling and twisting +about in the boat. The children dabbled, and splashed, and pulled, to +their hearts' content, till at last Mr. Norton told them they had got +enough and now they must sit quite still while he rowed them in to the +land. + +"Oh, father, just those two over there!" pleaded Milly, who could not +bear leaving so many beauties behind. + +"No, Milly, no more. Look where the sun is now. If we don't make haste +and have our tea, we shall never get back to Ravensnest to-night." + +Milly's face looked as if it would like to cry, as the boat began to +move away from the rushes, and the beautiful lilies were left behind. I +told you, to begin with, that Milly was ready to cry oftener than a +sensible little girl should. But Aunt Emma was not going to have any +crying at her picnic. + +"Who's going to gather me sticks to make my fire?" she said suddenly, in +a solemn voice. + +"I am! I am!" shouted both the children at once, and out came Milly's +smiles again, like the sun from behind a cloud. + +"And who's going to lay the table-cloth?" + +"We are! we are!" + +"And who's going to hand the bread and butter?" + +"I am!" exclaimed Milly, "and Olly shall hand the cake." + +"And who's going to _eat_ the bread and butter?" + +"All of us!" shouted the children, and Milly added, "Father will want a +_big_ plate of bread and butter, I daresay." + +"I should think he would, after all this rowing," said Mr. Norton. "Now +then, look out for a bump!" + +[Illustration: "So they put Olly up on a tall piece of rock, and he +sang."] + +Bump! Splash! there was the boat scraping along the pebbles near the +shore; out sprang Mr. Norton, first on to a big stone, then on to the +shore, and with one great pull he brought the boat in till it was close +enough for Aunt Emma and Mrs. Norton to step on to the rocks, and for +the children to be lifted out. + +"Oh! what a nice place!" cried Milly, looking about her, and clapping +her hands, as she always did when she was pleased. It was a point of +rock running out into the lake, a "peninsula" Milly called it, when she +had been all round it, and it was covered with brown heather spread all +over the ground, and was delightfully soft and springy to sit upon. In +the middle of the bit of rock there were two or three trees standing up +together, birch trees with silvery stems, and on every side but one +there was shallow brown water, so clear that they could see every stone +at the bottom. And when they looked away across the lake, there were the +grand old mountains pushing their heads into the clouds on the other +side, and far away near the edge of the lake they saw a white dot which +they knew was Aunt Emma's house. How the sun shone on everything! How it +made the water of the lake sparkle and glitter as if it were alive! And +yet the air was not hot, for a little wind was coming to them across the +water, and moving the trees gently up and down. + +And what was this under the trees? Why, a kind of fireplace made of +stones, and in front of it a round green bit of grass, with tufts of +heather all round it, just like a table with seats. + +"Who put these stones here, Aunt Emma?" asked Olly, as she and mother +and Mr. Norton brought up the baskets, and put them in the green place +by the stones. + +"Well, Olly, long ago, when all your uncles and aunts were little, and +they used to come here for picnics, they thought it would be very nice +to have a stone fireplace, built up properly, so that they needn't make +one every time. It was Uncle Richard's idea, and we had such fun +building it up. The little ones brought the stones; and the big ones +piled them together till you see we made quite a nice fireplace. And it +has lasted ever since. Whenever I come here I mend it up if any of the +stones have tumbled down. Numbers of little children come to picnic here +every summer, and they always use our fireplace. But now, come along +into the woods, children, and gather sticks." + +Off they ran after Aunt Emma, and soon they were scrambling about the +wood which grew along the shore, picking up the dry sticks and dry fern +under the trees. Milly filled her cotton frock full, and gathered it up +with both her hands; while Olly of course went straight at the biggest +branch he could see, and staggered along with it, puffing and panting. + +"You grasshopper, you!" said Mr. Norton, catching hold of him, "don't +you think you'd better try a whole tree next time? There, let me break +it for you." Father broke it up into short lengths, and then off ran +Olly with his little skirts full to Aunt Emma, who was laden too with an +armful of sticks. "That'll do to begin with, old man. Come along, and +you and I'll light the fire." + +What fun it was, heaping up the sticks on the stones, and how they did +blaze and crackle away when Aunt Emma put a match to them. Puff! puff! +out came the smoke; fizz--crack--sputter--went the dry fir branches, as +if they were Christmas fireworks. + +"Haven't we made a blazey fire, Aunt Emma?" said Olly, out of breath +with dragging up sticks, and standing still to look. + +"Splendid," said Mr. Norton, who had just come out of the wood with his +bundle. "Now, Olly, let me just put you on the top of it to finish it +off. How you would fizz!" + +Off ran Olly, with his father after him, and they had a romp among the +heather till Mr. Norton caught him, and carried him kicking and laughing +under his arm to Aunt Emma. + +"Now, Aunt Emma, shall I put him on?" + +"Oh dear, no!" said Aunt Emma, "my kettle wouldn't sit straight on him, +and it's just boiling beautifully. We'll put him on presently when the +fire gets low." + +"Olly, do come and help mother and me with the tea-things," cried Milly, +who was laying the cloth as busily and gravely as a little housemaid. + +"Run along, shrimp," said his father, setting him down. + +And off ran Olly, while Mr. Norton and Aunt Emma heaped the wood on the +fire, and kept the kettle straight, so that it shouldn't tip over and +spill. + +Laying the cloth was delightful, Milly thought. First of all, they put a +heavy stone on each corner of the cloth to keep it down, and prevent the +wind from blowing it up, and then they put the little plates all round, +and in the middle two piles of bread and butter and cake. + +"But we haven't got any flowers," said Milly, looking at it presently, +with a dissatisfied face, "you always have flowers on the table at home, +mother." + +"Why, Milly, have you forgotten your water-lilies; where did you leave +them?" + +"Down by the water," said Milly. "Father told me just to put their +stalks in the water, and he put a stone to keep them safe. Oh! that'll +be splendid, mother. Do give me a cup, and we'll get some water for +them." + +Mother found a cup, and the children scrambled down to the edge of the +lake. There lay the lilies with their stalks in the water, close to the +boat. + +"They look rather sad, mother, don't they?" said Milly, gathering them +up. "Perhaps they don't like being taken away from their home." + +"They never look so beautiful out of the water," said mother; "but when +we get home we'll put them into a soup-plate, and let them swim about in +it. They'll look very nice then. Now, Olly, fill the cup with water, and +we'll put five or six of the biggest in, and gather some leaves." + +"There, look! look! Aunt Emma," shouted Milly, when they had put the +lilies and some fern leaves in the middle of the table. "Haven't we made +it beautiful?" + +"That you have," said Aunt Emma, coming up with the kettle which had +just boiled. "Now for the tea, and then we're ready." + +"We never had such a nice tea as this before," said Olly, presently +looking up from a piece of bread and butter which had kept him quiet for +some time. "It's nicer than having dinner at the railway station even." + +Aunt Emma and mother laughed; for it doesn't seem so delightful to +grown-up people to have dinner at the railway station. + +"Well, Olly," said mother, "I hope we shall often have tea out of doors +while we are at Ravensnest." + +Milly shook her head. "It'll rain, mother. That old gentleman said it +would be sure to rain." + +"That old gentleman is about right, Milly," said Mr. Norton. "I think it +rains dreadfully here, but mother doesn't seem to mind it a bit. Once +upon a time when mother was a little girl, there came a funny old fairy +and threw some golden dust in her eyes, and ever since then she can't +see straight when she comes to the mountains. It's all right everywhere +else, but as soon as she comes here, the dust begins to fly about in her +eyes, and makes the mountains look quite different to her from what they +look to anybody else." + +"Let me look, mother," said Olly, pulling her down to him. + +Mrs. Norton opened her eyes at him, smiling. + +"I can't see any dust, father." + +"Ah, that's because it's fairy dust," said Mr. Norton, gravely. "Now, +Olly, don't you eat too much cake, else you won't be able to row." + +"It'll be my turn first, father," said Milly, "you know I haven't rowed +at all yet." + +"Well, don't you catch any crabs, Milly," said Aunt Emma. + +"Catch crabs, Aunt Emma!" said Milly, very much puzzled. "Crabs are only +in the sea, aren't they?" + +"There's a very big kind just about here," said Mr. Norton, "and they're +always looking out for little children, particularly little girls." + +"I don't understand, father," said Milly, opening her eyes very wide. + +"Have some more tea, then," said Mr. Norton, "that always makes people +feel wiser." + +"Father, aren't you talking nonsense?" said Olly, stopping in the middle +of a piece of cake to think about what his father was saying. + +"Very likely, Olly. People always do at picnics. Aunt Emma, when are you +going to tell us your story?" + +"When we've washed the things and put them away," said Aunt Emma, "then +Olly shall sing us two songs, and I'll tell you my story." + +But the children were so hungry that it was a long time before they gave +up eating bread and butter, and then, when at last tea was over, what +fun it was washing the cups and plates in the lake! Aunt Emma and Olly +washed, and mother and Milly dried the things on a towel, and then +everything was packed away into the baskets, and mother and Aunt Emma +folded up the table-cloth, and put it tidily on the top of everything. + +"I did like that," said Milly, sighing as the last basket was fastened +down. "I wish you'd let me help Sarah wash up the tea-things at home, +mother." + +"If Sarah liked to let you, I shouldn't say no, Milly," said Mrs. +Norton. "How soon would you get tired of it, old woman, I wonder? But +come along, let's put Olly up on a rock, and make him sing, and then +we'll have Aunt Emma's story." + +So they put Olly up on a tall piece of rock, and he sang "The Minstrel +Boy," and "Bonnie Dundee," and "Hot Cross Buns," just as if he were a +little musical box, and you had nothing to do but to wind him up. He had +a sweet, clear, little voice, and he looked a delightful brown gipsy, as +he sat perched up on the rock with his long legs dangling, and his curls +blowing about his face. + +"There!" said Olly, when he had shouted out the last note of "Hot Cross +Buns." "I have singed three whole songs; and now, Aunt Emma, tell us +about the king and the fairies. Krick, please." + +"It must be 'krick' indeed," said Aunt Emma, "if we want to get home +to-night." + +For the sun had almost sunk behind the mountains at their back, and the +wind blowing across the lake was beginning to get a little cold, while +over their heads the rooks went flying, singing "caw, caw," on their way +to bed. And how the sun was turning the water to gold! It seemed to be +making a great golden pathway across the lake, and the mountains were +turning a deep blue, and plash, plash, went the little waves on the +rocks, so softly they seemed to be saying "Good-night! good-night!" + +"Well," said Aunt Emma, settling herself on a soft piece of heather, and +putting her arms round Milly and Olly, "Once upon a time there was a +great king. He was a good king and a wise man, and he tried to make all +the people round about him wiser and better than they were before he +came to rule over them; and for a long time he was very powerful and +happy, and he and the brave men who helped him and were his friends did +a great deal of good, and kept the savage people who lived all about him +in order, and taught them a great many things. But at last some of the +savage people got tired of obeying the king, and they said they would +not have him to reign over them any more; so they made an army, and they +came together against the king to try and kill him and his friends. And +the king made an army too, and there was a great battle; and the savage +people were the strongest, and they killed nearly all the king's brave +men, and the king himself was terribly hurt in the fight. And at last, +when night came on, there were left only the king and one of his +friends--his knights, as they were called. The king was hurt so much +that he could not move, and his friend thought he was dying. They were +left alone in a rocky desert place, and close by there was a great lake +with mountains round it--like this, Olly. It was very cold, and the moon +was shining, and the king lay so still that once or twice his friend +almost thought that he was dead. But at last, about the middle of the +night, he began to speak, and he told his friend to take his sword that +was by his side and to go down to the side of the lake and throw it as +far as he could into the water. Now, this sword was a magic sword. Long +before, the king was once walking beside this lake, when he suddenly saw +an arm in a long white sleeve rising out of the lake, and in the hand at +the end of it was a splendid sword with a glistening handle. And the +king got into a boat and rowed as fast as he could till he got near +enough to take hold of the sword, and then the arm sank down under the +water and was seen no more. And with the sword the king won a great many +battles, and he loved it, and never would part with it; but now that he +was dying, he told his friend to take the sword and throw it back into +the lake where he had found it, and see what would happen. And his +friend took it, and went away over the rocks till he came to the edge of +the lake, and then he took the sword out of its case and swung it above +his head that he might throw it far into the water; but as he lifted it +up the precious stones in the handle shone so splendidly in the +moonlight that he could not make up his mind to throw it into the water, +it seemed such a pity. So he hid it away among the rushes by the water +side, and went back to the king. And the king said, 'What did you see by +the lake?' + +"And the knight said, 'I saw nothing except the water, and the +mountains, and the rushes.' + +"And the king said, 'Oh, unkind friend! Why will you not do as I ask +you, now that I am dying and can do nothing for myself? Go back and +throw the sword into the lake, as I told you.' + +"And the knight went back, and once more he lifted the sword to throw it +into the water but it looked so beautiful that he _could_ not throw it +away. There would be nothing left, he thought, to remember the king by +when he was dead if he threw away the sword; so again he hid it among +the rushes, and then he went back to the king. And again the king asked, +'What did you see by the lake?' and again the knight answered, 'I saw +nothing except the water and the mountains.' + +"'Oh, unkind, false friend!' cried the king, 'you are crueller to me +than those who gave me this wound. Go back and throw the sword into the +water, or, weak as I am, I will rise up and kill you.' + +"Back went the knight, and this time he seized the sword without looking +at it, so that he should not see how beautiful it was, and then he swung +it once, twice, thrice, round his head, and away it went into the lake. +And as it fell, up rose a hand and arm in a long white sleeve out of the +water, and the hand caught the sword and drew it down under the water. +And then for a moment, all round the lake, the knight fancied he heard a +sound of sobbing and weeping, and he thought in his heart that it must +be the water-fairies weeping for the king's death. + +"'What did you see by the lake?' asked the king again, when he came +back, and the knight told him. Then the king told him to lift him up and +carry him on his back down to the edge of the lake, and when they got +there, what do you think they saw?" + +But the children could not guess, and Milly pressed Aunt Emma's hand +hard to make her go on. + +"They saw a great black ship coming slowly over the water, and on the +ship were numbers of people in black, sobbing and crying, so that the +air was full of a sound of weeping, and in front sat three queens in +long black dresses, and with gold crowns on their heads, and they, too, +were weeping and wringing their hands. + +"'Lift me up,' said the king, when the ship came close beside them, 'and +put me into the ship.' And the knight lifted him up, while the three +queens stretched out their hands and drew him into the ship. + +"'Oh, king! take me with you,' said the knight, 'take me too. What shall +I do all alone without you?' But the ship began to move away, and the +knight was left standing on the shore. Only he fancied he heard the +king's voice saying, 'Wait for me, I shall come again. Farewell!' + +"And the ship went faster and faster away into the darkness, for it was +a fairy ship, till at last the knight could see it no more. So then he +knew that the king had been carried away by the fairies of the lake--the +same fairies who had given him the sword in old days, and who had loved +him and watched over him all his life. But what did the king mean by +saying, 'I shall come again'?" + +Then Aunt Emma stopped and looked at the children. + +"What did he mean, auntie?" asked Milly, who had been listening with all +her ears, and whose little eyes were wet, "and did he ever come back +again?" + +"Not while the knight lived, Milly. He grew to be quite an old man, and +was always hoping that the fairies would bring the king again. But the +king never came, and his friend died without seeing him." + +"But did he _ever_ come again?" asked Olly. + +"I don't know, Olly. Some people think that he is still hidden away +somewhere by the kind water-fairies, and that some day, when the world +wants him very much, he will come back again." + +"Do you think he is here in this lake?" whispered Milly, looking at the +water. + +"How can we tell what's at the bottom of the lake?" said Aunt Emma, +smiling. "But no, I don't think the king is hidden in this lake. He +didn't live near here." + +"What was his name?" asked Milly. + +"His name was King Arthur. But now, children, hurry; there is father +putting all the baskets into the boat. We must get home as quick as we +can." + +They rowed home very quickly, except just for a little time when Milly +rowed, and they did not go quite so fast as if father were rowing alone. +It was quite evening now on the lake, and there were great shadows from +the mountains lying across the water. Somehow the children felt much +quieter now than when they started in the afternoon. Milly had curled +herself up inside mother's arm, and was thinking a great deal about King +Arthur and the fairy ship, while Olly was quite taken up with watching +the oars as they dipped in and out of the water, and occasionally asking +his father when he should be big enough to row quite by himself. It +seemed a very little time after all before they were stepping out of the +boat at Aunt Emma's boathouse, and the picnic and the row were both +over. + +"Good-bye, dear lake," said Milly, turning with her hands full of +water-lilies to look back before they went up to the house. "Good-night, +mountains; good-night, Birdsnest Point. I shall soon come and see you +again." + +A few minutes more, and they were safely packed into a carriage which +drove them back to Ravensnest, and Aunt Emma was saying good-bye to +them. + +"Next time, I shall come and see you, Milly," she said, as she kissed +Milly's little sleepy face. "Don't forget me till then." + +"Then you'll tell us about old Mother Quiverquake," said Olly, hugging +her with his small arms. "Aunt Emma, I haven't given Johnny back his +stockings. They did tickle me so in the boat." + +"We'll get them some time," said Aunt Emma. "Good-night, good-night." + +It was a sleepy pair of children that nurse lifted out of the carriage +at Ravensnest. And though they tried to tell her something about it, she +had to wait till next morning before she could really understand +anything about their wonderful day at Aunt Emma's house. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +WET DAYS AT RAVENSNEST + + +For about a week after the row on the lake the weather was lovely, and +Milly wondered more than ever what the old gentleman who warned them of +the rain in the mountains could have been thinking about. She and Olly +were out all day, and nearly every afternoon nurse lifted the tea-table +through the low nursery window on to the lawn, and let them have their +tea out of doors among the flowers and trees and twittering birds. They +had found out a fly-catcher's nest in the ivy above the front door, and +every evening the two children used to fetch out their father to watch +the parent birds catching flies and carrying them to the hungry little +ones, whom they could just hear chirping up above the ivy. Olly was wild +to get the gardener's ladder that he might climb up and look into the +nest, but Mr. Norton would not have it lest it should frighten away the +old birds. + +One delicious warm morning, too, the children had their long-promised +bathe, and what fun it was. Nurse woke them up at five o'clock in the +morning--fancy waking up as early as that!--and they slipped on their +little blue bathing gowns, and their sand shoes that mother had bought +them in Cromer the year before, and then nurse wrapped them up in +shawls, and she and they and father went down and opened the front door +while everybody else in the house was asleep, and slipped out. What a +quiet strange world it seemed, the grass and the flowers dripping with +dew, and overhead such a blue sky with white clouds sailing slowly about +in it. + +"Why don't we always get up at five o'clock, father?" asked Olly, as he +and Milly skipped along--such an odd little pair of figures--beside Mr. +Norton. "Isn't it nice and funny?" + +"Very," said Mr. Norton. "Still, I imagine Olly, if you had to get up +every day at five o'clock, you might think it funny, but I'm sure you +wouldn't always think it nice." + +"Oh! I'm sure we should," said Milly, seriously. "Why, father, it's just +as if everything was ours and nobody else's, the garden and the river I +mean. Is there _anybody_ up yet do you think--in those houses?" And +Milly pointed to the few houses they could see from the Ravensnest +garden. + +"I can't tell, Milly. But I'll tell you who's sure to be up now, and +that's John Backhouse. I should think he's just beginning to milk the +cows." + +"Oh then, Becky and Tiza'll be up too," cried Milly, dancing about. "I +wish we could see them. Somehow it would be quite different seeing them +now, father. I feel so queer, as if I was somebody else." + +If you have ever been up _very_ early on a summer morning, you will know +what Milly meant, but if not I can hardly explain it. Such a pretty +quiet little walk they had down to the river. Nobody on the road, nobody +in the fields, but the birds chattering and the sun shining, as if they +were having a good time all to themselves, before anybody woke up to +interrupt them. Mr. Norton took the children down to the +stepping-stones, and then, while Milly and nurse stayed on the bank he +lifted Olly up, and carried him to the middle of the stepping-stones, +where the water would about come up to his chest. Mr. Norton had already +taken off his own shoes and stockings, and when they came to the middle +stone, he put Olly down on the stone, and stepped into the water +himself. "Now, Olly, give me your hands and jump in. Mind, it'll feel +very cold." + +Olly shut his eyes, and opened his mouth, as he always did when he felt +just a little frightened, and then in he went; splash! ugh! it was so +cold--much colder than the sea used to feel--but after a few splashes +Olly began to get used to it, and to think it fine fun. + +"Oh, father, fetch Milly, and then we'll all dance about," entreated +Olly. + +"Come, Milly," called Mr. Norton. "Try whether you can manage the +stepping-stones by yourself." So Milly came, holding up her bathing +dress, and stepping from one big stone to another with a very grave +face, as if she felt that there would be an end of her altogether if she +tumbled in. And then, splash! In she jumped by the side of Olly, and +after a little shiver or two she also began to think that the river was +a delightful bathing place, almost as nice as the sea, perhaps in some +ways nicer, because it was such a strange and funny one. They danced and +splashed about in the brown sparkling water till they were tired, and at +last Olly stopped to take breath. + +"I should think the fishes must be frightened of us," he said, peering +down into the river. "I can't see any, father." + +"Well, they wouldn't choose to swim about just where little children are +shouting and capering. The fishes are hidden safe away under the banks +and the big stones. Besides, it's going to be a very hot day, and they +like the shady bits of the river. Just here there's no shade." + +Suddenly there was a great commotion in the river, and when Mr. Norton +looked round for a second he could see nothing of Milly, till up came a +dripping head and a pair of hands, and there was Milly kneeling on the +stones at the bottom of the river, with just her head above water, +looking very much astonished and rather frightened. + +"Why, what happened, old woman?" said Mr. Norton, holding out his hand +to help her up. + +"I--I--don't quite know, father; I was standing on a big stone, and all +of a sudden it tipped up, and I tumbled right in." + +"First of all I thought you was a big fish, and then I thought you was +going to be drowned," said Olly, cheerfully. "I'm glad you wasn't +drowned." + +"Miss Milly! Miss Milly!" shouted nurse from the bank, "it's quite time +you came out now. If you stay in so long you'll get cold, and you, too, +Master Olly." + +Olly was not inclined to come. He would have liked to go on dabbling and +splashing till breakfast-time, but Mr. Norton hurried him out, and the +two dripping little creatures were well wrapped up in large shawls which +nurse had brought with her. Then nurse took up Olly in her arms, and +father took up Milly, who was small and light for her age, and they set +off up the bit of road to the house. By this time it was past six +o'clock, and whom should they meet at the Ravensnest gate but John +Backhouse, with Becky and Tiza, and his two dogs. He was just bringing +the milk, and both he and his children looked as brisk and wide awake as +if they had been up and about for hours. + +Milly and Olly were very much excited at the sight of them, and Olly +struggled hard to get down, but nurse held him tight. + +"Oh, Becky! we've had such a nice bathe," cried Milly, as she passed +them muffled up in her shawl, her little wet feet dangling out. + +Becky and Tiza looked longingly after them as they disappeared into the +house. They wished they could have had a bathe too, but they knew very +well that their hard-worked father and mother had something else to do +on a fine summer's morning than to take them to bathe, and in a few +minutes they had forgotten all about it, and were busy playing with the +dogs, or chattering to their father about the hay-making, which was soon +to begin now. + +That evening there were strange clouds at sunset time, and Mr. Norton +shook his head as he heard Mrs. Norton arrange to take the children next +day to a small mountain village near Ravensnest, to call on some old +friends of hers. + +"I wouldn't make much of a plan for to-morrow if I were you," he said to +his wife, "the weather doesn't look promising." + +"Oh, father!" said Milly, protesting. "There are some red clouds over +there--look! and Nana always says it's going to be fine when there are +red clouds." + +"Well, Milly, your red clouds may be right and I may be wrong. We shall +see." + +But, alas! father was quite right. When Milly woke up next morning there +was no nice sunshine creeping on to her bed as it had done almost ever +since they came to Ravensnest; but instead there was rain beating +steadily against the window, coming down out of a heavy gray sky, and +looking as if it meant to go on for ever. + +"Oh dear!" sighed Milly, as she began to dress, "we can't go out, and +the wild strawberries will get so wet. I meant to have gathered some for +mother to-day. There would have been such nice ones in the wood." + +But it was no use thinking about woods or strawberries, and when Mrs. +Norton came into the children's room just as they were finishing +breakfast, she found a pair of dull little faces staring out at the +rain, as if looking at it would make it stop. + +"Nasty rain," said Olly, climbing up on his mother's knee. "Go to Spain. +I don't want you to come and spoil my nicey time." + +"I am afraid scolding the rain won't make it go away," said his mother, +smiling into his brown face as he knelt on her lap, with his arms round +her neck. "Now what are we going to do to-day?" + +"I don't know," said Milly, sitting down opposite her mother, and +resting her face gravely on her hands. "Well, we brought _some_ toys, +you know, mother. Olly's got his top; I can help him spin it, and I can +play with Katie a bit." + +"That won't take very long," said Mrs. Norton. "Suppose we do some +lessons first of all." + +"Oh, mother, lessons!" said Milly, in a very doubtful voice. + +"It's holidays, mother, it's holidays," cried Olly. "I don't like +lessons--not a bit." + +"Well, but, Olly, think a bit; you can't spin your top and look at +picture-books all day, and I'm afraid it's going to rain all day--it +looks very like it. If you come and do some reading and counting with me +this morning, I can give you some spills to make, or some letters to +tear up for me afterwards. That will save the toys for this afternoon; +and some time this afternoon, if it doesn't stop raining, we'll all +have a romp. And as for you, Milly, don't you think it's quite time +Katie had a new frock? I believe I can find a beautiful bit of blue silk +in my bag, and I'm sure nurse will show you how to make it." + +Milly's face brightened up very much at this, and the two children went +skipping upstairs to the drawing-room after their mother, in very fair +spirits again. Olly did some reading, while Milly wrote in her copybook, +and then Olly had his counting-slate and tried to find out what 6 and 4 +made, and 5 and 3, and other little sums of the same kind. He yawned a +good deal over his reading, and was quite sure several times that h-a-y +spelt "ham," and s-a-w spelt "was," but still, on the whole, he got +through very well. Milly wrote her copy, then she learnt some verses of +a poem called "Lucy Gray," and last of all mother found her a big map of +Westmoreland, the county in which the mountains are, and they had a most +delightful geography lesson. Mother pretended to take Milly a drive all +about the mountains, and made her find out their names, and the names of +the towns and the lakes, beginning with Lake Windermere. Olly was +interested too, for Mrs. Norton told them a great many things about the +places, and made quite a story out of it. + +[Illustration: "He was quite sure that h-a-y spelt 'ham' and s-a-w spelt +'was.'"] + +"Why, mother, I never could go all that long way all at once--_really_, +could I?" asked Milly, when they had been all round the mountains, in +and out and round about. + +"No, Milly, not quite," said Mrs. Norton, laughing, "but it's very easy +to go a long way in a pretendy drive. It would only take us about ten +minutes that way to get to the other side of the world." + +"How long would it take really?" asked Olly. + +"About three months." + +"If we could fly up, and up, ever so far," said Olly, standing on +tiptoe, and stretching out his little arms as high as they would reach, +"it wouldn't take us long. Mother, don't you wish you was a bird?" + +"No, I don't think so, Olly; why do you?" + +"Because I should like to go so _krick_. Mother, the fly-catchers do fly +so krick; I can't see them sometimes when they're flying, they go so +fast. Oh, I do wish father would let me get up a ladder to look at +them." + +"No Olly, you'll frighten them," said Milly, putting on her wise face. +"Besides, father says you're too little, and you'd tumble down." + +Olly looked as if he didn't believe a word of it, as he generally did +when Milly talked wisely to him; but just then he found that mother had +put into his lap a whole basketful of letters to tear up, and that +interested him so much that he forgot the fly-catchers. Nurse cut out a +most fashionable blue dress for Katie, and Milly was quite happy all the +rest of the morning in running up the seams and hemming the bottom. So +the morning passed away. After dinner there were the toys to play with, +and Katie's frock to try on, for nurse had taken a turn at the body +while Milly had been making the skirt. It fitted very well, and Milly +had only the band to put on and the sleeves to make before it would be +quite finished. Then nurse promised to put a little white lace round the +neck, and cut out a blue sash, that Katie might be quite turned into an +elegant young lady. Tea came very soon, and when it was cleared away +father and mother came into the big kitchen without a fireplace, next to +the children's room, and they all had a splendid romp. Mr. Norton made +himself into a tiger, with a tiger-skin in the hall, that Uncle Richard +had brought home from India, and Olly shot him all over with a +walking-stick from the tip of his nose to the tip of his tail. When they +were tired of this, mother set them to play hide-and-seek, and Milly hid +herself in such out-of-the-way cupboards, and squeezed herself into such +small corners, that mother said she was like a needle in a bundle of +hay--there was no finding her. + +Seven o'clock came before they had time to think about it, and the +children went chattering and skipping up to bed, though on fine evenings +they had been staying up much later. How the rain did rattle on the +window while they were undressing. + +"Oh, you tiresome rain," said Milly, standing by the window in her +nightdress, and gazing up into the sky. "Where does it all come from, I +wonder? Won't it be wet to-morrow, Nana? and oh, what is that roaring +over there?" + +"That's the beck," said nurse, who was brushing Olly's hair, and trying +hard to make him stand still for two minutes. + +"The beck! why, what's the matter with it?" + +"It's the rain has made it so full I suppose," said nurse. "To-morrow, +gardener says, it'll be over the lawn if the rain goes on." + +"Oh, but it mustn't go on," said Milly. "Now, rain, dear rain, good +rain, do go away to-night, right away up into the mountains. There's +plenty of room for you up there, and down here we don't want you a bit. +So do be polite and go away." + +But the rain didn't see any good reason for going away, in spite of +Milly's pretty speeches, and next morning there was the same patter on +the window, the same gray sky and dripping garden. After breakfast there +was just a hope of its clearing up. For about an hour the rain seemed to +get less and the clouds a little brighter. But it soon came on again as +fast as ever, and the poor children were very much disappointed. + +"Mother," said Milly, when they had settled down to their lessons again +in the drawing-room, "when we get back to Willingham, do you know what I +shall do?" + +"No, Milly." + +"I shall ask you to take me to see that old gentleman--you know who I +mean--who told you about the rain. And I shall say to him, 'please, Mr. +Old Gentleman, at first I thought you were quite wrong about the rain, +but afterwards I thought you were quite right, and it does rain +dreadfully much in the mountains.'" + +"Very well, Milly. But you have only just had a taste of what the rain +can do in the lakes you know, so far. Father and I have been here +sometimes when it has rained two or three weeks without stopping." + +"Oh dear!" said Milly, looking extremely melancholy. "I like the +mountains very much, mother; but _do_ you think we'd better come to +Ravensnest again after this year?" + +"Oh you ungrateful little woman!" said Mrs. Norton, whose love for the +place was so real that Milly's speech gave her quite a pang. "Have you +forgotten all your happy sunshiny days here, just because it has rained +for two? Why, when I was a little girl, and used to come here, the rainy +days never made me love the place a bit the less. I always used to think +the fine days made up." + +"But then, mother, you were a nice little girl," said Milly, throwing +her arms round her mother's neck and kissing her. "Now, I don't feel a +bit nice this morning. It makes me so cross not to be able to go out and +get flowers and wild strawberries. And you know at home it hardly ever +rains all day." + +"Gardener says sometimes it rains all over the road," interrupted Olly, +"and people can't walk along, and they have to go right up on the +mountains to get past the water place. And sometimes they have to get a +boat to take people across. Do you think we shall have to go in a boat +to church on Sunday, mother?" + +"Well, we're a long way off that yet, Olly. It will take a good many +days' rain to flood the roads so deep that we can't get along them, and +this is only the second rainy day. Come, I don't think we've got much +to complain of. Now suppose, instead of doing all your lessons this +morning, you were presently to write to Jacky and Francis--you write to +Jacky, Milly, and Olly to Francis. Don't you think that would be a good +thing?" + +"Oh yes, yes!" cried Milly, shutting up her copybook in a great hurry. +"They'll be so much astonished, mother, for we didn't _promise_ to write +to them. I don't believe they ever get any letters." + +The children had a great deal of affection and some secret pity for +these playfellows of theirs, who had a sick mother, and who did not get +half the pleasures and amusements that they did. And, as I have already +told you, they could not bear Miss Chesterton, the little boys' aunt, +who lived with them. They felt sure that Jacky and Francis must be +unhappy, only because they had to live with Miss Chesterton. + +This was Milly's letter when it was done. Milly could only write very +slowly, in rather big hand, so that her letters were never very long: + + MY DEAR JACKY--Don't you think it very odd getting a letter from + me? It is nearly a fortnight since we came here. At first it was + _very_ nice. We went up the mountains, and Aunt Emma took us in + a boat on the lake. And we gathered some wild strawberries, only + some of them were quite white--not red a bit. But now it has + begun to rain, and we don't like it at all. Perhaps we sha'n't + be able to get home because the rain will cover up the roads. It + is _very_ dull staying in, only mother makes us such nice plays. + Good-bye, Jacky. I send my love to Francis. Mind you don't + forget us. + + Your loving little friend, + MILLY. + +Olly wrote a much longer letter, that is to say, mother wrote for him, +and he told her what to say, and as this was a much easier way of +writing than Milly's way, he got on very fast, and Mrs. Norton had to +write as quickly as she could, to keep up with him. And this was what +Olly had to say: + + MY DEAR FRANCIS--I wonder what you'll say to-morrow morning + when the postman brings you this letter. I hope you'll write + back, because it won't be fair if you don't. It isn't such fun + here now because it does rain so. Milly and I are always telling + the rain to go away, but it won't--though it did at home. Last + week we went out in a boat, and I rowed. I rowed a great way, + much farther than Milly. We went very slow when Milly rowed. It + was very jolly at the picnic. Aunt Emma gave me some cake, and + mother gave me some bread and jam. Nana won't let us have cake + and jam both, when we have tea at home. Aunt Emma told us a + story about King Arthur. I don't believe you ever heard it. The + water-fairies took him away, and his friend wanted to go too, + but the king said 'No! you must stop behind.' Milly cried + because she felt sad about the king. I didn't cry, because I'm a + little boy. Mother says you won't understand about the story, + and she says we must tell it you when we get home. So we will, + only perhaps we sha'n't remember. Do you do lessons now? We + don't do any--only when it rains. Milly's writing a letter to + Jacky--mine's much longer than hers. + + Your little friend, + OLLY. + +Then came the putting up the letters, addressing them, and stamping +them, all of which the children enjoyed very much, and by the time they +were laid on the hall table ready to go to the post it was nearly +dinner-time. + +How the beck did roar that afternoon. And when the children looked out +from the drawing-room window they could see a little flood on the lawn, +where the water had come over the side of the stream. While they were +having their tea, with mother sitting by, working and chattering to +them, they heard a knock at the door, and when they opened it there was +father standing in the unused kitchen, with the water running off his +waterproof coat, making little streams all over the stone floor. + +"I have been down to look at the river," he said to Mrs. Norton. "Keep +off, children! I'm much too wet to touch. Such rain! It does know how +to come down here! The water's over the road just by the +stepping-stones. John Backhouse says if it goes on another twenty-four +hours like this, there'll be no getting to Wanwick by the road, on +foot." + +"Father," said Milly, looking at him with a very solemn face, "wouldn't +it be dreadful if it went on raining and raining, and if the river came +up and up, right up to the drive and into the hall, and we all had to +sit upstairs, and the butcher couldn't bring us any meat, and John +Backhouse couldn't bring us any milk, and we all _died_ of hunger." + +"Then they would put us into some black boxes," said Olly, cheerfully, +with his mouth full of bread and butter, "and they would put the black +boxes into some boats, and take us right away and bury us +krick--wouldn't they, mother?" + +"Well, but--" said Mr. Norton, who had by this time got rid of his wet +coat, and was seated by Milly, helping himself to some tea, "suppose we +got into the boats before we were dead, and rowed away to Windermere +station?" + +"Oh no! father," said Milly, who always liked her stories to be as +gloomy as possible, "they wouldn't know anything about us till we were +dead you know, and then they'd come and find us, and be _very_ sorry for +us, and say, 'Oh dear! oh dear! what a pity!'" + +Olly began to look so dismal as Milly's fancies grew more and more +melancholy, that Mrs. Norton took to laughing at them all. What did they +know about Westmoreland rain indeed. This was nothing--just nothing at +all; she _could_ remember some floods in the wintertime, when she was a +little girl, and used to stay with Aunt Emma and great-grandmamma; but +as for this, why, it was a good summer wetting, and that was all. + +A romp sent the children to bed in excellent spirits again. This time +both Milly and Olly stood at the window together, and told the rain to +be sure to go to Spain that night, and never come back again while they +were at Ravensnest. + +"Or you might go to Willingham, you know, dear Mr. Rain," said Milly; "I +daresay mother's flowers want a good watering. And there's Spot--you +might give her a good washing--she _can_ wash herself, but she won't. +Only we don't want you here, Mr. Rain." + +But what an obstinate disagreeable Mr. Rain it was! All that night it +went on pouring, till the little beck in the garden was so full it was +almost choked, and could only get along by sputtering and foaming as if +some wicked water-fairies were driving it along and tormenting it. And +all the little pools on the mountain, the "tarns," as Becky and Tiza +called them, filled up, and the rain made the mountain itself so wet +that it was like one big bog all over. + +When the children woke up the flood on the lawn was growing bigger, and +it seemed to them as if the house and garden were all wrapped up in a +wet white cloud-blanket. They could not see the mountain at all from the +window, it was all covered with a thick white mist, and the dark fir +trees in the garden looked sad and drooping, as if the weight of +raindrops was too much for them to carry. + +The children had made up their minds so completely the night before that +it _couldn't_ rain more than two days running, that they felt as if they +could hardly be expected to bear this third wet morning cheerfully. +Nurse found them cross and out of spirits at breakfast. Even a prospect +of asking Becky and Tiza to tea did not bring any smiles to their +forlorn little faces. It would be no fun having anybody to tea. They +couldn't go out, and there was nothing amusing indoors. + +After breakfast, Olly set to work to get into mischief, as he generally +did when he felt dull. Nurse discovered him smearing Katie's cheeks with +raspberry jam "to make them get red kricker" as he said, and alas! some +of the jam had stuck to the new silk frock, and spoilt all its smart +fresh look. + +When Milly found it out she began to cry, and when Mrs. Norton came in +she saw a heap on the floor, which was Milly, sobbing, while Olly sat +beside her with his mouth wide open, as if he was a good deal astonished +at the result of his first attempt at doctoring. + +"Pick up the pieces, old woman," said Mrs. Norton, taking hold of the +heap and lifting it up. "What's the matter with you both?" + +"Olly's spoilt my doll," sobbed Milly, "and it _will_ go on raining--and +I feel so--so--dull." + +"I didn't spoil her doll, mother," cried Olly, eagerly. "I only rubbed +some jam on its cheeks to make them a nicey pink--only some of it +_would_ sticky her dress--I didn't mean to." + +"How would you like some jam rubbed on your cheeks, sir?" said Mrs. +Norton, who could scarcely help laughing at poor Katie's appearance when +nurse handed the doll to her. "Suppose you leave Milly's dolls alone for +the future; but cheer up, Milly! I think I can make Katie very nearly +right again. Come upstairs to my room and we'll try." + +After a good deal of sponging and rubbing, and careful drying by the +kitchen fire, Katie came very nearly right again, and then Mrs. Norton +tried whether some lessons would drive the rain out of the children's +heads. But the lessons did not go well. It was all Milly could do to +help crying every time she got a figure wrong in her sum, and Olly took +about ten minutes to read two lines of his reading-book. Olly had just +begun his sums, and Milly was standing up to say some poetry to her +mother, looking a woebegone little figure, with pale cheeks and heavy +eyes, when suddenly there was a noise of wheels outside, and both the +children turned to look out of the window. + +"A carriage! a carriage!" shouted Olly, jumping down, and running to the +window. + +There, indeed, was one of the shut-up "cars," as the Westmoreland people +call them, coming up the Ravensnest drive. + +"It's Aunt Emma," said Mrs. Norton, starting up, "how good of her to +come over on such a day. Run, children, and open the front door." + +Down flew Milly and Olly, tumbling over one another in their hurry; but +father had already thrown the door open, and who should they see +stepping down the carriage-steps but Aunt Emma herself, with her soft +gray hair shining under her veil, and her dear kind face as gentle and +cheery as ever. + +"Aunt Emma! Aunt Emma!" shouted Olly, dancing up to her, and throwing +his arms round her, "_are_ you come to tell us about old Mother +Quiverquake?" + +"You gipsy, don't strangle me! Well, Lucy dear, here I am. Will you have +me to dinner? I thought we'd all be company for each other this bad day. +Why, Milly, what have you been doing to your cheeks?" + +"She's been crying," said Olly, in spite of Milly's pulling him by the +sleeve to be quiet, "because I stickened her doll." + +"Well, and quite right too. Dolls weren't made to be stickied. But now, +who's going to carry my bag upstairs? Take it gently, Milly, it's got my +cap inside, and if you crumple my cap I shall have to sit with my head +in a bandbox at dinner. Old ladies are _never_ seen without their caps +you know. The most dreadful things would happen if they were! Olly, you +may put my umbrella away. There now, I'll go to mother's room and take +off my things." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +A STORY-TELLING GAME + + +When Aunt Emma was safely settled, cap and all, in one of the +drawing-room arm-chairs, it seemed to the children as if the rain and +the gray sky did not matter nearly so much as they had done half an hour +before. In the first place, her coming made something new and +interesting to think about; and in the second place, they felt quite +sure that Aunt Emma hadn't brought her little black bag into the +drawing-room with her for nothing. If only her cap had been in it, why +of course she would have left it in mother's bedroom. But here it was in +her lap, with her two hands folded tight over it, as if it contained +something precious! How very puzzling and interesting! + +However, for a long time it seemed as if Aunt Emma had nothing at all to +say about her bag. She began to tell them about her drive--how in two +places the horse had to go splashing through the water, and how once, +when they were crossing a little river that ran across the road, the +water came so far up the wheels that "I put my head out of the window," +said Aunt Emma, "and said to my old coachman, 'Now, John, if it's going +to get any deeper than this, you'd better turn him round and go home, +for I'm an old woman, not a fish, and I can't swim. Of course, if the +horse can swim with the carriage behind him it's all right, but I have +my doubts.' Now John, my dears, has been with me a great many years, and +he knows very well that I'm rather a nervous old woman. It's very sad, +but it is so. Don't you be nervous when you're old people. So all he +said was 'All right, ma'am. Bless you, he can swim like a trout.' And +crack went the whip, splash went the water! It seemed to me it was just +going to come in under the door, when, lo and behold! there we were safe +and sound on dry ground again. But whether my old horse swam through or +walked through I can't tell you. I like to believe he swam, because I'm +so fond of him, and one likes to believe the creatures one loves can do +clever things." + +"I'll ask John when he comes to take you away, Aunt Emma," said Olly. "I +don't believe horses can swim when they're in a carriage." + +"You're a matter-of-fact monkey," said Aunt Emma. "Dear me, what's +that?" + +For a loud squeak had suddenly startled the children, who were now +looking about them everywhere in vain, to find out where it came from. +Squeak! again. This time the voice certainly came from near Aunt Emma's +chair, but there was nothing to be seen. + +"What a strange house you live in," said Aunt Emma, with a perfectly +grave face. "You must have caught a magician somehow. That's a +magician's squeak." + +Again came the noise! + +"I know, I know!" shouted Olly. "It's Aunt Emma's bag! I'm sure it came +out of the bag." + +"My bag!"--holding it up and looking at it. "Now does it look like a bag +that squeaks? It's a perfectly well-behaved bag, and never did such a +thing in its life." + +"I know, Aunt Emma," said Olly, dancing round her in great excitement. +"You've got the parrot in there!" + +"Well now," said Aunt Emma. "This is really serious. If you think I am +such a cruel old woman as to shut up a poor poll-parrot in a bag, +there's no help for it, we must open the bag. But it's a very curious +bag--I wouldn't stand too near it if I were you." + +Click! went the fastening of the bag, and out jumped--what do you think? +Why, the very biggest frog that was ever seen, in this part of the world +at any rate, a green speckled frog, that hopped on to Aunt Emma's knee, +and then on to the floor, where it went hopping and squeaking along the +carpet, till all of a sudden, when it got to the door, it turned over on +its back, and lay there quite quiet with its legs in the air. + +The children followed it with looks half of horror, half of amazement. + +"What is it, Aunt Emma? Is it alive?" asked Milly, jumping on to a chair +as the frog came near her, and drawing her little skirts tight round her +legs, while Olly went cautiously after it, with his hands on his knees, +one step at a time. + +"You'd better ask it," said Aunt Emma, who had at last begun to laugh a +little, as if it was impossible to keep grave any longer. "I'm sure it +looks very peaceable just now, poor thing." + +So the children crept up to it, and examined it closely. Yes, it was a +green speckled frog, but what it was made of, and whether it was alive, +and if it was not alive how it managed to hop and squeak--these were the +puzzles. + +"Take hold of it, Milly," said Mr. Norton, who had just come up from his +work, and was standing laughing near the door. "Turn it over on its legs +again." + +"No, I'll turn it," cried Olly, making a dash, and turning it over in a +great hurry, keeping his legs and feet well out of the way. Hop! squeak! +there it was off again, right down the room with the children after it, +till it suddenly came up against a table leg, and once more turned over +on its back and lay quite still. + +"Oh, Aunt Emma, is it a toy?" asked Milly, who now felt brave enough to +take it up and look at it. + +"Well, Milly, I believe so--a very lively one. Bring it here, and I'll +tell you something about it." + +So the children brought it very cautiously, as if they were not quite +sure what it would do next, and then Aunt Emma explained to them that +she had once paid a visit to a shop in London where Japanese toys--toys +made in the country of Japan--far away on the other side of the +world--were sold, and that there she found master froggy. + +"And there never was such a toy as froggy for a wet day," said Aunt +Emma. "I have tried him on all sorts of boys and girls, and he never +fails. He's as good a cure for a cross face as a poultice is for a sore +finger. But, Milly, listen! I declare there's something else going on in +my bag. I really think, my dear bag, you might be quiet now that you +have got rid of froggy! What can all this chattering be about? Sh! sh!" +and Aunt Emma held up her finger at the children, while she held the bag +up to her ear, and listened carefully. Olly was almost beside himself +with excitement, but Milly had got his little brown hands tight in hers +for fear he should make a jump at the bag. "Yes," said Aunt Emma. "It's +just as I thought. The bag declares it's not his fault at all, but that +if I will give him such noisy creatures to carry I must take the +consequences. He says there's a whole family now inside him, making such +a noise he can hardly hear himself speak. It's enough, he says, to drive +a respectable bag mad, and he must blow up if it goes on. Dear me! I +must look into this. Milly, come here!" + +Milly came near, and Aunt Emma opened the bag solemnly. + +"Now, Milly, I'll hold it for fear it should take it into its poor head +to blow up, and you put your hand in and see what you can find." + +So Milly put her hand in, feeling a good deal excited as to what might +happen--and what do you think she brought out? A whole handful of the +most delicious dolls:--cardboard dolls of all sorts and kinds, like +those in mother's drawer at home; paper dolls, mamma dolls, little boy +dolls and little girl dolls, baby dolls and nurse dolls; dolls in suits +and dolls in frocks; dolls in hats and dolls in nightgowns; a papa in +trousers and a mamma in a magnificent blue dress with flounces and a +train; a nurse in white cap and apron and the most bewitching baby doll +you ever saw, with a frilled paper cap that slipped on and off, and a +white frock with pink ribbons. And the best of these dolls was, that +each of them had a piece of cardboard fastened on behind and a little +bit of cardboard to stand on, so that when you spread out the piece +behind they stood up as naturally as possible, and looked as if they +were going to talk to you. + +"Oh, Aunt Emma, dear Aunt Emma!" cried Milly, beside herself with +delight as she spread them all out in her lap. "They're just like +mother's at home, mother's that you made for her when she was a little +girl--only ever so many more." + +"Well, Milly, I made mother's for her long ago, when it rained for days +and days without stopping, and she had grown tired of pretty nearly +everything and everybody indoors; and now I have been spending part of +these rainy days in making a new set for mother's little girl. There, +dear little woman, I think you must have given me a kiss for each of +them by this time. Suppose you try and make them stand up." + +"But, Aunt Emma," said Olly, who was busy examining the mysterious +bag--how could the dolls talk? they're only paper." + +"I know nothing about it," answered Aunt Emma, rescuing the bag, and +putting it safely under her chair. "You _might_ ask the bag--but it +wouldn't answer you. Magical bags never do talk except to their masters +or mistresses." + +So Olly had to puzzle it out for himself while he played with the +Japanese frog. That was an extraordinary frog! You should have seen +nurse's start when Olly hid himself in the passage and sent the frog +hopping and squeaking through the open door of the night nursery, where +nurse was sitting sewing; and as for cook, when the creature came +flopping over her kitchen floor she very nearly spoilt the hash she was +making for dinner by dropping a whole pepper-box into the middle of it! +There was no end to the fun to be got out of froggy, and Olly amused +himself with it the whole of the morning, while Milly went through long +stories with her dolls upstairs, helped every now and then by Aunt Emma, +who sat knitting and talking to mother. + +At dinner the children had to sit quiet while Mr. and Mrs. Norton and +Aunt Emma talked. Father and mother had been almost as much cheered up +by Aunt Emma's coming as the children themselves, and now the +dinner-table was lively with pleasant talk; talk about books, and talk +about pictures, and talk about foreign places, and talk about the +mountains and the people living near Ravensnest, many of whom mother had +known when she was a little girl. Milly, who was old enough to listen, +could only understand a little bit here and there; but there was always +Aunt Emma's friendly gentle face to look at, and her soft old hand in +its black mitten, to slip her own little fingers into; while Olly was so +taken up with the prospects of the black-currant pudding which he had +seen cook making in the morning, and the delight of it when it came, +that it seemed no trouble to him to sit still. + +As for the rain, there was not much difference. Perhaps there were a few +breaks in the clouds, and it might be beating a little less heavily on +the glass conservatory outside the dining-room, still, on the whole, the +weather was much the same as it had been. It was wonderful to see how +little notice the children had taken of it since Aunt Emma came, and +when they escorted her upstairs after dinner, they quite forgot to rush +to the window and look out, as they had been doing the last three days +at every possible opportunity. + +The children got her safe into a chair, and then Olly brought a stool to +one side of her, and Milly brought a stool to the other. + +"_Now,_ can you remember about old Mother Quiverquake?" said Olly, +resting his little sunburnt chin on Aunt Emma's knee, and looking up to +her with eager eyes. + +[Illustration: "'Suppose we have a story-telling game'"] + +"Well, I daresay I shall begin to remember about her presently; but +suppose, children, we have a _story-telling game_. We'll tell +stories--you and Olly, father, mother, and everybody. That's much fairer +than that one person should do all the telling." + +"We couldn't," said Milly, shaking her head gravely, "we are only little +children. Little children can't make up stories." + +"Suppose little children try," said mother. "I think Aunt Emma's is an +excellent plan. Now, father, you'll have to tell one too." + +"Father's lazy," said Mr. Norton, coming out from behind his newspaper. +"But, perhaps, if you all of you tell very exciting stories you may stir +him up." + +"Oh, father!" cried Olly, who had a vivid remembrance of his father's +stories, though they only came very seldom, "tell us about the rat with +three tails, and the dog that walked on its nose." + +"Oh dear, no!" said Mr. Norton, "those won't do for such a grand +story-telling as this. I must think of some story which is all long +words and good children." + +"_Don't_ father," said Milly, imploringly, "it's ever so much nicer when +they get into scrapes, you know, and tumble down, and all that." + +"Who's to begin?" said Aunt Emma. "I think mother had better begin. +Afterwards it will be your turn, Olly; then father, then Milly, and then +me." + +"I don't believe I've got a scrap of a story in my head," said Mrs. +Norton. "It's weeks since I caught one last." + +"Then look here, Olly," said Aunt Emma, "I'll tell you what to do. Go up +gently behind mother, and kiss her three times on the top of the head. +That's the way to send the stories in. Mother will soon begin to feel +one fidgeting inside her head after that." + +So Olly went gently up behind his mother, climbed on a stool at the back +of her chair, and kissed her softly three times at the back of her head. +Mrs. Norton lay still for a few moments after the kisses, with closed +eyes. + +"Ah!" she said at last. "Now I think I've caught one. But it's a very +little one, poor little thing. And yet, strange to say, though it's very +little, it's very old. Now, children, you must be kind to my story. I +caught him first a great many years ago in an old book, but I am afraid +you will hardly care for him as much as I did. Well, once upon a time +there was a great king." + +"Was it King Arthur, mother?" interrupted Olly, eagerly. + +"Oh no! this king lived in a different country altogether. He lived in a +beautiful hot country over the sea, called Spain." + +"Oh, mother! a _hot_ country!" protested Milly, "that's where the rain +goes to." + +"Well, Milly, I don't think you know any more about it, except that you +_tell_ the rain to go there. Don't you know by this time that the rain +never does what it's told? Really, very little rain goes to Spain, and +in some parts of the country the people would be very glad indeed if we +could send them some of the rain we don't want at Ravensnest. But now, +you mustn't interrupt me, or I shall forget my story--Well there was +once a king who lived in a _very_ hot part of Spain, where they don't +have much rain, and where it hardly ever snows or freezes. And this king +had a beautiful wife, whom he loved very much. But, unluckily, this +beautiful wife had one great fault. She was always wishing for the most +unreasonable and impossible things, and though the king was always +trying to get her what she wanted she was never satisfied, and every day +she seemed to grow more and more discontented and exacting. At last, one +day in the winter, a most extraordinary thing happened. A shower of snow +fell in Cordova, which was the name of the town where the king and queen +lived, and it whitened the hills all around the town, so that they +looked as if somebody had been dusting white sugar over them. Now snow +was hardly ever seen in Cordova, and the people in the town wondered at +it, and talked about it a great deal. But after she had looked at it a +little-while the queen began to cry bitterly. None of her ladies could +comfort her, nor would she tell any of them what was the matter. There +she sat at her window, weeping, till the king came to see her. When he +came he could not imagine what she was crying about, and begged her to +tell him why. 'I am weeping,' she said, sobbing all the time, 'because +the hills--are not always--covered with snow. See how pretty they look! +And yet--I have never, till now, seen them look like that. If you really +loved me, you would manage some way or other that it should snow once a +year at any rate.' + +"'But how can I make it snow?' cried the king in great trouble, because +she would go on weeping and weeping, and spoiling her pretty eyes. + +"'I'm sure I don't know,' said the queen, crossly, 'but you can't love +me a bit, or you'd certainly try.' + +"Well, the king thought and thought, and at last he hit upon a beautiful +plan. He sent into all parts of Spain to buy almond trees, and planted +them on the hills all round the town. Now the almond tree, as you know, +has a lovely pinky-white blossom, so when the next spring arrived all +these thousands of almond trees came out into bloom all over the hills +round Cordova, so that they looked at a distance as if they were covered +with white snow. And for once the queen was delighted, and could not +help saying a nice 'Thank you' to the king for all the trouble he had +taken to please her. But it was not very long before she grew +discontented again, and began once more to wish for all kinds of +ridiculous things. One day she was sitting at her window, and she saw +some ragged little children playing by the river that ran round the +palace. They were dabbling in the mud at the side, sticking their little +bare feet into it, or scooping up pieces which they rolled into balls +and threw at one another. The queen watched them for some time, and at +last she began to weep bitterly. One of her maidens ran and told the +king that the queen was weeping, and he came in a great hurry to see +what was the matter. + +"'Just look at those children down there!' said the queen, sobbing and +pointing to them. 'Did you ever see anybody so happy? Why can't I have +mud to dabble in too, and why can't I take off my shoes and stockings, +and amuse myself like the children do, instead of being so dull and +stuck-up all day long?' + +"'Because it isn't proper for queens to dabble in the mud,' said the +poor king in great perplexity, for he didn't at all like the idea of +his beautiful queen dabbling in the mud with the little ragged children. + +"'That's just like you,' said the queen, beginning to cry faster than +ever,' you never do anything to please me. What's the good of being +proper? What's the good of being a queen at all?' + +"This made the king very unhappy, and again he thought and thought, till +at last he hit upon a plan. He ordered a very large shallow bath of +white marble to be made in the palace-garden. Then he poured into it all +kinds of precious stones, and chips of sweet-smelling wood, besides a +thousand cartloads of rose-leaves and a thousand cartloads of orange +flowers. All these he ordered to be stirred up together with a great +ivory spoon, till they made a kind of wonderful mud, and then he had the +bath filled up with scented water. + +"'Now then,' he said to the queen, when he had brought her down to look +at it, 'you may take off your shoes and stockings and paddle about in +this mud as much as you like.' You may imagine that this was a very +pleasant kind of mud to dabble in, and the queen and her ladies amused +themselves with it immensely for some time. But nothing could keep this +tiresome queen amused for long together, and in about a fortnight she +had grown quite tired of her wonderful bath. It seemed as if the king's +pains had been all thrown away. She grew cross and discontented again, +and her ladies began to say to each other, 'What will she wish for next, +I wonder? The king might as well try to drink up the sea as try to get +her all she wants.' At last, one day, when she and her ladies were +walking near the palace, they met a shepherdess driving a flock of sheep +up into the hills. The shepherdess looked so pretty and bright in her +red petticoat and tall yellow cap, that the queen stopped to speak to +her. + +"'Where are you going, pretty maiden, with your woolly white sheep?' she +asked. + +"'I am going up to the hills,' said the shepherdess. 'Now the sun has +scorched up the fields down below we must take our sheep up to the cool +hills, where the grass is still fresh and green. Good-day, good-day, the +sheep are going so fast I cannot wait.' So on she tripped, singing and +calling to her sheep, who came every now and then to rub their soft +coats against her, as if they loved her. The queen looked after her, and +her face began to pucker up. + +"'Why am I not a shepherdess?' she exclaimed, bursting into tears. 'I +_hate_ being a queen! I never sang as merrily as that little maiden in +all my life. I must and will be a shepherdess, and drive sheep up into +the mountain, or I shall die!" + +"And all that night the foolish queen sat at her window crying, and when +the morning came she had made herself look quite old and ugly. When the +king came to see her he was dreadfully troubled, and begged her to tell +him what was the matter now. + +"'I want to be a shepherdess, and drive sheep up into the mountains,' +sobbed the queen. 'Why should the little shepherdess girls look always +so happy and merry, while I am dying of dulness?' + +"The king thought it was very unkind of her to say she was dying of +dulness when he had taken so much trouble to get her all she wanted; but +he knew it was no good talking to her while she was in such a temper. So +all he said was: + +"'How can I turn you into a shepherdess? These shepherdesses stay out +all night with their sheep on the hills, and live on water and a crust +of bread. How would you like that?' + +"'Of course I-should like it,' said the queen, 'anything for a change. +Besides, nothing could be nicer than staying out of doors these lovely +nights. And as for food, you know very well that I am never hungry here, +and that it doesn't matter in the least to me what I eat!' + +"'Well,' said the king, 'you shall go up to the hills, if you promise to +take your ladies with you, and if you will let me send a tent to shelter +you at night, and some servants to look after you.' + +"'As if that would give me any pleasure!' said the queen, 'to be +followed about and waited upon is just what I detest. I will go alone; +just like that pretty little shepherdess, if I go at all.' + +"But the king declared that nothing would induce him to let her go +alone. So the queen set to work to cry, and she cried for two days and +two nights without stopping, and at the end of that time the poor king +was ready to let her go anywhere or do anything for the sake of a little +peace. + +"So she had her own way. They found her a flock of the loveliest white +sheep, all with blue ribbons round their necks, and blue rosettes on +their little white tails; and the queen dressed herself up in a red silk +petticoat and a cap embroidered in gold and silver, and then she set out +by herself. + +"At first it was all delightful. She drove the sheep up the soft green +hillsides, and laughed with delight to see them nibbling the fresh +grass, and running hither and thither after her, and after each other. +The evening sun shone brightly, and she sat herself down on a rock and +sang all the tunes she knew, that she might be just like the little +shepherdess. But while she was singing the sheep strayed away, and she +had to run after them as fast as she could, to catch them up. This made +her hot and tired, so she tried to make them lie down under a chestnut +tree, that she might rest beside them. But the sheep were not a bit +tired, and had no mind to rest at all. While she was calling one set of +them together the other set ran scampering off, and the queen found out +that she must just give up her way for once and follow theirs. On went +the sheep, up hill and down dale, nibbling and frisking and trotting to +their hearts' content, till the queen was worn out. + +"At last, by the time the sun was setting, the poor queen was so tired +that she could walk no longer. Down she sat, and the ungrateful sheep +kicked up their little hind legs and trotted away out of sight as fast +as they could trot. There she was left on the hillside all alone. It +began to get dark, and the sky, instead of being blue and clear as it +had been, filled with black clouds. + +"'Oh dear! oh dear!' sighed the queen, 'here is a storm coming. If I +could only find my way down the hill, if I could only see the town!' + +"But there were trees all about her, which hid the view, and soon it was +so dark there was nothing to be seen, not even the stars. And presently, +crash came the thunder, and after the thunder the rain--such rain! It +soaked the queen's golden cap till it was so heavy with water she was +obliged to throw it away, and her silk petticoat was as wet as if she +had been taking a bath in it. In vain she ran hither and thither, trying +to find a way through the trees, while the rain blinded her, and the +thunder deafened her, till at last she was forced to sink down on the +ground, feeling more wretched and frightened and cold than any queen +ever felt before. Oh, if she were only safe back in her beautiful +palace! If only she had the tent the king wanted to send with her! But +there all night she had to stay, and all night the storm went on, till +the queen was lying in a flood, and the owls and bats, startled out of +their holes, went flying past her in the dark, and frightening her out +of her senses. When the morning came there was such a shivering, +crumpled up queen sitting on the grass, that even her own ladies would +scarcely have known her. + +"'Oh, husband! husband!' she cried, getting up and wringing her cold +little hands. 'You will never find me, and your poor wicked wife will +die of cold and hunger.' + +"Tirra-lirra! tirra-lirra! What was that sounding in the forest? +Surely--surely--it was a hunting horn. But who could be blowing it so +early in the cold gray morning, when it was scarcely light? On ran the +queen toward where the sound came from. Over rocks and grass she ran, +till, all of a sudden, stepping out from behind a tree, came the king +himself, who had been looking for her for hours. And then what do you +think the discontented queen did? She folded her hands, and hung her +head, and said, quite sadly and simply: + +"'Oh, my lord king, make me a shepherdess really. I don't deserve to be +a queen. Send me away, and let me knit and spin for my living. I have +plagued you long enough.' + +"And suddenly it seemed to the king as if there had been a black speck +in the queen's heart, which had been all washed away by the rain; and he +took her hands, and led her home to the palace in joy and gladness. And +so they lived happy ever afterward." + +"Thank you _very_ much, mother," said Milly, stretching up her arms and +drawing down Mrs. Norton's face to kiss her. "Do you really think the +queen was never discontented any more?" + +"I can't tell you any more than the story does," said Mrs. Norton. "You +see there would always be that dreadful night to think about, if she +ever felt inclined to be; but I daresay the queen didn't find it very +easy at first." + +"I would have made her be a shepherdess," said Olly, shaking his head +gravely. "She wasn't nice, not a bit." + +"Little Mr. Severity!" said Aunt Emma, pulling his brown curls. "It's +your turn next, Olly." + +"Then Milly must kiss me first," said Olly, looking rather scared, as if +something he didn't quite understand was going to happen to him. + +So Milly went through the operation of kissing him three times on the +back of the head, and then Olly's eyes, finding it did no good to stare +at Aunt Emma or mother, went wandering all round the room in search of +something else to help him. Suddenly they came to the window, where a +brown speck was dancing up and down, and then Olly's face brightened, +and he began in a great hurry: + +"Once upon a time there was a daddy-long-legs--" + +"Well," said Milly, when they had waited a little while, and nothing +more came. + +"I don't know any more," said Olly. + +"Oh, that _is_ silly," said Milly, "why, that isn't a story at all. Shut +your eyes tight, that's much the best way of making a story." + +So Olly shut his eyes, and pressed his two hands tightly over them, and +then he began again: + +"Once upon a time there was a daddy-long-legs--" + +Another stop. + +"Was it a _good_ daddy-long-legs?" asked Milly, anxious to help him on. + +"Yes," said Olly, "that's it, Milly. Once upon a time there was a good +daddy-long-legs--" + +"Well, what did he do?" asked Milly, impatiently. + +"He--he--flewed on to father's nose!" said Olly, keeping his hands tight +over his eyes, while his little white teeth appeared below in a broad +grin. + +"And father said, 'Who's that on my nose?' and the daddy-long-legs said, +'It's me, don't you know?' And father said, 'Get away off my nose, I +don't like you a bit.' And the daddy-long-legs said, 'I shan't go away. +It's hot on the window, the sun gets in my eyes. I like sitting up here +best.' So father took a big sofa-cushion and gave his nose _ever_ such a +bang! And the daddy-long-legs tumbled down dead. And the cushion tumbled +down dead. And father tumbled down dead. And that's all," said Olly +opening his eyes, and looking extremely proud of himself. + +"Oh, you silly boy!" cried Milly, "that isn't a bit like a real story." + +But Aunt Emma and father and mother laughed a good deal at Olly's story, +and Aunt Emma said it would do very well for such a small boy. + +Whose turn was it next? + +"Father's turn! father's turn!" cried the children, in great glee, +looking round for him; but while Olly's story had been going on, Mr. +Norton, who was sitting behind them in a big arm-chair, had been +covering himself up with sofa cushions and newspapers, till there was +only the tip of one of his boots to be seen, coming out from under the +heap. The children were a long time dragging him out, for he pelted them +with cushions, and crumpled the newspapers over their heads, till they +were so tired with laughing and struggling they had no strength left. + +"Father, it isn't fair, I don't think," said Milly at last, sitting a +breathless heap on the floor. "Of course little people can't _make_ big +people do things, so the big people ought to do them without making." + +"That's not at all good reasoning, Milly," said Mr. Norton, who could +not resist the temptation of throwing one more sofa cushion at her +laughing face. "You can't _make_ nurse stand on her head, but that's no +reason why nurse should stand on her head." + +Just then Olly, moving up a stool behind his father's chair, brought his +little mouth suddenly down on his father's head, and gave him three +kisses in a great hurry, with a shout of triumph at the end. + +"Dear me!" said Mr. Norton, shutting his eyes and falling back as if +something had happened to him. "This is very serious. Aunt Emma, that +spell of yours is really _too_ strong. My poor head! It will certainly +burst if I don't get this story out directly! Come, jump up, +children--quick!" + +Up jumped the children, one on each knee, and Mr. Norton began at once. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE STORY OF BEOWULF + + +Once upon a time there was a great--" + +"Father," interrupted Milly, "I shall soon be getting tired of 'Once +upon a time there was a great king.'" + +"Don't cry till you're hurt, Milly; which means, wait till I get to the +end of my sentence. Well, once upon a time there was a great--hero." + +"What is a hero?" asked Olly. + +"I know," said Milly, eagerly, "it's a brave man that's always fighting +and killing giants and dragons and cruel people." + +"That'll do to begin with," said Mr. Norton, "though, when you grow +older, you will find that people can be heroes without fighting or +killing. However, the man I am going to tell you about was just the kind +of hero you're thinking of, Milly. He loved fighting with giants and +dragons and wild people, and my story is going to be about two of his +fights--the greatest he ever fought. The name of this hero was Beowulf, +and he lived in a country called Sweden (Milly knows all about Sweden, +Olly, and you must get her to show it you on the map), with a number of +other brave men who were his friends, and helped him in his battles. And +one day a messenger came over the sea from another country close by, +called Denmark, and the messenger said, 'Which of all you brave men will +come over and help my master, King Hrothgar, who is in sore trouble?' +And the messenger told them how Hrothgar, for many years past, had been +plagued by a monster--the hateful monster Grendel--half a man and half a +beast, who lived at the bottom of a great bog near the king's palace. +Every night, he said, Grendel the monster came out of the bog with his +horrible mother beside him--a wolf-like creature, fearful to look +upon--and he and she would roam about the country, killing and slaying +all whom they met. Sometimes they would come stalking to the king's +palace, where his brave men were sleeping round the fire in the big +hall, and before anyone could withstand him Grendel would fall upon the +king's warriors, kill them by tens and twenties, and carry off their +dead bodies to his bog. Many a brave man had tried to slay the monster, +but none had been able so much as to wound him. + +"When Beowulf and his friends had heard this story they thought a while, +and then each said to the other, 'Let us go across the sea and rid King +Hrothgar of this monster.' So they took ship and went across the sea to +Hrothgar's country, and Hrothgar welcomed them royally, and made a great +feast in their honour. And after the feast Hrothgar said to Beowulf, +'Now, I give over to you the hall of my palace, that you may guard it +against the monster.' So Beowulf and the brave men who had come over +with him made a great fire in the hall, and they all lay down to sleep +beside it. You may imagine that they did not find it very easy to get to +sleep, and some of them thought as they lay there that very likely they +should never see their homes in Sweden again. But they were tired with +journeying and feasting, and one after another they all fell asleep. +Then in the dead of the night, when all was still, Grendel rose up out +of the bog, and came stalking over the moor to the palace. His eyes +flamed with a kind of horrible light in the darkness, and his steps +seemed to shake the earth; but those inside the palace were sleeping so +heavily that they heard nothing, not even when Grendel burst open the +door of the hall and came in among them. Before anyone had wakened, the +monster had seized one of the sleeping men and torn him to pieces. Then +he came to Beowulf; but Beowulf sprang up out of his sleep and laid hold +upon him boldly. He used no sword to strike him, for there was no sword +which men could make was strong enough to hurt Grendel; but he seized +him with his strong hands, and the two struggled together in the palace. +And they fought till the benches were torn from the walls, and +everything in the hall was smashed and broken. The brave men, springing +up all round, seized their swords and would gladly have helped their +lord, but there was no one but Beowulf could harm Grendel. + +"So they fought, till at last Beowulf tore away Grendel's hand and arm, +and the monster fled away howling into the darkness. Over the moor he +rushed till he came to his bog, and there he sank down into the middle +of the bog, wailing and shrieking like one whose last hour was come. +Then there was great rejoicing at Heorot, the palace, and King Hrothgar, +when he saw Grendel's hand which Beowulf had torn away, embraced him and +blessed him, and he and all his friends were laden with splendid gifts. + +"But all was not over yet. When the next night came, and Hrothgar's men +and Beowulf's men were asleep together in the great hall, Grendel's +horrible mother, half a woman and half a wolf, came rushing to the +palace and while they were all asleep she carried off one of Hrothgar's +dearest friends--a young noble whom he loved best of all his nobles. And +she killed him, and carried his body back to the bog. Then the next +morning there was grief and weeping in Heorot; but Beowulf said to the +king, 'Grieve not, O king! till we have found out Grendel's mother and +punished her for her evil deeds. I promise you she shall give an account +for this. She shall not be able to hide herself in the water, nor under +the earth, nor in the forest, nor at the bottom of the sea; let her go +where she will, I will find a way after her.' + +"So Beowulf and his friends put on their armour and mounted their +horses, and set out to look for her. And when they had ridden a long and +weary way over steep lonely paths and past caves where dragons and +serpents lived, they came at last to Grendel's bog--a fearful place +indeed. There in the middle of it lay a pool of black water, and over +the water hung withered trees, which seemed as if they had been poisoned +by the air rising from the water beneath them. No bird or beast would +ever come near Grendel's pool. If the hounds were hunting a stag, and +they drove him down to the edge, he would sooner let them tear him to +pieces than hide himself in the water. And every night the black water +seemed to burn and flame, and it hissed and bubbled and groaned as if +there were evil creatures tossing underneath. And now when Beowulf and +his men came near it, they saw fierce water dragons lying near the edge +or swimming about the pool. There also, beside the water, they found the +dead body of Hrothgar's friend, who had been killed by Grendel's mother, +and they took it up, and mourned over him afresh. + +"But Beowulf took an old and splendid sword that Hrothgar had given him, +and he put on his golden helmet and his iron war shirt that no sword +could cut through, and when he had bade his friends farewell he leapt +straight into the middle of the bog. Down he sank, deeper and deeper +into the water, among strange water beasts that struck at him with their +tusks as he passed them, till at last Grendel's mother, the water-wolf, +looked up from the bottom and saw him coming. Then she sprang upon him, +and seized him, and dragged him down, and he found himself in a sort of +hall under the water, with a pale strange light in it. And then he +turned from the horrible water-wolf and raised his sword and struck her +on the head; but his blow did her no harm. No sword made by mortal men +could harm Grendel or his mother; and as he struck her Beowulf stumbled +and fell. Then the water-wolf rushed forward and sat upon him as he lay +there, and raised aloft her own sharp dagger to drive it into his +breast; but Beowulf shook her off, and sprang up, and there, on the +wall, he saw hanging a strange old sword that had been made in the old +times, long, long ago, when the world was full of giants. So he threw +his own sword aside and took down the old sword, and once more he smote +the water-wolf. And this time his sword did him good service, and +Grendel's fierce mother sank down dead upon the ground. + +"Then Beowulf looked round him, and he saw lying in a corner the body of +Grendel himself. He cut off the monster's head, and lo and behold! when +he had cut it off the blade of the old sword melted away, and there was +nothing left in his hands but the hilt, with strange letters on it, +telling how it was made in old days by the giants for a great king. So +with that, and Hrothgar's sword and Grendel's head, Beowulf rose up +again through the bog, and just as his brave men had begun to think they +should never see their dear lord more he came swimming to land, bearing +the great head with him. + +"Then Hrothgar and all his people rejoiced greatly, for they knew that +the land would never more be troubled by these hateful monsters, but +that the ploughers might plough, and the shepherds might lead their +sheep, and brave men might sleep at night, without fear any more of +Grendel and his mother." + +"Oh, father!" said Milly, breathlessly, when he stopped. "Is that all?" + +But Olly sat quite still, without speaking, gazing at his father with +wide open brown eyes, and a face as grave and terrified as if Grendel +were actually beside him. + +"That's all for this time," said Mr. Norton. "Why, Olly, where are your +little wits gone to? Did it frighten you, old man?" + +"Oh!" said Olly, drawing a long breath. "I did think he would never have +comed up out of that bog!" + +"It was splendid," said Milly. "But, father, I don't understand about +that pool. Why didn't Beowulf get drowned when he went down under the +water?" + +"The story doesn't tell us anything about that," said Mr. Norton. "But +heroes in those days, Milly, must have had something magical about them +so that they were able to do things that men and women can't do now. Do +you know, children, that this story that you have been listening to is +more than a thousand years old? Can you fancy that?" + +"No," said Milly, shaking her head. "I can't fancy it a bit, father. +It's too long. It makes me puzzled to think of so many years." + +"Years and years and years and _years_!" said Olly. "When father's +grandfather was a little boy." + +Mr. Norton laughed. "Can't you think of anything farther back than that, +Olly? It would take a great many grandfathers, and grandfathers' +grandfathers, to get back to the time when the story of Beowulf was +made. And here am I telling it to you just in the same way as fathers +used to tell it to their children a thousand years ago." + +"I suppose the children liked it so, they wouldn't let their fathers +forget it," said Milly. "And then when they grew up they told it to +their children. I shall tell it to my children when I grow up. I think I +shall tell it to Katie to-morrow." + +"Father," said Olly, "did Beowulf die--ever?" + +"Yes. When he was quite an old man he had another great fight with a +dragon, who was guarding a cave full of golden treasure on the +sea-shore; and though he killed the dragon, the dragon gave him a +terrible wound, so that when his friends came to look for him they found +him lying all but dead in the cave. He was just able to tell them to +make a great mound of earth over him when he was dead, on a high rock +close by, that sailors might see it from their ships and think of him +when they saw it, and then he died. And when he was dead they carried +him up to the rock, and there they burned his body, and then they built +up a great high mound of earth, and they put Beowulf's bones inside, and +all the treasure from the dragon's cave. They were ten days building up +the mound. Then when it was all done they rode around it weeping and +chanting sorrowful songs, and at last they left him there, saying as +they went away that never should they see so good a king or so true a +master any more. And for hundreds of years afterwards, when the sailors +out at sea saw the high mound rising on its point of rock, they said one +to another, 'There is Beowulf's Mount,' and they began to tell each +other of Beowulf's brave deeds--how he lived and how he died, and how he +fought with Grendel and the wild sea dragons. There, now, I have told +you all I know about Beowulf," said Mr. Norton, getting up and turning +the children off his knee, "and if it isn't somebody else's turn now it +ought to be." + +"Aunt Emma! Aunt Emma!" shouted Olly, who was so greedy for stories that +he could almost listen all day long without being tired. + +But Aunt Emma only smiled through her spectacles and pointed to the +window. The children ran to look out, and they could hardly believe +their eyes when they saw that it had actually stopped raining, and that +over the tree-tops was a narrow strip of blue sky, the first they had +seen for three whole days. + +"Oh you nice blue sky!" exclaimed Milly, dancing up and down before the +window with a beaming face. "Mind you stay there and get bigger. We'll +get on our hats presently and come out to look at you. Oh! there's John +Backhouse coming down the hill with the dogs. Mother, may we go up +ourselves and ask Becky and Tiza to come to tea?" + +"But Aunt Emma must tell us her story first," persisted Olly, who hated +being cheated out of a story by anything or anybody. "She promised." + +"You silly boy!" said Aunt Emma, "as if I was going to keep you indoors +listening to stories just now, when the sun's shining for the first time +for three whole days. I promised you my story on a wet day, and you +shall have it--never fear. There'll be plenty more wet days before you +go away from Ravensnest, I'm afraid. There goes my knitting, and +mother's putting away her work, and father's stretching himself--which +means we're all going for a walk." + +"To fetch Becky and Tiza, mother?" asked Milly; and when mother said +"Yes, if you like," the two children raced off down the long passage to +the nursery in the highest possible spirits. + +Soon they were all walking along the dripping drive past high banks of +wet fern, and under trees which threw down showers of rain-drops at +every puff of wind. And when they got into the road beside the river the +children shouted with glee to see their brown shallow little river +turned into a raging flood of water, which went sweeping and hurrying +through the fields, and every now and then spreading itself over them +and making great pools among the poor drowned hay. They ran on to look +for the stepping-stones, but to their amazement there was not a stone to +be seen. The water was rushing over them with a great roar and swirl, +and Milly shivered a little bit when she remembered their bathe there a +week before. + +"Well, old woman," said Mr. Norton, coming up to them, "I don't suppose +you'd like, a bathe to-day--quite." + +"If we were in there now," said Olly, watching the river with great +excitement, "the water would push us down krick! and the fishes would +come and etten us all up." + +"They'd be a long time gobbling you up, Master Fatty," said his father. +"Come, run along; it's too cold to stand about." + +But how brilliant and beautiful it was after the rain! Little tiny +trickling rivers were running down all the roads, and sparkling in the +sun; the wet leaves and grass were glittering, and the great mountains +all around stood up green and fresh against the blue sky, as if the rain +had washed the dust off them from top to toe, and left them clean and +bright. Two things only seemed the worse for the rain--the hay and the +wild strawberries. Milly peered into all the banks along the road where +she generally found her favourite little red berries, but most of them +were washed away, and the few miserable things that were left tasted of +nothing but rain water. And as for the hay-fields, they looked so wet +and drenched that it was hard to believe any sunshine could ever dry +them. + +"Poor John Backhouse!" said Aunt Emma; "I'm afraid his hay is a good +deal spoilt. Aren't you glad father's not a farmer, Milly?" + +"Why, Aunt Emma," said Milly, "I'm always wishing father _was_ a farmer. +I want to be like Becky, and call the cows, and mind the baby all by +myself. It must be nice feeding the chickens, and making the hay, and +taking the milk around." + +"Yes, all that's very nice, but how would you like your hay washed away, +and your corn beaten down, and your fruit all spoilt? Those are things +that are constantly happening to John Backhouse, I expect, in the rainy +country." + +"Yes, and it won't always be summer," said Milly, considering. "I don't +think I should like to stay in that little weeny house all the winter. +Is it very cold here in the winter, Aunt Emma?" + +"Not very, generally. But last winter was very cold here, and the snow +lay on the ground for weeks and weeks. On Christmas eve, do you know, +Milly, I wanted to have a children's party in my kitchen, and what do +you think I did? The snow was lying deep on the roads, so I sent out two +sledges." + +"What are sledges?" asked Olly. + +"Carriages with the wheels taken off and two long pieces of wood +fastened on instead, so that they slip along smoothly over the snow. And +my old coachman drove one and my gardener the other, and they went round +all the farmhouses near by, and gathered up the children, little and +big, into the sledges, till the coachman had got eight in his sledge, +and the gardener had got nine in his, and then they came trotting back +with the bells round the horses' necks jingling and clattering, and two +such merry loads of rosy-faced children. I wish you had been there; I +gave them tea in the kitchen, and afterward we had a Christmas tree in +the drawing-room." + +"Oh what fun," said Milly. "Why didn't you ask us too, Aunt Emma? We +could have come quite well in the train, you know. But how did the +children get home?" + +"We covered them up warm with rugs and blankets, and sent them back in +the sledges. And they looked so happy with their toys and buns cuddled +up in their arms, that it did one's heart good to see them." + +"Mind you ask us next time, Aunt Emma," said Milly, hanging round her +neck coaxingly. + +"Mind you get two pairs of wings by that time, then," said Aunt Emma, +"for mother's not likely to let you come to my Christmas tree unless you +promise to fly there and back. But suppose, instead of your coming to +me, I come to you next Christmas?" + +"Oh yes! yes!" cried Olly, who had just joined Aunt Emma and Milly, +"come to our Christmas tree, Aunt Emma. We'll give you ever such nice +things--a ball and a top, and a train--perhaps--and--" + +"As if Aunt Emma would care for those kind of things!" said Milly. "No, +you shall give her some muffetees, you know, to keep her hands warm, and +I'll make her a needlebook. But, Aunt Emma, do listen! What can be the +matter?" + +They were just climbing the little bit of steep road which led to the +farm, and suddenly they heard somebody roaring and screaming, and then +an angry voice scolding, and then a great clatter, and then louder +roaring than ever. + +"What _is_ the matter?" cried Milly, running on to the farm door, which +was open. But just as she got there, out rushed a tattered little figure +with a tear-stained face, and hair flying behind. + +"Tiza!" cried Milly, trying to stop her. But Tiza ran past her as quick +as lightning down the garden path towards the cherry tree, and in +another minute, in spite of the shower of wet she shook down on herself +as she climbed up, she was sitting high and safe among the branches, +where there was no catching her nor even seeing her. + +"Ay, that's the best place for ye," said Mrs. Backhouse, appearing at +the door with an angry face, "you'll not get into so much mischief there +perhaps as you will indoors. Oh, is that you, Miss Elliot (that was Aunt +Emma's surname)? Walk in please, ma'am, though you'll find me sadly +untidy this afternoon. Tiza's been at her tricks again; she keeps me +sweeping up after her all day. Just look here, if you please, ma'am." + +Aunt Emma went in, and the children pressed in after her, full of +curiosity to see what crime Tiza had been committing. Poor Mrs. +Backhouse! all over her clean kitchen floor there were streams of water +running about, with little pieces of cabbage and carrot sticking up in +them here and there, while on the kitchen table lay a heap of meat and +vegetables, which Mrs. Backhouse had evidently just picked up out of the +grate before Aunt Emma and the children arrived. + +"Yes," said Mrs. Backhouse, pointing to the floor, "there's the supper +just spoilt. Tiza's never easy but when she's in mischief. I'm sure +these wet days I have'nt known what to do with her indoors all day. And +what must she do this afternoon but tie her tin mug to the cat's tail, +till the poor creature was nearly beside herself with fright, and went +rushing about upstairs like a mad thing. And then, just when I happened +to be out a minute looking after something, she lets the cat in here, +and the poor thing jumps into the saucepan I had just put on with the +broth for our supper, and in her fright and all turns it right over. And +now look at my grate, and the fender, and the floor, and the meat there +all messed! I expect her father'll give Tiza a good beating when he +comes in, and I'm sure I shan't stand in the way." + +"Oh no, please, Mrs. Backhouse!" said Milly, running up to her with a +grave imploring little face. "Don't let Mr. Backhouse beat her; she +didn't mean it, she was only in fun, I'm sure." + +"Well, missy, it's very troiblesome fun I'm sure," said Mrs. Backhouse, +patting Milly kindly on the shoulder, for she was a good-natured woman, +and it wasn't her way to be angry long. "I don't know what I'm to give +John for his supper, that I don't. I had nothing in the house but just +those little odds and ends of meat, that I thought would make a nice bit +of broth for supper. And now he'll come in wet and hungry, and there'll +be nothing for him. Well, we must do with something else, I suppose, but +I expect her father'll beat her." + +Milly and Olly looked rather awestruck at the idea of a beating from +John Backhouse, that great strong brawny farmer; and Milly, whispering +something quickly to Aunt Emma, slipped out into the garden again. By +this time father and mother had come up, and Becky appeared from the +farmyard, wheeling the baby in a little wooden cart, and radiant with +pleasure at the sight of Aunt Emma, whose godchild she was, so that +Milly's disappearance was not noticed. + +She ran down the garden path to the cherry tree, and as, in the various +times they had been together, Becky and Tiza had taught her a good deal +of climbing, she too clambered up into the wet branches, and was soon +sitting close by Tiza, who had turned her cotton pinafore over her head +and wouldn't look at Milly. + +"Tiza," said Milly softly, putting her hand on Tiza's lap, "do you feel +very bad?" + +No answer. + +"We came to take you down to have tea with us," said Milly, "do you +think your mother will let you come?" + +"Naw," said Tiza shortly, without moving from behind her pinafore. + +It certainly wasn't very easy talking to Tiza. Milly thought she'd +better try something else. + +"Tiza," she began timidly, "do your father and mother tell you stories +when it rains?" + +"Naw," said Tiza, in a very astonished voice, throwing down her pinafore +to stare at Milly. + +"Then what do you do, Tiza, when it rains?" + +"Nothing," said Tiza. "We has our dinners and tea, and sometimes Becky +minds the baby and sometimes I do, and father mostly goes to sleep." + +"Tiza," said Milly hurriedly, "did you _mean_ pussy to jump into the +saucepan?" + +Up went Tiza's pinafore again, and Milly was in dismay because she +thought she had made Tiza cry; but to her great surprise Tiza suddenly +burst into such fits of laughter, that she nearly tumbled off the cherry +tree. "Oh, she did jump so, and the mug made such a rattling! And when +she comed out there was just a little bit of carrot sticking to her +nose, and her tail was all over cabbage leaf. Oh, she did look funny!" + +Milly couldn't help laughing too, till she remembered all that Mrs. +Backhouse had been saying. + +"Oh, but, Tiza, Mrs. Backhouse says your father won't have anything for +his supper. Aren't you sorry you spoilt his supper?" + +"Yis," said Tiza, quickly. "I know father'll beat me, he said he would +next time I vexed mother." + +And this time the pinafore went up in earnest, and Tiza began to cry +piteously. + +"Don't cry, Tiza," said Milly, her own little cheeks getting wet, too. +"I'll beg him not. Can't you make up anyway? Mother says we must always +make up if we can when we've done any harm. I wish I had anything to +give you to make up." + +Tiza suddenly dried her eyes and looked at Milly, with a bright +expression which was very puzzling. + +"You come with me," she said suddenly, swinging herself down from the +tree. "Come here by the hedge, don't let mother see us." + +So they ran along the far side of the hedge till they got into the +farmyard, and then Tiza led Milly past the hen-house, up to the corner +where the hayricks were. In and out of the hayricks they went, till in +the very farthest corner of all, where hardly anybody ever came, and +which nobody could see into from the yard, Tiza suddenly knelt down and +put her hand under the hay at the bottom of the rick. + +"You come," she whispered eagerly to Milly, pulling her by the skirt, +"you come and look here." + +Milly stooped down, and there in a soft little place, just between the +hayrick and the ground, what do you think she saw? Three large brownish +eggs lying in a sort of rough nest in the hay, and looking so round and +fresh and tempting, that Milly gave a little cry of delight. + +"Oh, Tiza, how be--utiful! How did they get there?" + +"It's old Sally, our white hen you know, laid them. I found them just +after dinner. Mother doesn't know nothing about them. I never told +Becky, nor nobody. Aren't they beauties?" + +And Tiza took one up lovingly in her rough, little brown hands, and laid +it against her cheek, to feel how soft and satiny it was. + +"Oh, and Tiza, I know," exclaimed Milly eagerly, "you meant these would +do for supper. That would be a lovely make up. There's three. One for +Mr. Backhouse, one for Mrs. Backhouse, and one for Becky.--There's none +for you, Tiza." + +"Nor none for Becky neither," answered Tiza shortly. "Father'll want +two. Becky and me'll get bread and dripping." + +"Well, come along, Tiza, let's take them in." + +"No, you take them," said Tiza. "Mother won't want to see me no more, +and father'll perhaps be coming in." + +"Oh, but, Tiza, you'll come to tea with us?" + +"I don't know," said Tiza. "You ask." + +And off she ran as quick as lightning, off to her hiding-place in the +cherry tree, while Milly was left with the three brown eggs, feeling +rather puzzled and anxious. However, she put them gently in the skirt of +her frock, and holding it up in both hands she picked her way through +the wet yard back to the house. + +When she appeared at the kitchen door, Aunt Emma and Mrs. Backhouse were +chatting quietly. Mr. and Mrs. Norton, and Olly, had gone on for a +little stroll along the Wanwick road, and Becky was sitting on the +window-sill with the baby, who seemed very sleepy, but quite determined +not to go to sleep in spite of all Becky's rocking and patting. + +"Oh, Mrs. Backhouse," began Milly, coming in with a bright flushed face, +"just look here, what I've brought. Tiza found them just after dinner +to-day. They were under the hayrick right away in the corner, and she +wanted to make up, so she showed me where they were, so I brought them +in, and there's two for Mr. Backhouse, and one for you, you know. And, +please, won't you let Tiza come to tea with us?" + +Mrs. Backhouse looked in astonishment at the three eggs lying in Milly's +print skirt, and at Milly's pleading little face. + +"Ay, that's Sally, I suppose. She's always hiding her eggs is Sally, +where I can't find them. So it was Tiza found them, was it, Missy? Well, +they will come, in very handy for supper as it happens. Thank you kindly +for bringing them in." + +And Mrs. Backhouse took the eggs and put them safely away in a pie-dish, +while Becky secretly pulled Milly by the sleeve, and smiled up at her as +much as to say, + +"Thank you for helping Tiza out of her scrape." + +"And you'll let Becky and Tiza come to tea?" asked Milly again. + +"Well, I'm sure, Miss, I don't know," said Mrs. Backhouse, looking +puzzled; "Becky may come and welcome, but perhaps it would do Tiza good +to stay at home." + +"Don't you think she'd better have a little change?" said Aunt Emma in +her kind voice, which made Milly want to hug her. "I daresay staying +indoors so long made her restless. If you will let me carry them both +off, I daresay between us, Mrs. Backhouse, we can give Tiza a talking +to, and perhaps she'll come back in a more sensible mood." + +"Well, Miss Elliot, she shall go if you wish it. Come Becky, give me the +baby, and go and put your things on." And then going to the door, Mrs. +Backhouse shouted "Tiza!" After a second or two a little figure dropped +down out of the cherry tree and came slowly up the walk. Tiza had shaken +her hair about her face so that it could hardly be seen, and she never +looked once at Aunt Emma and Milly as she came up to her mother. + +"There, go along, Tiza, and get your things on," said Mrs. Backhouse, +taking her by the arm. "I wouldn't have let you go out to tea, you know, +if Miss Elliot and Missy hadn't asked particular. Mind you don't get +into no more mischief. And very like those eggs'll do for father's +supper; so, I daresay, I'll not say anything to him this time--just for +once. Now go up." + +Tiza didn't want to be told twice, and presently, just as Mr. and Mrs. +Norton and Olly were coming back from their walk, they met Aunt Emma +coming back from the farm holding Becky's hand, while Milly and Tiza +walked in front. + +"Well, Tiza," said Mr. Norton, patting her curly head, I declare I think +you beat Olly for mischief. Olly never spoilt my dinner yet, that I +remember. What should I do to him do you think, if he did?" + +"Beat him," said Tiza, looking up at Mr. Norton with her quick birdlike +eyes. + +"Oh dear, no!" said Mr. Norton, "that wouldn't do my dinner any good. I +should eat him up instead." + +"I don't believe little boys taste good a bit," said Olly, who always +believed firmly in his father's various threats. "If you ettened me, +father, you'd be ill." + +"Oh no," said Mr. Norton, "not if I eat you with plenty of bread-sauce. +That's the best way to cook little boys. Now, Milly, which of you three +girls can get to that gate first?" + +Off ran the three little girls full tilt down the hill leading to +Ravensnest, with Olly puffing and panting after them. Milly led the way +at first, for she was light and quick, and a very fair runner for her +age; but Tiza soon got up to her and passed her, and it was Tiza's +little stout legs that arrived first at Ravensnest gate. + +"Oh, Becky!" said Milly, putting her arm round Becky's neck as they went +into the house together, "I hope you may stay a good long time. What +time do you go to bed?" + +"Oh, I don't know," said Becky. "We go when fayther goes." + +"When fayther goes!" exclaimed Milly. "Why, we go ever so long before +father. Why do you stay up so late?" + +"Why, it isn't late," said Becky. "Fayther goes to bed, now it's +summertime, about half-past eight; but in winter, of course, he goes +earlier. And we all goes together, except baby. Mother puts him out of +the way before supper." + +"Well, but how funny," said Milly, "I can't think why you should be so +different from us." + +And Milly went on puzzling over Becky and her going to bed, till nurse +drove it all out of her head by fetching them to tea. Such a merry tea +they had, and after tea a romp in the big kitchen with father, which +delighted the little farm children beyond measure. Some time in the +evening, I believe, Aunt Emma managed to give Tiza a little talking to, +but none of the other children knew anything about it, except perhaps +Becky, who generally knew what was happening to Tiza. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +MILLY'S BIRTHDAY + + +Now we have come to a chapter which is going to be half merry and half +sad. I have not told you any sad things about Milly and Olly up till +now, I think. They were such happy little people, that there was nothing +sad to tell you. They cried sometimes, of course--you remember Milly +cried when Olly stickied her doll--but generally, by the time they had +dried up their tears they had quite forgotten what they were crying +about; and as for any real trouble, why they didn't know what it could +possibly be like. But now, just as they were going away from Ravensnest, +came a real sad thing, and you'll hear very soon how it happened. + +After those three wet days it was sometimes fine and sometimes rainy at +Ravensnest, but never so rainy as to keep the Nortons in all day. And +every now and then there were splendid days, when the children and their +father and mother were out all day long, wandering over the mountains, +or walking over to Aunt Emma's or tramping along the well-known roads to +Wanwick on one side, and the little village of Rydal and Rydal Lake on +the other. They had another row on Windermere; and one fine evening Mr. +Norton borrowed a friend's boat, and they went out fishing for perch on +Rydal Lake, the loveliest little lake in the world, lying softly in a +green mountain cup, and dotted with islands, which seemed to the +children when they landed on them like little bits of fairyland dropped +into the blue water. + +[Illustration: "Haymaking"] + +And then! crown of delights! came the haymaking. There were long fine +days, when the six small creatures--Milly, Olly, Becky, Tiza, Bessie, +and Charlie--followed John Backhouse and his men about in the hayfields +from early morning till evening, helping to make the hay, or simply +rolling about like a parcel of kittens in the flowery fragrant heaps. + +Aunt Emma was often at Ravensnest, and the children learned to love her +better and better, so that even wild little Olly would remember to bring +her stool, and carry her shawl, and change her plate at dinner; and +Milly, who was always clinging to somebody, was constantly puzzled to +know whose pocket to sit in, mother's or Aunt Emma's. + +Then there was the farmyard, the cows, and the milking, and the +chickens. Everything about them seemed delightful to Milly and Olly, and +the top of everything was reached when one evening John Backhouse +mounted both the children on his big carthorse Dobbin, and they and +Dobbin together dragged the hay home in triumph. + +And now they had only one week more to stay at Ravensnest. But that week +was a most important week, for it was to contain no less a day than +Milly's birthday. Milly would be seven years old on the 15th of July, +and for about a week before the 15th, Milly's little head could think of +nothing else. Olly too was very much excited about it, for though Milly +of course was the queen of the day, and all the presents were for her, +not for him, still it was good times for everybody on Milly's birthday; +besides which, he had his own little secret with mother about his +present to Milly, a secret which made him very happy, but which he was +on the point of telling at least a hundred times a day. + +"Father," said Milly, about four days before the birthday, when they +were all wandering about after tea one evening in the high garden which +was now a paradise of ripe red strawberries and fruit of every kind, +"does everybody have birthdays? Do policemen have birthdays?" + +"I expect so, Milly," said Mr. Norton, laughing, "but they haven't any +time to remember them." + +"But, father, what's the good of having birthdays if you don't keep +them, and have presents and all that? And do cats and dogs have +birthdays? I should like to find out Spot's birthday. We'd give her +cream instead of milk, you know, and I'd tie a blue ribbon round her +neck, and one round her tail like the queen's sheep in mother's story." + +"I don't suppose Spot would thank you at all," said Mr. Norton. "The +cream would make her ill, and the ribbon would fidget her dreadfully +till she pulled it off." + +"Oh dear!" sighed Milly. "Well, I suppose Spot had better not have any +birthday then. But, father, what do you think? Becky and Tiza don't care +about their birthdays a bit. Becky could hardly remember when hers was, +and they never have any presents unless Aunt Emma gives them one, or +people to tea, or anything.' + +"Well, you see, Milly, when people have only just pennies and shillings +enough to buy bread and meat to eat, and clothes to put on, they can't +go spending money on presents; and when they're very anxious and busy +all the year round they can't be remembering birthdays and taking pains +about them like richer people can, who have less to trouble them, and +whose work does not take up quite so much time." + +"Well, but why don't the rich people remember the poor people's +birthdays for them, father? Then they could give them presents, and ask +them to tea and all, you know." + +"Yes, that would be a very good arrangement," said Mr. Norton, smiling +at her eager little face. "Only, somehow, Milly, things don't come right +like that in this world." + +"Well, I'm going to try and remember Becky's and Tiza's birthdays," said +Milly. "I'll tell mother to put them down in her pocket-book--won't you, +mother? Oh, what fun! I'll send them birthday cards, and they'll be so +surprised, and wonder why; and then they'll say, 'Oh, why, of course +it's our birthday!'--No, not _our_ birthday--but you know what I mean, +father." + +"Well, but, Milly," asked Mrs. Norton, "have you made up your mind what +you want to do this birthday?" + +Milly stopped suddenly, with her hands behind her, opposite her mother, +with her lips tightly pressed together, her eyes smiling, as if there +was a tremendous secret hidden somewhere. + +"Well, monkey, out with it. What have you got hidden away in your little +head?" + +"Well, mother," said Milly, slowly, "I don't want to _have_ anybody to +tea. I want to go out to tea with somebody. Now can you guess?" + +"With Aunt Emma?" + +"Oh no, Aunt Emma's coming over here all day. She promised she would." + +"With Becky and Tiza?" + +Milly nodded, and screwed up her little lips tighter than ever. + +"But I don't expect Mrs. Backhouse will want the trouble of having you +two to tea. + +"Oh mother, she won't mind a bit. I know she won't; because Becky told +me one day her mother would like us very much to come some time if you'd +let us. And Nana could come and help Mrs. Backhouse, and we could all +wash up the tea-things afterwards, like we did at the picnic." + +"Then Tiza mustn't sit next me," said Olly, who had been listening in +silence to all the arrangements. "She takes away my bread and butter +when I'm not looking, and I don't like it, not a bit." + +"No, Olly dear, she shan't," said Milly, taking his hand and fondling +it, as if she were at least twenty years older. "I'll sit on one side of +you and Becky on the other," a prospect with which Olly was apparently +satisfied, for he made no more objections. + +"Well, you must ask Mrs. Backhouse yourselves," said Mrs. Norton. "And +if it is her washing-day, or inconvenient to her at all, you mustn't +think of going, you know." + +So early next morning, Milly and Nana and Olly went up to the farm, and +came back with the answer that Mrs. Backhouse would be very pleased to +see them at tea on Thursday, the 15th, and that John Backhouse would +have cut the hay-field by the river by then, and they could have a romp +in the hay afterwards. + +Wednesday was a deeply interesting day to Olly. He and his mother went +over by themselves to Wanwick, and they bought something which the +shopwoman at the toy-shop wrapped up in a neat little parcel, and which +Olly carried home, looking as important as a little king. + +"Milly," he began at dinner, "_wouldn't_ you like to know about your +presents? But of course I shan't tell you about mine. Perhaps I'm not +going to give you one at all. Oh, mother," in a loud whisper to Mrs. +Norton, "did you put it away safe where she can't see?" + +"Oh, you silly boy," said Milly, "you'll tell me if you don't take +care." + +"No, I shan't. I wouldn't tell you if you were to go on asking me all +day. It isn't very big, you know, Milly, and--and--it isn't pretty +outside--only--" + +"Be quiet, chatterbox," said Mr. Norton putting his hand over Olly's +mouth, "you'll tell in another minute, and then there'll be no fun +to-morrow." + +So Olly with great difficulty kept quiet, and began eating up his +pudding very fast, as if that was the only way of keeping his little +tongue out of mischief. + +"Father," he said after dinner, "do take Milly out for a walk, and +mother shall take me. Then I can't tell, you know." + +So the two went out different ways, and Olly kept away from Milly all +day, in great fear lest somehow or other his secret should fly out of +him in spite of all his efforts to keep it in. At night the children +made nurse hurry them to bed, so that when mother came to tuck them up, +as she generally did, she found the pair fast asleep, and nothing left +to kiss but two curly heads buried in the pillows. + +"Bless their hearts," said nurse to Mrs. Norton, "they can think of +nothing but to-morrow. They'll be sadly disappointed if it rains." + +But the stars came out, and the new moon shone softly all night on the +great fir trees and the rosebuds and the little dancing beck in the +Ravensnest garden; and when Milly awoke next morning the sun was +shining, and Brownholme was towering up clear and high into the breezy +blue sky, and the trees were throwing cool shadows on the dewy lawn +around the house. + +"Oh dear!" said Milly, jumping up, her face flushing with joy "it's my +birthday, and it's fine. Nana, bring me my things, please.--But where's +Olly?" + +Where indeed was Olly? There was his little bed, but there was a +nightdress rolled up in it, and not a wisp of his brown curls was to be +seen anywhere. + +"Why, Miss Milly, are you woke up at last? I hardly thought you'd have +slept so late this morning. Many happy returns of the day to you," said +nurse, giving her a hearty hug. + +"Thank you, _dear_ nurse. Oh, it is so nice having birthdays. But where +can Olly be?" + +"Don't you trouble your head about him," said nurse mysteriously, and +not another word could Milly get out of her. She had just slipped on her +white cotton frock when mother opened the door. + +"Well, birthday-girl! The top of the morning to you, and many, many +happy returns of the day." + +Whereupon Milly and mother went through a great deal of kissing which +need not be described, and then mother helped her brush her hair, and +put on her ribbon and tie her sash, so that in another minute or two she +was quite ready to go down. + +"Now, Milly, wait one minute till you hear the bell ring, and then you +may come down as fast as you like." + +So Milly waited, her little feet dancing with impatience, till the bell +began to ring as if it had gone quite mad. + +"Oh, that's Olly ringing," cried Milly, rushing off. And sure enough +when she got to the hall there was Olly ringing as if he meant to bring +the house down. He dropped the bell when he saw Milly, and dragged her +breathlessly into the dining-room. + +And what did Milly see there I wonder? Why, a heap of red and white +roses lying on the breakfast table, a big heap, with odd corners and +points sticking up all over it, and under the roses a white napkin, and +under the napkin treasures of all sorts--a book from father, a little +work-box from mother, with a picture of Windermere on the outside, and +inside the most delightful cottons and needles and bits of +bright-coloured stuffs; a china doll's dinner-service from Aunt Emma, a +mug from nurse, a little dish full of big red strawberries from +gardener, and last, but not least, Olly's present--a black paint-box, +with colours and brushes and all complete, and tied up with a little +drawing-book which mother had added to make it really useful. At the top +of the heap, too, lay two letters addressed in very big round hand to +"Miss Milly Norton," and one was signed Jacky and the other signed +Francis. Each of these presents had neat little labels fastened on to +them, and they were smothered in roses--deep red and pale pink roses, +with the morning dew sprinkled over them. + +"We got all those roses, mother and me, this morning, when you was fast +asleep, Milly," shouted Olly, who was capering about like a mad +creature. "Mother pulled me out of bed ever so early, and I putted on my +goloshes, and didn't we get wet just! Milly, _isn't_ my paint-box a +beauty?" + +But it's no good trying to describe what Milly felt. She felt as every +happy little girl feels on a happy birthday, just a little bit +bewitched, as if she had got into another kind of world altogether. + +"Now," said father, after breakfast, "I'm yours, Milly, for all this +morning. What are you going to do with me?" + +"Make you into a tiger, father, and shoot you," said Olly, who would +have liked to play at hunting and shooting games all day long. + +"I didn't ask you, sir," said Mr. Norton, "I'm not yours, I'm Milly's. +Now, Milly, what shall we do?" + +"Will you take us right to the top of Brownholme, father? You know we +haven't been to the very top yet." + +"Very well, we'll go if your legs will carry you. But you must ask them +very particularly first how they feel, for it'll be stiff work for +them." + +Not very long after breakfast, and before they started for their walk, +Aunt Emma's pony carriage came rattling up the drive, and she, too, +brought flowers for Milly, above all a bunch of water-lilies all wet +from the lake; and then she and mother settled under the trees with +their books and work while the children started on their walk. + +But first Milly had drawn mother into a corner where no one could see, +and there, with a couple of tears in her two blue eyes, she had +whispered in a great hurry, so that Mrs. Norton could scarcely hear, "I +don't want to have everything just as _I_ like, to-day, mother. Can't I +do what somebody else likes? I'd rather." + +Which means that Milly was a good deal excited, and her heart very full, +and that she was thinking of how, a year before, her birthday had been +rather spoilt toward the end of it by a little bit of crossness and +self-will, that she remembered afterward with a pang for many a long +day. Since then, Milly had learnt a good deal more of that long, long +lesson, which we go on learning, big people and little people, all our +lives--the lesson of self-forgetting--of how love brings joy, and to be +selfish is to be sad; and her birthday seemed to bring back to her all +that she had been learning. + +"Dear little woman," said Mrs. Norton, putting back her tangled hair +from her anxious little face, "go and be happy. That's what we all like +to-day. Besides, you'll find plenty of ways of doing what other people +like before the end of the day without my inventing any. Run along now, +and climb away. Mind you don't let Olly tumble into bogs, and mind you +bring me a bunch of ferns for the dinner-table--and there'll be two +things done at any rate." + +So away ran Milly; and all the morning she and Olly and father scrambled +and climbed, and raced and chatted, on the green back of old Brownholme. +They went to say good-morning to John Backhouse's cows in the "intake," +as he called his top field, and they just peeped over the wall at the +fierce young bull he had bought at Penrith fair a few days before, and +which looked as if, birthdays or no birthdays, he could have eaten Milly +at two mouthfuls, and swallowed Olly down afterwards without knowing it. + +Then they climbed and climbed after father, till, just as Olly was +beginning to feel his legs to make sure they weren't falling off, they +were so tired and shaky--there they were standing on the great pile of +stones which marks the top of the mountain--the very tip-top of all its +green points and rocks and grassy stretches. By this time the children +knew the names of most of the mountains around, and of all the lakes. +They went through them now like a lesson with their father; and even +Olly remembered a great many, and could chatter about Helvellyn, and +Fairfield, and Langdale Pikes, as if he had trudged to the top of them +all himself. + +Then came the getting down again. Father and Milly and Olly +hand-in-hand, racing over the short fine grass, startling the little +black-faced sheep, and racing down the steep bits, where Milly and Olly +generally tumbled over in some sort of a heap at the bottom. As for the +flowers they gathered, there were so many I have no time to tell you +about them--wood-flowers and bog-flowers and grass-flowers, and ferns of +all sizes to mix with them, from the great Osmunda, which grew along the +Ravensnest Beck, down to the tiny little parsley fern. It was all +delightful--the sights and the sounds, and the fresh mountain wind that +blew them about on the top so that long afterward Milly used to look +back to that walk on Brownholme when she was seven years old as one of +the merriest times she ever spent. + +Dinner was very welcome after all this scrambling; and after dinner came +a quiet time in the garden, when father read aloud to mother and Aunt +Emma, and the children kept still and listened to as much as they could +understand, at least until they went to sleep, which they both did lying +on a rug at Aunt Emma's feet. Milly couldn't understand how this had +happened at all, when she found herself waking up and rubbing her eyes, +but I think it was natural enough after their long walk in the sun and +wind. + +At four o'clock nurse came for them, and when they had been put into +clean frocks and pinafores, she took them up to the farm. Milly and Olly +felt that this was a very solemn occasion, and they walked up to the +farmhouse door hand-in-hand, feeling as shy as if they had never been +there before. But at the door were Becky and Tiza waiting for them, as +smart as new pins, with shining hair, and red ribbons under their little +white collars; and the children no sooner caught sight of one another +than all their shyness flew away, and they began to chatter as usual. + +In the farmhouse kitchen were Bessie and Charlie, and such a comfortable +tea spread out on a long table, covered with a red and black woollen +table-cloth instead of a white one. Becky and Tiza had filled two +tumblers with meadow-sweet and blue campanula, which stood up grandly in +the middle, and there were two home-made cakes at each end, and some of +Sally's brown eggs, and piles of tempting bread and butter. + +Each of the children had their gift for Milly too: Becky had plaited her +a basket of rushes, a thing she had often tried to teach Milly how to +make for herself, and Tiza pushed a bunch of wild raspberries into her +hand, and ran away before Milly could say thank you; Bessie shyly +produced a Christmas card that somebody had once sent to her; and even +Charlie had managed to provide himself with a bunch of the wild yellow +poppies which grew on the wall of the Ravensnest garden, and were a joy +to all beholders. + +Then Mrs. Backhouse put Milly at one end of the table, while she began +to pour out tea at the other, and the feast began. Certainly, Milly +thought, it was much more exciting going out to tea at a farmhouse than +having children to tea with you at home, just as you might anywhere, on +any day in the year. There were the big hens coming up to the door and +poking in their long necks to take a look at them; there were the +pigeons circling round and round in the yard; there was the sound of +milking going on in the shed close by, and many other sights and sounds +which were new and strange and delightful. + +As for Olly, he was very much taken up for a time with the red and black +table-cloth, and could not be kept from peering underneath it from time +to time, as if he suspected that the white table-cloth he was generally +accustomed to had been hidden away underneath for a joke. But when the +time for cake came, Olly forgot the table-cloth altogether. He had never +seen a cake quite like the bun-loaf, which kind Mrs. Backhouse had made +herself for the occasion, and of which she had given him a hunch, so in +his usual inquisitive way he began to turn it over and over, as if by +looking at it long enough he could find out how it was made and all +about it. Presently, when the others were all quietly enjoying their +bun-loaf, Olly's shrill little voice was heard saying--while he put two +separate fingers on two out of the few currants in his piece: + +"_This_ currant says to _that_ currant, 'I'm here, where are you? You're +so far off I can't see you nowhere.'" + +"Olly, be quiet," said Milly. + +"Well, but, Milly, I can't help it; it's so funny. There's only three +currants in my bit, and cookie puts such a lot in at home. I'm +pretending they're little children wanting to play, only they can't, +they're so far off. There, I've etten one up. Now there's only two. +That's you and me, Milly. I'll eat you up first--krick!" + +"Never mind about the currants, little master," said Mrs. Backhouse, +laughing at him. "It's nice and sweet any way, and you can eat as much +of it as you like, which is more than you can of rich cakes." + +Olly thought there was something in this, and by the time he had got +through his second bit of bun-loaf he had quite made up his mind that he +would get Susan to make bun-loaves at home too. + +They were just finishing tea when there was a great clatter outside, and +by came the hay-cart with John Backhouse leading the horse, and two men +walking beside it. + +"We're going to carry all the hay in yon lower field presently," he +shouted to his wife as he passed. "Send the young 'uns down to see." + +Up they all started, and presently the whole party were racing down the +hill to the riverfield, with Mrs. Backhouse and her baby walking soberly +with nurse behind them. Yes, there lay the hay piled up in large cocks +on the fresh clean-swept carpet of bright green grass, and in the middle +of the field stood the hay-cart with two horses harnessed, one man +standing in it to press down and settle the hay as John Backhouse and +two other men handed it up to him on pitchforks. Olly went head over +heels into the middle of one of the cocks, followed by Charlie, and +would have liked to go head over heels into all the rest, but Mr. +Norton, who had come into the field with mother and Aunt Emma, told him +he must be content to play with two cocks in one of the far corners of +the field without disturbing the others, which were all ready for +carrying, and that if he and Charlie strewed the hay about they must +tidy it up before John Backhouse wanted to put it on the cart. So Olly +and Charlie went off to their corner, and for a little while all the +other children played there too. Milly had invented a game called the +"Babes in the Wood," in which two children were the babes and pretended +to die on the grass, and all the rest were the robins, and covered them +up with hay instead of leaves. She and Tiza made beautiful babes: they +put their handkerchiefs over their faces and lay as still as mice, till +Olly had piled so much hay on the top of them that there was not a bit +of them to be seen anywhere, while Bessie began to cry out as if she was +suffocated before they had put two good armfuls over her. + +Presently, however, Milly got tired; and she and Tiza walked off by +themselves and sat down by the river to get cool. The water in the river +was quite low again now, and the children could watch the tiny minnows +darting and flashing about by the bank, and even amuse themselves by +fancying every now and then that they saw a trout shooting across the +clear brown water. Tiza had quite left off being shy now with Milly, and +the two chattered away, Milly telling Tiza all about her school, and +Jacky and Francis, and Spot and the garden at home; and Tiza telling +Milly about her father's new bull, how frightened she and Becky were of +him, and how father meant to make the fence stronger for fear he should +get out and toss people. + +"What a happy little party," said Aunt Emma to mother looking round the +field; "there's nothing like hay for children." + +By this time the hay-cart was quite full, and crack went John +Backhouse's whip, as he took hold of the first horse's head and gave him +a pull forward to start the cart on its way to the farm. + +"Gee-up," shouted John in his loud cheery voice, and the horse made a +step forward, while the children round cried "Hurrah!" and waved their +hands. But suddenly there was a loud piteous cry which made John give +the horse a sudden push back and drop his whip, and then, from where +they sat, Milly and Tiza heard a sound of crying and screaming, while +everybody in the field ran toward the hay-cart. They ran too; what could +have happened? + +Just as they came up to the crowd of people round the cart, Milly saw +her father with something in his arms. And this something was +Becky--poor little Becky, with a great mark on her temple, and her eyes +quite shut, and such a white face! + +"Oh, mother! mother!" cried Milly, rushing up to her, "tell me, mother, +what is the matter with Becky?" + +But Mrs. Norton had no time to attend to her. She was running to meet +Mrs. Backhouse, who had come hurrying up from another part of the field +with the baby in her arms. + +"She was under the cart when it moved on," said Mrs. Norton, taking the +baby from her. "We none of us know how it happened. She must have been +trying to hand up some hay at the last moment and tumbled under. I don't +think her head is much hurt." + +On ran Mrs. Backhouse, and Milly and her mother followed. + +"Better let me carry her up now without moving her," said Mr. Norton, as +Mrs. Backhouse tried to take the little bundle from him. "She has +fainted, I think. We must get some water at the stream." So on he went, +with the pale frightened mother, while the others followed. Aunt Emma +had got Tiza and Milly by the hand, and was trying to comfort them. + +"We hope she is not much hurt, darlings; the wheel did not go over her, +thank God. It was just upon her when her father backed the horse. But it +must have crushed her I'm afraid, and there was something hanging under +the cart which gave her that knock on the temple. Look, there is one of +the men starting off for the doctor." + +Whereupon Tiza, who had kept quiet till then, burst into a loud fit of +crying, and threw herself down on the grass. + +"Nurse," called Aunt Emma, "stay here with these two poor little ones +while I go and see if I can be of any use." + +So nurse came and sat beside them, and Milly crept up to her for +comfort. But poor little Tiza lay with her face buried in the grass and +nothing they could say to her seemed to reach her little deaf ears. + +Meanwhile, Aunt Emma hurried after the others, and presently caught them +up at a stream where Mr. Norton had stopped to bathe Becky's head and +face. The cold water had just revived her when Aunt Emma came up, and +for one moment she opened her heavy blue eyes and looked at her mother, +who was bending over her, and then they shut again. But her little hand +went feebly searching for her mother, who caught it up and kissed it. + +"Oh, Miss Emma, Miss Emma," she said, pointing to the child, "I'm afeard +but she's badly hurt." + +"I hope not, with all my heart," said Aunt Emma, gently taking her arm. +"But the doctor will soon be here; we must get her home before he +comes." + +So on they went again, Mr. Norton still carrying Becky, and Mr. +Backhouse helping his wife along. Mrs. Norton had got the baby safe in +her motherly arms, and so they all toiled up the hill to the farmhouse. +What a difference from the merry party that ran down the hill only an +hour before! + +They laid Becky down on her mother's bed, and then Aunt Emma, finding +that Mrs. Norton wished to stay till the doctor came, went back to the +children. She found a sad little group sitting in the hay-field; Milly +in nurse's lap crying quietly every now and then; Tiza still sobbing on +the grass, and Olly who had just crept down from the farmhouse, where he +and Charlie had seen Becky carried in, talking to nurse in eager +whispers, as if he daren't talk out loud. + +"Oh, Aunt Emma," cried Milly, when she opened the gate, "is she better?" + +"A little, I think, Milly, but the doctor will soon be here, and then we +shall know all about it. Tiza, you poor little woman, Mrs. Wheeler says +you must sleep with them to-night. Your mother will want the house very +quiet, and to-morrow, you know, you can go and see Becky if the doctor +says you may." + +At this Tiza began to cry again more piteously than ever. It seemed so +dreary and terrible to her to be shut out from home without Becky. But +Aunt Emma sat down on the grass beside her, and lifted her up and talked +to her; with anybody else Tiza would have kicked and struggled, for she +was a curious, passionate child, and her grief was always wild and +angry, but nobody could struggle with Aunt Emma, and at last she let +herself be comforted a little by the tender voice and soft caressing +hand. She stopped crying, and then they all took her up to the +Wheelers's cottage, where Mrs. Wheeler, a kind motherly body, took her +in, and promised that she should know everything there was to be known +about Becky. + +"Aunt Emma," said Milly, presently, when they were all sitting in the +conservatory which ran round the house, waiting for Mr. Norton to bring +them news from the farm, "how did Becky tumble under the cart?" + +"She was lifting up some hay, I think, which had fallen off, and one of +the men was stooping down to take it on his fork, and then she must have +slipped and fallen right under the cart, just as John Backhouse told the +horse to go on." + +"Oh, if the wheel _had_ gone over!" said Milly, shuddering. "Isn't it a +sad birthday, Aunt Emma, and we were so happy a little while ago? And +then I can't understand. I don't know why it happens like this." + +"Like what, Milly?" + +"Why, Aunt Emma, always in stories, you know, it's the bad people get +hurt and die. And now it's poor little Becky that's hurt. And she's such +a dear little girl, and helps her mother so. I don't think she ought to +have been hurt." + +"We don't know anything about 'oughts,' Milly, darling, you and I. God +knows, we trust, and that helps many people who love God to be patient +when they are in trouble or pain. But think if it had been poor +mischievous little Tiza who had been hurt, how she would have fretted. +And now very likely Becky will bear it beautifully, and so, without +knowing it, she will be teaching Tiza to be patient, and it will do Tiza +good to have to help Becky and take care of her for a bit, instead of +letting Becky always look after her and get her out of scrapes." + +"Oh, and Aunt Emma, can't we all take care of Becky? What can Olly and I +do?" said Milly, imploringly. + +"I can go and sing all my songs to Becky," said Olly, looking up +brightly. + +"By-and-by, perhaps," said Aunt Emma, smiling and patting his head. "But +hark! isn't that father's step?" + +It had grown so dark that they could hardly see who it was opening the +gate. + +"Oh yes, it is," cried Milly. "It's father and mother." Away they ran to +meet them, and Mrs. Norton took Milly's little pale face in both her +hands and kissed it. + +"She's not _very_ badly hurt, darling. The doctor says she must lie +quite quiet for two or three weeks, and then he hopes she'll be all +right. The wheel gave her a squeeze, which jarred her poor little back +and head very much, but it didn't break anything, and if she lies very +quite the doctor thinks she'll get quite well again." "Oh mother! and +does Tiza know?" + +"Yes, we have just been to tell her. Mrs. Wheeler had put her to bed, +but she went up to give her our message, and she said poor little Tiza +began to cry again, and wanted us to tell her mother she would be _so_ +quiet if only they would let her come back to Becky." + +"Will they, mother?" + +"In a few days, perhaps. But she is not to see anybody but Mrs. +Backhouse for a little while." + +"Oh dear!" sighed Milly, while the tears came into her eyes again. "We +shall be going away so soon, and we can't say good-bye. Isn't it sad, +mother, just happening last thing? and we've been so happy all the +time." + +"Yes, Milly," said Mr. Norton, lifting her on to his knee. "This is the +first really sad thing that ever happened to you in your little life I +think. Mother, and I, and Aunt Emma, tell you stories about sad things, +but that's very different, isn't it?" + +"Yes," said Milly, thinking. "Father, are there as many sad things +really as there are in stories?--you know what I mean." + +"There are a great many sad things and sad people in the world, Milly. +We don't have monsters plaguing us like King Hrothgar, but every day +there is trouble and grief going on somewhere, and we happy and strong +people must care for the sad ones if we want to do our duty and help to +straighten the world a little." + +"Father," whispered Milly, softly, "will you tell us how--Olly and me? +We would if we knew how." + +"Well, Milly, suppose you begin with Becky, and poor Tiza too, indeed. I +wonder whether a pair of little people could make a scrap-book for Becky +to look at when she is getting better?" + +"Oh yes, yes!" said Milly, joyfully, "I've got ever so many pictures in +mother's writing-book, she let me cut out of her 'Graphics,' and Olly +can help paste; can't you, Olly?" + +"Olly generally pastes his face more than anything else," said Mr. +Norton, giving a sly pull at his brown curls. "If I'm not very much +mistaken, there is a little fairy pasting up your eyes, old man." + +"I'm not sleepy, not a bit," said Olly, sitting bolt upright and +blinking very fast. + +"I think you're not sleepy, but just asleep," said Mr. Norton, catching +him up in his arms, and carrying him to his mother to say good-night. + +Milly went very soberly and quietly up to bed, and for some little time +she lay awake, her little heart feeling very sore and heavy about the +"sad things" in the world. Then with her thoughts full of Becky she fell +asleep. + +So ended Milly's birthday, a happy day and a sorrowful day, all in one. +When Milly grew older there was no birthday just before or after it she +remembered half so clearly as that on which she was seven years old. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +LAST DAYS AT RAVENSNEST + + +On Friday morning the children and their father trudged up very early to +the farm to get news of Becky. She had had a bad night Mr. Backhouse +said, but she had taken some milk and beef-tea; she knew her father and +mother quite well, and she had asked twice for Tiza. The doctor said +they must just be patient. Quiet and rest would make her well again, and +nothing else, and Tiza was not to go home for a day or two. + +As for poor Tiza, a long sleep had cheered her up greatly, and when +Milly and Olly went to take her out with them after breakfast, they +found her almost as merry and chatty as usual. But she didn't like being +kept at the Wheelers's, though they were very kind to her; and it was +all Mrs. Wheeler could do to prevent her from slipping up to the farm +unknown to anybody. + +"They don't have porridge for breakfast," said Tiza, tossing her head, +when she and Milly were out together. "Mother always gives us porridge. +And I won't sit next Charlie. He's always dirtying hisself. He stickied +hisself just all over this morning with treacle. Mother would have given +him a clout." + +However, on the whole, she was as good as such a wild creature could be, +and the children and she had some capital times together. Wheeler the +gardener let them gather strawberries and currants for making jam, a +delightful piece of work, which helped to keep Tiza out of mischief and +make her contented with staying away from home more than anything else. +At last, after three days, the doctor said she might come home if she +would promise to be quiet in the house. So one bright evening Tiza +slipped into the farmhouse and squeezed in after her mother to the +little room where Becky was lying, a white-faced feverish little +creature, low down among the pillows. + +"Becky," said Tiza, sitting down beside her sister, as if nothing had +happened, "here's some strawberries. Wheeler gave me some. You can have +some if you want." + +"Just one," said Becky, in her weak shaky voice, smiling at her; and +Tiza knelt on the bed and stuffed one softly into her mouth. + +"You'll have to nurse baby now, Tiza," said Becky presently; "he's been +under mother's feet terrible. Mind you don't let him eat nasty things. +He'll get at the coals if you don't mind him." + +"I'll not let him," said Tiza shortly, setting to work on her own +strawberries. + +All this didn't sound very affectionate; but I think all the same Tiza +did love Becky, and I believe she tried to do her best in her own funny +way while Becky was ill. Baby screamed a good deal certainly when she +nursed him, and it was quite impossible of course for Tiza to keep out +of mischief altogether for two or three weeks. Still, on the whole, she +was a help to her mother; while as for Becky she was never quite happy +when Tiza was out of the house. Becky, like Milly, had a way of loving +everybody about her, and next to her mother she loved Tiza best of +anybody. + +After all, the children were able to say good-bye to Becky. Just the day +before they were to go away Mr. Backhouse came down to say that Becky +would like to see them very much if they could come, and the doctor said +they might. + +So up they went; Milly a good deal excited, and Olly very curious to see +what Becky would look like. Mr. Backhouse took them in, and they found +Becky lying comfortably on a little bed, with a patchwork counterpane, +and her shoulders and arms covered up in a red flannel dressing-gown +that Aunt Emma had sent her. + +[Illustration: "'Haven't you got a bump?' asked Olly"] + +Milly kissed her, and Olly shook her hand, and they didn't all quite +know what to say. + +"Is your back better?" said Milly at last. "I'm so glad the doctor let +us come." + +"Haven't you got a bump?" asked Olly, looking at her with all his eyes. +"We thought you'd have a great black bump on your fore-head, you +know--ever so big." + +"No, it's a cut," said Becky; "there now, you can see how it's plastered +up." + +"Did it hurt?" said Olly, "did you kick? I should have kicked. And does +the doctor give you nasty medicine?" + +"No," said Becky, "I don't have any now. And it wasn't nasty at all what +I had first. And now I may have strawberries and raspberries, and Mr. +Wheeler sends mother a plate everyday." + +"I don't think it's fair that little boys shouldn't never be ill," said +Olly, with his eyes fastened on Becky's plate of strawberries, which was +on the chest of drawers. + +"Oh, you funny boy," said Milly, "why, mother gives you some every day +though you aren't ill; and I'm sure you wouldn't like staying in bed." + +"Yes, I should," said Olly, just for the sake of contradicting. "Do you +know, Becky, we've got a secret, and we're not to tell it you, only +Milly and I are going to--" + +"Don't!" said Milly, putting her hand over, his mouth. "You'll tell in a +minute. You're always telling secrets." + +"Well, just half, Milly, I won't tell it all you know. It's just like +something burning inside my mouth. We're going to make you something, +Becky, when we get home. Something be--ootiful, you know. And you can +look at it in bed, and we won't make it big, so you can turn over the +pages, and--" + +"Be quiet, Olly," said Milly, "I should think Becky'll guess now. It'll +come by post, Becky. Mother's going to help us make it. You'll like it +I know." + +"It's--it's--a picture-book!" said Olly, in a loud whisper, putting his +head down to Becky. "You won't tell, will you?" + +"Oh, you unkind boy," said Milly, pouting. "I'll never have a secret +with you again." + +But Becky looked very pleased, and said she would like a picture-book +she thought very much, for it was dull sometimes when mother was busy +and Tiza was nursing baby. So perhaps, after all, it didn't matter +having told her. + +"I'm going to write to you, Becky," said Milly, when the time came to go +away, "and at Christmas I'll send you a Christmas card, and perhaps +some day we'll come here again you know." + +"And then we'll milk the cows," said Olly, "won't we, Becky? And I'll +ride on your big horse. Mr. Backhouse says I may ride all alone some day +when I'm big; when I'm sixty--no, when I'm ninety-five you know." + +And then Milly and Olly kissed Becky's pale little face and went away, +while poor little Becky looked after them as if she was _very_ sorry to +see the last of them; and outside there were Tiza and baby and Mrs. +Backhouse and even John Backhouse himself, waiting to say good-bye to +them. It made Milly cry a little bit, and she ran away fast down the +hill, while Tiza and Olly were still trying which could squeeze hands +hardest. + +"Oh, you dear mountains," said Milly, as she and nurse walked along +together. "Look Nana, aren't they lovely?" + +They did look beautiful this last evening. The sun was shining on them +so brightly that everything on them, up to the very top, was clear and +plain, and high up, ever so far away, were little white dots moving, +which Milly knew were cows feeding. + +"Good-bye river, good-bye stepping-stones, good-bye doves, good-bye +fly-catchers! Mind you don't any of you go away till we come back +again." + +But I should find it very hard to tell you all the good-byes that Milly +and Olly said to the places and people at Ravensnest, to the woods and +the hay-fields, and the beck, to Aunt Emma's parrot, John Backhouse's +cows, to Windermere Lake and Rydal Lake, above all to dear Aunt Emma +herself. + +"Mind you come at Christmas," shouted both the children, as the train +moved away from Windermere station and left Aunt Emma standing on the +platform; and Aunt Emma nodded and smiled and waved her handkerchief to +them till they were quite out of sight. + +"Mother," said Milly, when they could not see Aunt Emma any more, and +the last bit of Brownholme was slipping away, away, quite out of sight, +"I think Ravensnest is the nicest place we ever stopped at. And I don't +think the rain matters either. I'm going to tell your old gentleman so. +He said it rained in the mountains, and it does, mother--doesn't it? but +he said the rain spoilt everything, and it doesn't--not a bit." + +"Why, there's that curious old fairy been sprinkling dust in your eyes +too, Milly!" + +But something or other had been sprinkling tears in mother's. For to the +old people there is nothing sweeter than to see the young ones opening +their hearts to all that they themselves have loved and rejoiced over. +So the chain of life goes on, and joy gives birth to joy and love to +love. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Milly and Olly, by Mrs. Humphry Ward + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13337 *** diff --git a/13337-h/13337-h.htm b/13337-h/13337-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..319d9a7 --- /dev/null +++ b/13337-h/13337-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4974 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?> +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta name="generator" content= +"HTML Tidy for Mac OS X (vers 1st August 2004), see www.w3.org" /> +<meta http-equiv="content-type" content= +"text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> +<title>Milly and Olly</title> + +<style type="text/css" title="CSS styles"> +/*<![CDATA[*/ +<!-- + * {font-family: Georgia,serif;} + body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + p {text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .75em; font-size: 100%; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: .75em;} + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center;} + h1,h2,h3 {font-variant: small-caps;} + h1, h4 {margin: 2em;} + h2 {margin-top: 3em;} + hr {width: 33%;} + pre {font-family: Courier, monospaced; font-size: 9pt;} + .figure {padding: 1em; text-align: center; font-size: 0.9em; margin: auto;} + .figure img {border: none;} + .figure>p {text-align:center;} + .returnTOC {text-align: right; font-size: 70%;} + .blockquote {margin-right: 10%; margin-left: 10%; text-indent: 0em; line-height: 1;} + blockquote > p {margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 0em;text-indent:0em;font-size:.9em;} + a:link {color: blue; text-decoration: none;} + link {color: blue; text-decoration: none;} + a:visited {color: green; text-decoration: none;} + a:hover {color: red;} +// --> +/*]]>*/ +</style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13337 ***</div> + +<center> +<img alt="Bookcover" src="images/cover.jpg" height="1062" width="655" /> +</center> + + + + +<div class="figure"><a href="images/illus1.png"><img src= +"images/illus1.png" alt= +"“Two funny fair-haired children with their fingers in their mouths”" +id="illus1" name="illus1" width="100%" /></a> +<p>“Two funny fair-haired children with their fingers in +their mouths”</p> +</div> +<hr /> +<h1>Milly And Olly</h1> +<h4>New Revised Edition</h4> +<h6>by</h6> +<h2>Mrs. Humphry Ward</h2> +<h6>Illustrated by</h6> +<h4>Ruth M. Hallock</h4> +<h6>Garden City New York<br /> +Doubleday, Page & Company<br /> +1914</h6> +<hr /> +<h2>Dedication</h2> +<p style="text-indent:0em;font-variant:small-caps;">To F.A., In the +name of the children of Fox how, this revival of a child’s +story written twenty-seven years ago, under the spell of Rotha and +Fairfield, is inscribed by the writer.</p> +<hr /> +<h2>Preface</h2> +<p>After many years this little book is once more to see the light. +The children for whom it was written are long since grown up. But +perhaps the pleasure they once took in it may still be felt by some +of the Millys and Ollys of to-day. Up in the dear mountain country +which it describes, the becks are still sparkling; +“Brownholme” still spreads its green steeps and ferny +hollows under rain and sun; the tiny trout still leap in its tiny +streams; and Fairfield, in its noble curve, still girdles the deep +valley where these children played: the valley of Wordsworth and +Arnold—the valley where Arnold’s poet-son rambled as a +boy—where, for me, the shy and passionate ghost of Charlotte +Brontë still haunts the open door-way of Fox How—where +poetry and generous life and ranging thought still dwell, and bring +their benediction to the passers-by. “Aunt Emma” in her +beautiful home, unchanged but for its vacant chairs, is now as she +ever was, the friend of old and young; and the children of to-day +still press to her side as their elders did before them. The parrot +alas! is gone where parrots may; but amid the voices that breathe +around Fox How—the voices of seventy years—his mimic +speech is still remembered by the children who teased and loved +him. For love, while love lasts, gives life to all things small and +great; and in those who have once felt it, the love of the +Fairfield valley, of the gray stone house that fronts the fells, +and of them that dwell therein, is “not Time’s +fool—”</p> +<p style="text-align:center;">“Or bends with the remover to +remove.”</p> +<p>Mary A. Ward.<br /> +September 18, 1907.</p> +<hr /> +<h2><a id="Contents" name="Contents">CONTENTS</a></h2> +<h3>CHAPTER</h3> +<ol type="I" start="1" style= +"margin: 0 0 0 25%;font-variant:small-caps;"> +<li><a href="#Chapter1">Making Plans</a></li> +<li><a href="#Chapter2">A Journey North</a></li> +<li><a href="#Chapter3">Ravensnest</a></li> +<li><a href="#Chapter4">Out on the Hills</a></li> +<li><a href="#Chapter5">Aunt Emma’s Picnic</a></li> +<li><a href="#Chapter6">Wet Days at Ravensnest</a></li> +<li><a href="#Chapter7">A Story-telling Game</a></li> +<li><a href="#Chapter8">The Story of Beowulf</a></li> +<li><a href="#Chapter9">Milly’s Birthday</a></li> +<li><a href="#Chapter10">Last Days at Ravensnest</a></li> +</ol> +<h3><a id="Illustrations" name= +"Illustrations">ILLUSTRATIONS</a></h3> +<ul style="list-style-type:none;margin: 0 0 0 5%;font-size:.9em;"> +<li><a href="#illus1">“Two funny fair-haired children with +their fingers in their mouths”</a></li> +<li><a href="#illus2">“‘I can’t do without my +toys, Nana’”</a></li> +<li><a href="#illus3">“The flowers Milly gathered for her +mother”</a></li> +<li><a href="#illus4">“So they put Olly up on a tall piece of +rock, and he sang”</a></li> +<li><a href="#illus5">“He was quite sure that h-a-y spelt +‘ham’ and s-a-w spelt ‘was’”</a></li> +<li><a href="#illus6">“‘Suppose we have a story-telling +game’”</a></li> +<li><a href="#illus7">“Haymaking”</a></li> +<li><a href="#illus8">“‘Haven’t you got a +bump?’ asked Olly”</a></li> +</ul> +<hr /> +<h2><a id="Chapter1" name="Chapter1">CHAPTER I</a></h2> +<h3>Making Plans</h3> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>“Milly, come down! come down directly! Mother wants you. +Do make haste!”</p> +<p>“I’m just coming, Olly. Don’t stamp so. Nurse +is tying my sash.”</p> +<p>But Master Olly went on stamping, and jumping up and down +stairs, as his way was when he was very much excited, till Milly +appeared. Presently down she came, a sober fair-haired little +maiden, with blue eyes and a turn-up nose, and a mouth that was +generally rather solemn-looking, though it could laugh merrily +enough when it tried. Milly was six years old. She looked older +than six. At any rate she looked a great deal older than Olly, who +was nearly five; and you will soon find out that she was a good +deal more than a year and a half wiser.</p> +<p>“What’s the matter, Olly? What made you shout +so?”</p> +<p>“Oh, come along, come along;” said the little boy, +pulling at his sister’s hand to make her run. “Mother +wants to tell us something, and she says it’s a nice +something, and I kissed her like anyfing! but she wouldn’t +tell me without you.”</p> +<p>Then the two children set off running, and they flew down a long +passage to the drawing-room, and were soon scrambling about a lady +who was sitting working by the window.</p> +<p>“Well, monkeys, don’t choke me before I tell you my +nice something. Sit on my knee Olly. Now, Milly, guess—what +have father and I just been talking about?”</p> +<p>“Sending Olly to school, perhaps,” said Milly. +“I heard Uncle Richard talking about it yesterday.”</p> +<p>“That wouldn’t be such a nice something,” said +Olly, making a long face. “I wouldn’t like it—not +a bit. Boys don’t never like going to school. I want to learn +my lessons with mother.”</p> +<p>“I know a little boy that doesn’t like learning +lessons with mother very much,” said the lady, laughing. +“But my nice something isn’t sending Olly to school, +Milly. You’re quite wrong—so try again.”</p> +<p>“Oh, mother! is it a strawberry tea?” cried Milly. +“The strawberries are just ripe, I know. Gardener told nurse +so this morning. And we can have tea on the lawn, and ask Jacky and +Francis!”</p> +<p>“Oh, jolly!” said Oliver, jumping off his +mother’s knee and beginning to dance about. “And +we’ll gather them ourselves—won’t you let us, +mother?”</p> +<p>“But it isn’t a strawberry tea even,” said his +mother. “Now, look here, children, what have I got +here?”</p> +<p>“It’s a map—a map of England,” said +Milly, looking very wise. Milly had just begun to learn geography, +and thought she knew all about maps.</p> +<p>“Well, and what happens when father and I look at maps in +the summertime?”</p> +<p>“Why,” said Milly, slowly, “you and father +pack up your things, and go away over the sea, and we stay behind +with nurse.”</p> +<p>“I don’t call <em>that</em> a nice something,” +said Olly, standing still again.</p> +<p>“Oh, mother, <em>are</em> you going away?” said +Milly, hanging round her mother’s neck.</p> +<p>“Yes, Milly, and so’s father, and so’s +nurse”—and their mother began to laugh.</p> +<p>“So’s nurse?” said Milly and Olly together, +and then they stopped and opened two pairs of round eyes very wide, +and stared at their mother. “Oh, mother, mother, take us +too!”</p> +<p>“Why, how should father and I get on, travelling about +with a pair of monkeys?” said their mother, catching hold of +the two children and lifting them on to her knee; “we should +want a cage to keep them in.”</p> +<p>“Oh, mother, we’ll be <em>ever</em> so good! But +where are we going? Oh, do take us to the sea!”</p> +<p>“Yes, the sea! the sea!” shouted Olly, careering +round the room again; “we’ll have buckets and spades, +and we’ll paddle and catch crabbies, and wet our clothes, and +have funny shoes, just like Cromer. And father’ll teach me to +swim—he said he would next time.”</p> +<p>“No,” said Mrs. Norton, for that was the name of +Milly’s and Oliver’s mother. “No, we are not +going to the sea this summer. We are going to a place mother loves +better than the sea, though perhaps you children mayn’t like +it quite so well. We’re going to the mountains. Uncle Richard +has lent father and mother his own nice house among the mountains +and we’re all going there next week—such a long way in +the train, Milly.”</p> +<p>“What are mountains?” said Olly, who had scarcely +ever seen a hill higher than the church steeple. “They +can’t be so nice as the sea, mother. Nothing can.”</p> +<p>“They’re humps, Olly,” answered Milly eagerly. +“Great, big humps of earth, you know; earth mixed with stone. +And they reach up ever so high, up into the sky. And it takes you a +whole day to get up to the top of them, and a whole day to get down +again. Doesn’t it, mother? Fräulein told me all about +mountains in my geography. And some mountains have got snow on +their tops all year, even in summer, when it’s so hot, and +we’re having strawberries. Will the mountains we’re +going to, have snow on them?”</p> +<p>“Oh, no. The snow mountains are far away over the sea. But +these are English mountains, kind, easy mountains, not too high for +you and me to climb up, and covered all over with soft green grass +and wild flowers, and tiny sheep with black faces.”</p> +<p>“And, mother, is there a garden to Uncle Richard’s +house, and are there any children there to play with?”</p> +<p>“There’s a delightful garden, full of roses, and +strawberries and grapes, and everything else that’s nice. And +it has a baby river all to itself, that runs and jumps and chatters +all through the middle of it, so perhaps Olly may have a paddle +sometimes, though we aren’t going to the sea. And the +gardener has got two little children, just about your age, Aunt +Mary says: and there are two more at the farm, two dear little +girls, who aren’t a bit shy, and will like playing with you +very much. But who else shall we see there, Milly? Who lives in the +mountains too, near Uncle Richard?”</p> +<p>Olly looked puzzled, but Milly thought a minute, and then said +quickly, “Aunt Emma, isn’t it, mother? Didn’t she +come here once? I think I remember.”</p> +<p>“Yes, she came once, but long ago, when you were quite +small. But now we shall see a great deal of her I hope, for she +lives just on the other side of the mountain from Uncle +Richard’s house, in a dear old house, where I spent many, +many happy days when I was small. Great-grandpapa and grandmamma +were alive then. But now Aunt Emma lives there quite alone. Except +for one creature, at least, an old gray poll-parrot, that chatters +away, and behaves as if it were quite sensible, and knew all about +everything.”</p> +<p>“Hasn’t she got any pussies, mother?” asked +Olly.</p> +<p>“Yes, two I believe; but they don’t get on with +Polly very well, so they live in the kitchen out of the +way—”</p> +<p>“I like pussies better than pollies,” said Olly +gravely.</p> +<p>“Why, what do you know about pollies, old man?”</p> +<p>“Pollies bite, I know they do. There was a polly bited +Francis once.”</p> +<p>“Well, and pussies scratch,” said Milly.</p> +<p>“No, they don’t, not if you’re nicey to +them,” said Olly; who was just then very much in love with a +white kitten, and thought there were no creatures so delightful as +pussies.</p> +<p>“Well, suppose you don’t make up your mind about +Aunt Emma’s Polly till you’ve seen her,” said +Mrs. Norton. “Now sit down on the rug there and let us have a +talk.”</p> +<p>Down squatted the children on the floor opposite their mother, +with their little heads full of plans and their eyes as bright as +sparks.</p> +<p>“I’ll take my cart and horse,” began Olly; +“and my big ball, and my whistle, and my wheelbarrow, and my +spade, and all my books, and the big scrap-book, +and—”</p> +<p>“You can’t, Olly,” exclaimed Milly. +“Nurse could never pack all those up. There’d be no +room for our clothes. You can take your whistle, and the top, and +the picture books, and I can take my dolls. That’ll be quite +enough, won’t it, mother?”</p> +<p>“Quite enough,” said Mrs. Norton. “If +it’s fine weather you’ll see—you won’t want +any toys. But now, look here, children,” and she held up the +map. “Shall I show you how we are going to get to the +mountains?”</p> +<p>“Oh yes,” said Milly, “that’ll be like +my geography lesson—come, Olly. Now mother’ll teach +<em>you</em> geography, like Fräulein does me.”</p> +<p>“That’s lessons,” said Olly, with half a pout, +“not fun a bit. It’s only girls like lessons—Boys +never do—Jacky doesn’t, and Francis doesn’t, and +I don’t.”</p> +<p>“Never mind about it’s being lessons, Olly. Come and +see if it isn’t interesting,” said Mrs. Norton. +“Now, Milly, find Willingham.”</p> +<p>Willingham was the name of the town where Milly and Oliver +lived. It is a little town in Oxfordshire, and if you look long +enough on the map you <em>may</em> find it, though I won’t +promise you.</p> +<p>“There it is,” said Milly triumphantly, showing it +to her mother and Olly.</p> +<p>“Quite right. Now look here,” and Mrs. Norton took a +pencil out of her pocket and drew a little line along the map. +“First of all we shall get into the train and go to a place +called—look, Milly.”</p> +<p>“Bletchley,” said Milly, following where the pencil +pointed. “What an ugly name.”</p> +<p>“It’s an ugly place,” said Mrs. Norton, +“so perhaps it doesn’t deserve a better name. And after +Bletchley—look again, Milly.”</p> +<p>“Rugby,” said Milly, reading the names as her mother +pointed, “and then Stafford, and then Crewe—what a +funny name, mother!—and then Wigan, and then Warrington, and +then Lancaster. Ox-en-holme, Kendal, Wind-er-mere. Oh, mother, what +a long way! Why, we’ve got right to the top of +England.”</p> +<p>“Stop a bit, Milly, and let me tell you something about +these places. First of all we shall get out of the train at +Bletchley, and get into another train that will go faster than the +first. And it will take us past all kinds of places, some pretty +and some ugly, and some big and some small. At Stafford there is an +old castle, Milly, where fierce people lived in old days and fought +their neighbours. And at Crewe we shall get out and have our +dinner. And at Wigan all the trees grow on one side as if some one +had come and given them a push in the night; and at Lancaster +there’s another old castle, a very famous one, only now they +have turned it into a prison, and people are shut up inside it. +Then a little way after Lancaster you’ll begin to see some +mountains, far, far away, but first you’ll see something +else—just a little bit of blue sea, with mountains on the +other side of it. And then will come Windermere, where we shall get +out and drive in a carriage. And we shall drive right into the +mountains, Olly, till they stand up all round us with their dear +kind old faces that mother has loved ever since she was a +baby.”</p> +<p>The children looked up wonderingly at their mother, and they saw +her face shining and her eyes as bright as theirs, as if she too +was a child going out for a holiday.</p> +<p>“Oh! And, mother,” said Olly, “you’ll +let us take Spot. She can go in my box.”</p> +<p>Now Spot was the white kitten, so Milly and mother began to +laugh.</p> +<p>“Suppose you go and ask Spot first, whether she’d +like it, Olly,” said Mrs. Norton, patting his sunburnt little +face.</p> +<h2><a id="Chapter2" name="Chapter2">CHAPTER II</a></h2> +<h3>A Journey North</h3> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>Milly and Oliver lived at Willingham, a little town in +Oxfordshire, as I have already told you. Their father was a doctor, +and they lived in an old-fashioned house, in a street, with a long +shady garden stretching away behind it. Milly and Oliver loved +their father, and whenever he put his brown face inside the nursery +door, two pairs of little feet went running to meet him, and two +pairs of little hands pulled him eagerly into the room. But they +saw him very seldom; whereas their mother was always with them, +teaching them their lessons, playing with them in the garden, +telling them stories, mending their frocks, tucking them up in +their snug little beds at night, sometimes praising them, sometimes +scolding them; always loving and looking after them. Milly and Olly +honestly believed that theirs was the best mother in the whole +world. Nobody else could find out such nice plays, or tell them +such wonderful stories, or dress dolls half so well. Two little +neighbours of theirs, Jacky and Francis, had a poor sick mother who +always lay on the sofa, and could hardly bear to have her little +boys in the room with her. Milly and Oliver were never tired of +wondering how Jacky and Francis got on with a mother like that. +“How funny, and how dreadful it must be. Poor Jacky and +Francis!” It never came into their, heads to say, “Poor +Jacky’s mother” too, but then you see they were such +little people, and little people have only room in their heads for +a very few thoughts at a time.</p> +<p>However, Milly had been away from her mother a good deal lately. +About six months before my story begins she had been sent to +school, to a kindergarten, as she was taught to call it. And there +Milly had learnt all kinds of wonderful things—she had learnt +how to make mats out of paper, blue mats, and pink mats, and yellow +mats, and red mats; she had learned how to make a bit of soft clay +look like a box, or a stool, or a bird’s nest with three clay +eggs inside it; she had begun to add up and take away; and, above +all, she had begun to learn geography, and Fräulein—for +Milly’s mistress was a German, and had a German +name—was just now teaching her about islands, and lakes, and +capes, and peninsulas, and many other things that all little girls +have to learn about some time or other, unless they wish to grow up +dunces.</p> +<p>As for Milly’s looks, I have told you already that she had +blue eyes and a turn-up nose, and a dear sensible little face. And +she had very thick fair hair, that was always tumbling about her +eyes, and making her look, as nurse told her, like “a yellow +owl in an ivy bush.” Milly loved most people, except perhaps +John the gardener, who was rather cross to the children, and was +always calling to them not to walk “on them beds,” and +to be sure not to touch any of his fruit or flowers. She loved her +father and her mother; she loved Olly with all her whole heart, +though he was a tease, she loved her nurse, whom she and Olly +called Nana, and who had been with them ever since Milly was born; +and she loved Fräulein, and was always begging flowers from +her mother that she might take them to school for +Fräulein’s table. So you see Milly was made up of +loving. And she was a thoughtful little girl too, tidy with her +dress, quick and quiet at her lessons, and always ready to sit +still with her fairy-book or her doll, when mother was busy or +tired. But there were two things in which Milly was not at all +sensible in spite of her sensible face. She was much too ready to +cry when any little thing went wrong, and she was dreadfully afraid +of creatures of all sorts. She was afraid of her father’s big +dog, she was afraid of the dear brown cow that lived in the field +beyond the garden, she was afraid of earwigs. I am even ashamed to +say she was afraid of spiders. Once she ran away as if a lion were +behind her from a white kitten that pulled her dress with its +frolicsome paws to make her play with it; but that, Milly would +tell you, was “when I was little,” and she was quite +sure she was a good deal braver now.</p> +<p>Now what am I to tell you about Olly?</p> +<p>Olly was just a round ball of fun and mischief. He had brown +hair, brown eyes, a brown face, and brown hands. He was always +touching and meddling with everything, indoors and out, to see what +was inside it, or what it was made of. He liked teasing Milly, he +liked his walks, he liked his sleep in the morning, he liked his +dinner, he liked his tea, he liked everything in the world, except +learning to read, and that he hated. He could only do one thing +besides mischief. He could sing all kinds of tunes—quick +tunes, slow tunes, and merry tunes. He had been able to sing tunes +ever since he was quite a tiny baby, and his father and mother +often talked together of how, in about a year, he should be taught +to play on the piano, or perhaps on the violin, if he liked it +better. You might hear his sharp, shrill little voice, singing +about the house and the garden all day long. John the gardener +called it “squealin’,” and told Olly his songs +were “capital good” for frightening away the birds.</p> +<p>Now, perhaps, you know a little more about Milly and Olly than +you did when I began to tell you about them, and it is time you +should hear of what happened to them on that wonderful journey of +theirs up to the mountains.</p> +<p>First of all came the packing up. Milly could not make up her +mind about her dolls; she had three—Rose, Mattie, and +Katie—but Rose’s frocks were very dirty, Mattie had a +leg broken, and Katie’s paint had been all washed off one wet +night, when Olly left her out on the lawn. Now which of these was +the tidiest and most respectable doll to take out on a visit? Milly +did not know how to settle it.</p> +<div class="figure"><a href="images/illus2.png"><img src= +"images/illus2.png" id="illus2" name="illus2" alt= +"“‘I can’t do without my toys, Nana’”" +width="100%" /></a> +<p>“‘I can’t do without my toys, +Nana’”</p> +</div> +<p>“I think, Nana,” she said at last to her nurse, who +was packing the children’s trunk, “I will take Katie. +Mother always sends us away when we get white faces to make us look +nice and red again; so, perhaps, if I take Katie her colour will +come back too, you know.”</p> +<p>“Perhaps it will, Miss Milly,” said nurse, laughing; +“anyhow, you had better give me the doll you want directly, +for it is time I packed all the toys now. Now, Master Olly, you +know I can’t let you take all those things.”</p> +<p>For there was Olly dragging along his wheelbarrow heaped up with +toys with one hand, and his cart and horse with a box of bricks +standing up in it with the other. He would not listen to what Milly +said about it, and he would scarcely listen to nurse now.</p> +<p>“I can’t do without my toys, Nana. I <em>must</em> +do mischief if you won’t let me take all my toys; I +can’t help it.”</p> +<p>“I haven’t got room for half those, Master Olly, and +you’ll have ever so many new things to play with when we get +to Ravensnest.”</p> +<p>“There’ll be the new children, Olly,” said +Milly, “and the little rivers and all the funny new +flowers.”</p> +<p>“Those aren’t toys,” said Olly, looking ready +to cry. “I don’t know nothing about them.”</p> +<p>“Now,” said nurse, making a place in the box, +“bring me your bricks and your big ball, and your +picture-books. There, that’s all I can spare you.”</p> +<p>“Wait one minute,” said Olly, rushing off; and just +then Mrs. Norton called nurse away to speak to her in the +drawing-room. When nurse came back she saw nobody in the nursery. +Milly had gone out in the garden, Olly was nowhere to be seen. And +who had shut down the trunk, which was open when she left it? +Me-ow, sounded very softly from somewhere close by.</p> +<p>“Why—Spot! Spot!” called nurse.</p> +<p>Me-ow, Me-ow, came again; a sad choky little mew, right from the +middle of the children’s trunk. “Master Olly and his +tricks again,” said nurse, running to the box and opening it. +There, on the top, lay a quantity of frocks that nurse had left +folded up on the floor, thrown in anyhow, with some toys scattered +among them, and the frocks and toys were all dancing up and down as +if they were bewitched. Nurse took out the frocks, and there was +the children’s collar-box, a large round cardboard-box with a +lid, jumping from side to side like a box in a fairy tale; and such +dreadful pitiful little mews coming from the inside! Nurse undid +the lid, and out sprang Spot like a flash of lightning, and ran as +if she were running for her life out of the door and down the +stairs, and safe into the kitchen, where she cuddled herself up in +a corner of the fender, wishing with all her poor trembling little +heart that there were no such things in the world as small boys. +And then nurse heard a kind of kicking and scuffling in the china +cupboard, and when she opened it there sat Olly doubled up, his +brown eyes dancing like will-o’-the-wisps, and his little +white teeth grinning.</p> +<p>“Oh! Nana, she <em>did</em> make a funny me-ow! I just +said to her, Now, Spottie, <em>wouldn’t</em> you like to go +in my box? and she said, Yes; and I made her such a comfy bed, and +then I stuck all those frocks on the top of her to keep her warm. +Why did you let her out, Nana?”</p> +<p>“You little mischief,” said Nana, “do you know +you might have smothered poor little Spot? And look at all these +frocks; do you think I have got nothing better to do than to tidy +up after your tricks?”</p> +<p>But nurse never knew how to be very hard upon Olly; so all she +did was to set him up on a high chair with a picture-book, where +she could see all he was doing. There was no saying what he might +take a fancy to pack up next if she didn’t keep an eye on +him.</p> +<p>Well, presently all the packing was done, and Milly and Olly had +gone to say good-bye to Fräulein, and to Jacky and Francis. +Wednesday evening came, and they were to start early on Thursday +morning. Olly begged nurse to put him to bed very early, that he +might “wake up krick”—quick was a word Olly never +could say. So to bed he went at half-past six, and his head had +scarcely touched the pillow two minutes before he had gone +cantering away into dreamland, and was seeing all the sights and +hearing all the delicious stories that children do see and hear in +dreamland, though they don’t always remember them when they +wake up. Both Milly and he woke up very early on Thursday morning; +and directly his eyes were open Olly jumped out of bed like an +india-rubber ball, and began to put on his stockings in a terrible +hurry. The noise of his jump woke nurse, and she called out in a +sleepy voice:</p> +<p>“Get into bed again, Master Olly, directly. It is only +just six o’clock, and I can’t have you out of bed till +seven. You’ll only be under my feet, and in everybody’s +way.”</p> +<p>“Nana, I won’t be in <em>anybody’s</em> +way,” exclaimed Olly, running up to her and scrambling on to +her bed with his little bare toes half way into his stockings. +“I can’t keep still in my bed all such a long time. +There’s something inside of me, Nana, keeps jumping up and +down, and won’t let me keep still. Now, if I get up, you +know, Nana, I can help you.”</p> +<p>“Help me, indeed!” said nurse, kissing his little +brown face, or as much of it as could be seen through his curls. +“A nice helping that would be. Come back to bed, sir, and +I’ll give you some picture-books till I’m ready to +dress you.”</p> +<p>So back to bed Master Olly went, sorely against his will, and +there he had to stay till nurse and Milly were dressed, and the +breakfast things laid. Then nurse gave him his bath and dressed +him, and put him up to eat his bread and milk while she finished +the packing. Olly was always very quiet over his meals, and it was +the only time in the day when he was quiet.</p> +<p>Presently up rattled the cab, and down ran the children with +their walking things on to see father and John lift the boxes on to +the top; and soon they were saying good-bye to Susan the cook, and +Jenny the housemaid, who were going to stay and take care of the +house while they were away; and then crack went the whip, and off +they went to the station. On the way they passed Jacky and Francis +standing at their gate, and all the children waved their hats and +shouted “Hurrah! hurrah!” At the station nurse kept +tight hold of Olly till father had got the tickets and put all the +boxes into the train, and then he and Milly were safely lifted up +into the railway carriage, and nurse and father and mother came +next, with all the bags and shawls and umbrellas.</p> +<p>Such a settling of legs and arms and packages there was; and in +the middle of it “whew” went the whistle, and off they +went away to the mountains.</p> +<p>But they had a long way to go before they saw any mountains. +First of all they had to get to Bletchley, and it took about an +hour doing that. And oh! what a lovely morning it was, and how +fresh and green the fields looked as the train hurried along past +them. Olly and Milly could see hundreds and thousands of +moon-daisies and buttercups growing among the wet grass, and every +now and then came great bushes of wild-roses, some pink and some +white, and long pools with yellow irises growing along the side; +and sometimes the train went rushing through a little village, and +they could see the little children trotting along to school, with +their books and slates tucked under their arms; and sometimes they +went along for miles together without seeing anything but the +white-and-brown cows in the fields, and the great mother-sheep with +their fat white lambs beside them. The sun shone so brightly, the +buttercups were so yellow, the roses so pink, and the sky so blue, +it was like a fairy world. Olly and Milly were always shouting and +clapping their hands at something or other, for Milly had grown +almost as wild as Olly.</p> +<p>Sh-sh-sh-sh went the train, getting slower and slower till at +last it stopped altogether.</p> +<p>“Bletchley, Bletchley!” shouted Olly, jumping down +off the seat.</p> +<p>“No, my boy,” said his father, catching hold of him, +“we shall stop five more times before we get to Bletchley; so +don’t be impatient.”</p> +<p>But at last came Bletchley, and the children were lifted out +into the middle of such a bustle, as it seemed to Milly. There were +crowds of people at the station, and they were all pushing backward +and forward, and shouting and talking.</p> +<p>“Keep hold of me, Olly,” said Milly, with an anxious +little face. “Oh, Nana, don’t let him go!”</p> +<p>But nurse held him fast; and very soon they were through the +crowd, and father had put them safe into their new train, into a +carriage marked “Windermere,” which would take them all +the way to their journey’s end.</p> +<p>“That was like lions and bears, wasn’t it, +mother?” said Olly, pointing to the crowd in the station, as +they went puffing away. Now, “lions and bears” was a +favourite game of the children’s, a romping game, where +everybody ran about and pretended to be somebody else, and where +the more people played, and the more they ran and pushed and +tumbled about, the funnier, it was. And the running, scrambling +people at the station did look rather as if they were playing at +lions and bears.</p> +<p>And now the children had a long day before them. On rushed the +train, past towns and villages, and houses and trains. The sun got +hotter and hotter, and the children began to get a little tired of +looking out of window. Milly asked for a story-book, and was soon +very happy reading “Snow White and Rose Red.” She had +read it a hundred times before, but that never mattered a bit. Olly +came to sit on nurse’s knee while she showed him pictures, +and so the time passed away. And now the train stopped again, and +father lifted Olly on his knee to see a great church far away over +the houses, and taught him to say “Lichfield +Cathedral.” And then came Stafford; and Milly looked out for +the castle, and wondered whether the castles in her story-books +looked like that, and whether princesses and fairy godmothers and +giants ever lived there in old times.</p> +<p>After they had left Stafford, Olly began to get tired and +fidgety. First he went to sit on his father’s knee, then on +mother’s, then on nurse’s—none of them could keep +him still, and nothing seemed to amuse him for long together.</p> +<p>“Come and have a sleep, Master Olly,” said nurse. +“You are just tired and hot. This is a long way for little +boys, and we’ve got ever so far to go yet.”</p> +<p>“I’m not sleepy, Nana,” said Olly, sitting +straight up, with a little flushed face and wide-open eyes. +“I’m going to keep awake like father.”</p> +<p>“Father’s going to sleep, then,” said Mr. +Norton, tucking himself up in a shady corner; “so you go too, +Olly, and see which of us can go quickest.”</p> +<p>When Olly had seen his father’s eyes tight shut, and heard +him give just one little snore—it was rather a make-believe +snore—he did let nurse draw him on to her knee; and very soon +the little gipsy creature was fast asleep, with all his brown curls +lying like a soft mat over nurse’s arm. Milly, too, shut her +eyes and sat very still; she did not mean to go to sleep, but +presently she began to think a great many sleepy thoughts: Why did +the hedges run so fast? and why did the telegraph wires go up and +down as if they were always making curtsies? and was that really +mother opposite, or was it Cinderella’s fairy godmother? And +all of a sudden Milly came bump up against a tall blue mountain +that had a face like a man, and cried out when she bumped upon +it!</p> +<p>“Crewe, I declare,” exclaimed father, jumping up +with a start. “Why, Olly and I have been asleep nearly an +hour! Wake up, children, it’s dinner-time.”</p> +<p>Nurse had to shake Olly a great many times before he would open +his sleepy eyes, and then he stood up rubbing them as if he would +rub them quite away. Father lifted him out, and carried him into a +big room, with a big table in it, all ready for dinner, and hungry +people sitting round it. What fun it was having dinner at a +station, with all the grown-up people. Milly and Olly thought there +never was such nice bread and such nice apple-tart. Nothing at home +ever tasted half so good. And after dinner father took them a +little walk up and down the platform, and at last, just as it was +time to get into the train again, he bought them a paper full of +pictures, called the <em>Graphic</em>, that amused Olly for a long +way.</p> +<p>But it was a long long way to Windermere, and poor Milly and +Olly began to get very tired. The trees at Wigan did make them +laugh a little bit, but they were too tired to think them as funny +as they would have thought them in the morning. They are such +comical trees! First of all, the smoke from the smoky chimneys at +Wigan has made them black, and stopped the leaves from growing, and +then the wind has blown them all over on one side, so that they +look like ugly little twisted dwarfs, as if some cruel fairy had +touched them with her wand. But Olly soon forgot all about them; +and he began to wander from one end to the other of the carriage +again, scrambling and jumping about, till he gave himself a hard +knock against the seat; and that made him begin to cry—poor +tired little Olly. Then mother lifted him on to her knee, and said +to him, very softly, “Are you very tired, Olly? Never mind, +poor little man, we shan’t be very long now, and we’re +all tired, darling—father’s tired, and I’m tired; +and look at Milly there, she looks like a little white ghost. +Suppose you be brave, and try a little extra hard to be good. Then +mother’ll love you an extra bit. And what do you think we +shall see soon? such a lovely bit of blue sea with white ships on +it. Just you shut your eyes a little bit till it comes, I’ll +be sure to tell you.”</p> +<p>And sure enough, after Lancaster, mother gave a little cry, and +Olly jumped up, and Milly came running over, and there before them +lay the dancing windy blue sea, covered over with little white +waves, running and tumbling over each other. And on the other side +of it, what did the children see?</p> +<p>“Mother, mother! what is it?” cried Olly, pointing +with his little brown hand far away; “is it a fairy palace, +mother?”</p> +<p>“Perhaps it is, Olly; anyway, the hill-fairies live there. +For those are the mountains, the beautiful mountains we are going +to see.”</p> +<p>“But how shall we get across the sea to them?” asked +Milly, with a puzzled face.</p> +<p>“This is only a corner of the sea, Milly—a bay. +Don’t you remember bays in your geography? We can’t go +across it, but we can go round it, and we shall find the mountains +on the other side.”</p> +<p>Oh! how fast the train seemed to go now that there was something +to look at. Everywhere mountains were beginning to spring up. And +when they had said good-bye to the sea, the mountains began to grow +taller and taller. What had happened to the houses too? They had +all turned white or gray; there was no red one left. And the fields +had stone walls instead of hedges; and inside the walls there were +small sheep, about as big as the lambs they had seen near Oxford in +the morning.</p> +<p>Oxenholme, Kendal, Windermere. How glad the tired children were +when the train ran slowly down into Windermere station, and they +could jump out and say good-bye to it for a long, long time! They +had to wait a little, till father had found all the boxes and put +them in the carriage that was waiting for them, and then in they +tumbled, nurse having first wrapped them up in big shawls, for it +was evening now, and the wind had grown cold. That was a nice drive +home among the mountains. How tall and dark and quiet they were. +And what was this shining on their left hand, like a white face +running beside them, and peeping from behind the trees? Why, it was +a lake; a great wide lake, with tiny boats upon it, some with white +sails and some without.</p> +<p>“Mother! mother! may we go in those boats some day?” +shouted Olly, in a little sharp tired voice, and his mother smiled +at him, and said—“Yes, very likely.”</p> +<p>How happy mother looked. She knew all the mountains like old +friends, she could tell all their names; and every now and then, +when they came to a house, she and father would begin to talk about +the people who lived in it, just as if they were talking about +people they knew quite well. And now came a little town, the town +of Wanwick mother called it, right among the mountains, with a +river running round it, and a tall church spire. It began to get +darker and darker, and the trees hung down over the road, so that +the children could hardly see. On they went, and Olly was very +nearly asleep again, when the carriage began to crunch over gravel, +and then it stopped, and father called out—“Here we +are, children, here we are at Ravensnest.”</p> +<p>And out they all jumped. What were those bright lights shining? +Olly and Milly hardly knew where they were going as nurse took them +in, and one of Uncle Richard’s servants showed them the way +upstairs to the nursery. Such a nice nursery, with candles lit, and +a little fire burning, two bowls of hot bread and milk on the +table, and in the corner two little white beds, as soft and fresh +as nests! In twenty minutes Olly was in one of these little white +beds, and Milly in the other. And you may guess whether they were +long about going to sleep.</p> +<h2><a id="Chapter3" name="Chapter3">CHAPTER III</a></h2> +<h3>Ravensnest</h3> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>“Poor little souls! How late they are sleeping. They must +have been tired last night.”</p> +<p>So said nurse at eight o’clock, when she came back into +the nursery from a journey to the kitchen after the breakfast +things, and found the children still fast asleep; so fast that it +looked as if they meant to go on sleeping till dinner-time.</p> +<p>“Milly!” she called softly, shaking her very gently, +“Milly, it’s breakfast-time, wake up!”</p> +<p>Milly began to move about, and muttered something about +“whistles” and “hedges” in her sleep.</p> +<p>Then nurse gave her another little shake, and at last +Milly’s eyes did try very hard to open—“What is +it? What do you want, Nana? Where are we?—Oh, I +know!”</p> +<p>And up sprang Milly in a second and ran to the window, her +sleepy eyes wide open at last. “Yes, there they are! Come and +look, Nana! There, past those trees—don’t you see the +mountains? And there is father walking about; and oh! do look at +those roses over there. Dress me quick, dress me quick, please, +dear Nana.”</p> +<p>Thump! bump! and there was Olly out of bed, sitting on the floor +rubbing his eyes. Olly used always to jump out of bed half asleep, +and then sit a long time on the floor waking up. Nurse and Milly +always left him alone till he was quite woke up. It made him cross +if you began to talk to him too soon.</p> +<p>“Milly,” said Olly presently, in a sleepy voice, +“I’m going right up the mountains after breakfast. +Aren’t you?”</p> +<p>“Wait till you see them, Master Olly,” said nurse, +taking him up and kissing him, “perhaps your little legs +won’t find it quite so easy to climb up the mountains as you +think.”</p> +<p>“I can climb up three, four, six, seven mountains,” +said Olly stoutly; “mountains aren’t a bit hard. Mother +says they’re meant to climb up.”</p> +<p>“Well, I suppose it’s like going up stairs a long +way,” said Milly, thoughtfully, pulling on her stockings. +“You didn’t like going up the stairs in Auntie +Margaret’s house, Olly.”</p> +<p>Auntie Margaret’s house was a tall London house, with ever +so many stairs. The children when they were staying there were put +to sleep at the top, and Olly used to sit down on the stairs and +pout and grumble every time they had to go up.</p> +<p>But Olly shook his obstinate little head.</p> +<p>“I don’t believe it’s a bit like going up +stairs.”</p> +<p>However, as they couldn’t know what it was like before +they tried, nurse told them it was no good talking about it. So +they hurried on with their dressing, and presently there stood as +fresh a pair of morning children as anyone could wish to see, with +rosy cheeks, and smooth hair, and clean print frocks—for Olly +was still in frocks—though when the winter came mother said +she was going to put him into knickerbockers.</p> +<p>And then nurse took them each by the hand and led them through +some long passages, down a pretty staircase, and through a swing +door, into what looked like a great nagged kitchen, only there was +no fireplace in it. The real kitchen opened out of it at one side, +and through the door came a smell of coffee and toast that made the +children feel as hungry as little hunters. But their own room was +straight in front, across the kitchen without a fireplace, a tiny +room with one large window hung round with roses, and looking out +on to a green lawn.</p> +<p>“Nana, isn’t it pretty? Nana, I think it’s +lovely!” said Milly, looking out and clapping her hands. And +it <em>was</em> a pretty garden they could see from the window. An +up-and-down garden, with beds full of bright flowers, and grass +which was nearly all moss, and so soft that no cushion could be +softer. In the distance they could hear a little splish-splash +among the trees, which came, Milly supposed, from the river mother +had told them about; while, reaching up all round the house, so +that they could not see the top of it from the window, was the +green wild mountain itself, the mountain of Brownholme, under which +Uncle Richard’s house was built.</p> +<p>The children hurried through their breakfast, and then nurse +covered them up with garden pinafores, and took them to the +dining-room to find father and mother. Mr. and Mrs. Norton were +reading letters when the children’s curly heads appeared at +the open door, and Mrs. Norton was just saying to her husband:</p> +<p>“Aunt Emma sends a few lines just to welcome us, and to +say that she can’t come over to us to-day, but will we all +come over to her to-morrow and have early dinner, and perhaps a row +afterward—”</p> +<p>“Oh, a row, mother, a row!” shouted Olly, clambering +on to his mother’s knee and half-strangling her with his +strong little arms; “I can row, father said I might. Are we +going to-day?”</p> +<p>“No, to-morrow, Olly, when we’ve seen a little bit +of Ravensnest first. Which of you remembers Aunt Emma, I +wonder?”</p> +<p>“I remember her,” said Milly, nodding her head +wisely, “she had a big white cap, and she told me stories. +But I don’t quite remember her face, mother—not +<em>quite</em>.”</p> +<p>“I don’t remember her, not one bit,” said +Olly. “Mother, does she keep saying, ‘Don’t do +that;’ ‘Go up stairs, naughty boys,’ like +Jacky’s aunt does?”</p> +<p>For the children’s playfellows, Jacky and Francis, had an +aunt living with them whom Milly and Olly couldn’t bear. They +believed that she couldn’t say anything else except +“Don’t!” and “Go up stairs!” and they +were always in dread lest they should come across an aunt like +her.</p> +<p>“She’s the dearest aunt in the whole world,” +said mother, “and she never says, ‘Don’t,’ +except when she’s obliged, but when she does say it little +boys have to mind. When I was a little girl I thought there was +nobody like Aunt Emma, nobody who could make such plans or tell +such splendid stories.”</p> +<p>“And, mother, can’t she cut out card dolls? asked +Milly. Don’t you know those beautiful card dolls you have in +your drawer at home—didn’t Aunt Emma make +them?”</p> +<p>“Yes, of course she did. She made me a whole family once +for my birthday, a father and a mother, and two little girls and +two little boys. And each of the children had two paper dresses and +two hats, one for best and one for every day—and the mother +had a white evening dress trimmed with red, and a hat and a +bonnet.”</p> +<p>“I know, mother! they’re all in your drawer at home, +only one of the little boys has his head broken off. Do you think +Aunt Emma would make me a set if I asked her?”</p> +<p>“I can’t say, Milly. But I believe Aunt Emma’s +fingers are just as quick as ever they were. Now, children, father +says he will take you out while I go and speak to cook. Olly, how +do you think we’re going to get any meat for you and Milly +here? There are no shops on the mountains.”</p> +<p>“Then we’ll eat fisses, little fisses like +those!” cried Olly, pointing to a plate of tiny red-spotted +fish that father and mother had been having for breakfast.</p> +<p>“Thank you, Olly,” said Mr. Norton, laughing; +“it would cost a good deal to keep you in trout, sir. I think +we’ll try for some plain mutton for you, even if we have to +catch the sheep on the mountains ourselves. But now come along till +mother is ready, and I’ll show you the river where those +little fishes lived.”</p> +<p>Out ran the children, ready to go anywhere and see anything in +this beautiful new place, which seemed to them a palace of wonders. +And presently they were skipping over the soft green grass, each +holding one of father’s hands, and chattering away to him as +if their little tongues would never stop. What a hot day it was +going to be! The sky overhead was deep blue, with scarcely a cloud, +they could hear nothing in the still air but the sleepy cooing of +the doves in the trees by the gate, and the trees and flowers all +looked as if they were going to sleep in the heat.</p> +<p>“Father, why did that old gentleman at Willingham last +week tell mother that it always rained in the mountains?” +asked Milly, looking up at the blue sky.</p> +<p>“Well, Milly, I’m afraid you’ll find out +before you go home that it does know how to rain here. Sometimes it +rains and rains as if the sky were coming down and all the world +were going to turn into water. But never mind about that +now—it isn’t going to rain to-day.”</p> +<p>Down they went through the garden, across the road, and into a +field on the other side of it, a beautiful hay-field full of +flowers, with just a narrow little path through it where the +children and Mr. Norton could walk one behind another. And at the +end of the path what do you think they found? Why, a chattering +sparkling river, running along over hundreds and thousands of brown +and green pebbles, so fast that it seemed to be trying to catch the +birds as they skimmed across it. The children had never seen a +river like this before, where you could see right to the very +bottom, and count the stones there if you liked, and which behaved +like a river at play, scrambling and dancing and rushing along as +if it were out for a holiday, like the children themselves.</p> +<p>“What do you think of that for a river, children?” +said Mr. Norton. “Very early this morning, when you little +sleepyheads were in bed, I got up and came down here, and had my +bath over there, look—in that nice brown pool under the +tree.”</p> +<p>“Oh, father!” cried both children, dancing round +him. “Let us have our baths in the river too. Do ask +Nana—do, father! We can have our bathing things on that we +had at the sea, and you can come too and teach us to +swim.”</p> +<p>“Well, just once perhaps, if mother says yes, and +it’s very warm weather, and you get up very <em>very</em> +early. But you won’t like it quite as much as you think. +Rivers are very cold to bathe in, and those pretty stones at the +bottom won’t feel at all nice to your little toes.”</p> +<p>“Oh, but, father,” interrupted Milly, “we +could put on our sand shoes.”</p> +<p>“And wouldn’t we splash!” said Olly. +“Nurse won’t let us splash in our bath, father, she +says it makes a mess. I’m sure it doesn’t make a +<em>great</em> mess.”</p> +<p>“What do you know about it, shrimp?” said Mr. +Norton, “you don’t have to tidy up. Hush, isn’t +that mother calling? Let’s go and fetch her, and then +we’ll go and see Uncle Richard’s farm, where the milk +you had for breakfast came from. There are three children there, +Milly, besides cows and pigs, and ducks and chickens.”</p> +<p>Back ran Milly and Olly, and there was mother watching for them +with a basket on her arm which had already got some roses lying in +it.</p> +<p>“Oh, mother! where did you get those roses?” cried +Milly.</p> +<p>“Wheeler, the gardener, gave them to me. And now suppose +we go first of all to see Mrs. Wheeler, and gardener’s two +little children. They live in that cottage over there, across the +brook, and the two little ones have just been peeping over the wall +to try and get a look at you.”</p> +<p>Up clambered Milly and Olly along a steep path that seemed to +take them up into the mountain, when suddenly they turned, and +there was another river, but such a tiny river, Milly could almost +jump across it, and it was tumbling and leaping down the rocks on +its way to the big river which they had just seen, as if it were a +little child hurrying to its mother.</p> +<p>“Why, mother, what a lot of rivers,” said Olly, +running on to a little bridge that had been built across the little +stream, and looking over.</p> +<p>“Just to begin with,” said Mrs. Norton. +“You’ll see plenty more before you’ve done. But I +can’t have you calling this a river, Olly. These baby rivers +are called becks in Westmoreland—some of the big ones, too, +indeed.”</p> +<p>On the other side of the little bridge was the gardener’s +cottage, and in front of the door stood two funny fair-haired +little children with their fingers in their mouths, staring at +Milly and Olly. One was a little girl who was really about +Milly’s age, though she looked much younger, and the other +was a very shy small boy, with blue eyes and straggling yellow +hair, and a face that might have been pretty if you could have seen +it properly. But Charlie seemed to have made up his mind that +nobody ever should see it properly. However often his mother might +wash him, and she was a tidy woman, who liked to see her children +look clean and nice, Charlie was always black. His face was black, +his hands were black, his pinafore was sure to be covered with +black marks ten minutes after he had put it on. Do what you would +to him, it was no use, Charlie always looked as if he had just come +out of the coal-hole.</p> +<p>“Well, Bessie,” said Mrs. Norton to the little girl, +“is your mother in?”</p> +<p>“Naw,” said Bessie, without taking her fingers out +of her mouth.</p> +<p>“Oh, I’m sorry for that. Do you know when +she’s likely to be in?”</p> +<p>“Naw,” said Bessie again, beginning to eat her +pinafore as well as her fingers. Meanwhile Charlie had been +creeping behind Bessie to get out of Olly’s way; for Olly, +who always wanted to make friends, was trying to shake hands with +him, and Charlie was dreadfully afraid that he wanted to kiss him +too.</p> +<p>“What a pity,” said Mrs. Norton, “I wanted to +ask her a question. Come away, Olly, and don’t tease Charlie +if he doesn’t want to shake hands. Can you remember, Bessie, +to tell your mother that I came to see her?”</p> +<p>“Yis,” said Bessie.</p> +<p>“And can you remember, too, to ask her if she will let you +and Charlie come down to tea with Miss Milly and Master Olly, this +afternoon, at five o’clock?”</p> +<p>“Yis,” said Bessie, getting shyer and shyer, and +eating up her pinafore faster than ever.</p> +<p>“Good-bye, then,” said Mrs. Norton.</p> +<p>“Good-bye, Bessie,” said Milly, softly, taking her +hand.</p> +<p>Bessie stared at her, but didn’t say anything.</p> +<p>Olly, having quite failed in shaking hands, was now trying to +kiss Charlie; but Charlie wouldn’t have it at all, and every +time Olly came near, Charlie pushed him away with his little fists. +This made Olly rather cross, and he began to try with all his +strength to make Charlie kiss him, when suddenly Charlie got away +from him, and running to a pile of logs of wood which was lying in +the yard he climbed up the logs like a little squirrel, and was +soon at the top of the heap, looking down on Olly, who was very +much astonished.</p> +<p>“Mother, <em>do</em> let me climb up too!” entreated +Olly, as Mrs. Norton took his hand to lead him away. “I want +to climb up krick like that! Oh, do let me try!”</p> +<p>“No, no, Olly! come along. We shall never get to the farm +if you stay climbing here. And you wouldn’t find it as easy +as Charlie does, I can tell you.”</p> +<p>“Why, I’m bigger than Charlie,” said Olly, +pouting, as they walked away.</p> +<p>“But you haven’t got such stout legs; and, besides, +Charlie is always out of doors all day long, climbing and poking +about. I daresay he can do outdoor things better than you can. +You’re a little town boy, you know.”</p> +<p>“Charlie’s got a black face,” said Olly, who +was not at all pleased that Charlie, who was smaller than he was, +and dirty besides, could do anything better than he could.</p> +<p>“Well, you see, he hasn’t got a Nana always looking +after him as you have.”</p> +<p>“Hasn’t he got <em>any</em> Nana?” asked Olly, +looking as if he didn’t understand how there could be little +children without Nanas.</p> +<p>“He hasn’t got any nurse but his mother, and Mrs. +Wheeler has a great deal else to do than looking after him. What +would you be like, do you think, Olly, if I had to do all the +housework, and cook the dinner, and mind the baby, and there was no +nurse to wash your face and hands for you?”</p> +<p>“I should get just like shock-headed Peter,” said +Olly, shaking his head gravely at the idea. Shock-headed Peter was +a dirty little boy in one of Olly’s picture-books; but I am +sure you must have heard about him already, and must have seen the +picture of him with his bushy hair, and his terrible long nails +like birds’ claws. Olly was never tired of hearing about him, +and about all the other children in that picture-book.</p> +<p>“What a funny little girl Bessie is, mother!” said +Milly. “Do they always say <em>Naw</em> and <em>Yis</em> in +this country, instead of saying No and Yes, like we do?”</p> +<p>“Well, most of the people that live here do,” said +Mrs. Norton. “Their way of talking sounds odd and queer at +first, Milly, but when you get used to it you will like it as I do, +because it seems like a part of the mountains.”</p> +<p>All this time they had been climbing up a steep path behind the +gardener’s house, and now Mr. Norton opened a door in a high +wall, and let the children into a beautiful kitchen-garden made on +the mountain side, so that when they looked down from the gate they +could see the chimneys of Ravensnest just below them. Inside there +were all kinds of fruit and vegetables, but gooseberry bushes and +the strawberries had nothing but green gooseberries and white +strawberries to show, to Olly’s great disappointment.</p> +<p>“Why aren’t the strawberries red, mother?” he +asked in a discontented voice, as if it must be somebody’s +fault that they weren’t red. “Ours at home were +ripe.”</p> +<p>“Well, Olly, I suppose the strawberries know best. All I +can tell you is, that things always get ripe here later than at +Willingham. Their summer begins a little later than ours does, and +so everything gets pushed on a little. But there will be plenty +by-and-by. And suppose just now, instead of looking at the +strawberries, you give just one look at the mountains. Count how +many you can see all round.”</p> +<p>“One, two, three, five,” counted Olly. “What +great big humps! Should we be able to touch the sky if we got up to +the top of that one, mother?” and he pointed to a great blue +mountain where the clouds seemed to be resting on the top.</p> +<p>“Well, if you were up there just now, you would be all +among the clouds, and it would seem like a white fog all round you. +So you would be touching the clouds at any rate.”</p> +<p>Olly opened his eyes very wide at the idea of touching the +clouds.</p> +<p>“Why, mother, we can’t touch the clouds at +home!”</p> +<p>“That comes of living in a country as flat as a +pancake,” said Mr. Norton. “Just you wait till we can +buy a tame mountain, and carry it to Willingham with us. Then +we’ll put it down in the middle of the garden, and the clouds +will come down to sit on the top of it just as they do here. But +now, who can scramble over that gate?”</p> +<p>For the gate at the other end of the garden was locked, and as +the gardener couldn’t be found, everybody had to scramble +over, mother included. However, Mr. Norton helped them all over, +and then they found themselves on a path running along the green +mountain side. On they went, through pretty bits of steep +hay-fields, where the grass seemed all clover and moon-daisies, +till presently they came upon a small hunched-up house, with a +number of sheds on one side of it and a kitchen-garden in front. +This was Uncle Richard’s farm; a very tiny farm, where a man +called John Backhouse lived, with his wife and two little girls and +a baby-boy. Except just in the hay-time, John Backhouse had no men +to help him, and he and his wife had to do all the work, to look +after the sheep, and the cows, the pigs, the horse, and the +chickens, to manage the garden and the hayfield, and to take the +butter and milk to the people who wanted to buy it. When their +children grew up and were able to help, Backhouse and his wife +would be able to do it all very well; but just now, when they were +still quite small, it was very hard work; it was all the farmer and +his wife could do to make enough to keep themselves and their +children fed and clothed.</p> +<p>Milly and Olly were very anxious to see the farmer’s +children and looked out for them in the garden as they walked up to +the house, but there were no signs of them. The door was opened by +Mrs. Backhouse, the farmer’s wife, who held a fair-haired +baby in her arms sucking a great crust of brown bread, and when Mr. +and Mrs. Norton had shaken hands with her—“I’m +sure, ma’am, I’m very pleased to see you here,” +said Mrs. Backhouse. “John told me you were come (only Mrs. +Backhouse said ‘coom’), and Becky and Tiza went down +with their father when he took the milk this morning, hoping they +would catch a sight of your children. They have been just wild to +see them, but I told them they weren’t likely to be up at +that time in the morning.”</p> +<p>“Where are they now?” asked Mrs. Norton. “Mine +have been looking out for them as we came along.”</p> +<p>“Well, ma’am, I can’t say, unless +they’re in the cherry-tree. Becky! Tiza!”</p> +<p>A faint “Yis” came from the other end of the garden, +but still Milly and Olly could see nothing but a big cherry-tree +growing where the voice seemed to come from.</p> +<p>“You go along that path, missy, and call again. +You’ll be sure to find them,” said Mrs. Backhouse, +pointing to the tree. “And won’t you come in, +ma’am, and rest a bit? You’ll be maybe tired with +walking this hot day.”</p> +<p>So Mr. and Mrs. Norton went into the farmhouse, and the children +went hand-in-hand down the garden, looking for Becky and Tiza.</p> +<p>Suddenly, as they came close to the cherry-tree, they heard a +laugh and a little scuffling, and looking up, what should they see +but two little girls perched up on one of the cherry-tree branches, +one of them sewing, the other nursing a baby kitten. Both of them +had coloured print bonnets, but the smaller had taken hers off and +was rolling the kitten up in it. The little girl sewing had a +sensible, sober face; as for the other, she could not have looked +sober if she had tried for a week of Sundays. It made you laugh +only to look at Tiza. From the top of her curly head to the soles +of her skipping little feet, she was the sauciest, merriest, +noisiest creature. It was she who was always playing tricks on the +cows and the horse, and the big sheep-dogs; who liked nothing so +well as teasing Becky and dressing up the kittens, and who was +always tumbling into the milkpail, or rolling downstairs, or losing +herself in the woods, without somehow ever coming to any harm. If +she and Olly had been left alone in the world together they +<em>must</em> have come to a bad end, but luckily each of them had +wiser people to take care of them.</p> +<p>“Becky,” said Milly, shyly, looking up into the +tree, “will you come down and say how do you do to +us?”</p> +<p>Becky stuck her needle in her work and scrambled down with a red +shy face to shake hands; but Tiza, instead of coming down, only +climbed a little higher, and peeped at the others between the +branches.</p> +<p>“We came down to the house when fayther took the milk this +morning,” said Becky. “We thought maybe we’d see +you in the garden. Only Tiza said she’d run away if she did +see you.”</p> +<p>“Why doesn’t Tiza come down?” asked Olly, +looking hard up into the tree. “I want to see her.”</p> +<p>Thump! What was that rattling down on Olly’s head? He +looked down at his feet very much astonished, and saw a bunch of +green cherries which Tiza had just thrown at him.</p> +<p>“Throw some more! Throw some more!” he cried out, +and Tiza began to pelt him fast, while Olly ran here and there +picking them up, and every now and then trying to throw them back +at Tiza; but she was too high up for him to reach, and they only +came rattling about his head again.</p> +<p>“She won’t come down,” said Becky, looking up +at her sister. “Maybe she won’t speak to you for two or +three days. And if you run after her she hides in such queer places +you can never find her.”</p> +<p>“But mother wants you and her to come to tea with us this +afternoon,” said Milly; “won’t Tiza +come?”</p> +<p>“I suppose mother’ll make her,” said Becky, +“but she doesn’t like it. Have you been on the +fell?”</p> +<p>Milly looked puzzled. “Do you mean on the mountain? No, +not yet. We’re going to-morrow when we go to Aunt +Emma’s. But we’ve been to the river with +father.”</p> +<p>“Did you go over the stepping-stones?”</p> +<p>“No,” said Milly, “I don’t know what +they are. Can we go this evening after tea?”</p> +<p>“Oh yes,” said Becky, “they’re just +close by your house. Does your mother let you go in the +water?”</p> +<p>Now Becky said a great many of these words very funnily, so that +Milly could hardly understand her. She said “doos” and +“oop,” and “knaw,” and “jist,” +and “la-ike,” but it sounded quite pretty from her soft +little mouth, and Milly thought she had a very nice way of +talking.</p> +<p>“No, mother doesn’t let us go in the water here, at +least, not unless it’s very warm. We paddle when we go to the +sea, and some day father says we may have our bath in the river if +it’s very fine.”</p> +<p>“We never have a bath in the river,” said Becky, +looking very much astonished at the idea.</p> +<p>“Do you have your bath in the nursery like we do?” +asked Milly.</p> +<p>“We haven’t got a nursery,” said Becky, +staring at her, “mother puts us in the toob on Saturday +nights. I don’t mind it but Tiza doesn’t like it a bit. +Sometimes she hides when it’s Saturday night, so that mother +can’t find her till it’s too late.”</p> +<p>“Don’t you have a bath except on Saturday?” +said Milly. “Olly and I have one every morning. Mother says +we should get like shock-headed Peter if we +didn’t.”</p> +<p>“I don’t know about him,” said Becky, shaking +her head.</p> +<p>“He’s a little boy in a picture-book. I’ll +show him you when you come to tea. But there’s mother +calling. Come along, Olly. Tiza won’t come down Becky +says.”</p> +<p>“She’s a very rude girl,” said Olly, who was +rather hot and tired with his game, and didn’t think it was +all fun that Tiza should always hit him and he should never be able +to hit Tiza. “I won’t sit next her when she comes to +tea with us.”</p> +<p>“Tiza’s only in fun,” said Becky, +“she’s always like that. Tiza, are you coming down? I +am going to get baby out, I heard him crying just now.”</p> +<p>“May you take baby out all by yourself?” asked +Milly.</p> +<p>“Why, I always take him out, and I put him to sleep at +nights; and mother says he won’t go to sleep for anybody as +quick as for me,” said Becky proudly.</p> +<p>Milly felt a good deal puzzled. It <em>must</em> be funny to +have no Nana.</p> +<p>“Will you and he,” said Becky, pointing to Olly, +“come up this afternoon and help us call the cows?”</p> +<p>“If we may,” said Milly; “who calls +them?”</p> +<p>“Tiza and I,” answered Becky; “when I’m +a big girl I shall learn how to milk, but fayther says I’m +too little yet.”</p> +<p>“I wish I lived at a farm,” said Milly +disconsolately.</p> +<p>Becky didn’t quite know what to say to this, so she began +to call Tiza again.</p> +<p>“Swish!” went something past them as quick as +lightning. It was Tiza running to the house. Olly set out to run +after her as fast as he could run, but he came bang up against his +mother standing at the farmhouse door, just as Tiza got safely in +and was seen no more.</p> +<p>“Ah, you won’t catch Tiza, master,” said Mrs. +Backhouse, patting his head; “she’s a rough girl, +always at some tricks or other—we think she ought to have +been a boy, really.”</p> +<p>“Mother, isn’t Becky very nice?” said Milly, +as they walked away. “Her mother lets her do such a lot of +things—nurse the baby, and call the cows, and make pinafores. +Oh, I wish father was a farmer.”</p> +<p>“Well, it’s not a bad kind of life when the sun +shines, and everything is going right,” said Mrs. Norton; +“but I think you had better wait a little bit till the rain +comes before you quite make up your mind about it, +Milly.”</p> +<p>But Milly was quite sure she knew enough about it already to +make up her mind, and all the way home she kept saying to herself, +“If I could only turn into a little farmer’s girl! Why +don’t people have fairy godmothers now like +Cinderella?”</p> +<h2><a id="Chapter4" name="Chapter4">CHAPTER IV</a></h2> +<h3>Out On The Hills</h3> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>Milly and Olly, and the four little Westmoreland children, had a +very pleasant tea together in the afternoon of the Nortons’s +first day at Ravensnest. Bessie and Charlie certainly didn’t +talk much; but Tiza, when once her mother had made her come, +thought proper to get rid of a great deal of her shyness, and to +chatter and romp so much that they quite fell in love with her, and +could not be persuaded to go anywhere or do anything without her. +Nurse would not let Milly and Olly go to call the cows, though she +promised they should some other day; but she took the whole party +down to the stepping-stones after tea, and great fun it was to see +Becky and Tiza running over the stepping-stones, and jumping from +one stone to another like little fawns. Milly and Olly wanted +sorely to go too, but there was no persuading Nana to let them go +without their father to fish them out if they tumbled in, so they +had to content themselves with dangling their legs over the first +stepping-stone and watching the others. But perhaps you don’t +quite known what stepping-stones are? They are large high stones, +with flat tops, which people put in, a little way apart from each +other, right across a river, so that by stepping from one to the +other you can cross to the opposite side. Of course they only do +for little rivers, where the water isn’t very deep. And they +don’t always do even there. Sometimes in the river Thora, +where Milly and Olly’s stepping-stones were, when it rained +very much, the water rose so high that it dashed right over the +stepping-stones and nobody could go across. Milly and Olly saw the +stepping-stones covered with water once or twice while they were at +Ravensnest; but the first evening they saw them the river was very +low, and the stones stood up high and dry out of the water. Milly +thought that stepping-stones were much nicer than bridges, and that +it was the most amusing and interesting way of getting across a +river that she knew. But then Milly was inclined to think +everything wonderful and interesting at Ravensnest—from the +tall mountains that seemed to shut them in all around like a wall, +down to the tiny gleaming wild strawberries, that were just +beginning to show their little scarlet balls on the banks in the +Ravensnest woods. Both she and Olly went to bed after their first +day at Ravensnest with their little hearts full of happiness, and +their little heads full of plans. To-morrow they were to go to Aunt +Emma’s, and perhaps the day after that father would take them +to bathe in the river, and nurse would let them go and help Becky +and Tiza call the cows. Holidays <em>were</em> nice; still +geography lessons were nice too sometimes, thought Milly sleepily, +just as she was slipping, slipping away into dreamland, and in her +dreams her faithful little thoughts went back lovingly to +Fräulein’s kind old face, and to the capes and islands +and seas she had been learning about a week ago.</p> +<div class="figure"><a href="images/illus3.png"><img src= +"images/illus3.png" alt= +"“The flowers Milly gathered for her mother”" id= +"illus3" name="illus3" width="100%" /></a> +<p>“The flowers Milly gathered for her mother”</p> +</div> +<p>The next morning Mr. and Mrs. Norton were busy indoors till +about twelve o’clock; and the children wandered about the +garden with nurse, finding out many new nooks and corners, +especially a delightful steep path which led up and up into the +woods, till at last it took the children to a little brown +summer-house at the top, where they could sit and look over the +trees below, away to the river and the hay-fields and the +mountains. And between the stones and this path grew the prettiest +wild strawberries, only, as Milly said, it was not much good +looking for them yet, for there were so few red ones you could +scarcely get enough to taste what they were like. But in a week or +two, she and Olly planned that they would take up a basket with +some green leaves in it, and gather a lot for father and +mother—enough for regular dessert—and some wild +raspberries too, for these also grew in the wood, to the great +delight of the children, who had never seen any before. They began +to feel presently as if it would be nothing very extraordinary to +find trees covered with barley sugar or jam tarts in this wonderful +wood. And as for the flowers Milly gathered for her mother, they +were a sight to see—moon-daisies and meadow-sweet, wild roses +and ragged-robins, and bright bits of rhododendrons. For both the +woods and the garden at Ravensnest were full of rhododendrons of +all colours, pink and red, and white and flame colour; and Milly +and Olly amused themselves with making up bunches of different +coloured flowers with as many different colours in them as they +could find. There were no rhododendrons at Willingham; and the +children thought them the loveliest, gayest things they had ever +seen.</p> +<p>But at last twelve o’clock came. Nurse tidied the +children, gave them some biscuits and milk, and then sent them to +the drawing-room to find father and mother. Only Mrs. Norton was +there, but she said there was no need to wait for father, as he was +out already and would meet them on the way. They were to go +straight over the mountain instead of walking round by the road, +which would have taken much longer. So off they set—Olly +skipping, and chattering as he always did; while Milly stuck close +to her mother, telling her every now and then, when Olly left off +talking, about their morning in the wood, the flowers they had +gathered and the strawberries they had found. At the top of the +garden was a little gate, and beside the gate stood Bessie and +Charlie, who had really been watching for the children all the +morning, though they didn’t dare to come into the garden +without leave.</p> +<p>“Bessie, we are going to Aunt Emma’s,” said +Milly, running up to them. “Where are you and Charlie going +to?”</p> +<p>“Nawhere,” said Bessie, who, as usual, had her +pinafore in her mouth, and never said more than one word at a time +if she could help it.</p> +<p>“Nowhere! what do you do all the morning, +Bessie?”</p> +<p>“I doan’t know,” said Bessie, gravely looking +up at her; “sometimes I mind the baby.”</p> +<p>“Do you mind the baby, too? Dear, dear! And what does +Charlie do?”</p> +<p>“Nawthing,” said Bessie again. “He only makes +himself dirty.”</p> +<p>“Don’t you go to school ever?”</p> +<p>“No, but mother’s going to send us,” said +Bessie, whose big eyes grew round and frightened at the idea, as if +it was a dreadful prospect. “Are you going to be away for all +day?”</p> +<p>“Yes; we shan’t be back till quite evening, mother +says. Here she is. Good-bye, Bessie; good-bye, Charlie. Will you +come and play with us to-morrow morning?”</p> +<p>Bessie nodded, but Charlie ran off without answering; for he saw +Olly coming, and was afraid he might want to kiss him. On the other +side of the gate they had to begin to climb up a steep bit of soft +green grass; and very hard work it was. After quite a little way +the children began to puff and pant like two little steam +engines.</p> +<p>“It <em>is</em> a little bit like going upstairs, +don’t you think, Olly?” said Milly, sitting down by her +mother on a flat bit of gray stone.</p> +<p>“No, it isn’t a bit like going upstairs,” said +Olly, shaking his head; for Olly always liked contradicting Milly +if he could. “It’s like—it’s +like—walking up a house!”</p> +<p>Suddenly they heard far above them a shout of +“Hullo!” Both the children started up and looked about +them. It was like father’s voice, but they couldn’t see +him anywhere.</p> +<p>“Where are you, father?”</p> +<p>“Hullo!” again. And this time it sounded much nearer +to them. Where could it be? The children began to run about and +look behind the bushes and the rocks, till all of a sudden, just as +Milly got near a big rock, out jumped Mr. Norton from behind it +with a great shout, and began to run after her. Away ran Milly and +Olly as fast as their small feet could carry them, up and down, up +and down, till at last there came a steep place—one of +Milly’s feet tripped up, down she went, rolling over and +over—down came Olly on the top of her, and the two of them +rolled away together till they stopped at the bottom of the steep +place, all mixed up in a heap of legs and arms and hats and +pinafores.</p> +<p>“Here’s a boy and girl tied up in a knot,” +said Mr. Norton, scrambling down after them and lifting them up. +“There’s no harm done, is there?”</p> +<p>“I’ve got a bump on my arm,” said Milly, +turning up her sleeve.</p> +<p>“And I’ve got a scratch on my nose,” said +Olly, rubbing it.</p> +<p>“That’s not much for a nice tumble like that,” +said Mr. Norton, “you wouldn’t mind another, would you, +Milly?”</p> +<p>“Not a bit,” said Milly, merrily skipping along +beside him. “Hide again, father.”</p> +<p>“Another day, not now, for we want to get to Aunt +Emma’s. But tomorrow, if you like, we’ll come up here +and have a capital game. Only we must choose a nice dry place where +there are no bogs.”</p> +<p>“What are bogs?” asked Olly.</p> +<p>“Wet places, where your feet go sinking deeper and deeper +into the mud, and you can’t find any stiff firm bit to stand +on. Sometimes people sink down and down into a bog till the mud +comes right over their head and face and chokes them; but we +haven’t got any bogs as bad as that here. Now, children, step +along in front. Very soon we shall get to the top of the mountain, +and then we shall see wonderful things on the other +side.”</p> +<p>So Milly and Olly ran on, pushing their way through the great +tall fern, or scampering over the short green grass where the +little mountain sheep were nibbling, and where a beautiful creeping +moss grew all over the ground, which, mother told Milly, was called +“Stags’ horn moss,” because its little green +branches were so like stags’ horns.</p> +<p>“Now look, children,” shouted their father to them +from behind. “Here we are at the top.”</p> +<p>And then, all of a sudden, instead of only the green mountain +and the sheep, they could see far away on the other side of the +mountain. There, all round them, were numbers of other mountains; +and below, at their feet, were houses and trees and fields, while +straight in front lay a great big blue lake stretching away ever so +far, till it seemed to be lost in the sky.</p> +<p>“Look, look, mother!” cried Milly, clapping her +hands, “there’s Windermere lake, the lake we saw when +we were coming from the station. Look at that steamer, with all the +people on board! What funny little black people. And oh, mother, +look at that little boat over there! How can people go out in such +a weeny boat as that?”</p> +<p>“It isn’t such a weeny boat, Milly. It only looks so +small because it’s such a long way off. When father and I +take you and Olly on the lake, we shall go in a boat just like +that. And now, instead of looking so far away, look just down here +below you, and tell me what you see.”</p> +<p>“Some chimneys, and some trees, and some smoke, ever so +far down,” shouted the children. “Is it a house, +mother?”</p> +<p>“That’s Aunt Emma’s house, the old house where +I used to come and stay when I was a little girl, and when your +dear great-grandfather and great-grandmother were alive. I used to +think it the nicest place in the world.”</p> +<p>“Were you a very little girl, mother, and were you ever +naughty?” asked Milly, slipping her little hand into her +mother’s and beginning to feel rather tired with her long +walk.</p> +<p>“I’m afraid I was very often naughty, Milly. I used +to get into great rages and scream, till everybody was quite tired +out. But Aunt Emma was very good to me, and took a great deal of +pains to cure me of going into rages. Besides, it always did +naughty children good to live in the same house with +great-grandmamma, and so after a while I got better. Take care how +you go, children, it’s very steep just here, and you might +soon tumble over on your noses. Olly, take care! take care! where +<em>are</em> you going?”</p> +<p>Where, indeed, was Olly going? Just the moment before the little +man had spied a lovely flower growing a little way off the path, in +the middle of some bright yellow-green moss. And without thinking +of anything but getting it, off he rushed. But oh! splish, splash, +splish, down went Olly’s feet, up splashed the muddy water, +and there was Olly stuck in a bog.</p> +<p>“Father, pull me out, pull me out!” cried the little +boy in terror, as he felt his feet stuck fast. But almost before he +could speak there was father close beside him, standing on a round +little hump of dry grass which was sticking up out of the bog, and +with one grip he got hold of Olly under his arm, and then jump! on +to another little hump of grass, jump! on to another, and there +they were safe on the path again.</p> +<p>“Oh, you black boy!” cried father and mother and +Milly all together. Was there ever such a little object! All his +nice clean holland frock was splashed with black mud; and what had +happened to his stockings?</p> +<p>“I’ve got mud-stockings on,” shouted Olly, +capering about, and pointing to his legs which were caked with mud +up to his knees.</p> +<p>“You’re a nice respectable boy to take out to +dinner,” said Mrs. Norton. “I think we’ll leave +you on the mountain to have dinner with the sheep.”</p> +<p>“Oh no, father,” pleaded Milly, taking Olly fast by +the hand. “We can wash him at Aunt Emma’s, you +know.”</p> +<p>“Don’t go too close to him, Milly!” exclaimed +Mrs. Norton, “or you’ll get as black as he is. We shall +have to put him under the pump at Aunt Emma’s, that’s +quite certain. But there’s nothing to wash him with here, so +he must just go as he is for a bit. Now, Olly, run along and your +feet will soon dry. Father’s going first, you go next, just +where he goes, I’m coming after you, and Milly shall go last. +Perhaps in that way we shall get you down safe.”</p> +<p>“Oh, but, mother, look at my flower,” said Olly, +holding it up triumphantly. “Isn’t it a +beauty?”</p> +<p>“Shall I tell you what it’s called, Olly? It’s +called a butterwort, and it always grows in boggy places; I +wouldn’t advise you to go after one again without asking +father first.”</p> +<p>It was a very different thing going down the mountain from +climbing up it. It seemed only a few minutes before they had got +almost to the bottom, and there was a gate leading into a road, and +a little village of white houses in front of them. They walked up +the road a little way, and then father opened a big gate and let +them into a beautiful garden full of rhododendrons like the +Ravensnest garden. And who was this walking down the drive to meet +them? Such a pretty little elderly lady, with gray hair and a white +cap.</p> +<p>“Dear Aunt Emma!” said Mrs. Norton, running up to +her and taking both her hands and kissing her.</p> +<p>“Well, Lucy,” said the little lady, holding her +hands and looking at her (Lucy was Mrs. Norton’s Christian +name), “it <em>is</em> nice to see you all here. And +there’s dear little Milly, I remember her. But where’s +Olly? I’ve never seen that small creature, you know. Come, +Olly, don’t be shy. Little boys are never shy with Aunt +Emma.”</p> +<p>“Except when they tumble into bogs,” said Mr. +Norton, laughing and pulling Olly forward, who was trying to hide +his mud-stockings behind his mother. “There’s a clean +tidy boy to bring to dinner, isn’t he, Aunt Emma? I think +I’ll take him to the yard and pump on him a little before we +bring him in.”</p> +<p>Aunt Emma put up her spectacles to look at Olly.</p> +<p>“Why, Olly, I think Mother Quiverquake has been catching +hold of you. Don’t you know about old Mother Quiverquake, who +lives in the bogs? Oh, I can tell you splendid stories about her +some day. But now catch hold of my hand, and keep your little legs +away from my dress, and we’ll soon make a proper boy of you +again.”</p> +<p>And then Aunt Emma took one of Milly’s hands and one of +Olly’s, and up they went to the house. But I must start +another chapter before I begin to tell you what the children saw in +Aunt Emma’s house, and of the happy time they spent +there.</p> +<h2><a id="Chapter5" name="Chapter5">CHAPTER V</a></h2> +<h3>Aunt Emma’s Picnic</h3> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>Instead of taking them straight into the house, however, Aunt +Emma took the children up a little shady path which very soon +brought them to a white cottage covered with honeysuckle and +climbing roses.</p> +<p>“This is where my coachman’s wife lives,” said +Aunt Emma, “and she owns a small boy who might perhaps find +you a pair of stockings, Olly, to put on while your own are +washed.”</p> +<p>Olly opened his brown eyes very wide at the idea of wearing some +other little boy’s stockings, but he said nothing.</p> +<p>Aunt Emma tapped at the door, and out came a stout kind-looking +woman.</p> +<p>“Mrs. Tyson, do you think your Johnny could lend my little +nephew a pair of his stockings while we get his own washed? Master +Olly has been tumbling into a bog by way of making friends with the +mountains, and I don’t quite know how I am to let those legs +into my dining-room.”</p> +<p>“Dear me, ma’am, but Johnny’ll be proud if +he’s got any clean, but I’ll not answer for it. +Won’t ye come in?”</p> +<p>In they walked, and there was a nice tidy kitchen, with a wooden +cradle in the corner, and a little fair-haired boy sitting by it +and rocking the baby. This was Johnny, and Olly looked at him with +great curiosity. “I’ve got bigger legs than +Johnny,” he whispered solemnly at last to Aunt Emma, while +they were waiting for Mrs. Tyson, who had gone upstairs to fetch +the stockings.</p> +<p>“Perhaps you eat more bread and milk than Johnny +does,” said Aunt Emma, very solemnly too, “However, +most likely Johnny’s stockings will stretch. How’s the +baby, Johnny?”</p> +<p>“She’s a great deal better, ma’am,” said +the little boy, smiling at her. Milly and Olly made him feel shy, +but he loved Aunt Emma.</p> +<p>“Have you been taking care of her all the morning for +mother?”</p> +<p>“Yes, ma’am, and she’s never cried but +once,” said Johnny proudly.</p> +<p>“Well done! Ah! there comes Mrs. Tyson. Now, Olly, sit up +on that chair, and we’ll see to you.”</p> +<p>Off came the dirty stockings, and Mrs. Tyson slipped on a pair +of woolen socks that tickled Olly very much. They were very thick, +and not a bit like his own stockings; and when he got up again he +kept turning round and round to look at his legs, as if he +couldn’t make them out.</p> +<p>“Do they feel funny to you?” said Mrs. Tyson, +patting his shoulder. “Never you mind, little master; I know +they’re nice and warm, for I knitted them myself.”</p> +<p>“Mother buys our stockings in the shop,” said Olly, +when they got outside again; “why doesn’t Mrs. +Tyson?”</p> +<p>“Perhaps we haven’t so many shops, or such nice ones +here, Olly, as you have at Willingham; and the people here have +always been used to do a great many things for themselves. Some of +them live in such lonely places among the mountains that it is very +difficult for them to get to any shops. Not very long ago the +mothers used to make all the stuffs for their own dresses and their +children’s. What would you say, Milly, if mother had to weave +the stuff for it every time you had a new dress?”</p> +<p>“Mother wouldn’t give me a great many new +dresses,” said Milly, gravely, shaking her head. “I +like shops best, Aunt Emma.”</p> +<p>“Well, I suppose it’s best to like what we’ve +got,” said Aunt Emma, laughing.</p> +<p>Indoors, Olly’s muddy stockings were given to Aunt +Emma’s maid, who promised to have them washed and dried by +the time they had to go home, and then, when Mrs. Norton had +covered up the black spots on his frock with a clean pinafore she +had brought with her, Olly looked quite respectable again.</p> +<p>The children thought they had never seen quite such a nice house +as Aunt Emma’s. First of all it had a large hall, with all +kinds of corners in it, just made for playing hide-and-seek in; and +the drawing-room was full of the most delightful things. There were +stuffed birds in cases, and little ivory chessmen riding upon ivory +elephants. There were picture-books, and there were mysterious +drawers full of cards and puzzles, and glass marbles and +old-fashioned toys, that the children’s mother and aunts and +uncles, and their great-aunts and uncles before that, had loved and +played with years and years ago. On the wall hung a great many +pictures, some of them of funny little stiff boys in blue coats +with brass buttons, and some of them of little girls with mob-caps +and mittens, and these little boys and girls were all either dead +now, or elderly men and women, for they were the great-aunts and +uncles; and over the mantelpiece hung a picture of a lovely old +lady, with bright, soft brown hair and smiling eyes and lips, that +looked as if they were just going to speak to the two strange +little children who had come for their first visit to their +mother’s old home. Milly knew quite well that it was a +picture of great-grandmamma. She had seen others like it before, +only not so large as this one, and she looked at it quietly, with +her grave blue eyes, while Olly was eagerly wandering round the +room, spying into everything, and longing to touch this, that, and +the other, if only mother would let go his hand.</p> +<p>“You know who that is, don’t you, little +woman?” said Aunt Emma, taking her up on her knee.</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Milly, nodding, “it’s +great-grandmamma. I wish we could have seen her.”</p> +<p>“I wish you could, Milly. She would have smiled at you as +she is smiling in the picture and you would have been sure to have +loved her; all little children did. I can remember seeing your +mother, Milly, when she was about as old as you, cuddled up in a +corner of that sofa over there, in ‘grandmamma’s +pocket,’ as she used to call it, listening with all her ears +to great-grandmamma’s stories. There was one story called +‘Leonora’ that went on for years and years, till all +the little children in it—and the little children who +listened to it—were almost grown up; and then +great-grandmamma always carried about with her a wonderful +blue-silk bag full of treasures, which we used to be allowed to +turn out whenever any of us had been quite good at our lessons for +a whole week.”</p> +<p>“Mother has a bag like that,” said Milly; “it +has lots of little toys in it that father had when he was a little +boy. She lets us look at it on our birthdays. Can you tell stories, +Aunt Emma?”</p> +<p>“Tell us about old Mother Quiverquake,” cried Olly, +running up and climbing on his aunt’s knee.</p> +<p>“Oh dear, no!” said Aunt Emma; “it’s +much too fine to-day for stories—indoors, at any rate. Wait +till we get a real wet day, and then we’ll see. After dinner +to-day, what do you think we’re going to do? Suppose we have +a row on the lake to get water-lilies, and suppose we take a kettle +and make ourselves some tea on the other side of the lake. What +would you say to that, Master Olly?”</p> +<p>The children began to dance about with delight at the idea of a +row and a picnic both together, when suddenly there was a knock at +the door, and when Aunt Emma said, “Come in!” what do +you think appeared? Why, a great green cage, carried by a servant, +and in it a gray parrot, swinging about from side to side, and +cocking his head wickedly, first over one shoulder and then over +the other.</p> +<p>“Now, children,” said Aunt Emma, while the children +stood quite still with surprise, “let me introduce you to my +old friend, Mr. Poll Parrot. Perhaps you thought I lived all alone +in this big house. Not at all. Here is somebody who talks to me +when I talk to him, who sings and chatters and whistles and cheers +me up wonderfully in the winter evenings, when the rains come and +make me feel dull. Put him down here, Margaret,” said Aunt +Emma to the maid, clearing a small table for the cage. “Now, +Olly, what do you think of my parrot?”</p> +<p>“Can it talk?” asked Olly, looking at it with very +wide open eyes.</p> +<p>“It <em>can</em> talk; whether it <em>will</em> talk is +quite another thing. Parrots are contradictious birds. I feel very +often as if I should like to beat Polly, he’s so provoking. +Now, Polly, how are you to-day?”</p> +<p>“Polly’s got a bad cold; fetch the doc—” +said the bird at once, in such a funny cracked voice, that it made +Olly jump as if he had heard one of the witches in Grimm’s +“Fairy Tales” talking.</p> +<p>“Come, Polly, that’s very well behaved of you; but +you mustn’t leave off in the middle, begin again. Olly, if +you don’t keep your fingers out of the way Polly will snap +them up for his dinner. Parrots like fingers very much.” Olly +put his hands behind his back in a great hurry, and mother came to +stand behind him to keep him quiet. By this time, however, Polly +had begun to find out that there were some new people in the room +he didn’t know, and for a long time Aunt Emma could not make +him talk at all. He would do nothing but put his head first on one +side and then on the other and make angry clicks with his beak.</p> +<p>“Come, Polly,” said Aunt Emma, “what a cross +parrot you are. One—two—three—four. Now, Polly, +count.”</p> +<p>“Polly’s got a bad cold, fetch the doc—” +said Polly again while Aunt Emma was speaking. +“One—two—six—seven—eight—nine—two—<em> +Quick</em> march!”</p> +<p>And then Polly began to lift first one claw and then the other +as if he were marching, while the children shouted with laughter at +his ridiculous ways and his gruff cracked voice.</p> +<p>Then Aunt Emma went behind him and rapped gently on the table. +The parrot stopped marching, stuck his head on one side and +listened. Aunt Emma rapped again.</p> +<p>“Come in!” said the parrot suddenly, quite softly, +as if he had turned into quite another person. +“Hush—sh—sh, cat’s got a mouse!”</p> +<p>“Well, Polly,” said Aunt Emma, “I suppose she +may have a mouse if she likes. Is that all you’ve got to tell +us? Polly, where’s gardener?”</p> +<p>“Get away! get away!” screamed Polly, while all his +feathers began to stand up straight, and his eyes looked fierce and +red like two little live coals.</p> +<p>“That always makes him cross,” said Aunt Emma; +“he can’t bear gardener. Come, Polly, don’t get +in such a temper.”</p> +<p>“Oh, isn’t he like the witches on the broom-sticks +in our fairy-book, Olly?” cried Milly. “Don’t you +think, Aunt Emma, he must have been changed into something? Perhaps +he was a wicked witch once, or a magician, you know, and the +fairies changed him into a parrot.”</p> +<p>“Well, Milly, I can’t say. He was a parrot when I +had him first, twelve years ago. That’s all I know about it. +But I believe he’s very old. Some people say he’s older +than I am—think of that! So you see he’s had time to be +a good many things. Well, Polly, good-night. You’re not a +nice bird to-night at all. Take him away, Margaret.”</p> +<p>“Jane! Jane!” screamed Polly, as the maid lifted up +the cage again. “Make haste, Jane! cat’s in the +larder!”</p> +<p>“Oh, you bad Polly,” said Aunt Emma, +“you’re always telling tales. Jane’s my cook, +Milly, and Polly doesn’t like cats, so you see he tries to +make Jane believe that our old cat steals the meat out of the +larder. Good-bye, Polly, good-bye. You’re an ill-natured old +bird, but I’m very fond of you all the same.”</p> +<p>“Do get us a parrot, mother!” said Olly, jumping +about round his mother, when Polly was gone.</p> +<p>“How many more things will you want before you get home, +Olly, do you think?” asked his mother, kissing him. +“Perhaps you’ll want to take home a few mountains, and +two or three little rivers, and a bog or two, and a few +sheep—eh, young man?”</p> +<p>By this time dinner was ready, and there was the dinner-bell +ringing. Up ran the children to Aunt Emma’s room to get their +hands washed and their hair brushed, and presently there were two +tidy little folks sitting on either side of Aunt Emma’s +chair, and thinking to themselves that they had never felt quite so +hungry before. But hungry as Milly was she didn’t forget to +look out of the window before she began her dinner, and it was +worth while looking out of the window in Aunt Emma’s +dining-room.</p> +<p>Before the windows was a green lawn, like the lawn at +Ravensnest, only this lawn went sloping away, away till there was +just a little rim of white beach, and then beyond came the wide, +dancing blue lake, that the children had seen from the top of the +mountain. Here it was close to them, so close that Milly could hear +the little waves plashing, through the open window.</p> +<p>“Milly,” whispered Aunt Emma when they were all +waiting for pudding, “do you see that little house down there +by the water’s edge? That’s where the boat +lives—we call it a boathouse. Do you think you’ll be +frightened of the water, little woman?”</p> +<p>“No, I don’t think so,” said Milly, shaking +her little wise head gravely. “I am frightened sometimes, +very. Mother calls me a little goose because I run away from Jenny +sometimes—that’s our cow at home, Aunt Emma, but then +she’s got such long horns, and I can’t help feeling +afraid.”</p> +<p>“Well, the lake hasn’t got horns, Milly,” said +Aunt Emma, laughing, “so perhaps you will manage not to be +afraid of it.”</p> +<p>How kind and nice Aunt Emma looked as she sat between the +children, with her pretty soft gray hair, and her white cap and +large white collar. Mrs. Norton could not help thinking of the +times when she was a little girl, and used always to insist on +sitting by Aunt Emma at dinner-time. That was before Aunt +Emma’s hair had turned gray. And now here were her own little +children sitting where she used to sit at their age, and stealing +their small hands into Aunt Emma’s lap as she used to do so +long ago.</p> +<p>After dinner the children had to sit quiet in the drawing-room +for a time, while Aunt Emma and father and mother talked; but they +had picture-books to look at, and Aunt Emma gave them leave to turn +out everything in one of the toy-drawers, and that kept them busy +and happy for a long time. But at last, just when Olly was +beginning to get tired of the drawer, Aunt Emma called to them from +the other end of the room to come with her into the kitchen for a +minute. Up jumped the children and ran after their aunt across the +hall into the kitchen.</p> +<p>“Now, children,” said Aunt Emma, pointing to a big +basket on the kitchen table, “suppose you help me to pack up +our tea-things. Olly, you go and fetch the spoons, and, Milly, +bring the plates one by one.”</p> +<p>The tea things were all piled up on the kitchen table, and the +children brought them one after another to Aunt Emma to pack them +carefully into the big basket.</p> +<p>“Ain’t I a useful boy, Aunt Emma?” asked Olly +proudly, coming up laden with a big table-cloth which he could +scarcely carry.</p> +<p>“Very useful, Olly, though our table-cloth won’t +look over tidy at tea if you crumple it up like that. Now, Milly, +bring me that tray of bread and the little bundle of salt; and, +Olly, bring me that bit of butter over there, done up in the green +leaves, but mind you carry it carefully. Now for some knives too; +and there are the cups and saucers, Milly, look, in that corner; +and there is the cake all ready cut up, and there is the bread and +butter. Now have we got everything? Everything, I think, but the +kettle, and some wood and some matches, and these must go in +another basket.”</p> +<p>“Aunt Emma,” said Milly, creeping up close to her, +“were you ever a fairy godmother?”</p> +<p>“Not that I know of, Milly. Would you like me better if I +had a wand and a pair of pet dragons, like old Fairy +Blackstick?”</p> +<p>“No,” said Milly, stroking her aunt’s hand, +“but you do such nice things, just like fairy godmothers +do.”</p> +<p>“Do I, little woman? Aunt Emma likes doing nice things for +good children. But now come along, it’s quite time we were +off. Let us go and fetch father and mother. Gardener will bring the +baskets.”</p> +<p>Such a merry party they were, trooping down to the boathouse. +There lay the boat; a pretty new boat, painted dark blue, with a +little red flag floating at her bows, and her name, +“Ariel,” written in large white letters on the stern. +And all around the boathouse stretched the beautiful blue water, so +clear and sunny and sparkling that it dazzled Milly’s eyes to +look at it. She and Olly were lifted into the boat beside Aunt Emma +and mother, father sat in the middle and took the oars, while +gardener put the baskets into the stern, and then, untying the rope +which kept the boat tied into the boathouse, he gave it a good push +with one hand and off she went out into the blue lake, rising up +and down on the water like a swan.</p> +<p>“Oh! mother, mother, look up there,” shouted Olly, +“there’s the mountain. Isn’t that where we +climbed up this morning?”</p> +<p>Yes, there it was, the beautiful green rocky mountain, rising up +above Aunt Emma’s house. They could see it all so clearly as +they got farther out into the lake; first the blue sky, then the +mountain with the little white dots on it, which Milly knew were +sheep; then some trees, and in front, Aunt Emma’s house with +the lawn and the boathouse. And as they looked all round them they +could see far bigger and grander mountains than Brownholme, some +near and green like Brownholme, and some far away and blue like the +sky, while down by the edge of the lake were hayfields full of +flowers, or bits of rock with trees growing on the top of them. The +children hardly knew what it was made them so quiet; but I think it +was because everything was so beautiful. They were really in the +hill-fairies’ palace now.</p> +<p>“Aren’t there any water-fairies in this lake, +mother?” whispered Milly, presently, looking down into the +clear blue water, and trying to see the bottom.</p> +<p>“I can’t tell, Milly, I never saw any. But there +used to be water-fairies in old days. After tea suppose we ask Aunt +Emma to tell us a story about a king in olden times whom the +water-fairies loved; she used to tell it to me when I was small, +and I liked it best of all stories. But, Olly, you must sit still, +or the boat will go tipping over to one side, and father +won’t be able to row.”</p> +<p>“Do let me row, father,” begged Olly.</p> +<p>“Not yet, old man—I must get used to the boat first, +and find out how to manage her, but presently you shall come and +try, and so shall Milly if she likes.”</p> +<p>On they rowed, farther and farther from the shore, till Aunt +Emma’s house began to look quite small, and they could hardly +see the gardener working on the lawn.</p> +<p>“Father, what a long way we’ve come,” cried +Milly, looking all round. “Where are we going to?”</p> +<p>“Well, presently, Milly, I am going to turn the boat a +little bit, so as to make her go over to that side of the lake over +there. Do you see a big rock with some trees on it, far away, +sticking out into the lake?”</p> +<p>“Yes,” said the children, looking very hard.</p> +<p>“Well, that’s where we’re going to have tea. +It’s called Birdsnest Point, because the rocks come out in a +point into the lake. But first I thought I would bring you right +out into the middle of the lake, that you might see how big it is, +and look at the mountains all round.” “Father,” +said Olly, “if a big stone fell down out of the sky and made +ever such a big hole in the boat, and the water came into the hole, +should we all be dead?”</p> +<p>“I daresay we should, Olly, for I don’t think I +could carry mother, and Aunt Emma, and Milly, and you on my back, +safe home again, and you see none of you can swim but +me.”</p> +<p>“Then I hope a big stone won’t come,” said +Milly, feeling just a little bit frightened at Olly’s +suggestion.</p> +<p>“Well, big stones don’t grow in the sky generally, +Milly, if that’s any comfort to you. But do you know, one day +long ago, when I was out rowing on this lake, I thought all of a +sudden I heard some one shouting and screaming, and for a long time +I looked and waited, but could see nothing; till at last I fancied +I could see, a long distance off, what looked like a pole, with +something white tied to it. And I rowed, and rowed, and rowed, as +fast as I could, and all the time the shouting and screaming went +on, and at last what do you think I saw? I saw a boat, which looked +as if something was dragging it down into the water. Part of it had +already sunk down into the lake, and in the part which was still +above the water there were three people sitting, a gentleman, and +two little girls who looked about ten years old. And they were +shouting ‘Help! help!’ at the top of their voices, and +waving an oar with a handkerchief tied to it. And the boat in which +they sat was sinking farther and farther into the water, and if I +had’n’t come up just when I did, the gentleman and the +two little girls would have been drowned.”</p> +<p>“Oh, father!” cried Milly, “what made their +boat do like that? And did they get into yours?”</p> +<p>“There was a great hole in the bottom of their boat, +Milly, and the water was coming through it, and making the boat so +heavy that it was sinking down and down into the lake, just as a +stone would sink if you threw it in. How the hole came there we +never quite knew: I thought they must have knocked their boat +against a sharp rock—in some parts of the lake there are +rocks under the water which you can’t see—and the rock +had made the hole; but other people thought it had happened in some +other way. However, there they were, and when I took them all into +my boat you never saw such miserable little creatures as the two +little girls were. They were wet through, they were as white as +little ghosts, and when they were safe in my boat they began to cry +and shake so, poor little souls, though their father and I wrapped +them up in our coats, that I did want their mother to come and +comfort them.”</p> +<p>“Oh, but, father, you took them safe home to their mother, +didn’t you? And do tell me what she said.”</p> +<p>“They had no mother, Milly, they had only their father, +who was with them. But he was very good to them, and I think on the +whole they were happy little girls. The Christmas after that I got +a little parcel one morning, and what do you think was in it? Why, +two photographs of the same little girls, looking so neat and tidy +and happy, I could hardly believe they were really the same as the +little drowned rats I had pulled out of the water. Ask mother to +show you the pictures when we get home; she has them somewhere. +Now, Olly, would you like to row?”</p> +<p>“Oh, father, don’t bump against any rocks,” +said Milly, whose thoughts were very full of the little girls.</p> +<p>“Don’t you trouble your head about rocks, old woman. +I know a good deal more about this lake than those little +girls’ father did, and I won’t take you into any harm. +Come along, Olly.”</p> +<p>Olly was helped along the boat by mother and Aunt Emma till his +father caught hold of him and pulled him on to his seat, where he +let him put his two small paws on one of the oars, and try what he +could do with it. Mr. Norton pulled too; but Olly thought it was +all his doing, and that it was really he who was making the boat +go.</p> +<p>“Don’t we go fast, father?” he cried out +presently, his little face flushed with pleasure and excitement. +“You couldn’t row so fast without me, could you, +father?”</p> +<p>“You little fly-on-the-wheel,” said his father, +smiling at him.</p> +<p>“What does that mean, father?”</p> +<p>“Never mind, you’ll know when you’re bigger. +But now look, children, how close we are coming to the shore. And +quick, Milly, quick! What do you see over there?”</p> +<p>Mr. Norton pointed over the water to a place where some green +rushes were standing up out of the water, not very far from the +edge. What were those great white and gold things shining among the +rushes; and what were those large round green leaves lying on the +water all about them?</p> +<p>“Water-lilies! water-lilies!” cried Milly, stamping +her little feet with delight. “Oh, mother, look! it was on +one of those leaves that the old toad put little Tiny in my +fairy-book, don’t you remember? Only the little fishes came +and bit off the stalk and set her free. Oh, I wish we could see +little Tiny sitting on one of those leaves!”</p> +<p>“Well,” said Aunt Emma, “there’s no +saying what you may find in these parts if you look long enough. +This is a very strange country. But now, Milly, look out for the +lilies. Father’s going to take us in among them, and +I’ll hold you, while you gather them.”</p> +<p>And presently, swish went the boat up against the rushes, and +there were the lovely white lilies lying spread out on the water +all round them, some quite open and showing their golden middles, +and some still buds, with their wet green cases just falling off, +and their white petals beginning to unclose. But what slippery +stalks they had. Aunt Emma held Milly, and father held Olly, while +they dived their hands under the water and pulled hard. And some of +the lilies came out with such short bits of stalk you could +scarcely hold them, and sometimes, flop! out came a long green +stalk, like a long green snake curling and twisting about in the +boat. The children dabbled, and splashed, and pulled, to their +hearts’ content, till at last Mr. Norton told them they had +got enough and now they must sit quite still while he rowed them in +to the land.</p> +<p>“Oh, father, just those two over there!” pleaded +Milly, who could not bear leaving so many beauties behind.</p> +<p>“No, Milly, no more. Look where the sun is now. If we +don’t make haste and have our tea, we shall never get back to +Ravensnest to-night.”</p> +<p>Milly’s face looked as if it would like to cry, as the +boat began to move away from the rushes, and the beautiful lilies +were left behind. I told you, to begin with, that Milly was ready +to cry oftener than a sensible little girl should. But Aunt Emma +was not going to have any crying at her picnic.</p> +<p>“Who’s going to gather me sticks to make my +fire?” she said suddenly, in a solemn voice.</p> +<p>“I am! I am!” shouted both the children at once, and +out came Milly’s smiles again, like the sun from behind a +cloud.</p> +<p>“And who’s going to lay the table-cloth?”</p> +<p>“We are! we are!”</p> +<p>“And who’s going to hand the bread and +butter?”</p> +<p>“I am!” exclaimed Milly, “and Olly shall hand +the cake.”</p> +<p>“And who’s going to <em>eat</em> the bread and +butter?”</p> +<p>“All of us!” shouted the children, and Milly added, +“Father will want a <em>big</em> plate of bread and butter, I +daresay.”</p> +<p>“I should think he would, after all this rowing,” +said Mr. Norton. “Now then, look out for a bump!”</p> +<div class="figure"><a href="images/illus4.png"><img src= +"images/illus4.png" alt= +"“So they put Olly up on a tall piece of rock, and he sang.”" +id="illus4" name="illus4" width="100%" /></a> +<p>“So they put Olly up on a tall piece of rock, and he +sang.”</p> +</div> +<p>Bump! Splash! there was the boat scraping along the pebbles near +the shore; out sprang Mr. Norton, first on to a big stone, then on +to the shore, and with one great pull he brought the boat in till +it was close enough for Aunt Emma and Mrs. Norton to step on to the +rocks, and for the children to be lifted out.</p> +<p>“Oh! what a nice place!” cried Milly, looking about +her, and clapping her hands, as she always did when she was +pleased. It was a point of rock running out into the lake, a +“peninsula” Milly called it, when she had been all +round it, and it was covered with brown heather spread all over the +ground, and was delightfully soft and springy to sit upon. In the +middle of the bit of rock there were two or three trees standing up +together, birch trees with silvery stems, and on every side but one +there was shallow brown water, so clear that they could see every +stone at the bottom. And when they looked away across the lake, +there were the grand old mountains pushing their heads into the +clouds on the other side, and far away near the edge of the lake +they saw a white dot which they knew was Aunt Emma’s house. +How the sun shone on everything! How it made the water of the lake +sparkle and glitter as if it were alive! And yet the air was not +hot, for a little wind was coming to them across the water, and +moving the trees gently up and down.</p> +<p>And what was this under the trees? Why, a kind of fireplace made +of stones, and in front of it a round green bit of grass, with +tufts of heather all round it, just like a table with seats.</p> +<p>“Who put these stones here, Aunt Emma?” asked Olly, +as she and mother and Mr. Norton brought up the baskets, and put +them in the green place by the stones.</p> +<p>“Well, Olly, long ago, when all your uncles and aunts were +little, and they used to come here for picnics, they thought it +would be very nice to have a stone fireplace, built up properly, so +that they needn’t make one every time. It was Uncle +Richard’s idea, and we had such fun building it up. The +little ones brought the stones; and the big ones piled them +together till you see we made quite a nice fireplace. And it has +lasted ever since. Whenever I come here I mend it up if any of the +stones have tumbled down. Numbers of little children come to picnic +here every summer, and they always use our fireplace. But now, come +along into the woods, children, and gather sticks.”</p> +<p>Off they ran after Aunt Emma, and soon they were scrambling +about the wood which grew along the shore, picking up the dry +sticks and dry fern under the trees. Milly filled her cotton frock +full, and gathered it up with both her hands; while Olly of course +went straight at the biggest branch he could see, and staggered +along with it, puffing and panting.</p> +<p>“You grasshopper, you!” said Mr. Norton, catching +hold of him, “don’t you think you’d better try a +whole tree next time? There, let me break it for you.” Father +broke it up into short lengths, and then off ran Olly with his +little skirts full to Aunt Emma, who was laden too with an armful +of sticks. “That’ll do to begin with, old man. Come +along, and you and I’ll light the fire.”</p> +<p>What fun it was, heaping up the sticks on the stones, and how +they did blaze and crackle away when Aunt Emma put a match to them. +Puff! puff! out came the smoke; +fizz—crack—sputter—went the dry fir branches, as +if they were Christmas fireworks.</p> +<p>“Haven’t we made a blazey fire, Aunt Emma?” +said Olly, out of breath with dragging up sticks, and standing +still to look.</p> +<p>“Splendid,” said Mr. Norton, who had just come out +of the wood with his bundle. “Now, Olly, let me just put you +on the top of it to finish it off. How you would fizz!”</p> +<p>Off ran Olly, with his father after him, and they had a romp +among the heather till Mr. Norton caught him, and carried him +kicking and laughing under his arm to Aunt Emma.</p> +<p>“Now, Aunt Emma, shall I put him on?”</p> +<p>“Oh dear, no!” said Aunt Emma, “my kettle +wouldn’t sit straight on him, and it’s just boiling +beautifully. We’ll put him on presently when the fire gets +low.”</p> +<p>“Olly, do come and help mother and me with the +tea-things,” cried Milly, who was laying the cloth as busily +and gravely as a little housemaid.</p> +<p>“Run along, shrimp,” said his father, setting him +down.</p> +<p>And off ran Olly, while Mr. Norton and Aunt Emma heaped the wood +on the fire, and kept the kettle straight, so that it +shouldn’t tip over and spill.</p> +<p>Laying the cloth was delightful, Milly thought. First of all, +they put a heavy stone on each corner of the cloth to keep it down, +and prevent the wind from blowing it up, and then they put the +little plates all round, and in the middle two piles of bread and +butter and cake.</p> +<p>“But we haven’t got any flowers,” said Milly, +looking at it presently, with a dissatisfied face, “you +always have flowers on the table at home, mother.”</p> +<p>“Why, Milly, have you forgotten your water-lilies; where +did you leave them?”</p> +<p>“Down by the water,” said Milly. “Father told +me just to put their stalks in the water, and he put a stone to +keep them safe. Oh! that’ll be splendid, mother. Do give me a +cup, and we’ll get some water for them.”</p> +<p>Mother found a cup, and the children scrambled down to the edge +of the lake. There lay the lilies with their stalks in the water, +close to the boat.</p> +<p>“They look rather sad, mother, don’t they?” +said Milly, gathering them up. “Perhaps they don’t like +being taken away from their home.”</p> +<p>“They never look so beautiful out of the water,” +said mother; “but when we get home we’ll put them into +a soup-plate, and let them swim about in it. They’ll look +very nice then. Now, Olly, fill the cup with water, and we’ll +put five or six of the biggest in, and gather some +leaves.”</p> +<p>“There, look! look! Aunt Emma,” shouted Milly, when +they had put the lilies and some fern leaves in the middle of the +table. “Haven’t we made it beautiful?”</p> +<p>“That you have,” said Aunt Emma, coming up with the +kettle which had just boiled. “Now for the tea, and then +we’re ready.”</p> +<p>“We never had such a nice tea as this before,” said +Olly, presently looking up from a piece of bread and butter which +had kept him quiet for some time. “It’s nicer than +having dinner at the railway station even.”</p> +<p>Aunt Emma and mother laughed; for it doesn’t seem so +delightful to grown-up people to have dinner at the railway +station.</p> +<p>“Well, Olly,” said mother, “I hope we shall +often have tea out of doors while we are at Ravensnest.”</p> +<p>Milly shook her head. “It’ll rain, mother. That old +gentleman said it would be sure to rain.”</p> +<p>“That old gentleman is about right, Milly,” said Mr. +Norton. “I think it rains dreadfully here, but mother +doesn’t seem to mind it a bit. Once upon a time when mother +was a little girl, there came a funny old fairy and threw some +golden dust in her eyes, and ever since then she can’t see +straight when she comes to the mountains. It’s all right +everywhere else, but as soon as she comes here, the dust begins to +fly about in her eyes, and makes the mountains look quite different +to her from what they look to anybody else.”</p> +<p>“Let me look, mother,” said Olly, pulling her down +to him.</p> +<p>Mrs. Norton opened her eyes at him, smiling.</p> +<p>“I can’t see any dust, father.”</p> +<p>“Ah, that’s because it’s fairy dust,” +said Mr. Norton, gravely. “Now, Olly, don’t you eat too +much cake, else you won’t be able to row.”</p> +<p>“It’ll be my turn first, father,” said Milly, +“you know I haven’t rowed at all yet.”</p> +<p>“Well, don’t you catch any crabs, Milly,” said +Aunt Emma.</p> +<p>“Catch crabs, Aunt Emma!” said Milly, very much +puzzled. “Crabs are only in the sea, aren’t +they?”</p> +<p>“There’s a very big kind just about here,” +said Mr. Norton, “and they’re always looking out for +little children, particularly little girls.”</p> +<p>“I don’t understand, father,” said Milly, +opening her eyes very wide.</p> +<p>“Have some more tea, then,” said Mr. Norton, +“that always makes people feel wiser.”</p> +<p>“Father, aren’t you talking nonsense?” said +Olly, stopping in the middle of a piece of cake to think about what +his father was saying.</p> +<p>“Very likely, Olly. People always do at picnics. Aunt +Emma, when are you going to tell us your story?”</p> +<p>“When we’ve washed the things and put them +away,” said Aunt Emma, “then Olly shall sing us two +songs, and I’ll tell you my story.”</p> +<p>But the children were so hungry that it was a long time before +they gave up eating bread and butter, and then, when at last tea +was over, what fun it was washing the cups and plates in the lake! +Aunt Emma and Olly washed, and mother and Milly dried the things on +a towel, and then everything was packed away into the baskets, and +mother and Aunt Emma folded up the table-cloth, and put it tidily +on the top of everything.</p> +<p>“I did like that,” said Milly, sighing as the last +basket was fastened down. “I wish you’d let me help +Sarah wash up the tea-things at home, mother.”</p> +<p>“If Sarah liked to let you, I shouldn’t say no, +Milly,” said Mrs. Norton. “How soon would you get tired +of it, old woman, I wonder? But come along, let’s put Olly up +on a rock, and make him sing, and then we’ll have Aunt +Emma’s story.”</p> +<p>So they put Olly up on a tall piece of rock, and he sang +“The Minstrel Boy,” and “Bonnie Dundee,” +and “Hot Cross Buns,” just as if he were a little +musical box, and you had nothing to do but to wind him up. He had a +sweet, clear, little voice, and he looked a delightful brown gipsy, +as he sat perched up on the rock with his long legs dangling, and +his curls blowing about his face.</p> +<p>“There!” said Olly, when he had shouted out the last +note of “Hot Cross Buns.” “I have singed three +whole songs; and now, Aunt Emma, tell us about the king and the +fairies. Krick, please.”</p> +<p>“It must be ‘krick’ indeed,” said Aunt +Emma, “if we want to get home to-night.”</p> +<p>For the sun had almost sunk behind the mountains at their back, +and the wind blowing across the lake was beginning to get a little +cold, while over their heads the rooks went flying, singing +“caw, caw,” on their way to bed. And how the sun was +turning the water to gold! It seemed to be making a great golden +pathway across the lake, and the mountains were turning a deep +blue, and plash, plash, went the little waves on the rocks, so +softly they seemed to be saying “Good-night! +good-night!”</p> +<p>“Well,” said Aunt Emma, settling herself on a soft +piece of heather, and putting her arms round Milly and Olly, +“Once upon a time there was a great king. He was a good king +and a wise man, and he tried to make all the people round about him +wiser and better than they were before he came to rule over them; +and for a long time he was very powerful and happy, and he and the +brave men who helped him and were his friends did a great deal of +good, and kept the savage people who lived all about him in order, +and taught them a great many things. But at last some of the savage +people got tired of obeying the king, and they said they would not +have him to reign over them any more; so they made an army, and +they came together against the king to try and kill him and his +friends. And the king made an army too, and there was a great +battle; and the savage people were the strongest, and they killed +nearly all the king’s brave men, and the king himself was +terribly hurt in the fight. And at last, when night came on, there +were left only the king and one of his friends—his knights, +as they were called. The king was hurt so much that he could not +move, and his friend thought he was dying. They were left alone in +a rocky desert place, and close by there was a great lake with +mountains round it—like this, Olly. It was very cold, and the +moon was shining, and the king lay so still that once or twice his +friend almost thought that he was dead. But at last, about the +middle of the night, he began to speak, and he told his friend to +take his sword that was by his side and to go down to the side of +the lake and throw it as far as he could into the water. Now, this +sword was a magic sword. Long before, the king was once walking +beside this lake, when he suddenly saw an arm in a long white +sleeve rising out of the lake, and in the hand at the end of it was +a splendid sword with a glistening handle. And the king got into a +boat and rowed as fast as he could till he got near enough to take +hold of the sword, and then the arm sank down under the water and +was seen no more. And with the sword the king won a great many +battles, and he loved it, and never would part with it; but now +that he was dying, he told his friend to take the sword and throw +it back into the lake where he had found it, and see what would +happen. And his friend took it, and went away over the rocks till +he came to the edge of the lake, and then he took the sword out of +its case and swung it above his head that he might throw it far +into the water; but as he lifted it up the precious stones in the +handle shone so splendidly in the moonlight that he could not make +up his mind to throw it into the water, it seemed such a pity. So +he hid it away among the rushes by the water side, and went back to +the king. And the king said, ‘What did you see by the +lake?’</p> +<p>“And the knight said, ‘I saw nothing except the +water, and the mountains, and the rushes.’</p> +<p>“And the king said, ‘Oh, unkind friend! Why will you +not do as I ask you, now that I am dying and can do nothing for +myself? Go back and throw the sword into the lake, as I told +you.’</p> +<p>“And the knight went back, and once more he lifted the +sword to throw it into the water but it looked so beautiful that he +<em>could</em> not throw it away. There would be nothing left, he +thought, to remember the king by when he was dead if he threw away +the sword; so again he hid it among the rushes, and then he went +back to the king. And again the king asked, ‘What did you see +by the lake?’ and again the knight answered, ‘I saw +nothing except the water and the mountains.’</p> +<p>“‘Oh, unkind, false friend!’ cried the king, +‘you are crueller to me than those who gave me this wound. Go +back and throw the sword into the water, or, weak as I am, I will +rise up and kill you.’</p> +<p>“Back went the knight, and this time he seized the sword +without looking at it, so that he should not see how beautiful it +was, and then he swung it once, twice, thrice, round his head, and +away it went into the lake. And as it fell, up rose a hand and arm +in a long white sleeve out of the water, and the hand caught the +sword and drew it down under the water. And then for a moment, all +round the lake, the knight fancied he heard a sound of sobbing and +weeping, and he thought in his heart that it must be the +water-fairies weeping for the king’s death.</p> +<p>“‘What did you see by the lake?’ asked the +king again, when he came back, and the knight told him. Then the +king told him to lift him up and carry him on his back down to the +edge of the lake, and when they got there, what do you think they +saw?”</p> +<p>But the children could not guess, and Milly pressed Aunt +Emma’s hand hard to make her go on.</p> +<p>“They saw a great black ship coming slowly over the water, +and on the ship were numbers of people in black, sobbing and +crying, so that the air was full of a sound of weeping, and in +front sat three queens in long black dresses, and with gold crowns +on their heads, and they, too, were weeping and wringing their +hands.</p> +<p>“‘Lift me up,’ said the king, when the ship +came close beside them, ‘and put me into the ship.’ And +the knight lifted him up, while the three queens stretched out +their hands and drew him into the ship.</p> +<p>“‘Oh, king! take me with you,’ said the +knight, ‘take me too. What shall I do all alone without +you?’ But the ship began to move away, and the knight was +left standing on the shore. Only he fancied he heard the +king’s voice saying, ‘Wait for me, I shall come again. +Farewell!’</p> +<p>“And the ship went faster and faster away into the +darkness, for it was a fairy ship, till at last the knight could +see it no more. So then he knew that the king had been carried away +by the fairies of the lake—the same fairies who had given him +the sword in old days, and who had loved him and watched over him +all his life. But what did the king mean by saying, ‘I shall +come again’?”</p> +<p>Then Aunt Emma stopped and looked at the children.</p> +<p>“What did he mean, auntie?” asked Milly, who had +been listening with all her ears, and whose little eyes were wet, +“and did he ever come back again?”</p> +<p>“Not while the knight lived, Milly. He grew to be quite an +old man, and was always hoping that the fairies would bring the +king again. But the king never came, and his friend died without +seeing him.”</p> +<p>“But did he <em>ever</em> come again?” asked +Olly.</p> +<p>“I don’t know, Olly. Some people think that he is +still hidden away somewhere by the kind water-fairies, and that +some day, when the world wants him very much, he will come back +again.”</p> +<p>“Do you think he is here in this lake?” whispered +Milly, looking at the water.</p> +<p>“How can we tell what’s at the bottom of the +lake?” said Aunt Emma, smiling. “But no, I don’t +think the king is hidden in this lake. He didn’t live near +here.”</p> +<p>“What was his name?” asked Milly.</p> +<p>“His name was King Arthur. But now, children, hurry; there +is father putting all the baskets into the boat. We must get home +as quick as we can.”</p> +<p>They rowed home very quickly, except just for a little time when +Milly rowed, and they did not go quite so fast as if father were +rowing alone. It was quite evening now on the lake, and there were +great shadows from the mountains lying across the water. Somehow +the children felt much quieter now than when they started in the +afternoon. Milly had curled herself up inside mother’s arm, +and was thinking a great deal about King Arthur and the fairy ship, +while Olly was quite taken up with watching the oars as they dipped +in and out of the water, and occasionally asking his father when he +should be big enough to row quite by himself. It seemed a very +little time after all before they were stepping out of the boat at +Aunt Emma’s boathouse, and the picnic and the row were both +over.</p> +<p>“Good-bye, dear lake,” said Milly, turning with her +hands full of water-lilies to look back before they went up to the +house. “Good-night, mountains; good-night, Birdsnest Point. I +shall soon come and see you again.”</p> +<p>A few minutes more, and they were safely packed into a carriage +which drove them back to Ravensnest, and Aunt Emma was saying +good-bye to them.</p> +<p>“Next time, I shall come and see you, Milly,” she +said, as she kissed Milly’s little sleepy face. +“Don’t forget me till then.”</p> +<p>“Then you’ll tell us about old Mother +Quiverquake,” said Olly, hugging her with his small arms. +“Aunt Emma, I haven’t given Johnny back his stockings. +They did tickle me so in the boat.”</p> +<p>“We’ll get them some time,” said Aunt Emma. +“Good-night, good-night.”</p> +<p>It was a sleepy pair of children that nurse lifted out of the +carriage at Ravensnest. And though they tried to tell her something +about it, she had to wait till next morning before she could really +understand anything about their wonderful day at Aunt Emma’s +house.</p> +<h2><a id="Chapter6" name="Chapter6">CHAPTER VI</a></h2> +<h3>Wet Days At Ravensnest</h3> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>For about a week after the row on the lake the weather was +lovely, and Milly wondered more than ever what the old gentleman +who warned them of the rain in the mountains could have been +thinking about. She and Olly were out all day, and nearly every +afternoon nurse lifted the tea-table through the low nursery window +on to the lawn, and let them have their tea out of doors among the +flowers and trees and twittering birds. They had found out a +fly-catcher’s nest in the ivy above the front door, and every +evening the two children used to fetch out their father to watch +the parent birds catching flies and carrying them to the hungry +little ones, whom they could just hear chirping up above the ivy. +Olly was wild to get the gardener’s ladder that he might +climb up and look into the nest, but Mr. Norton would not have it +lest it should frighten away the old birds.</p> +<p>One delicious warm morning, too, the children had their +long-promised bathe, and what fun it was. Nurse woke them up at +five o’clock in the morning—fancy waking up as early as +that!—and they slipped on their little blue bathing gowns, +and their sand shoes that mother had bought them in Cromer the year +before, and then nurse wrapped them up in shawls, and she and they +and father went down and opened the front door while everybody else +in the house was asleep, and slipped out. What a quiet strange +world it seemed, the grass and the flowers dripping with dew, and +overhead such a blue sky with white clouds sailing slowly about in +it.</p> +<p>“Why don’t we always get up at five o’clock, +father?” asked Olly, as he and Milly skipped along—such +an odd little pair of figures—beside Mr. Norton. +“Isn’t it nice and funny?”</p> +<p>“Very,” said Mr. Norton. “Still, I imagine +Olly, if you had to get up every day at five o’clock, you +might think it funny, but I’m sure you wouldn’t always +think it nice.”</p> +<p>“Oh! I’m sure we should,” said Milly, +seriously. “Why, father, it’s just as if everything was +ours and nobody else’s, the garden and the river I mean. Is +there <em>anybody</em> up yet do you think—in those +houses?” And Milly pointed to the few houses they could see +from the Ravensnest garden.</p> +<p>“I can’t tell, Milly. But I’ll tell you +who’s sure to be up now, and that’s John Backhouse. I +should think he’s just beginning to milk the cows.”</p> +<p>“Oh then, Becky and Tiza’ll be up too,” cried +Milly, dancing about. “I wish we could see them. Somehow it +would be quite different seeing them now, father. I feel so queer, +as if I was somebody else.”</p> +<p>If you have ever been up <em>very</em> early on a summer +morning, you will know what Milly meant, but if not I can hardly +explain it. Such a pretty quiet little walk they had down to the +river. Nobody on the road, nobody in the fields, but the birds +chattering and the sun shining, as if they were having a good time +all to themselves, before anybody woke up to interrupt them. Mr. +Norton took the children down to the stepping-stones, and then, +while Milly and nurse stayed on the bank he lifted Olly up, and +carried him to the middle of the stepping-stones, where the water +would about come up to his chest. Mr. Norton had already taken off +his own shoes and stockings, and when they came to the middle +stone, he put Olly down on the stone, and stepped into the water +himself. “Now, Olly, give me your hands and jump in. Mind, +it’ll feel very cold.”</p> +<p>Olly shut his eyes, and opened his mouth, as he always did when +he felt just a little frightened, and then in he went; splash! ugh! +it was so cold—much colder than the sea used to +feel—but after a few splashes Olly began to get used to it, +and to think it fine fun.</p> +<p>“Oh, father, fetch Milly, and then we’ll all dance +about,” entreated Olly.</p> +<p>“Come, Milly,” called Mr. Norton. “Try whether +you can manage the stepping-stones by yourself.” So Milly +came, holding up her bathing dress, and stepping from one big stone +to another with a very grave face, as if she felt that there would +be an end of her altogether if she tumbled in. And then, splash! In +she jumped by the side of Olly, and after a little shiver or two +she also began to think that the river was a delightful bathing +place, almost as nice as the sea, perhaps in some ways nicer, +because it was such a strange and funny one. They danced and +splashed about in the brown sparkling water till they were tired, +and at last Olly stopped to take breath.</p> +<p>“I should think the fishes must be frightened of +us,” he said, peering down into the river. “I +can’t see any, father.”</p> +<p>“Well, they wouldn’t choose to swim about just where +little children are shouting and capering. The fishes are hidden +safe away under the banks and the big stones. Besides, it’s +going to be a very hot day, and they like the shady bits of the +river. Just here there’s no shade.”</p> +<p>Suddenly there was a great commotion in the river, and when Mr. +Norton looked round for a second he could see nothing of Milly, +till up came a dripping head and a pair of hands, and there was +Milly kneeling on the stones at the bottom of the river, with just +her head above water, looking very much astonished and rather +frightened.</p> +<p>“Why, what happened, old woman?” said Mr. Norton, +holding out his hand to help her up.</p> +<p>“I—I—don’t quite know, father; I was +standing on a big stone, and all of a sudden it tipped up, and I +tumbled right in.”</p> +<p>“First of all I thought you was a big fish, and then I +thought you was going to be drowned,” said Olly, cheerfully. +“I’m glad you wasn’t drowned.”</p> +<p>“Miss Milly! Miss Milly!” shouted nurse from the +bank, “it’s quite time you came out now. If you stay in +so long you’ll get cold, and you, too, Master +Olly.”</p> +<p>Olly was not inclined to come. He would have liked to go on +dabbling and splashing till breakfast-time, but Mr. Norton hurried +him out, and the two dripping little creatures were well wrapped up +in large shawls which nurse had brought with her. Then nurse took +up Olly in her arms, and father took up Milly, who was small and +light for her age, and they set off up the bit of road to the +house. By this time it was past six o’clock, and whom should +they meet at the Ravensnest gate but John Backhouse, with Becky and +Tiza, and his two dogs. He was just bringing the milk, and both he +and his children looked as brisk and wide awake as if they had been +up and about for hours.</p> +<p>Milly and Olly were very much excited at the sight of them, and +Olly struggled hard to get down, but nurse held him tight.</p> +<p>“Oh, Becky! we’ve had such a nice bathe,” +cried Milly, as she passed them muffled up in her shawl, her little +wet feet dangling out.</p> +<p>Becky and Tiza looked longingly after them as they disappeared +into the house. They wished they could have had a bathe too, but +they knew very well that their hard-worked father and mother had +something else to do on a fine summer’s morning than to take +them to bathe, and in a few minutes they had forgotten all about +it, and were busy playing with the dogs, or chattering to their +father about the hay-making, which was soon to begin now.</p> +<p>That evening there were strange clouds at sunset time, and Mr. +Norton shook his head as he heard Mrs. Norton arrange to take the +children next day to a small mountain village near Ravensnest, to +call on some old friends of hers.</p> +<p>“I wouldn’t make much of a plan for to-morrow if I +were you,” he said to his wife, “the weather +doesn’t look promising.”</p> +<p>“Oh, father!” said Milly, protesting. “There +are some red clouds over there—look! and Nana always says +it’s going to be fine when there are red clouds.”</p> +<p>“Well, Milly, your red clouds may be right and I may be +wrong. We shall see.”</p> +<p>But, alas! father was quite right. When Milly woke up next +morning there was no nice sunshine creeping on to her bed as it had +done almost ever since they came to Ravensnest; but instead there +was rain beating steadily against the window, coming down out of a +heavy gray sky, and looking as if it meant to go on for ever.</p> +<p>“Oh dear!” sighed Milly, as she began to dress, +“we can’t go out, and the wild strawberries will get so +wet. I meant to have gathered some for mother to-day. There would +have been such nice ones in the wood.”</p> +<p>But it was no use thinking about woods or strawberries, and when +Mrs. Norton came into the children’s room just as they were +finishing breakfast, she found a pair of dull little faces staring +out at the rain, as if looking at it would make it stop.</p> +<p>“Nasty rain,” said Olly, climbing up on his +mother’s knee. “Go to Spain. I don’t want you to +come and spoil my nicey time.”</p> +<p>“I am afraid scolding the rain won’t make it go +away,” said his mother, smiling into his brown face as he +knelt on her lap, with his arms round her neck. “Now what are +we going to do to-day?”</p> +<p>“I don’t know,” said Milly, sitting down +opposite her mother, and resting her face gravely on her hands. +“Well, we brought <em>some</em> toys, you know, mother. +Olly’s got his top; I can help him spin it, and I can play +with Katie a bit.”</p> +<p>“That won’t take very long,” said Mrs. Norton. +“Suppose we do some lessons first of all.”</p> +<p>“Oh, mother, lessons!” said Milly, in a very +doubtful voice.</p> +<p>“It’s holidays, mother, it’s holidays,” +cried Olly. “I don’t like lessons—not a +bit.”</p> +<p>“Well, but, Olly, think a bit; you can’t spin your +top and look at picture-books all day, and I’m afraid +it’s going to rain all day—it looks very like it. If +you come and do some reading and counting with me this morning, I +can give you some spills to make, or some letters to tear up for me +afterwards. That will save the toys for this afternoon; and some +time this afternoon, if it doesn’t stop raining, we’ll +all have a romp. And as for you, Milly, don’t you think +it’s quite time Katie had a new frock? I believe I can find a +beautiful bit of blue silk in my bag, and I’m sure nurse will +show you how to make it.”</p> +<p>Milly’s face brightened up very much at this, and the two +children went skipping upstairs to the drawing-room after their +mother, in very fair spirits again. Olly did some reading, while +Milly wrote in her copybook, and then Olly had his counting-slate +and tried to find out what 6 and 4 made, and 5 and 3, and other +little sums of the same kind. He yawned a good deal over his +reading, and was quite sure several times that h-a-y spelt +“ham,” and s-a-w spelt “was,” but still, on +the whole, he got through very well. Milly wrote her copy, then she +learnt some verses of a poem called “Lucy Gray,” and +last of all mother found her a big map of Westmoreland, the county +in which the mountains are, and they had a most delightful +geography lesson. Mother pretended to take Milly a drive all about +the mountains, and made her find out their names, and the names of +the towns and the lakes, beginning with Lake Windermere. Olly was +interested too, for Mrs. Norton told them a great many things about +the places, and made quite a story out of it.</p> +<div class="figure"><a href="images/illus5.png"><img src= +"images/illus5.png" id="illus5" name="illus5" alt= +"“He was quite sure that h-a-y spelt ‘ham’ and s-a-w spelt ‘was.’”" +width="100%" /></a> +<p>“He was quite sure that h-a-y spelt ‘ham’ and +s-a-w spelt ‘was.’”</p> +</div> +<p>“Why, mother, I never could go all that long way all at +once—<em>really</em>, could I?” asked Milly, when they +had been all round the mountains, in and out and round about.</p> +<p>“No, Milly, not quite,” said Mrs. Norton, laughing, +“but it’s very easy to go a long way in a pretendy +drive. It would only take us about ten minutes that way to get to +the other side of the world.”</p> +<p>“How long would it take really?” asked Olly.</p> +<p>“About three months.”</p> +<p>“If we could fly up, and up, ever so far,” said +Olly, standing on tiptoe, and stretching out his little arms as +high as they would reach, “it wouldn’t take us long. +Mother, don’t you wish you was a bird?”</p> +<p>“No, I don’t think so, Olly; why do you?”</p> +<p>“Because I should like to go so <em>krick</em>. Mother, +the fly-catchers do fly so krick; I can’t see them sometimes +when they’re flying, they go so fast. Oh, I do wish father +would let me get up a ladder to look at them.”</p> +<p>“No Olly, you’ll frighten them,” said Milly, +putting on her wise face. “Besides, father says you’re +too little, and you’d tumble down.”</p> +<p>Olly looked as if he didn’t believe a word of it, as he +generally did when Milly talked wisely to him; but just then he +found that mother had put into his lap a whole basketful of letters +to tear up, and that interested him so much that he forgot the +fly-catchers. Nurse cut out a most fashionable blue dress for +Katie, and Milly was quite happy all the rest of the morning in +running up the seams and hemming the bottom. So the morning passed +away. After dinner there were the toys to play with, and +Katie’s frock to try on, for nurse had taken a turn at the +body while Milly had been making the skirt. It fitted very well, +and Milly had only the band to put on and the sleeves to make +before it would be quite finished. Then nurse promised to put a +little white lace round the neck, and cut out a blue sash, that +Katie might be quite turned into an elegant young lady. Tea came +very soon, and when it was cleared away father and mother came into +the big kitchen without a fireplace, next to the children’s +room, and they all had a splendid romp. Mr. Norton made himself +into a tiger, with a tiger-skin in the hall, that Uncle Richard had +brought home from India, and Olly shot him all over with a +walking-stick from the tip of his nose to the tip of his tail. When +they were tired of this, mother set them to play hide-and-seek, and +Milly hid herself in such out-of-the-way cupboards, and squeezed +herself into such small corners, that mother said she was like a +needle in a bundle of hay—there was no finding her.</p> +<p>Seven o’clock came before they had time to think about it, +and the children went chattering and skipping up to bed, though on +fine evenings they had been staying up much later. How the rain did +rattle on the window while they were undressing.</p> +<p>“Oh, you tiresome rain,” said Milly, standing by the +window in her nightdress, and gazing up into the sky. “Where +does it all come from, I wonder? Won’t it be wet to-morrow, +Nana? and oh, what is that roaring over there?”</p> +<p>“That’s the beck,” said nurse, who was +brushing Olly’s hair, and trying hard to make him stand still +for two minutes.</p> +<p>“The beck! why, what’s the matter with +it?”</p> +<p>“It’s the rain has made it so full I suppose,” +said nurse. “To-morrow, gardener says, it’ll be over +the lawn if the rain goes on.”</p> +<p>“Oh, but it mustn’t go on,” said Milly. +“Now, rain, dear rain, good rain, do go away to-night, right +away up into the mountains. There’s plenty of room for you up +there, and down here we don’t want you a bit. So do be polite +and go away.”</p> +<p>But the rain didn’t see any good reason for going away, in +spite of Milly’s pretty speeches, and next morning there was +the same patter on the window, the same gray sky and dripping +garden. After breakfast there was just a hope of its clearing up. +For about an hour the rain seemed to get less and the clouds a +little brighter. But it soon came on again as fast as ever, and the +poor children were very much disappointed.</p> +<p>“Mother,” said Milly, when they had settled down to +their lessons again in the drawing-room, “when we get back to +Willingham, do you know what I shall do?”</p> +<p>“No, Milly.”</p> +<p>“I shall ask you to take me to see that old +gentleman—you know who I mean—who told you about the +rain. And I shall say to him, ‘please, Mr. Old Gentleman, at +first I thought you were quite wrong about the rain, but afterwards +I thought you were quite right, and it does rain dreadfully much in +the mountains.’”</p> +<p>“Very well, Milly. But you have only just had a taste of +what the rain can do in the lakes you know, so far. Father and I +have been here sometimes when it has rained two or three weeks +without stopping.”</p> +<p>“Oh dear!” said Milly, looking extremely melancholy. +“I like the mountains very much, mother; but <em>do</em> you +think we’d better come to Ravensnest again after this +year?”</p> +<p>“Oh you ungrateful little woman!” said Mrs. Norton, +whose love for the place was so real that Milly’s speech gave +her quite a pang. “Have you forgotten all your happy sunshiny +days here, just because it has rained for two? Why, when I was a +little girl, and used to come here, the rainy days never made me +love the place a bit the less. I always used to think the fine days +made up.”</p> +<p>“But then, mother, you were a nice little girl,” +said Milly, throwing her arms round her mother’s neck and +kissing her. “Now, I don’t feel a bit nice this +morning. It makes me so cross not to be able to go out and get +flowers and wild strawberries. And you know at home it hardly ever +rains all day.”</p> +<p>“Gardener says sometimes it rains all over the +road,” interrupted Olly, “and people can’t walk +along, and they have to go right up on the mountains to get past +the water place. And sometimes they have to get a boat to take +people across. Do you think we shall have to go in a boat to church +on Sunday, mother?”</p> +<p>“Well, we’re a long way off that yet, Olly. It will +take a good many days’ rain to flood the roads so deep that +we can’t get along them, and this is only the second rainy +day. Come, I don’t think we’ve got much to complain of. +Now suppose, instead of doing all your lessons this morning, you +were presently to write to Jacky and Francis—you write to +Jacky, Milly, and Olly to Francis. Don’t you think that would +be a good thing?”</p> +<p>“Oh yes, yes!” cried Milly, shutting up her copybook +in a great hurry. “They’ll be so much astonished, +mother, for we didn’t <em>promise</em> to write to them. I +don’t believe they ever get any letters.”</p> +<p>The children had a great deal of affection and some secret pity +for these playfellows of theirs, who had a sick mother, and who did +not get half the pleasures and amusements that they did. And, as I +have already told you, they could not bear Miss Chesterton, the +little boys’ aunt, who lived with them. They felt sure that +Jacky and Francis must be unhappy, only because they had to live +with Miss Chesterton.</p> +<p>This was Milly’s letter when it was done. Milly could only +write very slowly, in rather big hand, so that her letters were +never very long:</p> +<blockquote> +<p><span style="font-variant:small-caps;">My Dear +Jacky</span>—Don’t you think it very odd getting a +letter from me? It is nearly a fortnight since we came here. At +first it was <em>very</em> nice. We went up the mountains, and Aunt +Emma took us in a boat on the lake. And we gathered some wild +strawberries, only some of them were quite white—not red a +bit. But now it has begun to rain, and we don’t like it at +all. Perhaps we sha’n’t be able to get home because the +rain will cover up the roads. It is <em>very</em> dull staying in, +only mother makes us such nice plays. Good-bye, Jacky. I send my +love to Francis. Mind you don’t forget us.</p> +<p>Your loving little friend,<br /> +MILLY.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Olly wrote a much longer letter, that is to say, mother wrote +for him, and he told her what to say, and as this was a much easier +way of writing than Milly’s way, he got on very fast, and +Mrs. Norton had to write as quickly as she could, to keep up with +him. And this was what Olly had to say:</p> +<blockquote> +<p><span style="font-variant:small-caps;">My Dear +Francis</span>—I wonder what you’ll say to-morrow +morning when the postman brings you this letter. I hope +you’ll write back, because it won’t be fair if you +don’t. It isn’t such fun here now because it does rain +so. Milly and I are always telling the rain to go away, but it +won’t—though it did at home. Last week we went out in a +boat, and I rowed. I rowed a great way, much farther than Milly. We +went very slow when Milly rowed. It was very jolly at the picnic. +Aunt Emma gave me some cake, and mother gave me some bread and jam. +Nana won’t let us have cake and jam both, when we have tea at +home. Aunt Emma told us a story about King Arthur. I don’t +believe you ever heard it. The water-fairies took him away, and his +friend wanted to go too, but the king said ‘No! you must stop +behind.’ Milly cried because she felt sad about the king. I +didn’t cry, because I’m a little boy. Mother says you +won’t understand about the story, and she says we must tell +it you when we get home. So we will, only perhaps we +sha’n’t remember. Do you do lessons now? We don’t +do any—only when it rains. Milly’s writing a letter to +Jacky—mine’s much longer than hers.</p> +<p>Your little friend,<br /> +OLLY.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Then came the putting up the letters, addressing them, and +stamping them, all of which the children enjoyed very much, and by +the time they were laid on the hall table ready to go to the post +it was nearly dinner-time.</p> +<p>How the beck did roar that afternoon. And when the children +looked out from the drawing-room window they could see a little +flood on the lawn, where the water had come over the side of the +stream. While they were having their tea, with mother sitting by, +working and chattering to them, they heard a knock at the door, and +when they opened it there was father standing in the unused +kitchen, with the water running off his waterproof coat, making +little streams all over the stone floor.</p> +<p>“I have been down to look at the river,” he said to +Mrs. Norton. “Keep off, children! I’m much too wet to +touch. Such rain! It does know how to come down here! The +water’s over the road just by the stepping-stones. John +Backhouse says if it goes on another twenty-four hours like this, +there’ll be no getting to Wanwick by the road, on +foot.”</p> +<p>“Father,” said Milly, looking at him with a very +solemn face, “wouldn’t it be dreadful if it went on +raining and raining, and if the river came up and up, right up to +the drive and into the hall, and we all had to sit upstairs, and +the butcher couldn’t bring us any meat, and John Backhouse +couldn’t bring us any milk, and we all <em>died</em> of +hunger.”</p> +<p>“Then they would put us into some black boxes,” said +Olly, cheerfully, with his mouth full of bread and butter, +“and they would put the black boxes into some boats, and take +us right away and bury us krick—wouldn’t they, +mother?”</p> +<p>“Well, but—” said Mr. Norton, who had by this +time got rid of his wet coat, and was seated by Milly, helping +himself to some tea, “suppose we got into the boats before we +were dead, and rowed away to Windermere station?”</p> +<p>“Oh no! father,” said Milly, who always liked her +stories to be as gloomy as possible, “they wouldn’t +know anything about us till we were dead you know, and then +they’d come and find us, and be <em>very</em> sorry for us, +and say, ‘Oh dear! oh dear! what a pity!’”</p> +<p>Olly began to look so dismal as Milly’s fancies grew more +and more melancholy, that Mrs. Norton took to laughing at them all. +What did they know about Westmoreland rain indeed. This was +nothing—just nothing at all; she <em>could</em> remember some +floods in the wintertime, when she was a little girl, and used to +stay with Aunt Emma and great-grandmamma; but as for this, why, it +was a good summer wetting, and that was all.</p> +<p>A romp sent the children to bed in excellent spirits again. This +time both Milly and Olly stood at the window together, and told the +rain to be sure to go to Spain that night, and never come back +again while they were at Ravensnest.</p> +<p>“Or you might go to Willingham, you know, dear Mr. +Rain,” said Milly; “I daresay mother’s flowers +want a good watering. And there’s Spot—you might give +her a good washing—she <em>can</em> wash herself, but she +won’t. Only we don’t want you here, Mr. +Rain.”</p> +<p>But what an obstinate disagreeable Mr. Rain it was! All that +night it went on pouring, till the little beck in the garden was so +full it was almost choked, and could only get along by sputtering +and foaming as if some wicked water-fairies were driving it along +and tormenting it. And all the little pools on the mountain, the +“tarns,” as Becky and Tiza called them, filled up, and +the rain made the mountain itself so wet that it was like one big +bog all over.</p> +<p>When the children woke up the flood on the lawn was growing +bigger, and it seemed to them as if the house and garden were all +wrapped up in a wet white cloud-blanket. They could not see the +mountain at all from the window, it was all covered with a thick +white mist, and the dark fir trees in the garden looked sad and +drooping, as if the weight of raindrops was too much for them to +carry.</p> +<p>The children had made up their minds so completely the night +before that it <em>couldn’t</em> rain more than two days +running, that they felt as if they could hardly be expected to bear +this third wet morning cheerfully. Nurse found them cross and out +of spirits at breakfast. Even a prospect of asking Becky and Tiza +to tea did not bring any smiles to their forlorn little faces. It +would be no fun having anybody to tea. They couldn’t go out, +and there was nothing amusing indoors.</p> +<p>After breakfast, Olly set to work to get into mischief, as he +generally did when he felt dull. Nurse discovered him smearing +Katie’s cheeks with raspberry jam “to make them get red +kricker” as he said, and alas! some of the jam had stuck to +the new silk frock, and spoilt all its smart fresh look.</p> +<p>When Milly found it out she began to cry, and when Mrs. Norton +came in she saw a heap on the floor, which was Milly, sobbing, +while Olly sat beside her with his mouth wide open, as if he was a +good deal astonished at the result of his first attempt at +doctoring.</p> +<p>“Pick up the pieces, old woman,” said Mrs. Norton, +taking hold of the heap and lifting it up. “What’s the +matter with you both?”</p> +<p>“Olly’s spoilt my doll,” sobbed Milly, +“and it <em>will</em> go on raining—and I feel +so—so—dull.”</p> +<p>“I didn’t spoil her doll, mother,” cried Olly, +eagerly. “I only rubbed some jam on its cheeks to make them a +nicey pink—only some of it <em>would</em> sticky her +dress—I didn’t mean to.”</p> +<p>“How would you like some jam rubbed on your cheeks, +sir?” said Mrs. Norton, who could scarcely help laughing at +poor Katie’s appearance when nurse handed the doll to her. +“Suppose you leave Milly’s dolls alone for the future; +but cheer up, Milly! I think I can make Katie very nearly right +again. Come upstairs to my room and we’ll try.”</p> +<p>After a good deal of sponging and rubbing, and careful drying by +the kitchen fire, Katie came very nearly right again, and then Mrs. +Norton tried whether some lessons would drive the rain out of the +children’s heads. But the lessons did not go well. It was all +Milly could do to help crying every time she got a figure wrong in +her sum, and Olly took about ten minutes to read two lines of his +reading-book. Olly had just begun his sums, and Milly was standing +up to say some poetry to her mother, looking a woebegone little +figure, with pale cheeks and heavy eyes, when suddenly there was a +noise of wheels outside, and both the children turned to look out +of the window.</p> +<p>“A carriage! a carriage!” shouted Olly, jumping +down, and running to the window.</p> +<p>There, indeed, was one of the shut-up “cars,” as the +Westmoreland people call them, coming up the Ravensnest drive.</p> +<p>“It’s Aunt Emma,” said Mrs. Norton, starting +up, “how good of her to come over on such a day. Run, +children, and open the front door.”</p> +<p>Down flew Milly and Olly, tumbling over one another in their +hurry; but father had already thrown the door open, and who should +they see stepping down the carriage-steps but Aunt Emma herself, +with her soft gray hair shining under her veil, and her dear kind +face as gentle and cheery as ever.</p> +<p>“Aunt Emma! Aunt Emma!” shouted Olly, dancing up to +her, and throwing his arms round her, “<em>are</em> you come +to tell us about old Mother Quiverquake?”</p> +<p>“You gipsy, don’t strangle me! Well, Lucy dear, here +I am. Will you have me to dinner? I thought we’d all be +company for each other this bad day. Why, Milly, what have you been +doing to your cheeks?”</p> +<p>“She’s been crying,” said Olly, in spite of +Milly’s pulling him by the sleeve to be quiet, “because +I stickened her doll.”</p> +<p>“Well, and quite right too. Dolls weren’t made to be +stickied. But now, who’s going to carry my bag upstairs? Take +it gently, Milly, it’s got my cap inside, and if you crumple +my cap I shall have to sit with my head in a bandbox at dinner. Old +ladies are <em>never</em> seen without their caps you know. The +most dreadful things would happen if they were! Olly, you may put +my umbrella away. There now, I’ll go to mother’s room +and take off my things.”</p> +<h2><a id="Chapter7" name="Chapter7">CHAPTER VII</a></h2> +<h3>A Story-Telling Game</h3> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>When Aunt Emma was safely settled, cap and all, in one of the +drawing-room arm-chairs, it seemed to the children as if the rain +and the gray sky did not matter nearly so much as they had done +half an hour before. In the first place, her coming made something +new and interesting to think about; and in the second place, they +felt quite sure that Aunt Emma hadn’t brought her little +black bag into the drawing-room with her for nothing. If only her +cap had been in it, why of course she would have left it in +mother’s bedroom. But here it was in her lap, with her two +hands folded tight over it, as if it contained something precious! +How very puzzling and interesting!</p> +<p>However, for a long time it seemed as if Aunt Emma had nothing +at all to say about her bag. She began to tell them about her +drive—how in two places the horse had to go splashing through +the water, and how once, when they were crossing a little river +that ran across the road, the water came so far up the wheels that +“I put my head out of the window,” said Aunt Emma, +“and said to my old coachman, ‘Now, John, if it’s +going to get any deeper than this, you’d better turn him +round and go home, for I’m an old woman, not a fish, and I +can’t swim. Of course, if the horse can swim with the +carriage behind him it’s all right, but I have my +doubts.’ Now John, my dears, has been with me a great many +years, and he knows very well that I’m rather a nervous old +woman. It’s very sad, but it is so. Don’t you be +nervous when you’re old people. So all he said was ‘All +right, ma’am. Bless you, he can swim like a trout.’ And +crack went the whip, splash went the water! It seemed to me it was +just going to come in under the door, when, lo and behold! there we +were safe and sound on dry ground again. But whether my old horse +swam through or walked through I can’t tell you. I like to +believe he swam, because I’m so fond of him, and one likes to +believe the creatures one loves can do clever things.”</p> +<p>“I’ll ask John when he comes to take you away, Aunt +Emma,” said Olly. “I don’t believe horses can +swim when they’re in a carriage.”</p> +<p>“You’re a matter-of-fact monkey,” said Aunt +Emma. “Dear me, what’s that?”</p> +<p>For a loud squeak had suddenly startled the children, who were +now looking about them everywhere in vain, to find out where it +came from. Squeak! again. This time the voice certainly came from +near Aunt Emma’s chair, but there was nothing to be seen.</p> +<p>“What a strange house you live in,” said Aunt Emma, +with a perfectly grave face. “You must have caught a magician +somehow. That’s a magician’s squeak.”</p> +<p>Again came the noise!</p> +<p>“I know, I know!” shouted Olly. “It’s +Aunt Emma’s bag! I’m sure it came out of the +bag.”</p> +<p>“My bag!”—holding it up and looking at it. +“Now does it look like a bag that squeaks? It’s a +perfectly well-behaved bag, and never did such a thing in its +life.”</p> +<p>“I know, Aunt Emma,” said Olly, dancing round her in +great excitement. “You’ve got the parrot in +there!”</p> +<p>“Well now,” said Aunt Emma. “This is really +serious. If you think I am such a cruel old woman as to shut up a +poor poll-parrot in a bag, there’s no help for it, we must +open the bag. But it’s a very curious bag—I +wouldn’t stand too near it if I were you.”</p> +<p>Click! went the fastening of the bag, and out jumped—what +do you think? Why, the very biggest frog that was ever seen, in +this part of the world at any rate, a green speckled frog, that +hopped on to Aunt Emma’s knee, and then on to the floor, +where it went hopping and squeaking along the carpet, till all of a +sudden, when it got to the door, it turned over on its back, and +lay there quite quiet with its legs in the air.</p> +<p>The children followed it with looks half of horror, half of +amazement.</p> +<p>“What is it, Aunt Emma? Is it alive?” asked Milly, +jumping on to a chair as the frog came near her, and drawing her +little skirts tight round her legs, while Olly went cautiously +after it, with his hands on his knees, one step at a time.</p> +<p>“You’d better ask it,” said Aunt Emma, who had +at last begun to laugh a little, as if it was impossible to keep +grave any longer. “I’m sure it looks very peaceable +just now, poor thing.”</p> +<p>So the children crept up to it, and examined it closely. Yes, it +was a green speckled frog, but what it was made of, and whether it +was alive, and if it was not alive how it managed to hop and +squeak—these were the puzzles.</p> +<p>“Take hold of it, Milly,” said Mr. Norton, who had +just come up from his work, and was standing laughing near the +door. “Turn it over on its legs again.”</p> +<p>“No, I’ll turn it,” cried Olly, making a dash, +and turning it over in a great hurry, keeping his legs and feet +well out of the way. Hop! squeak! there it was off again, right +down the room with the children after it, till it suddenly came up +against a table leg, and once more turned over on its back and lay +quite still.</p> +<p>“Oh, Aunt Emma, is it a toy?” asked Milly, who now +felt brave enough to take it up and look at it.</p> +<p>“Well, Milly, I believe so—a very lively one. Bring +it here, and I’ll tell you something about it.”</p> +<p>So the children brought it very cautiously, as if they were not +quite sure what it would do next, and then Aunt Emma explained to +them that she had once paid a visit to a shop in London where +Japanese toys—toys made in the country of Japan—far +away on the other side of the world—were sold, and that there +she found master froggy.</p> +<p>“And there never was such a toy as froggy for a wet +day,” said Aunt Emma. “I have tried him on all sorts of +boys and girls, and he never fails. He’s as good a cure for a +cross face as a poultice is for a sore finger. But, Milly, listen! +I declare there’s something else going on in my bag. I really +think, my dear bag, you might be quiet now that you have got rid of +froggy! What can all this chattering be about? Sh! sh!” and +Aunt Emma held up her finger at the children, while she held the +bag up to her ear, and listened carefully. Olly was almost beside +himself with excitement, but Milly had got his little brown hands +tight in hers for fear he should make a jump at the bag. +“Yes,” said Aunt Emma. “It’s just as I +thought. The bag declares it’s not his fault at all, but that +if I will give him such noisy creatures to carry I must take the +consequences. He says there’s a whole family now inside him, +making such a noise he can hardly hear himself speak. It’s +enough, he says, to drive a respectable bag mad, and he must blow +up if it goes on. Dear me! I must look into this. Milly, come +here!”</p> +<p>Milly came near, and Aunt Emma opened the bag solemnly.</p> +<p>“Now, Milly, I’ll hold it for fear it should take it +into its poor head to blow up, and you put your hand in and see +what you can find.”</p> +<p>So Milly put her hand in, feeling a good deal excited as to what +might happen—and what do you think she brought out? A whole +handful of the most delicious dolls:—cardboard dolls of all +sorts and kinds, like those in mother’s drawer at home; paper +dolls, mamma dolls, little boy dolls and little girl dolls, baby +dolls and nurse dolls; dolls in suits and dolls in frocks; dolls in +hats and dolls in nightgowns; a papa in trousers and a mamma in a +magnificent blue dress with flounces and a train; a nurse in white +cap and apron and the most bewitching baby doll you ever saw, with +a frilled paper cap that slipped on and off, and a white frock with +pink ribbons. And the best of these dolls was, that each of them +had a piece of cardboard fastened on behind and a little bit of +cardboard to stand on, so that when you spread out the piece behind +they stood up as naturally as possible, and looked as if they were +going to talk to you.</p> +<p>“Oh, Aunt Emma, dear Aunt Emma!” cried Milly, beside +herself with delight as she spread them all out in her lap. +“They’re just like mother’s at home, +mother’s that you made for her when she was a little +girl—only ever so many more.”</p> +<p>“Well, Milly, I made mother’s for her long ago, when +it rained for days and days without stopping, and she had grown +tired of pretty nearly everything and everybody indoors; and now I +have been spending part of these rainy days in making a new set for +mother’s little girl. There, dear little woman, I think you +must have given me a kiss for each of them by this time. Suppose +you try and make them stand up.”</p> +<p>“But, Aunt Emma,” said Olly, who was busy examining +the mysterious bag—how could the dolls talk? they’re +only paper.”</p> +<p>“I know nothing about it,” answered Aunt Emma, +rescuing the bag, and putting it safely under her chair. “You +<em>might</em> ask the bag—but it wouldn’t answer you. +Magical bags never do talk except to their masters or +mistresses.”</p> +<p>So Olly had to puzzle it out for himself while he played with +the Japanese frog. That was an extraordinary frog! You should have +seen nurse’s start when Olly hid himself in the passage and +sent the frog hopping and squeaking through the open door of the +night nursery, where nurse was sitting sewing; and as for cook, +when the creature came flopping over her kitchen floor she very +nearly spoilt the hash she was making for dinner by dropping a +whole pepper-box into the middle of it! There was no end to the fun +to be got out of froggy, and Olly amused himself with it the whole +of the morning, while Milly went through long stories with her +dolls upstairs, helped every now and then by Aunt Emma, who sat +knitting and talking to mother.</p> +<p>At dinner the children had to sit quiet while Mr. and Mrs. +Norton and Aunt Emma talked. Father and mother had been almost as +much cheered up by Aunt Emma’s coming as the children +themselves, and now the dinner-table was lively with pleasant talk; +talk about books, and talk about pictures, and talk about foreign +places, and talk about the mountains and the people living near +Ravensnest, many of whom mother had known when she was a little +girl. Milly, who was old enough to listen, could only understand a +little bit here and there; but there was always Aunt Emma’s +friendly gentle face to look at, and her soft old hand in its black +mitten, to slip her own little fingers into; while Olly was so +taken up with the prospects of the black-currant pudding which he +had seen cook making in the morning, and the delight of it when it +came, that it seemed no trouble to him to sit still.</p> +<p>As for the rain, there was not much difference. Perhaps there +were a few breaks in the clouds, and it might be beating a little +less heavily on the glass conservatory outside the dining-room, +still, on the whole, the weather was much the same as it had been. +It was wonderful to see how little notice the children had taken of +it since Aunt Emma came, and when they escorted her upstairs after +dinner, they quite forgot to rush to the window and look out, as +they had been doing the last three days at every possible +opportunity.</p> +<p>The children got her safe into a chair, and then Olly brought a +stool to one side of her, and Milly brought a stool to the +other.</p> +<p>“<em>Now,</em> can you remember about old Mother +Quiverquake?” said Olly, resting his little sunburnt chin on +Aunt Emma’s knee, and looking up to her with eager eyes.</p> +<div class="figure"><a href="images/illus6.png"><img src= +"images/illus6.png" id="illus6" name="illus6" alt= +"“‘Suppose we have a story-telling game’”" +width="100%" /></a> +<p>“‘Suppose we have a story-telling +game’”</p> +</div> +<p>“Well, I daresay I shall begin to remember about her +presently; but suppose, children, we have a <em>story-telling +game</em>. We’ll tell stories—you and Olly, father, +mother, and everybody. That’s much fairer than that one +person should do all the telling.”</p> +<p>“We couldn’t,” said Milly, shaking her head +gravely, “we are only little children. Little children +can’t make up stories.”</p> +<p>“Suppose little children try,” said mother. “I +think Aunt Emma’s is an excellent plan. Now, father, +you’ll have to tell one too.”</p> +<p>“Father’s lazy,” said Mr. Norton, coming out +from behind his newspaper. “But, perhaps, if you all of you +tell very exciting stories you may stir him up.”</p> +<p>“Oh, father!” cried Olly, who had a vivid +remembrance of his father’s stories, though they only came +very seldom, “tell us about the rat with three tails, and the +dog that walked on its nose.”</p> +<p>“Oh dear, no!” said Mr. Norton, “those +won’t do for such a grand story-telling as this. I must think +of some story which is all long words and good children.”</p> +<p>“<em>Don’t</em> father,” said Milly, +imploringly, “it’s ever so much nicer when they get +into scrapes, you know, and tumble down, and all that.”</p> +<p>“Who’s to begin?” said Aunt Emma. “I +think mother had better begin. Afterwards it will be your turn, +Olly; then father, then Milly, and then me.”</p> +<p>“I don’t believe I’ve got a scrap of a story +in my head,” said Mrs. Norton. “It’s weeks since +I caught one last.”</p> +<p>“Then look here, Olly,” said Aunt Emma, +“I’ll tell you what to do. Go up gently behind mother, +and kiss her three times on the top of the head. That’s the +way to send the stories in. Mother will soon begin to feel one +fidgeting inside her head after that.”</p> +<p>So Olly went gently up behind his mother, climbed on a stool at +the back of her chair, and kissed her softly three times at the +back of her head. Mrs. Norton lay still for a few moments after the +kisses, with closed eyes.</p> +<p>“Ah!” she said at last. “Now I think +I’ve caught one. But it’s a very little one, poor +little thing. And yet, strange to say, though it’s very +little, it’s very old. Now, children, you must be kind to my +story. I caught him first a great many years ago in an old book, +but I am afraid you will hardly care for him as much as I did. +Well, once upon a time there was a great king.”</p> +<p>“Was it King Arthur, mother?” interrupted Olly, +eagerly.</p> +<p>“Oh no! this king lived in a different country altogether. +He lived in a beautiful hot country over the sea, called +Spain.”</p> +<p>“Oh, mother! a <em>hot</em> country!” protested +Milly, “that’s where the rain goes to.”</p> +<p>“Well, Milly, I don’t think you know any more about +it, except that you <em>tell</em> the rain to go there. Don’t +you know by this time that the rain never does what it’s +told? Really, very little rain goes to Spain, and in some parts of +the country the people would be very glad indeed if we could send +them some of the rain we don’t want at Ravensnest. But now, +you mustn’t interrupt me, or I shall forget my +story—Well there was once a king who lived in a <em>very</em> +hot part of Spain, where they don’t have much rain, and where +it hardly ever snows or freezes. And this king had a beautiful +wife, whom he loved very much. But, unluckily, this beautiful wife +had one great fault. She was always wishing for the most +unreasonable and impossible things, and though the king was always +trying to get her what she wanted she was never satisfied, and +every day she seemed to grow more and more discontented and +exacting. At last, one day in the winter, a most extraordinary +thing happened. A shower of snow fell in Cordova, which was the +name of the town where the king and queen lived, and it whitened +the hills all around the town, so that they looked as if somebody +had been dusting white sugar over them. Now snow was hardly ever +seen in Cordova, and the people in the town wondered at it, and +talked about it a great deal. But after she had looked at it a +little-while the queen began to cry bitterly. None of her ladies +could comfort her, nor would she tell any of them what was the +matter. There she sat at her window, weeping, till the king came to +see her. When he came he could not imagine what she was crying +about, and begged her to tell him why. ‘I am weeping,’ +she said, sobbing all the time, ‘because the hills—are +not always—covered with snow. See how pretty they look! And +yet—I have never, till now, seen them look like that. If you +really loved me, you would manage some way or other that it should +snow once a year at any rate.’</p> +<p>“‘But how can I make it snow?’ cried the king +in great trouble, because she would go on weeping and weeping, and +spoiling her pretty eyes.</p> +<p>“‘I’m sure I don’t know,’ said the +queen, crossly, ‘but you can’t love me a bit, or +you’d certainly try.’</p> +<p>“Well, the king thought and thought, and at last he hit +upon a beautiful plan. He sent into all parts of Spain to buy +almond trees, and planted them on the hills all round the town. Now +the almond tree, as you know, has a lovely pinky-white blossom, so +when the next spring arrived all these thousands of almond trees +came out into bloom all over the hills round Cordova, so that they +looked at a distance as if they were covered with white snow. And +for once the queen was delighted, and could not help saying a nice +‘Thank you’ to the king for all the trouble he had +taken to please her. But it was not very long before she grew +discontented again, and began once more to wish for all kinds of +ridiculous things. One day she was sitting at her window, and she +saw some ragged little children playing by the river that ran round +the palace. They were dabbling in the mud at the side, sticking +their little bare feet into it, or scooping up pieces which they +rolled into balls and threw at one another. The queen watched them +for some time, and at last she began to weep bitterly. One of her +maidens ran and told the king that the queen was weeping, and he +came in a great hurry to see what was the matter.</p> +<p>“‘Just look at those children down there!’ +said the queen, sobbing and pointing to them. ‘Did you ever +see anybody so happy? Why can’t I have mud to dabble in too, +and why can’t I take off my shoes and stockings, and amuse +myself like the children do, instead of being so dull and stuck-up +all day long?’</p> +<p>“‘Because it isn’t proper for queens to dabble +in the mud,’ said the poor king in great perplexity, for he +didn’t at all like the idea of his beautiful queen dabbling +in the mud with the little ragged children.</p> +<p>“‘That’s just like you,’ said the queen, +beginning to cry faster than ever,’ you never do anything to +please me. What’s the good of being proper? What’s the +good of being a queen at all?’</p> +<p>“This made the king very unhappy, and again he thought and +thought, till at last he hit upon a plan. He ordered a very large +shallow bath of white marble to be made in the palace-garden. Then +he poured into it all kinds of precious stones, and chips of +sweet-smelling wood, besides a thousand cartloads of rose-leaves +and a thousand cartloads of orange flowers. All these he ordered to +be stirred up together with a great ivory spoon, till they made a +kind of wonderful mud, and then he had the bath filled up with +scented water.</p> +<p>“‘Now then,’ he said to the queen, when he had +brought her down to look at it, ‘you may take off your shoes +and stockings and paddle about in this mud as much as you +like.’ You may imagine that this was a very pleasant kind of +mud to dabble in, and the queen and her ladies amused themselves +with it immensely for some time. But nothing could keep this +tiresome queen amused for long together, and in about a fortnight +she had grown quite tired of her wonderful bath. It seemed as if +the king’s pains had been all thrown away. She grew cross and +discontented again, and her ladies began to say to each other, +‘What will she wish for next, I wonder? The king might as +well try to drink up the sea as try to get her all she +wants.’ At last, one day, when she and her ladies were +walking near the palace, they met a shepherdess driving a flock of +sheep up into the hills. The shepherdess looked so pretty and +bright in her red petticoat and tall yellow cap, that the queen +stopped to speak to her.</p> +<p>“‘Where are you going, pretty maiden, with your +woolly white sheep?’ she asked.</p> +<p>“‘I am going up to the hills,’ said the +shepherdess. ‘Now the sun has scorched up the fields down +below we must take our sheep up to the cool hills, where the grass +is still fresh and green. Good-day, good-day, the sheep are going +so fast I cannot wait.’ So on she tripped, singing and +calling to her sheep, who came every now and then to rub their soft +coats against her, as if they loved her. The queen looked after +her, and her face began to pucker up.</p> +<p>“‘Why am I not a shepherdess?’ she exclaimed, +bursting into tears. ‘I <em>hate</em> being a queen! I never +sang as merrily as that little maiden in all my life. I must and +will be a shepherdess, and drive sheep up into the mountain, or I +shall die!”</p> +<p>“And all that night the foolish queen sat at her window +crying, and when the morning came she had made herself look quite +old and ugly. When the king came to see her he was dreadfully +troubled, and begged her to tell him what was the matter now.</p> +<p>“‘I want to be a shepherdess, and drive sheep up +into the mountains,’ sobbed the queen. ‘Why should the +little shepherdess girls look always so happy and merry, while I am +dying of dulness?’</p> +<p>“The king thought it was very unkind of her to say she was +dying of dulness when he had taken so much trouble to get her all +she wanted; but he knew it was no good talking to her while she was +in such a temper. So all he said was:</p> +<p>“‘How can I turn you into a shepherdess? These +shepherdesses stay out all night with their sheep on the hills, and +live on water and a crust of bread. How would you like +that?’</p> +<p>“‘Of course I-should like it,’ said the queen, +‘anything for a change. Besides, nothing could be nicer than +staying out of doors these lovely nights. And as for food, you know +very well that I am never hungry here, and that it doesn’t +matter in the least to me what I eat!’</p> +<p>“‘Well,’ said the king, ‘you shall go up +to the hills, if you promise to take your ladies with you, and if +you will let me send a tent to shelter you at night, and some +servants to look after you.’</p> +<p>“‘As if that would give me any pleasure!’ said +the queen, ‘to be followed about and waited upon is just what +I detest. I will go alone; just like that pretty little +shepherdess, if I go at all.’</p> +<p>“But the king declared that nothing would induce him to +let her go alone. So the queen set to work to cry, and she cried +for two days and two nights without stopping, and at the end of +that time the poor king was ready to let her go anywhere or do +anything for the sake of a little peace.</p> +<p>“So she had her own way. They found her a flock of the +loveliest white sheep, all with blue ribbons round their necks, and +blue rosettes on their little white tails; and the queen dressed +herself up in a red silk petticoat and a cap embroidered in gold +and silver, and then she set out by herself.</p> +<p>“At first it was all delightful. She drove the sheep up +the soft green hillsides, and laughed with delight to see them +nibbling the fresh grass, and running hither and thither after her, +and after each other. The evening sun shone brightly, and she sat +herself down on a rock and sang all the tunes she knew, that she +might be just like the little shepherdess. But while she was +singing the sheep strayed away, and she had to run after them as +fast as she could, to catch them up. This made her hot and tired, +so she tried to make them lie down under a chestnut tree, that she +might rest beside them. But the sheep were not a bit tired, and had +no mind to rest at all. While she was calling one set of them +together the other set ran scampering off, and the queen found out +that she must just give up her way for once and follow theirs. On +went the sheep, up hill and down dale, nibbling and frisking and +trotting to their hearts’ content, till the queen was worn +out.</p> +<p>“At last, by the time the sun was setting, the poor queen +was so tired that she could walk no longer. Down she sat, and the +ungrateful sheep kicked up their little hind legs and trotted away +out of sight as fast as they could trot. There she was left on the +hillside all alone. It began to get dark, and the sky, instead of +being blue and clear as it had been, filled with black clouds.</p> +<p>“‘Oh dear! oh dear!’ sighed the queen, +‘here is a storm coming. If I could only find my way down the +hill, if I could only see the town!’</p> +<p>“But there were trees all about her, which hid the view, +and soon it was so dark there was nothing to be seen, not even the +stars. And presently, crash came the thunder, and after the thunder +the rain—such rain! It soaked the queen’s golden cap +till it was so heavy with water she was obliged to throw it away, +and her silk petticoat was as wet as if she had been taking a bath +in it. In vain she ran hither and thither, trying to find a way +through the trees, while the rain blinded her, and the thunder +deafened her, till at last she was forced to sink down on the +ground, feeling more wretched and frightened and cold than any +queen ever felt before. Oh, if she were only safe back in her +beautiful palace! If only she had the tent the king wanted to send +with her! But there all night she had to stay, and all night the +storm went on, till the queen was lying in a flood, and the owls +and bats, startled out of their holes, went flying past her in the +dark, and frightening her out of her senses. When the morning came +there was such a shivering, crumpled up queen sitting on the grass, +that even her own ladies would scarcely have known her.</p> +<p>“‘Oh, husband! husband!’ she cried, getting up +and wringing her cold little hands. ‘You will never find me, +and your poor wicked wife will die of cold and hunger.’</p> +<p>“Tirra-lirra! tirra-lirra! What was that sounding in the +forest? Surely—surely—it was a hunting horn. But who +could be blowing it so early in the cold gray morning, when it was +scarcely light? On ran the queen toward where the sound came from. +Over rocks and grass she ran, till, all of a sudden, stepping out +from behind a tree, came the king himself, who had been looking for +her for hours. And then what do you think the discontented queen +did? She folded her hands, and hung her head, and said, quite sadly +and simply:</p> +<p>“‘Oh, my lord king, make me a shepherdess really. I +don’t deserve to be a queen. Send me away, and let me knit +and spin for my living. I have plagued you long enough.’</p> +<p>“And suddenly it seemed to the king as if there had been a +black speck in the queen’s heart, which had been all washed +away by the rain; and he took her hands, and led her home to the +palace in joy and gladness. And so they lived happy ever +afterward.”</p> +<p>“Thank you <em>very</em> much, mother,” said Milly, +stretching up her arms and drawing down Mrs. Norton’s face to +kiss her. “Do you really think the queen was never +discontented any more?”</p> +<p>“I can’t tell you any more than the story +does,” said Mrs. Norton. “You see there would always be +that dreadful night to think about, if she ever felt inclined to +be; but I daresay the queen didn’t find it very easy at +first.”</p> +<p>“I would have made her be a shepherdess,” said Olly, +shaking his head gravely. “She wasn’t nice, not a +bit.”</p> +<p>“Little Mr. Severity!” said Aunt Emma, pulling his +brown curls. “It’s your turn next, Olly.”</p> +<p>“Then Milly must kiss me first,” said Olly, looking +rather scared, as if something he didn’t quite understand was +going to happen to him.</p> +<p>So Milly went through the operation of kissing him three times +on the back of the head, and then Olly’s eyes, finding it did +no good to stare at Aunt Emma or mother, went wandering all round +the room in search of something else to help him. Suddenly they +came to the window, where a brown speck was dancing up and down, +and then Olly’s face brightened, and he began in a great +hurry:</p> +<p>“Once upon a time there was a +daddy-long-legs—”</p> +<p>“Well,” said Milly, when they had waited a little +while, and nothing more came.</p> +<p>“I don’t know any more,” said Olly.</p> +<p>“Oh, that <em>is</em> silly,” said Milly, +“why, that isn’t a story at all. Shut your eyes tight, +that’s much the best way of making a story.”</p> +<p>So Olly shut his eyes, and pressed his two hands tightly over +them, and then he began again:</p> +<p>“Once upon a time there was a +daddy-long-legs—”</p> +<p>Another stop.</p> +<p>“Was it a <em>good</em> daddy-long-legs?” asked +Milly, anxious to help him on.</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Olly, “that’s it, Milly. +Once upon a time there was a good daddy-long-legs—”</p> +<p>“Well, what did he do?” asked Milly, +impatiently.</p> +<p>“He—he—flewed on to father’s +nose!” said Olly, keeping his hands tight over his eyes, +while his little white teeth appeared below in a broad grin.</p> +<p>“And father said, ‘Who’s that on my +nose?’ and the daddy-long-legs said, ‘It’s me, +don’t you know?’ And father said, ‘Get away off +my nose, I don’t like you a bit.’ And the +daddy-long-legs said, ‘I shan’t go away. It’s hot +on the window, the sun gets in my eyes. I like sitting up here +best.’ So father took a big sofa-cushion and gave his nose +<em>ever</em> such a bang! And the daddy-long-legs tumbled down +dead. And the cushion tumbled down dead. And father tumbled down +dead. And that’s all,” said Olly opening his eyes, and +looking extremely proud of himself.</p> +<p>“Oh, you silly boy!” cried Milly, “that +isn’t a bit like a real story.”</p> +<p>But Aunt Emma and father and mother laughed a good deal at +Olly’s story, and Aunt Emma said it would do very well for +such a small boy.</p> +<p>Whose turn was it next?</p> +<p>“Father’s turn! father’s turn!” cried +the children, in great glee, looking round for him; but while +Olly’s story had been going on, Mr. Norton, who was sitting +behind them in a big arm-chair, had been covering himself up with +sofa cushions and newspapers, till there was only the tip of one of +his boots to be seen, coming out from under the heap. The children +were a long time dragging him out, for he pelted them with +cushions, and crumpled the newspapers over their heads, till they +were so tired with laughing and struggling they had no strength +left.</p> +<p>“Father, it isn’t fair, I don’t think,” +said Milly at last, sitting a breathless heap on the floor. +“Of course little people can’t <em>make</em> big people +do things, so the big people ought to do them without +making.”</p> +<p>“That’s not at all good reasoning, Milly,” +said Mr. Norton, who could not resist the temptation of throwing +one more sofa cushion at her laughing face. “You can’t +<em>make</em> nurse stand on her head, but that’s no reason +why nurse should stand on her head.”</p> +<p>Just then Olly, moving up a stool behind his father’s +chair, brought his little mouth suddenly down on his father’s +head, and gave him three kisses in a great hurry, with a shout of +triumph at the end.</p> +<p>“Dear me!” said Mr. Norton, shutting his eyes and +falling back as if something had happened to him. “This is +very serious. Aunt Emma, that spell of yours is really <em>too</em> +strong. My poor head! It will certainly burst if I don’t get +this story out directly! Come, jump up, +children—quick!”</p> +<p>Up jumped the children, one on each knee, and Mr. Norton began +at once.</p> +<h2><a id="Chapter8" name="Chapter8">CHAPTER VIII</a></h2> +<h3>The Story of Beowulf</h3> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>Once upon a time there was a great—”</p> +<p>“Father,” interrupted Milly, “I shall soon be +getting tired of ‘Once upon a time there was a great +king.’”</p> +<p>“Don’t cry till you’re hurt, Milly; which +means, wait till I get to the end of my sentence. Well, once upon a +time there was a great—hero.”</p> +<p>“What is a hero?” asked Olly.</p> +<p>“I know,” said Milly, eagerly, “it’s a +brave man that’s always fighting and killing giants and +dragons and cruel people.”</p> +<p>“That’ll do to begin with,” said Mr. Norton, +“though, when you grow older, you will find that people can +be heroes without fighting or killing. However, the man I am going +to tell you about was just the kind of hero you’re thinking +of, Milly. He loved fighting with giants and dragons and wild +people, and my story is going to be about two of his +fights—the greatest he ever fought. The name of this hero was +Beowulf, and he lived in a country called Sweden (Milly knows all +about Sweden, Olly, and you must get her to show it you on the +map), with a number of other brave men who were his friends, and +helped him in his battles. And one day a messenger came over the +sea from another country close by, called Denmark, and the +messenger said, ‘Which of all you brave men will come over +and help my master, King Hrothgar, who is in sore trouble?’ +And the messenger told them how Hrothgar, for many years past, had +been plagued by a monster—the hateful monster +Grendel—half a man and half a beast, who lived at the bottom +of a great bog near the king’s palace. Every night, he said, +Grendel the monster came out of the bog with his horrible mother +beside him—a wolf-like creature, fearful to look +upon—and he and she would roam about the country, killing and +slaying all whom they met. Sometimes they would come stalking to +the king’s palace, where his brave men were sleeping round +the fire in the big hall, and before anyone could withstand him +Grendel would fall upon the king’s warriors, kill them by +tens and twenties, and carry off their dead bodies to his bog. Many +a brave man had tried to slay the monster, but none had been able +so much as to wound him.</p> +<p>“When Beowulf and his friends had heard this story they +thought a while, and then each said to the other, ‘Let us go +across the sea and rid King Hrothgar of this monster.’ So +they took ship and went across the sea to Hrothgar’s country, +and Hrothgar welcomed them royally, and made a great feast in their +honour. And after the feast Hrothgar said to Beowulf, ‘Now, I +give over to you the hall of my palace, that you may guard it +against the monster.’ So Beowulf and the brave men who had +come over with him made a great fire in the hall, and they all lay +down to sleep beside it. You may imagine that they did not find it +very easy to get to sleep, and some of them thought as they lay +there that very likely they should never see their homes in Sweden +again. But they were tired with journeying and feasting, and one +after another they all fell asleep. Then in the dead of the night, +when all was still, Grendel rose up out of the bog, and came +stalking over the moor to the palace. His eyes flamed with a kind +of horrible light in the darkness, and his steps seemed to shake +the earth; but those inside the palace were sleeping so heavily +that they heard nothing, not even when Grendel burst open the door +of the hall and came in among them. Before anyone had wakened, the +monster had seized one of the sleeping men and torn him to pieces. +Then he came to Beowulf; but Beowulf sprang up out of his sleep and +laid hold upon him boldly. He used no sword to strike him, for +there was no sword which men could make was strong enough to hurt +Grendel; but he seized him with his strong hands, and the two +struggled together in the palace. And they fought till the benches +were torn from the walls, and everything in the hall was smashed +and broken. The brave men, springing up all round, seized their +swords and would gladly have helped their lord, but there was no +one but Beowulf could harm Grendel.</p> +<p>“So they fought, till at last Beowulf tore away +Grendel’s hand and arm, and the monster fled away howling +into the darkness. Over the moor he rushed till he came to his bog, +and there he sank down into the middle of the bog, wailing and +shrieking like one whose last hour was come. Then there was great +rejoicing at Heorot, the palace, and King Hrothgar, when he saw +Grendel’s hand which Beowulf had torn away, embraced him and +blessed him, and he and all his friends were laden with splendid +gifts.</p> +<p>“But all was not over yet. When the next night came, and +Hrothgar’s men and Beowulf’s men were asleep together +in the great hall, Grendel’s horrible mother, half a woman +and half a wolf, came rushing to the palace and while they were all +asleep she carried off one of Hrothgar’s dearest +friends—a young noble whom he loved best of all his nobles. +And she killed him, and carried his body back to the bog. Then the +next morning there was grief and weeping in Heorot; but Beowulf +said to the king, ‘Grieve not, O king! till we have found out +Grendel’s mother and punished her for her evil deeds. I +promise you she shall give an account for this. She shall not be +able to hide herself in the water, nor under the earth, nor in the +forest, nor at the bottom of the sea; let her go where she will, I +will find a way after her.’</p> +<p>“So Beowulf and his friends put on their armour and +mounted their horses, and set out to look for her. And when they +had ridden a long and weary way over steep lonely paths and past +caves where dragons and serpents lived, they came at last to +Grendel’s bog—a fearful place indeed. There in the +middle of it lay a pool of black water, and over the water hung +withered trees, which seemed as if they had been poisoned by the +air rising from the water beneath them. No bird or beast would ever +come near Grendel’s pool. If the hounds were hunting a stag, +and they drove him down to the edge, he would sooner let them tear +him to pieces than hide himself in the water. And every night the +black water seemed to burn and flame, and it hissed and bubbled and +groaned as if there were evil creatures tossing underneath. And now +when Beowulf and his men came near it, they saw fierce water +dragons lying near the edge or swimming about the pool. There also, +beside the water, they found the dead body of Hrothgar’s +friend, who had been killed by Grendel’s mother, and they +took it up, and mourned over him afresh.</p> +<p>“But Beowulf took an old and splendid sword that Hrothgar +had given him, and he put on his golden helmet and his iron war +shirt that no sword could cut through, and when he had bade his +friends farewell he leapt straight into the middle of the bog. Down +he sank, deeper and deeper into the water, among strange water +beasts that struck at him with their tusks as he passed them, till +at last Grendel’s mother, the water-wolf, looked up from the +bottom and saw him coming. Then she sprang upon him, and seized +him, and dragged him down, and he found himself in a sort of hall +under the water, with a pale strange light in it. And then he +turned from the horrible water-wolf and raised his sword and struck +her on the head; but his blow did her no harm. No sword made by +mortal men could harm Grendel or his mother; and as he struck her +Beowulf stumbled and fell. Then the water-wolf rushed forward and +sat upon him as he lay there, and raised aloft her own sharp dagger +to drive it into his breast; but Beowulf shook her off, and sprang +up, and there, on the wall, he saw hanging a strange old sword that +had been made in the old times, long, long ago, when the world was +full of giants. So he threw his own sword aside and took down the +old sword, and once more he smote the water-wolf. And this time his +sword did him good service, and Grendel’s fierce mother sank +down dead upon the ground.</p> +<p>“Then Beowulf looked round him, and he saw lying in a +corner the body of Grendel himself. He cut off the monster’s +head, and lo and behold! when he had cut it off the blade of the +old sword melted away, and there was nothing left in his hands but +the hilt, with strange letters on it, telling how it was made in +old days by the giants for a great king. So with that, and +Hrothgar’s sword and Grendel’s head, Beowulf rose up +again through the bog, and just as his brave men had begun to think +they should never see their dear lord more he came swimming to +land, bearing the great head with him.</p> +<p>“Then Hrothgar and all his people rejoiced greatly, for +they knew that the land would never more be troubled by these +hateful monsters, but that the ploughers might plough, and the +shepherds might lead their sheep, and brave men might sleep at +night, without fear any more of Grendel and his mother.”</p> +<p>“Oh, father!” said Milly, breathlessly, when he +stopped. “Is that all?”</p> +<p>But Olly sat quite still, without speaking, gazing at his father +with wide open brown eyes, and a face as grave and terrified as if +Grendel were actually beside him.</p> +<p>“That’s all for this time,” said Mr. Norton. +“Why, Olly, where are your little wits gone to? Did it +frighten you, old man?”</p> +<p>“Oh!” said Olly, drawing a long breath. “I did +think he would never have comed up out of that bog!”</p> +<p>“It was splendid,” said Milly. “But, father, I +don’t understand about that pool. Why didn’t Beowulf +get drowned when he went down under the water?”</p> +<p>“The story doesn’t tell us anything about +that,” said Mr. Norton. “But heroes in those days, +Milly, must have had something magical about them so that they were +able to do things that men and women can’t do now. Do you +know, children, that this story that you have been listening to is +more than a thousand years old? Can you fancy that?”</p> +<p>“No,” said Milly, shaking her head. “I +can’t fancy it a bit, father. It’s too long. It makes +me puzzled to think of so many years.”</p> +<p>“Years and years and years and <em>years</em>!” said +Olly. “When father’s grandfather was a little +boy.”</p> +<p>Mr. Norton laughed. “Can’t you think of anything +farther back than that, Olly? It would take a great many +grandfathers, and grandfathers’ grandfathers, to get back to +the time when the story of Beowulf was made. And here am I telling +it to you just in the same way as fathers used to tell it to their +children a thousand years ago.”</p> +<p>“I suppose the children liked it so, they wouldn’t +let their fathers forget it,” said Milly. “And then +when they grew up they told it to their children. I shall tell it +to my children when I grow up. I think I shall tell it to Katie +to-morrow.”</p> +<p>“Father,” said Olly, “did Beowulf +die—ever?”</p> +<p>“Yes. When he was quite an old man he had another great +fight with a dragon, who was guarding a cave full of golden +treasure on the sea-shore; and though he killed the dragon, the +dragon gave him a terrible wound, so that when his friends came to +look for him they found him lying all but dead in the cave. He was +just able to tell them to make a great mound of earth over him when +he was dead, on a high rock close by, that sailors might see it +from their ships and think of him when they saw it, and then he +died. And when he was dead they carried him up to the rock, and +there they burned his body, and then they built up a great high +mound of earth, and they put Beowulf’s bones inside, and all +the treasure from the dragon’s cave. They were ten days +building up the mound. Then when it was all done they rode around +it weeping and chanting sorrowful songs, and at last they left him +there, saying as they went away that never should they see so good +a king or so true a master any more. And for hundreds of years +afterwards, when the sailors out at sea saw the high mound rising +on its point of rock, they said one to another, ‘There is +Beowulf’s Mount,’ and they began to tell each other of +Beowulf’s brave deeds—how he lived and how he died, and +how he fought with Grendel and the wild sea dragons. There, now, I +have told you all I know about Beowulf,” said Mr. Norton, +getting up and turning the children off his knee, “and if it +isn’t somebody else’s turn now it ought to +be.”</p> +<p>“Aunt Emma! Aunt Emma!” shouted Olly, who was so +greedy for stories that he could almost listen all day long without +being tired.</p> +<p>But Aunt Emma only smiled through her spectacles and pointed to +the window. The children ran to look out, and they could hardly +believe their eyes when they saw that it had actually stopped +raining, and that over the tree-tops was a narrow strip of blue +sky, the first they had seen for three whole days.</p> +<p>“Oh you nice blue sky!” exclaimed Milly, dancing up +and down before the window with a beaming face. “Mind you +stay there and get bigger. We’ll get on our hats presently +and come out to look at you. Oh! there’s John Backhouse +coming down the hill with the dogs. Mother, may we go up ourselves +and ask Becky and Tiza to come to tea?”</p> +<p>“But Aunt Emma must tell us her story first,” +persisted Olly, who hated being cheated out of a story by anything +or anybody. “She promised.”</p> +<p>“You silly boy!” said Aunt Emma, “as if I was +going to keep you indoors listening to stories just now, when the +sun’s shining for the first time for three whole days. I +promised you my story on a wet day, and you shall have +it—never fear. There’ll be plenty more wet days before +you go away from Ravensnest, I’m afraid. There goes my +knitting, and mother’s putting away her work, and +father’s stretching himself—which means we’re all +going for a walk.”</p> +<p>“To fetch Becky and Tiza, mother?” asked Milly; and +when mother said “Yes, if you like,” the two children +raced off down the long passage to the nursery in the highest +possible spirits.</p> +<p>Soon they were all walking along the dripping drive past high +banks of wet fern, and under trees which threw down showers of +rain-drops at every puff of wind. And when they got into the road +beside the river the children shouted with glee to see their brown +shallow little river turned into a raging flood of water, which +went sweeping and hurrying through the fields, and every now and +then spreading itself over them and making great pools among the +poor drowned hay. They ran on to look for the stepping-stones, but +to their amazement there was not a stone to be seen. The water was +rushing over them with a great roar and swirl, and Milly shivered a +little bit when she remembered their bathe there a week before.</p> +<p>“Well, old woman,” said Mr. Norton, coming up to +them, “I don’t suppose you’d like, a bathe +to-day—quite.”</p> +<p>“If we were in there now,” said Olly, watching the +river with great excitement, “the water would push us down +krick! and the fishes would come and etten us all up.”</p> +<p>“They’d be a long time gobbling you up, Master +Fatty,” said his father. “Come, run along; it’s +too cold to stand about.”</p> +<p>But how brilliant and beautiful it was after the rain! Little +tiny trickling rivers were running down all the roads, and +sparkling in the sun; the wet leaves and grass were glittering, and +the great mountains all around stood up green and fresh against the +blue sky, as if the rain had washed the dust off them from top to +toe, and left them clean and bright. Two things only seemed the +worse for the rain—the hay and the wild strawberries. Milly +peered into all the banks along the road where she generally found +her favourite little red berries, but most of them were washed +away, and the few miserable things that were left tasted of nothing +but rain water. And as for the hay-fields, they looked so wet and +drenched that it was hard to believe any sunshine could ever dry +them.</p> +<p>“Poor John Backhouse!” said Aunt Emma; +“I’m afraid his hay is a good deal spoilt. Aren’t +you glad father’s not a farmer, Milly?”</p> +<p>“Why, Aunt Emma,” said Milly, “I’m +always wishing father <em>was</em> a farmer. I want to be like +Becky, and call the cows, and mind the baby all by myself. It must +be nice feeding the chickens, and making the hay, and taking the +milk around.”</p> +<p>“Yes, all that’s very nice, but how would you like +your hay washed away, and your corn beaten down, and your fruit all +spoilt? Those are things that are constantly happening to John +Backhouse, I expect, in the rainy country.”</p> +<p>“Yes, and it won’t always be summer,” said +Milly, considering. “I don’t think I should like to +stay in that little weeny house all the winter. Is it very cold +here in the winter, Aunt Emma?”</p> +<p>“Not very, generally. But last winter was very cold here, +and the snow lay on the ground for weeks and weeks. On Christmas +eve, do you know, Milly, I wanted to have a children’s party +in my kitchen, and what do you think I did? The snow was lying deep +on the roads, so I sent out two sledges.”</p> +<p>“What are sledges?” asked Olly.</p> +<p>“Carriages with the wheels taken off and two long pieces +of wood fastened on instead, so that they slip along smoothly over +the snow. And my old coachman drove one and my gardener the other, +and they went round all the farmhouses near by, and gathered up the +children, little and big, into the sledges, till the coachman had +got eight in his sledge, and the gardener had got nine in his, and +then they came trotting back with the bells round the horses’ +necks jingling and clattering, and two such merry loads of +rosy-faced children. I wish you had been there; I gave them tea in +the kitchen, and afterward we had a Christmas tree in the +drawing-room.”</p> +<p>“Oh what fun,” said Milly. “Why didn’t +you ask us too, Aunt Emma? We could have come quite well in the +train, you know. But how did the children get home?”</p> +<p>“We covered them up warm with rugs and blankets, and sent +them back in the sledges. And they looked so happy with their toys +and buns cuddled up in their arms, that it did one’s heart +good to see them.”</p> +<p>“Mind you ask us next time, Aunt Emma,” said Milly, +hanging round her neck coaxingly.</p> +<p>“Mind you get two pairs of wings by that time, +then,” said Aunt Emma, “for mother’s not likely +to let you come to my Christmas tree unless you promise to fly +there and back. But suppose, instead of your coming to me, I come +to you next Christmas?”</p> +<p>“Oh yes! yes!” cried Olly, who had just joined Aunt +Emma and Milly, “come to our Christmas tree, Aunt Emma. +We’ll give you ever such nice things—a ball and a top, +and a train—perhaps—and—”</p> +<p>“As if Aunt Emma would care for those kind of +things!” said Milly. “No, you shall give her some +muffetees, you know, to keep her hands warm, and I’ll make +her a needlebook. But, Aunt Emma, do listen! What can be the +matter?”</p> +<p>They were just climbing the little bit of steep road which led +to the farm, and suddenly they heard somebody roaring and +screaming, and then an angry voice scolding, and then a great +clatter, and then louder roaring than ever.</p> +<p>“What <em>is</em> the matter?” cried Milly, running +on to the farm door, which was open. But just as she got there, out +rushed a tattered little figure with a tear-stained face, and hair +flying behind.</p> +<p>“Tiza!” cried Milly, trying to stop her. But Tiza +ran past her as quick as lightning down the garden path towards the +cherry tree, and in another minute, in spite of the shower of wet +she shook down on herself as she climbed up, she was sitting high +and safe among the branches, where there was no catching her nor +even seeing her.</p> +<p>“Ay, that’s the best place for ye,” said Mrs. +Backhouse, appearing at the door with an angry face, +“you’ll not get into so much mischief there perhaps as +you will indoors. Oh, is that you, Miss Elliot (that was Aunt +Emma’s surname)? Walk in please, ma’am, though +you’ll find me sadly untidy this afternoon. Tiza’s been +at her tricks again; she keeps me sweeping up after her all day. +Just look here, if you please, ma’am.”</p> +<p>Aunt Emma went in, and the children pressed in after her, full +of curiosity to see what crime Tiza had been committing. Poor Mrs. +Backhouse! all over her clean kitchen floor there were streams of +water running about, with little pieces of cabbage and carrot +sticking up in them here and there, while on the kitchen table lay +a heap of meat and vegetables, which Mrs. Backhouse had evidently +just picked up out of the grate before Aunt Emma and the children +arrived.</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Mrs. Backhouse, pointing to the floor, +“there’s the supper just spoilt. Tiza’s never +easy but when she’s in mischief. I’m sure these wet +days I have’nt known what to do with her indoors all day. And +what must she do this afternoon but tie her tin mug to the +cat’s tail, till the poor creature was nearly beside herself +with fright, and went rushing about upstairs like a mad thing. And +then, just when I happened to be out a minute looking after +something, she lets the cat in here, and the poor thing jumps into +the saucepan I had just put on with the broth for our supper, and +in her fright and all turns it right over. And now look at my +grate, and the fender, and the floor, and the meat there all +messed! I expect her father’ll give Tiza a good beating when +he comes in, and I’m sure I shan’t stand in the +way.”</p> +<p>“Oh no, please, Mrs. Backhouse!” said Milly, running +up to her with a grave imploring little face. “Don’t +let Mr. Backhouse beat her; she didn’t mean it, she was only +in fun, I’m sure.”</p> +<p>“Well, missy, it’s very troiblesome fun I’m +sure,” said Mrs. Backhouse, patting Milly kindly on the +shoulder, for she was a good-natured woman, and it wasn’t her +way to be angry long. “I don’t know what I’m to +give John for his supper, that I don’t. I had nothing in the +house but just those little odds and ends of meat, that I thought +would make a nice bit of broth for supper. And now he’ll come +in wet and hungry, and there’ll be nothing for him. Well, we +must do with something else, I suppose, but I expect her +father’ll beat her.”</p> +<p>Milly and Olly looked rather awestruck at the idea of a beating +from John Backhouse, that great strong brawny farmer; and Milly, +whispering something quickly to Aunt Emma, slipped out into the +garden again. By this time father and mother had come up, and Becky +appeared from the farmyard, wheeling the baby in a little wooden +cart, and radiant with pleasure at the sight of Aunt Emma, whose +godchild she was, so that Milly’s disappearance was not +noticed.</p> +<p>She ran down the garden path to the cherry tree, and as, in the +various times they had been together, Becky and Tiza had taught her +a good deal of climbing, she too clambered up into the wet +branches, and was soon sitting close by Tiza, who had turned her +cotton pinafore over her head and wouldn’t look at Milly.</p> +<p>“Tiza,” said Milly softly, putting her hand on +Tiza’s lap, “do you feel very bad?”</p> +<p>No answer.</p> +<p>“We came to take you down to have tea with us,” said +Milly, “do you think your mother will let you +come?”</p> +<p>“Naw,” said Tiza shortly, without moving from behind +her pinafore.</p> +<p>It certainly wasn’t very easy talking to Tiza. Milly +thought she’d better try something else.</p> +<p>“Tiza,” she began timidly, “do your father and +mother tell you stories when it rains?”</p> +<p>“Naw,” said Tiza, in a very astonished voice, +throwing down her pinafore to stare at Milly.</p> +<p>“Then what do you do, Tiza, when it rains?”</p> +<p>“Nothing,” said Tiza. “We has our dinners and +tea, and sometimes Becky minds the baby and sometimes I do, and +father mostly goes to sleep.”</p> +<p>“Tiza,” said Milly hurriedly, “did you +<em>mean</em> pussy to jump into the saucepan?”</p> +<p>Up went Tiza’s pinafore again, and Milly was in dismay +because she thought she had made Tiza cry; but to her great +surprise Tiza suddenly burst into such fits of laughter, that she +nearly tumbled off the cherry tree. “Oh, she did jump so, and +the mug made such a rattling! And when she comed out there was just +a little bit of carrot sticking to her nose, and her tail was all +over cabbage leaf. Oh, she did look funny!”</p> +<p>Milly couldn’t help laughing too, till she remembered all +that Mrs. Backhouse had been saying.</p> +<p>“Oh, but, Tiza, Mrs. Backhouse says your father +won’t have anything for his supper. Aren’t you sorry +you spoilt his supper?”</p> +<p>“Yis,” said Tiza, quickly. “I know +father’ll beat me, he said he would next time I vexed +mother.”</p> +<p>And this time the pinafore went up in earnest, and Tiza began to +cry piteously.</p> +<p>“Don’t cry, Tiza,” said Milly, her own little +cheeks getting wet, too. “I’ll beg him not. Can’t +you make up anyway? Mother says we must always make up if we can +when we’ve done any harm. I wish I had anything to give you +to make up.”</p> +<p>Tiza suddenly dried her eyes and looked at Milly, with a bright +expression which was very puzzling.</p> +<p>“You come with me,” she said suddenly, swinging +herself down from the tree. “Come here by the hedge, +don’t let mother see us.”</p> +<p>So they ran along the far side of the hedge till they got into +the farmyard, and then Tiza led Milly past the hen-house, up to the +corner where the hayricks were. In and out of the hayricks they +went, till in the very farthest corner of all, where hardly anybody +ever came, and which nobody could see into from the yard, Tiza +suddenly knelt down and put her hand under the hay at the bottom of +the rick.</p> +<p>“You come,” she whispered eagerly to Milly, pulling +her by the skirt, “you come and look here.”</p> +<p>Milly stooped down, and there in a soft little place, just +between the hayrick and the ground, what do you think she saw? +Three large brownish eggs lying in a sort of rough nest in the hay, +and looking so round and fresh and tempting, that Milly gave a +little cry of delight.</p> +<p>“Oh, Tiza, how be—utiful! How did they get +there?”</p> +<p>“It’s old Sally, our white hen you know, laid them. +I found them just after dinner. Mother doesn’t know nothing +about them. I never told Becky, nor nobody. Aren’t they +beauties?”</p> +<p>And Tiza took one up lovingly in her rough, little brown hands, +and laid it against her cheek, to feel how soft and satiny it +was.</p> +<p>“Oh, and Tiza, I know,” exclaimed Milly eagerly, +“you meant these would do for supper. That would be a lovely +make up. There’s three. One for Mr. Backhouse, one for Mrs. +Backhouse, and one for Becky.—There’s none for you, +Tiza.”</p> +<p>“Nor none for Becky neither,” answered Tiza shortly. +“Father’ll want two. Becky and me’ll get bread +and dripping.”</p> +<p>“Well, come along, Tiza, let’s take them +in.”</p> +<p>“No, you take them,” said Tiza. “Mother +won’t want to see me no more, and father’ll perhaps be +coming in.”</p> +<p>“Oh, but, Tiza, you’ll come to tea with +us?”</p> +<p>“I don’t know,” said Tiza. “You +ask.”</p> +<p>And off she ran as quick as lightning, off to her hiding-place +in the cherry tree, while Milly was left with the three brown eggs, +feeling rather puzzled and anxious. However, she put them gently in +the skirt of her frock, and holding it up in both hands she picked +her way through the wet yard back to the house.</p> +<p>When she appeared at the kitchen door, Aunt Emma and Mrs. +Backhouse were chatting quietly. Mr. and Mrs. Norton, and Olly, had +gone on for a little stroll along the Wanwick road, and Becky was +sitting on the window-sill with the baby, who seemed very sleepy, +but quite determined not to go to sleep in spite of all +Becky’s rocking and patting.</p> +<p>“Oh, Mrs. Backhouse,” began Milly, coming in with a +bright flushed face, “just look here, what I’ve +brought. Tiza found them just after dinner to-day. They were under +the hayrick right away in the corner, and she wanted to make up, so +she showed me where they were, so I brought them in, and +there’s two for Mr. Backhouse, and one for you, you know. +And, please, won’t you let Tiza come to tea with +us?”</p> +<p>Mrs. Backhouse looked in astonishment at the three eggs lying in +Milly’s print skirt, and at Milly’s pleading little +face.</p> +<p>“Ay, that’s Sally, I suppose. She’s always +hiding her eggs is Sally, where I can’t find them. So it was +Tiza found them, was it, Missy? Well, they will come, in very handy +for supper as it happens. Thank you kindly for bringing them +in.”</p> +<p>And Mrs. Backhouse took the eggs and put them safely away in a +pie-dish, while Becky secretly pulled Milly by the sleeve, and +smiled up at her as much as to say,</p> +<p>“Thank you for helping Tiza out of her scrape.”</p> +<p>“And you’ll let Becky and Tiza come to tea?” +asked Milly again.</p> +<p>“Well, I’m sure, Miss, I don’t know,” +said Mrs. Backhouse, looking puzzled; “Becky may come and +welcome, but perhaps it would do Tiza good to stay at +home.”</p> +<p>“Don’t you think she’d better have a little +change?” said Aunt Emma in her kind voice, which made Milly +want to hug her. “I daresay staying indoors so long made her +restless. If you will let me carry them both off, I daresay between +us, Mrs. Backhouse, we can give Tiza a talking to, and perhaps +she’ll come back in a more sensible mood.”</p> +<p>“Well, Miss Elliot, she shall go if you wish it. Come +Becky, give me the baby, and go and put your things on.” And +then going to the door, Mrs. Backhouse shouted “Tiza!” +After a second or two a little figure dropped down out of the +cherry tree and came slowly up the walk. Tiza had shaken her hair +about her face so that it could hardly be seen, and she never +looked once at Aunt Emma and Milly as she came up to her +mother.</p> +<p>“There, go along, Tiza, and get your things on,” +said Mrs. Backhouse, taking her by the arm. “I wouldn’t +have let you go out to tea, you know, if Miss Elliot and Missy +hadn’t asked particular. Mind you don’t get into no +more mischief. And very like those eggs’ll do for +father’s supper; so, I daresay, I’ll not say anything +to him this time—just for once. Now go up.”</p> +<p>Tiza didn’t want to be told twice, and presently, just as +Mr. and Mrs. Norton and Olly were coming back from their walk, they +met Aunt Emma coming back from the farm holding Becky’s hand, +while Milly and Tiza walked in front.</p> +<p>“Well, Tiza,” said Mr. Norton, patting her curly +head, I declare I think you beat Olly for mischief. Olly never +spoilt my dinner yet, that I remember. What should I do to him do +you think, if he did?”</p> +<p>“Beat him,” said Tiza, looking up at Mr. Norton with +her quick birdlike eyes.</p> +<p>“Oh dear, no!” said Mr. Norton, “that +wouldn’t do my dinner any good. I should eat him up +instead.”</p> +<p>“I don’t believe little boys taste good a +bit,” said Olly, who always believed firmly in his +father’s various threats. “If you ettened me, father, +you’d be ill.”</p> +<p>“Oh no,” said Mr. Norton, “not if I eat you +with plenty of bread-sauce. That’s the best way to cook +little boys. Now, Milly, which of you three girls can get to that +gate first?”</p> +<p>Off ran the three little girls full tilt down the hill leading +to Ravensnest, with Olly puffing and panting after them. Milly led +the way at first, for she was light and quick, and a very fair +runner for her age; but Tiza soon got up to her and passed her, and +it was Tiza’s little stout legs that arrived first at +Ravensnest gate.</p> +<p>“Oh, Becky!” said Milly, putting her arm round +Becky’s neck as they went into the house together, “I +hope you may stay a good long time. What time do you go to +bed?”</p> +<p>“Oh, I don’t know,” said Becky. “We go +when fayther goes.”</p> +<p>“When fayther goes!” exclaimed Milly. “Why, we +go ever so long before father. Why do you stay up so +late?”</p> +<p>“Why, it isn’t late,” said Becky. +“Fayther goes to bed, now it’s summertime, about +half-past eight; but in winter, of course, he goes earlier. And we +all goes together, except baby. Mother puts him out of the way +before supper.”</p> +<p>“Well, but how funny,” said Milly, “I +can’t think why you should be so different from +us.”</p> +<p>And Milly went on puzzling over Becky and her going to bed, till +nurse drove it all out of her head by fetching them to tea. Such a +merry tea they had, and after tea a romp in the big kitchen with +father, which delighted the little farm children beyond measure. +Some time in the evening, I believe, Aunt Emma managed to give Tiza +a little talking to, but none of the other children knew anything +about it, except perhaps Becky, who generally knew what was +happening to Tiza.</p> +<h2><a id="Chapter9" name="Chapter9">CHAPTER IX</a></h2> +<h3>MILLY’S BIRTHDAY</h3> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>Now we have come to a chapter which is going to be half merry +and half sad. I have not told you any sad things about Milly and +Olly up till now, I think. They were such happy little people, that +there was nothing sad to tell you. They cried sometimes, of +course—you remember Milly cried when Olly stickied her +doll—but generally, by the time they had dried up their tears +they had quite forgotten what they were crying about; and as for +any real trouble, why they didn’t know what it could possibly +be like. But now, just as they were going away from Ravensnest, +came a real sad thing, and you’ll hear very soon how it +happened.</p> +<p>After those three wet days it was sometimes fine and sometimes +rainy at Ravensnest, but never so rainy as to keep the Nortons in +all day. And every now and then there were splendid days, when the +children and their father and mother were out all day long, +wandering over the mountains, or walking over to Aunt Emma’s +or tramping along the well-known roads to Wanwick on one side, and +the little village of Rydal and Rydal Lake on the other. They had +another row on Windermere; and one fine evening Mr. Norton borrowed +a friend’s boat, and they went out fishing for perch on Rydal +Lake, the loveliest little lake in the world, lying softly in a +green mountain cup, and dotted with islands, which seemed to the +children when they landed on them like little bits of fairyland +dropped into the blue water.</p> +<div class="figure"><a href="images/illus7.png"><img src= +"images/illus7.png" alt="“Haymaking”" id="illus7" name= +"illus7" width="100%" /></a> +<p>“Haymaking”</p> +</div> +<p>And then! crown of delights! came the haymaking. There were long +fine days, when the six small creatures—Milly, Olly, Becky, +Tiza, Bessie, and Charlie—followed John Backhouse and his men +about in the hayfields from early morning till evening, helping to +make the hay, or simply rolling about like a parcel of kittens in +the flowery fragrant heaps.</p> +<p>Aunt Emma was often at Ravensnest, and the children learned to +love her better and better, so that even wild little Olly would +remember to bring her stool, and carry her shawl, and change her +plate at dinner; and Milly, who was always clinging to somebody, +was constantly puzzled to know whose pocket to sit in, +mother’s or Aunt Emma’s.</p> +<p>Then there was the farmyard, the cows, and the milking, and the +chickens. Everything about them seemed delightful to Milly and +Olly, and the top of everything was reached when one evening John +Backhouse mounted both the children on his big carthorse Dobbin, +and they and Dobbin together dragged the hay home in triumph.</p> +<p>And now they had only one week more to stay at Ravensnest. But +that week was a most important week, for it was to contain no less +a day than Milly’s birthday. Milly would be seven years old +on the 15th of July, and for about a week before the 15th, +Milly’s little head could think of nothing else. Olly too was +very much excited about it, for though Milly of course was the +queen of the day, and all the presents were for her, not for him, +still it was good times for everybody on Milly’s birthday; +besides which, he had his own little secret with mother about his +present to Milly, a secret which made him very happy, but which he +was on the point of telling at least a hundred times a day.</p> +<p>“Father,” said Milly, about four days before the +birthday, when they were all wandering about after tea one evening +in the high garden which was now a paradise of ripe red +strawberries and fruit of every kind, “does everybody have +birthdays? Do policemen have birthdays?”</p> +<p>“I expect so, Milly,” said Mr. Norton, laughing, +“but they haven’t any time to remember them.”</p> +<p>“But, father, what’s the good of having birthdays if +you don’t keep them, and have presents and all that? And do +cats and dogs have birthdays? I should like to find out +Spot’s birthday. We’d give her cream instead of milk, +you know, and I’d tie a blue ribbon round her neck, and one +round her tail like the queen’s sheep in mother’s +story.”</p> +<p>“I don’t suppose Spot would thank you at all,” +said Mr. Norton. “The cream would make her ill, and the +ribbon would fidget her dreadfully till she pulled it +off.”</p> +<p>“Oh dear!” sighed Milly. “Well, I suppose Spot +had better not have any birthday then. But, father, what do you +think? Becky and Tiza don’t care about their birthdays a bit. +Becky could hardly remember when hers was, and they never have any +presents unless Aunt Emma gives them one, or people to tea, or +anything.’</p> +<p>“Well, you see, Milly, when people have only just pennies +and shillings enough to buy bread and meat to eat, and clothes to +put on, they can’t go spending money on presents; and when +they’re very anxious and busy all the year round they +can’t be remembering birthdays and taking pains about them +like richer people can, who have less to trouble them, and whose +work does not take up quite so much time.”</p> +<p>“Well, but why don’t the rich people remember the +poor people’s birthdays for them, father? Then they could +give them presents, and ask them to tea and all, you +know.”</p> +<p>“Yes, that would be a very good arrangement,” said +Mr. Norton, smiling at her eager little face. “Only, somehow, +Milly, things don’t come right like that in this +world.”</p> +<p>“Well, I’m going to try and remember Becky’s +and Tiza’s birthdays,” said Milly. “I’ll +tell mother to put them down in her pocket-book—won’t +you, mother? Oh, what fun! I’ll send them birthday cards, and +they’ll be so surprised, and wonder why; and then +they’ll say, ‘Oh, why, of course it’s our +birthday!’—No, not <em>our</em> birthday—but you +know what I mean, father.”</p> +<p>“Well, but, Milly,” asked Mrs. Norton, “have +you made up your mind what you want to do this birthday?”</p> +<p>Milly stopped suddenly, with her hands behind her, opposite her +mother, with her lips tightly pressed together, her eyes smiling, +as if there was a tremendous secret hidden somewhere.</p> +<p>“Well, monkey, out with it. What have you got hidden away +in your little head?”</p> +<p>“Well, mother,” said Milly, slowly, “I +don’t want to <em>have</em> anybody to tea. I want to go out +to tea with somebody. Now can you guess?”</p> +<p>“With Aunt Emma?”</p> +<p>“Oh no, Aunt Emma’s coming over here all day. She +promised she would.”</p> +<p>“With Becky and Tiza?”</p> +<p>Milly nodded, and screwed up her little lips tighter than +ever.</p> +<p>“But I don’t expect Mrs. Backhouse will want the +trouble of having you two to tea.</p> +<p>“Oh mother, she won’t mind a bit. I know she +won’t; because Becky told me one day her mother would like us +very much to come some time if you’d let us. And Nana could +come and help Mrs. Backhouse, and we could all wash up the +tea-things afterwards, like we did at the picnic.”</p> +<p>“Then Tiza mustn’t sit next me,” said Olly, +who had been listening in silence to all the arrangements. +“She takes away my bread and butter when I’m not +looking, and I don’t like it, not a bit.”</p> +<p>“No, Olly dear, she shan’t,” said Milly, +taking his hand and fondling it, as if she were at least twenty +years older. “I’ll sit on one side of you and Becky on +the other,” a prospect with which Olly was apparently +satisfied, for he made no more objections.</p> +<p>“Well, you must ask Mrs. Backhouse yourselves,” said +Mrs. Norton. “And if it is her washing-day, or inconvenient +to her at all, you mustn’t think of going, you +know.”</p> +<p>So early next morning, Milly and Nana and Olly went up to the +farm, and came back with the answer that Mrs. Backhouse would be +very pleased to see them at tea on Thursday, the 15th, and that +John Backhouse would have cut the hay-field by the river by then, +and they could have a romp in the hay afterwards.</p> +<p>Wednesday was a deeply interesting day to Olly. He and his +mother went over by themselves to Wanwick, and they bought +something which the shopwoman at the toy-shop wrapped up in a neat +little parcel, and which Olly carried home, looking as important as +a little king.</p> +<p>“Milly,” he began at dinner, +“<em>wouldn’t</em> you like to know about your +presents? But of course I shan’t tell you about mine. Perhaps +I’m not going to give you one at all. Oh, mother,” in a +loud whisper to Mrs. Norton, “did you put it away safe where +she can’t see?”</p> +<p>“Oh, you silly boy,” said Milly, “you’ll +tell me if you don’t take care.”</p> +<p>“No, I shan’t. I wouldn’t tell you if you were +to go on asking me all day. It isn’t very big, you know, +Milly, and—and—it isn’t pretty +outside—only—”</p> +<p>“Be quiet, chatterbox,” said Mr. Norton putting his +hand over Olly’s mouth, “you’ll tell in another +minute, and then there’ll be no fun to-morrow.”</p> +<p>So Olly with great difficulty kept quiet, and began eating up +his pudding very fast, as if that was the only way of keeping his +little tongue out of mischief.</p> +<p>“Father,” he said after dinner, “do take Milly +out for a walk, and mother shall take me. Then I can’t tell, +you know.”</p> +<p>So the two went out different ways, and Olly kept away from +Milly all day, in great fear lest somehow or other his secret +should fly out of him in spite of all his efforts to keep it in. At +night the children made nurse hurry them to bed, so that when +mother came to tuck them up, as she generally did, she found the +pair fast asleep, and nothing left to kiss but two curly heads +buried in the pillows.</p> +<p>“Bless their hearts,” said nurse to Mrs. Norton, +“they can think of nothing but to-morrow. They’ll be +sadly disappointed if it rains.”</p> +<p>But the stars came out, and the new moon shone softly all night +on the great fir trees and the rosebuds and the little dancing beck +in the Ravensnest garden; and when Milly awoke next morning the sun +was shining, and Brownholme was towering up clear and high into the +breezy blue sky, and the trees were throwing cool shadows on the +dewy lawn around the house.</p> +<p>“Oh dear!” said Milly, jumping up, her face flushing +with joy “it’s my birthday, and it’s fine. Nana, +bring me my things, please.—But where’s +Olly?”</p> +<p>Where indeed was Olly? There was his little bed, but there was a +nightdress rolled up in it, and not a wisp of his brown curls was +to be seen anywhere.</p> +<p>“Why, Miss Milly, are you woke up at last? I hardly +thought you’d have slept so late this morning. Many happy +returns of the day to you,” said nurse, giving her a hearty +hug.</p> +<p>“Thank you, <em>dear</em> nurse. Oh, it is so nice having +birthdays. But where can Olly be?”</p> +<p>“Don’t you trouble your head about him,” said +nurse mysteriously, and not another word could Milly get out of +her. She had just slipped on her white cotton frock when mother +opened the door.</p> +<p>“Well, birthday-girl! The top of the morning to you, and +many, many happy returns of the day.”</p> +<p>Whereupon Milly and mother went through a great deal of kissing +which need not be described, and then mother helped her brush her +hair, and put on her ribbon and tie her sash, so that in another +minute or two she was quite ready to go down.</p> +<p>“Now, Milly, wait one minute till you hear the bell ring, +and then you may come down as fast as you like.”</p> +<p>So Milly waited, her little feet dancing with impatience, till +the bell began to ring as if it had gone quite mad.</p> +<p>“Oh, that’s Olly ringing,” cried Milly, +rushing off. And sure enough when she got to the hall there was +Olly ringing as if he meant to bring the house down. He dropped the +bell when he saw Milly, and dragged her breathlessly into the +dining-room.</p> +<p>And what did Milly see there I wonder? Why, a heap of red and +white roses lying on the breakfast table, a big heap, with odd +corners and points sticking up all over it, and under the roses a +white napkin, and under the napkin treasures of all sorts—a +book from father, a little work-box from mother, with a picture of +Windermere on the outside, and inside the most delightful cottons +and needles and bits of bright-coloured stuffs; a china +doll’s dinner-service from Aunt Emma, a mug from nurse, a +little dish full of big red strawberries from gardener, and last, +but not least, Olly’s present—a black paint-box, with +colours and brushes and all complete, and tied up with a little +drawing-book which mother had added to make it really useful. At +the top of the heap, too, lay two letters addressed in very big +round hand to “Miss Milly Norton,” and one was signed +Jacky and the other signed Francis. Each of these presents had neat +little labels fastened on to them, and they were smothered in +roses—deep red and pale pink roses, with the morning dew +sprinkled over them.</p> +<p>“We got all those roses, mother and me, this morning, when +you was fast asleep, Milly,” shouted Olly, who was capering +about like a mad creature. “Mother pulled me out of bed ever +so early, and I putted on my goloshes, and didn’t we get wet +just! Milly, <em>isn’t</em> my paint-box a beauty?”</p> +<p>But it’s no good trying to describe what Milly felt. She +felt as every happy little girl feels on a happy birthday, just a +little bit bewitched, as if she had got into another kind of world +altogether.</p> +<p>“Now,” said father, after breakfast, +“I’m yours, Milly, for all this morning. What are you +going to do with me?”</p> +<p>“Make you into a tiger, father, and shoot you,” said +Olly, who would have liked to play at hunting and shooting games +all day long.</p> +<p>“I didn’t ask you, sir,” said Mr. Norton, +“I’m not yours, I’m Milly’s. Now, Milly, +what shall we do?”</p> +<p>“Will you take us right to the top of Brownholme, father? +You know we haven’t been to the very top yet.”</p> +<p>“Very well, we’ll go if your legs will carry you. +But you must ask them very particularly first how they feel, for +it’ll be stiff work for them.”</p> +<p>Not very long after breakfast, and before they started for their +walk, Aunt Emma’s pony carriage came rattling up the drive, +and she, too, brought flowers for Milly, above all a bunch of +water-lilies all wet from the lake; and then she and mother settled +under the trees with their books and work while the children +started on their walk.</p> +<p>But first Milly had drawn mother into a corner where no one +could see, and there, with a couple of tears in her two blue eyes, +she had whispered in a great hurry, so that Mrs. Norton could +scarcely hear, “I don’t want to have everything just as +<em>I</em> like, to-day, mother. Can’t I do what somebody +else likes? I’d rather.”</p> +<p>Which means that Milly was a good deal excited, and her heart +very full, and that she was thinking of how, a year before, her +birthday had been rather spoilt toward the end of it by a little +bit of crossness and self-will, that she remembered afterward with +a pang for many a long day. Since then, Milly had learnt a good +deal more of that long, long lesson, which we go on learning, big +people and little people, all our lives—the lesson of +self-forgetting—of how love brings joy, and to be selfish is +to be sad; and her birthday seemed to bring back to her all that +she had been learning.</p> +<p>“Dear little woman,” said Mrs. Norton, putting back +her tangled hair from her anxious little face, “go and be +happy. That’s what we all like to-day. Besides, you’ll +find plenty of ways of doing what other people like before the end +of the day without my inventing any. Run along now, and climb away. +Mind you don’t let Olly tumble into bogs, and mind you bring +me a bunch of ferns for the dinner-table—and there’ll +be two things done at any rate.”</p> +<p>So away ran Milly; and all the morning she and Olly and father +scrambled and climbed, and raced and chatted, on the green back of +old Brownholme. They went to say good-morning to John +Backhouse’s cows in the “intake,” as he called +his top field, and they just peeped over the wall at the fierce +young bull he had bought at Penrith fair a few days before, and +which looked as if, birthdays or no birthdays, he could have eaten +Milly at two mouthfuls, and swallowed Olly down afterwards without +knowing it.</p> +<p>Then they climbed and climbed after father, till, just as Olly +was beginning to feel his legs to make sure they weren’t +falling off, they were so tired and shaky—there they were +standing on the great pile of stones which marks the top of the +mountain—the very tip-top of all its green points and rocks +and grassy stretches. By this time the children knew the names of +most of the mountains around, and of all the lakes. They went +through them now like a lesson with their father; and even Olly +remembered a great many, and could chatter about Helvellyn, and +Fairfield, and Langdale Pikes, as if he had trudged to the top of +them all himself.</p> +<p>Then came the getting down again. Father and Milly and Olly +hand-in-hand, racing over the short fine grass, startling the +little black-faced sheep, and racing down the steep bits, where +Milly and Olly generally tumbled over in some sort of a heap at the +bottom. As for the flowers they gathered, there were so many I have +no time to tell you about them—wood-flowers and bog-flowers +and grass-flowers, and ferns of all sizes to mix with them, from +the great Osmunda, which grew along the Ravensnest Beck, down to +the tiny little parsley fern. It was all delightful—the +sights and the sounds, and the fresh mountain wind that blew them +about on the top so that long afterward Milly used to look back to +that walk on Brownholme when she was seven years old as one of the +merriest times she ever spent.</p> +<p>Dinner was very welcome after all this scrambling; and after +dinner came a quiet time in the garden, when father read aloud to +mother and Aunt Emma, and the children kept still and listened to +as much as they could understand, at least until they went to +sleep, which they both did lying on a rug at Aunt Emma’s +feet. Milly couldn’t understand how this had happened at all, +when she found herself waking up and rubbing her eyes, but I think +it was natural enough after their long walk in the sun and +wind.</p> +<p>At four o’clock nurse came for them, and when they had +been put into clean frocks and pinafores, she took them up to the +farm. Milly and Olly felt that this was a very solemn occasion, and +they walked up to the farmhouse door hand-in-hand, feeling as shy +as if they had never been there before. But at the door were Becky +and Tiza waiting for them, as smart as new pins, with shining hair, +and red ribbons under their little white collars; and the children +no sooner caught sight of one another than all their shyness flew +away, and they began to chatter as usual.</p> +<p>In the farmhouse kitchen were Bessie and Charlie, and such a +comfortable tea spread out on a long table, covered with a red and +black woollen table-cloth instead of a white one. Becky and Tiza +had filled two tumblers with meadow-sweet and blue campanula, which +stood up grandly in the middle, and there were two home-made cakes +at each end, and some of Sally’s brown eggs, and piles of +tempting bread and butter.</p> +<p>Each of the children had their gift for Milly too: Becky had +plaited her a basket of rushes, a thing she had often tried to +teach Milly how to make for herself, and Tiza pushed a bunch of +wild raspberries into her hand, and ran away before Milly could say +thank you; Bessie shyly produced a Christmas card that somebody had +once sent to her; and even Charlie had managed to provide himself +with a bunch of the wild yellow poppies which grew on the wall of +the Ravensnest garden, and were a joy to all beholders.</p> +<p>Then Mrs. Backhouse put Milly at one end of the table, while she +began to pour out tea at the other, and the feast began. Certainly, +Milly thought, it was much more exciting going out to tea at a +farmhouse than having children to tea with you at home, just as you +might anywhere, on any day in the year. There were the big hens +coming up to the door and poking in their long necks to take a look +at them; there were the pigeons circling round and round in the +yard; there was the sound of milking going on in the shed close by, +and many other sights and sounds which were new and strange and +delightful.</p> +<p>As for Olly, he was very much taken up for a time with the red +and black table-cloth, and could not be kept from peering +underneath it from time to time, as if he suspected that the white +table-cloth he was generally accustomed to had been hidden away +underneath for a joke. But when the time for cake came, Olly forgot +the table-cloth altogether. He had never seen a cake quite like the +bun-loaf, which kind Mrs. Backhouse had made herself for the +occasion, and of which she had given him a hunch, so in his usual +inquisitive way he began to turn it over and over, as if by looking +at it long enough he could find out how it was made and all about +it. Presently, when the others were all quietly enjoying their +bun-loaf, Olly’s shrill little voice was heard +saying—while he put two separate fingers on two out of the +few currants in his piece:</p> +<p>“<em>This</em> currant says to <em>that</em> currant, +‘I’m here, where are you? You’re so far off I +can’t see you nowhere.’”</p> +<p>“Olly, be quiet,” said Milly.</p> +<p>“Well, but, Milly, I can’t help it; it’s so +funny. There’s only three currants in my bit, and cookie puts +such a lot in at home. I’m pretending they’re little +children wanting to play, only they can’t, they’re so +far off. There, I’ve etten one up. Now there’s only +two. That’s you and me, Milly. I’ll eat you up +first—krick!”</p> +<p>“Never mind about the currants, little master,” said +Mrs. Backhouse, laughing at him. “It’s nice and sweet +any way, and you can eat as much of it as you like, which is more +than you can of rich cakes.”</p> +<p>Olly thought there was something in this, and by the time he had +got through his second bit of bun-loaf he had quite made up his +mind that he would get Susan to make bun-loaves at home too.</p> +<p>They were just finishing tea when there was a great clatter +outside, and by came the hay-cart with John Backhouse leading the +horse, and two men walking beside it.</p> +<p>“We’re going to carry all the hay in yon lower field +presently,” he shouted to his wife as he passed. “Send +the young ‘uns down to see.”</p> +<p>Up they all started, and presently the whole party were racing +down the hill to the riverfield, with Mrs. Backhouse and her baby +walking soberly with nurse behind them. Yes, there lay the hay +piled up in large cocks on the fresh clean-swept carpet of bright +green grass, and in the middle of the field stood the hay-cart with +two horses harnessed, one man standing in it to press down and +settle the hay as John Backhouse and two other men handed it up to +him on pitchforks. Olly went head over heels into the middle of one +of the cocks, followed by Charlie, and would have liked to go head +over heels into all the rest, but Mr. Norton, who had come into the +field with mother and Aunt Emma, told him he must be content to +play with two cocks in one of the far corners of the field without +disturbing the others, which were all ready for carrying, and that +if he and Charlie strewed the hay about they must tidy it up before +John Backhouse wanted to put it on the cart. So Olly and Charlie +went off to their corner, and for a little while all the other +children played there too. Milly had invented a game called the +“Babes in the Wood,” in which two children were the +babes and pretended to die on the grass, and all the rest were the +robins, and covered them up with hay instead of leaves. She and +Tiza made beautiful babes: they put their handkerchiefs over their +faces and lay as still as mice, till Olly had piled so much hay on +the top of them that there was not a bit of them to be seen +anywhere, while Bessie began to cry out as if she was suffocated +before they had put two good armfuls over her.</p> +<p>Presently, however, Milly got tired; and she and Tiza walked off +by themselves and sat down by the river to get cool. The water in +the river was quite low again now, and the children could watch the +tiny minnows darting and flashing about by the bank, and even amuse +themselves by fancying every now and then that they saw a trout +shooting across the clear brown water. Tiza had quite left off +being shy now with Milly, and the two chattered away, Milly telling +Tiza all about her school, and Jacky and Francis, and Spot and the +garden at home; and Tiza telling Milly about her father’s new +bull, how frightened she and Becky were of him, and how father +meant to make the fence stronger for fear he should get out and +toss people.</p> +<p>“What a happy little party,” said Aunt Emma to +mother looking round the field; “there’s nothing like +hay for children.”</p> +<p>By this time the hay-cart was quite full, and crack went John +Backhouse’s whip, as he took hold of the first horse’s +head and gave him a pull forward to start the cart on its way to +the farm.</p> +<p>“Gee-up,” shouted John in his loud cheery voice, and +the horse made a step forward, while the children round cried +“Hurrah!” and waved their hands. But suddenly there was +a loud piteous cry which made John give the horse a sudden push +back and drop his whip, and then, from where they sat, Milly and +Tiza heard a sound of crying and screaming, while everybody in the +field ran toward the hay-cart. They ran too; what could have +happened?</p> +<p>Just as they came up to the crowd of people round the cart, +Milly saw her father with something in his arms. And this something +was Becky—poor little Becky, with a great mark on her temple, +and her eyes quite shut, and such a white face!</p> +<p>“Oh, mother! mother!” cried Milly, rushing up to +her, “tell me, mother, what is the matter with +Becky?”</p> +<p>But Mrs. Norton had no time to attend to her. She was running to +meet Mrs. Backhouse, who had come hurrying up from another part of +the field with the baby in her arms.</p> +<p>“She was under the cart when it moved on,” said Mrs. +Norton, taking the baby from her. “We none of us know how it +happened. She must have been trying to hand up some hay at the last +moment and tumbled under. I don’t think her head is much +hurt.”</p> +<p>On ran Mrs. Backhouse, and Milly and her mother followed.</p> +<p>“Better let me carry her up now without moving her,” +said Mr. Norton, as Mrs. Backhouse tried to take the little bundle +from him. “She has fainted, I think. We must get some water +at the stream.” So on he went, with the pale frightened +mother, while the others followed. Aunt Emma had got Tiza and Milly +by the hand, and was trying to comfort them.</p> +<p>“We hope she is not much hurt, darlings; the wheel did not +go over her, thank God. It was just upon her when her father backed +the horse. But it must have crushed her I’m afraid, and there +was something hanging under the cart which gave her that knock on +the temple. Look, there is one of the men starting off for the +doctor.”</p> +<p>Whereupon Tiza, who had kept quiet till then, burst into a loud +fit of crying, and threw herself down on the grass.</p> +<p>“Nurse,” called Aunt Emma, “stay here with +these two poor little ones while I go and see if I can be of any +use.”</p> +<p>So nurse came and sat beside them, and Milly crept up to her for +comfort. But poor little Tiza lay with her face buried in the grass +and nothing they could say to her seemed to reach her little deaf +ears.</p> +<p>Meanwhile, Aunt Emma hurried after the others, and presently +caught them up at a stream where Mr. Norton had stopped to bathe +Becky’s head and face. The cold water had just revived her +when Aunt Emma came up, and for one moment she opened her heavy +blue eyes and looked at her mother, who was bending over her, and +then they shut again. But her little hand went feebly searching for +her mother, who caught it up and kissed it.</p> +<p>“Oh, Miss Emma, Miss Emma,” she said, pointing to +the child, “I’m afeard but she’s badly +hurt.”</p> +<p>“I hope not, with all my heart,” said Aunt Emma, +gently taking her arm. “But the doctor will soon be here; we +must get her home before he comes.”</p> +<p>So on they went again, Mr. Norton still carrying Becky, and Mr. +Backhouse helping his wife along. Mrs. Norton had got the baby safe +in her motherly arms, and so they all toiled up the hill to the +farmhouse. What a difference from the merry party that ran down the +hill only an hour before!</p> +<p>They laid Becky down on her mother’s bed, and then Aunt +Emma, finding that Mrs. Norton wished to stay till the doctor came, +went back to the children. She found a sad little group sitting in +the hay-field; Milly in nurse’s lap crying quietly every now +and then; Tiza still sobbing on the grass, and Olly who had just +crept down from the farmhouse, where he and Charlie had seen Becky +carried in, talking to nurse in eager whispers, as if he +daren’t talk out loud.</p> +<p>“Oh, Aunt Emma,” cried Milly, when she opened the +gate, “is she better?”</p> +<p>“A little, I think, Milly, but the doctor will soon be +here, and then we shall know all about it. Tiza, you poor little +woman, Mrs. Wheeler says you must sleep with them to-night. Your +mother will want the house very quiet, and to-morrow, you know, you +can go and see Becky if the doctor says you may.”</p> +<p>At this Tiza began to cry again more piteously than ever. It +seemed so dreary and terrible to her to be shut out from home +without Becky. But Aunt Emma sat down on the grass beside her, and +lifted her up and talked to her; with anybody else Tiza would have +kicked and struggled, for she was a curious, passionate child, and +her grief was always wild and angry, but nobody could struggle with +Aunt Emma, and at last she let herself be comforted a little by the +tender voice and soft caressing hand. She stopped crying, and then +they all took her up to the Wheelers’s cottage, where Mrs. +Wheeler, a kind motherly body, took her in, and promised that she +should know everything there was to be known about Becky.</p> +<p>“Aunt Emma,” said Milly, presently, when they were +all sitting in the conservatory which ran round the house, waiting +for Mr. Norton to bring them news from the farm, “how did +Becky tumble under the cart?”</p> +<p>“She was lifting up some hay, I think, which had fallen +off, and one of the men was stooping down to take it on his fork, +and then she must have slipped and fallen right under the cart, +just as John Backhouse told the horse to go on.”</p> +<p>“Oh, if the wheel <em>had</em> gone over!” said +Milly, shuddering. “Isn’t it a sad birthday, Aunt Emma, +and we were so happy a little while ago? And then I can’t +understand. I don’t know why it happens like this.”</p> +<p>“Like what, Milly?”</p> +<p>“Why, Aunt Emma, always in stories, you know, it’s +the bad people get hurt and die. And now it’s poor little +Becky that’s hurt. And she’s such a dear little girl, +and helps her mother so. I don’t think she ought to have been +hurt.”</p> +<p>“We don’t know anything about ‘oughts,’ +Milly, darling, you and I. God knows, we trust, and that helps many +people who love God to be patient when they are in trouble or pain. +But think if it had been poor mischievous little Tiza who had been +hurt, how she would have fretted. And now very likely Becky will +bear it beautifully, and so, without knowing it, she will be +teaching Tiza to be patient, and it will do Tiza good to have to +help Becky and take care of her for a bit, instead of letting Becky +always look after her and get her out of scrapes.”</p> +<p>“Oh, and Aunt Emma, can’t we all take care of Becky? +What can Olly and I do?” said Milly, imploringly.</p> +<p>“I can go and sing all my songs to Becky,” said +Olly, looking up brightly.</p> +<p>“By-and-by, perhaps,” said Aunt Emma, smiling and +patting his head. “But hark! isn’t that father’s +step?”</p> +<p>It had grown so dark that they could hardly see who it was +opening the gate.</p> +<p>“Oh yes, it is,” cried Milly. “It’s +father and mother.” Away they ran to meet them, and Mrs. +Norton took Milly’s little pale face in both her hands and +kissed it.</p> +<p>“She’s not <em>very</em> badly hurt, darling. The +doctor says she must lie quite quiet for two or three weeks, and +then he hopes she’ll be all right. The wheel gave her a +squeeze, which jarred her poor little back and head very much, but +it didn’t break anything, and if she lies very quite the +doctor thinks she’ll get quite well again.” “Oh +mother! and does Tiza know?”</p> +<p>“Yes, we have just been to tell her. Mrs. Wheeler had put +her to bed, but she went up to give her our message, and she said +poor little Tiza began to cry again, and wanted us to tell her +mother she would be <em>so</em> quiet if only they would let her +come back to Becky.”</p> +<p>“Will they, mother?”</p> +<p>“In a few days, perhaps. But she is not to see anybody but +Mrs. Backhouse for a little while.”</p> +<p>“Oh dear!” sighed Milly, while the tears came into +her eyes again. “We shall be going away so soon, and we +can’t say good-bye. Isn’t it sad, mother, just +happening last thing? and we’ve been so happy all the +time.”</p> +<p>“Yes, Milly,” said Mr. Norton, lifting her on to his +knee. “This is the first really sad thing that ever happened +to you in your little life I think. Mother, and I, and Aunt Emma, +tell you stories about sad things, but that’s very different, +isn’t it?”</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Milly, thinking. “Father, are +there as many sad things really as there are in stories?—you +know what I mean.”</p> +<p>“There are a great many sad things and sad people in the +world, Milly. We don’t have monsters plaguing us like King +Hrothgar, but every day there is trouble and grief going on +somewhere, and we happy and strong people must care for the sad +ones if we want to do our duty and help to straighten the world a +little.”</p> +<p>“Father,” whispered Milly, softly, “will you +tell us how—Olly and me? We would if we knew how.”</p> +<p>“Well, Milly, suppose you begin with Becky, and poor Tiza +too, indeed. I wonder whether a pair of little people could make a +scrap-book for Becky to look at when she is getting +better?”</p> +<p>“Oh yes, yes!” said Milly, joyfully, +“I’ve got ever so many pictures in mother’s +writing-book, she let me cut out of her ‘Graphics,’ and +Olly can help paste; can’t you, Olly?”</p> +<p>“Olly generally pastes his face more than anything +else,” said Mr. Norton, giving a sly pull at his brown curls. +“If I’m not very much mistaken, there is a little fairy +pasting up your eyes, old man.”</p> +<p>“I’m not sleepy, not a bit,” said Olly, +sitting bolt upright and blinking very fast.</p> +<p>“I think you’re not sleepy, but just asleep,” +said Mr. Norton, catching him up in his arms, and carrying him to +his mother to say good-night.</p> +<p>Milly went very soberly and quietly up to bed, and for some +little time she lay awake, her little heart feeling very sore and +heavy about the “sad things” in the world. Then with +her thoughts full of Becky she fell asleep.</p> +<p>So ended Milly’s birthday, a happy day and a sorrowful +day, all in one. When Milly grew older there was no birthday just +before or after it she remembered half so clearly as that on which +she was seven years old.</p> +<h2><a id="Chapter10" name="Chapter10">CHAPTER X</a></h2> +<h3>Last Days at Ravensnest</h3> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>On Friday morning the children and their father trudged up very +early to the farm to get news of Becky. She had had a bad night Mr. +Backhouse said, but she had taken some milk and beef-tea; she knew +her father and mother quite well, and she had asked twice for Tiza. +The doctor said they must just be patient. Quiet and rest would +make her well again, and nothing else, and Tiza was not to go home +for a day or two.</p> +<p>As for poor Tiza, a long sleep had cheered her up greatly, and +when Milly and Olly went to take her out with them after breakfast, +they found her almost as merry and chatty as usual. But she +didn’t like being kept at the Wheelers’s, though they +were very kind to her; and it was all Mrs. Wheeler could do to +prevent her from slipping up to the farm unknown to anybody.</p> +<p>“They don’t have porridge for breakfast,” said +Tiza, tossing her head, when she and Milly were out together. +“Mother always gives us porridge. And I won’t sit next +Charlie. He’s always dirtying hisself. He stickied hisself +just all over this morning with treacle. Mother would have given +him a clout.”</p> +<p>However, on the whole, she was as good as such a wild creature +could be, and the children and she had some capital times together. +Wheeler the gardener let them gather strawberries and currants for +making jam, a delightful piece of work, which helped to keep Tiza +out of mischief and make her contented with staying away from home +more than anything else. At last, after three days, the doctor said +she might come home if she would promise to be quiet in the house. +So one bright evening Tiza slipped into the farmhouse and squeezed +in after her mother to the little room where Becky was lying, a +white-faced feverish little creature, low down among the +pillows.</p> +<p>“Becky,” said Tiza, sitting down beside her sister, +as if nothing had happened, “here’s some strawberries. +Wheeler gave me some. You can have some if you want.”</p> +<p>“Just one,” said Becky, in her weak shaky voice, +smiling at her; and Tiza knelt on the bed and stuffed one softly +into her mouth.</p> +<p>“You’ll have to nurse baby now, Tiza,” said +Becky presently; “he’s been under mother’s feet +terrible. Mind you don’t let him eat nasty things. +He’ll get at the coals if you don’t mind +him.”</p> +<p>“I’ll not let him,” said Tiza shortly, setting +to work on her own strawberries.</p> +<p>All this didn’t sound very affectionate; but I think all +the same Tiza did love Becky, and I believe she tried to do her +best in her own funny way while Becky was ill. Baby screamed a good +deal certainly when she nursed him, and it was quite impossible of +course for Tiza to keep out of mischief altogether for two or three +weeks. Still, on the whole, she was a help to her mother; while as +for Becky she was never quite happy when Tiza was out of the house. +Becky, like Milly, had a way of loving everybody about her, and +next to her mother she loved Tiza best of anybody.</p> +<p>After all, the children were able to say good-bye to Becky. Just +the day before they were to go away Mr. Backhouse came down to say +that Becky would like to see them very much if they could come, and +the doctor said they might.</p> +<p>So up they went; Milly a good deal excited, and Olly very +curious to see what Becky would look like. Mr. Backhouse took them +in, and they found Becky lying comfortably on a little bed, with a +patchwork counterpane, and her shoulders and arms covered up in a +red flannel dressing-gown that Aunt Emma had sent her.</p> +<div class="figure"><a href="images/illus8.png"><img src= +"images/illus8.png" alt= +"“‘Haven’t you got a bump?’ asked Olly”" +id="illus8" name="illus8" width="100%" /></a> +<p>“‘Haven’t you got a bump?’ asked +Olly”</p> +</div> +<p>Milly kissed her, and Olly shook her hand, and they didn’t +all quite know what to say.</p> +<p>“Is your back better?” said Milly at last. +“I’m so glad the doctor let us come.”</p> +<p>“Haven’t you got a bump?” asked Olly, looking +at her with all his eyes. “We thought you’d have a +great black bump on your fore-head, you know—ever so +big.”</p> +<p>“No, it’s a cut,” said Becky; “there +now, you can see how it’s plastered up.”</p> +<p>“Did it hurt?” said Olly, “did you kick? I +should have kicked. And does the doctor give you nasty +medicine?”</p> +<p>“No,” said Becky, “I don’t have any now. +And it wasn’t nasty at all what I had first. And now I may +have strawberries and raspberries, and Mr. Wheeler sends mother a +plate everyday.”</p> +<p>“I don’t think it’s fair that little boys +shouldn’t never be ill,” said Olly, with his eyes +fastened on Becky’s plate of strawberries, which was on the +chest of drawers.</p> +<p>“Oh, you funny boy,” said Milly, “why, mother +gives you some every day though you aren’t ill; and I’m +sure you wouldn’t like staying in bed.”</p> +<p>“Yes, I should,” said Olly, just for the sake of +contradicting. “Do you know, Becky, we’ve got a secret, +and we’re not to tell it you, only Milly and I are going +to—”</p> +<p>“Don’t!” said Milly, putting her hand over, +his mouth. “You’ll tell in a minute. You’re +always telling secrets.”</p> +<p>“Well, just half, Milly, I won’t tell it all you +know. It’s just like something burning inside my mouth. +We’re going to make you something, Becky, when we get home. +Something be—ootiful, you know. And you can look at it in +bed, and we won’t make it big, so you can turn over the +pages, and—”</p> +<p>“Be quiet, Olly,” said Milly, “I should think +Becky’ll guess now. It’ll come by post, Becky. +Mother’s going to help us make it. You’ll like it I +know.”</p> +<p>“It’s—it’s—a picture-book!” +said Olly, in a loud whisper, putting his head down to Becky. +“You won’t tell, will you?”</p> +<p>“Oh, you unkind boy,” said Milly, pouting. +“I’ll never have a secret with you again.”</p> +<p>But Becky looked very pleased, and said she would like a +picture-book she thought very much, for it was dull sometimes when +mother was busy and Tiza was nursing baby. So perhaps, after all, +it didn’t matter having told her.</p> +<p>“I’m going to write to you, Becky,” said +Milly, when the time came to go away, “and at Christmas +I’ll send you a Christmas card, and perhaps some day +we’ll come here again you know.”</p> +<p>“And then we’ll milk the cows,” said Olly, +“won’t we, Becky? And I’ll ride on your big +horse. Mr. Backhouse says I may ride all alone some day when +I’m big; when I’m sixty—no, when I’m +ninety-five you know.”</p> +<p>And then Milly and Olly kissed Becky’s pale little face +and went away, while poor little Becky looked after them as if she +was <em>very</em> sorry to see the last of them; and outside there +were Tiza and baby and Mrs. Backhouse and even John Backhouse +himself, waiting to say good-bye to them. It made Milly cry a +little bit, and she ran away fast down the hill, while Tiza and +Olly were still trying which could squeeze hands hardest.</p> +<p>“Oh, you dear mountains,” said Milly, as she and +nurse walked along together. “Look Nana, aren’t they +lovely?”</p> +<p>They did look beautiful this last evening. The sun was shining +on them so brightly that everything on them, up to the very top, +was clear and plain, and high up, ever so far away, were little +white dots moving, which Milly knew were cows feeding.</p> +<p>“Good-bye river, good-bye stepping-stones, good-bye doves, +good-bye fly-catchers! Mind you don’t any of you go away till +we come back again.”</p> +<p>But I should find it very hard to tell you all the good-byes +that Milly and Olly said to the places and people at Ravensnest, to +the woods and the hay-fields, and the beck, to Aunt Emma’s +parrot, John Backhouse’s cows, to Windermere Lake and Rydal +Lake, above all to dear Aunt Emma herself.</p> +<p>“Mind you come at Christmas,” shouted both the +children, as the train moved away from Windermere station and left +Aunt Emma standing on the platform; and Aunt Emma nodded and smiled +and waved her handkerchief to them till they were quite out of +sight.</p> +<p>“Mother,” said Milly, when they could not see Aunt +Emma any more, and the last bit of Brownholme was slipping away, +away, quite out of sight, “I think Ravensnest is the nicest +place we ever stopped at. And I don’t think the rain matters +either. I’m going to tell your old gentleman so. He said it +rained in the mountains, and it does, mother—doesn’t +it? but he said the rain spoilt everything, and it +doesn’t—not a bit.”</p> +<p>“Why, there’s that curious old fairy been sprinkling +dust in your eyes too, Milly!”</p> +<p>But something or other had been sprinkling tears in +mother’s. For to the old people there is nothing sweeter than +to see the young ones opening their hearts to all that they +themselves have loved and rejoiced over. So the chain of life goes +on, and joy gives birth to joy and love to love.</p> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13337 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/13337-h/images/cover.jpg b/13337-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..892447c --- /dev/null +++ b/13337-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/13337-h/images/illus1.png b/13337-h/images/illus1.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0332604 --- /dev/null +++ b/13337-h/images/illus1.png diff --git a/13337-h/images/illus2.png b/13337-h/images/illus2.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d227698 --- /dev/null +++ b/13337-h/images/illus2.png diff --git a/13337-h/images/illus3.png b/13337-h/images/illus3.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f46665e --- /dev/null +++ b/13337-h/images/illus3.png diff --git a/13337-h/images/illus4.png b/13337-h/images/illus4.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..80b07a0 --- /dev/null +++ b/13337-h/images/illus4.png diff --git a/13337-h/images/illus5.png b/13337-h/images/illus5.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e130441 --- /dev/null +++ b/13337-h/images/illus5.png diff --git a/13337-h/images/illus6.png b/13337-h/images/illus6.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f7925b3 --- /dev/null +++ b/13337-h/images/illus6.png diff --git a/13337-h/images/illus7.png b/13337-h/images/illus7.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1a1f3fc --- /dev/null +++ b/13337-h/images/illus7.png diff --git a/13337-h/images/illus8.png b/13337-h/images/illus8.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..bbeb851 --- /dev/null +++ b/13337-h/images/illus8.png diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1a4a0ab --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #13337 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13337) diff --git a/old/13337-8.txt b/old/13337-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9bea596 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13337-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5580 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Milly and Olly, by Mrs. Humphry Ward + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Milly and Olly + +Author: Mrs. Humphry Ward + +Release Date: August 31, 2004 [EBook #13337] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MILLY AND OLLY *** + + + + +Produced by Andrew Templeton, Juliet Sutherland, Barbara Tozier and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + +[Illustration: "Two funny fair-haired children with their fingers in +their mouths"] + + + + +MILLY AND OLLY + + +New Revised Edition + + +BY + +MRS. HUMPHRY WARD + + + +Illustrated by RUTH M. HALLOCK + + + +GARDEN CITY NEW YORK +DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY +1914 + + + + +DEDICATION + + +TO F.A., IN THE NAME OF THE CHILDREN OF FOX HOW, THIS REVIVAL OF A +CHILD'S STORY WRITTEN TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS AGO, UNDER THE SPELL OF ROTHA +AND FAIRFIELD, IS INSCRIBED BY THE WRITER. + + + + +PREFACE + + +After many years this little book is once more to see the light. The +children for whom it was written are long since grown up. But perhaps +the pleasure they once took in it may still be felt by some of the +Millys and Ollys of to-day. Up in the dear mountain country which it +describes, the becks are still sparkling; "Brownholme" still spreads its +green steeps and ferny hollows under rain and sun; the tiny trout still +leap in its tiny streams; and Fairfield, in its noble curve, still +girdles the deep valley where these children played: the valley of +Wordsworth and Arnold--the valley where Arnold's poet-son rambled as a +boy--where, for me, the shy and passionate ghost of Charlotte Brontë +still haunts the open door-way of Fox How--where poetry and generous +life and ranging thought still dwell, and bring their benediction to the +passers-by. "Aunt Emma" in her beautiful home, unchanged but for its +vacant chairs, is now as she ever was, the friend of old and young; and +the children of to-day still press to her side as their elders did +before them. The parrot alas! is gone where parrots may; but amid the +voices that breathe around Fox How--the voices of seventy years--his +mimic speech is still remembered by the children who teased and loved +him. For love, while love lasts, gives life to all things small and +great; and in those who have once felt it, the love of the Fairfield +valley, of the gray stone house that fronts the fells, and of them that +dwell therein, is "not Time's fool--" + + "Or bends with the remover to remove." + + +MARY A. WARD. + +September 18, 1907. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + I. Making Plans + + II. A Journey North + + III. Ravensnest + + IV. Out on the Hills + + V. Aunt Emma's Picnic + + VI. Wet Days at Ravensnest + + VII. A Story-telling Game + + VIII. The Story of Beowulf + + IX. Milly's Birthday + + X. Last Days at Ravensnest + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + "Two funny fair-haired children with their fingers in their mouths" + + "'I can't do without my toys, Nana'" + + "The flowers Milly gathered for her mother" + + "So they put Olly up on a tall piece of rock, and he sang" + + "He was quite sure that h-a-y spelt 'ham' and s-a-w spelt 'was'" + + "'Suppose we have a story-telling game'" + + "Haymaking" + + "'Haven't you got a bump?' asked Olly" + + + + +CHAPTER I + +MAKING PLANS + + +"Milly, come down! come down directly! Mother wants you. Do make haste!" + +"I'm just coming, Olly. Don't stamp so. Nurse is tying my sash." + +But Master Olly went on stamping, and jumping up and down stairs, as his +way was when he was very much excited, till Milly appeared. Presently +down she came, a sober fair-haired little maiden, with blue eyes and a +turn-up nose, and a mouth that was generally rather solemn-looking, +though it could laugh merrily enough when it tried. Milly was six years +old. She looked older than six. At any rate she looked a great deal +older than Olly, who was nearly five; and you will soon find out that +she was a good deal more than a year and a half wiser. + +"What's the matter, Olly? What made you shout so?" + +"Oh, come along, come along;" said the little boy, pulling at his +sister's hand to make her run. "Mother wants to tell us something, and +she says it's a nice something, and I kissed her like anyfing! but she +wouldn't tell me without you." + +Then the two children set off running, and they flew down a long passage +to the drawing-room, and were soon scrambling about a lady who was +sitting working by the window. + +"Well, monkeys, don't choke me before I tell you my nice something. Sit +on my knee Olly. Now, Milly, guess--what have father and I just been +talking about?" + +"Sending Olly to school, perhaps," said Milly. "I heard Uncle Richard +talking about it yesterday." + +"That wouldn't be such a nice something," said Olly, making a long face. +"I wouldn't like it--not a bit. Boys don't never like going to school. I +want to learn my lessons with mother." + +"I know a little boy that doesn't like learning lessons with mother very +much," said the lady, laughing. "But my nice something isn't sending +Olly to school, Milly. You're quite wrong--so try again." + +"Oh, mother! is it a strawberry tea?" cried Milly. "The strawberries are +just ripe, I know. Gardener told nurse so this morning. And we can have +tea on the lawn, and ask Jacky and Francis!" + +"Oh, jolly!" said Oliver, jumping off his mother's knee and beginning to +dance about. "And we'll gather them ourselves--won't you let us, +mother?" + +"But it isn't a strawberry tea even," said his mother. "Now, look here, +children, what have I got here?" + +"It's a map--a map of England," said Milly, looking very wise. Milly had +just begun to learn geography, and thought she knew all about maps. + +"Well, and what happens when father and I look at maps in the +summertime?" + +"Why," said Milly, slowly, "you and father pack up your things, and go +away over the sea, and we stay behind with nurse." + +"I don't call _that_ a nice something," said Olly, standing still again. + +"Oh, mother, _are_ you going away?" said Milly, hanging round her +mother's neck. + +"Yes, Milly, and so's father, and so's nurse"--and their mother began to +laugh. + +"So's nurse?" said Milly and Olly together, and then they stopped and +opened two pairs of round eyes very wide, and stared at their mother. +"Oh, mother, mother, take us too!" + +"Why, how should father and I get on, travelling about with a pair of +monkeys?" said their mother, catching hold of the two children and +lifting them on to her knee; "we should want a cage to keep them in." + +"Oh, mother, we'll be _ever_ so good! But where are we going? Oh, do +take us to the sea!" + +"Yes, the sea! the sea!" shouted Olly, careering round the room again; +"we'll have buckets and spades, and we'll paddle and catch crabbies, and +wet our clothes, and have funny shoes, just like Cromer. And father'll +teach me to swim--he said he would next time." + +"No," said Mrs. Norton, for that was the name of Milly's and Oliver's +mother. "No, we are not going to the sea this summer. We are going to a +place mother loves better than the sea, though perhaps you children +mayn't like it quite so well. We're going to the mountains. Uncle +Richard has lent father and mother his own nice house among the +mountains and we're all going there next week--such a long way in the +train, Milly." + +"What are mountains?" said Olly, who had scarcely ever seen a hill +higher than the church steeple. "They can't be so nice as the sea, +mother. Nothing can." + +"They're humps, Olly," answered Milly eagerly. "Great, big humps of +earth, you know; earth mixed with stone. And they reach up ever so high, +up into the sky. And it takes you a whole day to get up to the top of +them, and a whole day to get down again. Doesn't it, mother? Fräulein +told me all about mountains in my geography. And some mountains have got +snow on their tops all year, even in summer, when it's so hot, and we're +having strawberries. Will the mountains we're going to, have snow on +them?" + +"Oh, no. The snow mountains are far away over the sea. But these are +English mountains, kind, easy mountains, not too high for you and me to +climb up, and covered all over with soft green grass and wild flowers, +and tiny sheep with black faces." + +"And, mother, is there a garden to Uncle Richard's house, and are there +any children there to play with?" + +"There's a delightful garden, full of roses, and strawberries and +grapes, and everything else that's nice. And it has a baby river all to +itself, that runs and jumps and chatters all through the middle of it, +so perhaps Olly may have a paddle sometimes, though we aren't going to +the sea. And the gardener has got two little children, just about your +age, Aunt Mary says: and there are two more at the farm, two dear little +girls, who aren't a bit shy, and will like playing with you very much. +But who else shall we see there, Milly? Who lives in the mountains too, +near Uncle Richard?" + +Olly looked puzzled, but Milly thought a minute, and then said quickly, +"Aunt Emma, isn't it, mother? Didn't she come here once? I think I +remember." + +"Yes, she came once, but long ago, when you were quite small. But now we +shall see a great deal of her I hope, for she lives just on the other +side of the mountain from Uncle Richard's house, in a dear old house, +where I spent many, many happy days when I was small. Great-grandpapa +and grandmamma were alive then. But now Aunt Emma lives there quite +alone. Except for one creature, at least, an old gray poll-parrot, that +chatters away, and behaves as if it were quite sensible, and knew all +about everything." + +"Hasn't she got any pussies, mother?" asked Olly. + +"Yes, two I believe; but they don't get on with Polly very well, so they +live in the kitchen out of the way--" + +"I like pussies better than pollies," said Olly gravely. + +"Why, what do you know about pollies, old man?" + +"Pollies bite, I know they do. There was a polly bited Francis once." + +"Well, and pussies scratch," said Milly. + +"No, they don't, not if you're nicey to them," said Olly; who was just +then very much in love with a white kitten, and thought there were no +creatures so delightful as pussies. + +"Well, suppose you don't make up your mind about Aunt Emma's Polly till +you've seen her," said Mrs. Norton. "Now sit down on the rug there and +let us have a talk." + +Down squatted the children on the floor opposite their mother, with +their little heads full of plans and their eyes as bright as sparks. + +"I'll take my cart and horse," began Olly; "and my big ball, and my +whistle, and my wheelbarrow, and my spade, and all my books, and the big +scrap-book, and--" + +"You can't, Olly," exclaimed Milly. "Nurse could never pack all those +up. There'd be no room for our clothes. You can take your whistle, and +the top, and the picture books, and I can take my dolls. That'll be +quite enough, won't it, mother?" + +"Quite enough," said Mrs. Norton. "If it's fine weather you'll see--you +won't want any toys. But now, look here, children," and she held up the +map. "Shall I show you how we are going to get to the mountains?" + +"Oh yes," said Milly, "that'll be like my geography lesson--come, Olly. +Now mother'll teach _you_ geography, like Fräulein does me." + +"That's lessons," said Olly, with half a pout, "not fun a bit. It's only +girls like lessons--Boys never do--Jacky doesn't, and Francis doesn't, +and I don't." + +"Never mind about it's being lessons, Olly. Come and see if it isn't +interesting," said Mrs. Norton. "Now, Milly, find Willingham." + +Willingham was the name of the town where Milly and Oliver lived. It is +a little town in Oxfordshire, and if you look long enough on the map you +_may_ find it, though I won't promise you. + +"There it is," said Milly triumphantly, showing it to her mother and +Olly. + +"Quite right. Now look here," and Mrs. Norton took a pencil out of her +pocket and drew a little line along the map. "First of all we shall get +into the train and go to a place called--look, Milly." + +"Bletchley," said Milly, following where the pencil pointed. "What an +ugly name." + +"It's an ugly place," said Mrs. Norton, "so perhaps it doesn't deserve a +better name. And after Bletchley--look again, Milly." + +"Rugby," said Milly, reading the names as her mother pointed, "and then +Stafford, and then Crewe--what a funny name, mother!--and then Wigan, +and then Warrington, and then Lancaster. Ox-en-holme, Kendal, +Wind-er-mere. Oh, mother, what a long way! Why, we've got right to the +top of England." + +"Stop a bit, Milly, and let me tell you something about these places. +First of all we shall get out of the train at Bletchley, and get into +another train that will go faster than the first. And it will take us +past all kinds of places, some pretty and some ugly, and some big and +some small. At Stafford there is an old castle, Milly, where fierce +people lived in old days and fought their neighbours. And at Crewe we +shall get out and have our dinner. And at Wigan all the trees grow on +one side as if some one had come and given them a push in the night; and +at Lancaster there's another old castle, a very famous one, only now +they have turned it into a prison, and people are shut up inside it. +Then a little way after Lancaster you'll begin to see some mountains, +far, far away, but first you'll see something else--just a little bit of +blue sea, with mountains on the other side of it. And then will come +Windermere, where we shall get out and drive in a carriage. And we shall +drive right into the mountains, Olly, till they stand up all round us +with their dear kind old faces that mother has loved ever since she was +a baby." + +The children looked up wonderingly at their mother, and they saw her +face shining and her eyes as bright as theirs, as if she too was a child +going out for a holiday. + +"Oh! And, mother," said Olly, "you'll let us take Spot. She can go in my +box." + +Now Spot was the white kitten, so Milly and mother began to laugh. + +"Suppose you go and ask Spot first, whether she'd like it, Olly," said +Mrs. Norton, patting his sunburnt little face. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A JOURNEY NORTH + + +Milly and Oliver lived at Willingham, a little town in Oxfordshire, as I +have already told you. Their father was a doctor, and they lived in an +old-fashioned house, in a street, with a long shady garden stretching +away behind it. Milly and Oliver loved their father, and whenever he put +his brown face inside the nursery door, two pairs of little feet went +running to meet him, and two pairs of little hands pulled him eagerly +into the room. But they saw him very seldom; whereas their mother was +always with them, teaching them their lessons, playing with them in the +garden, telling them stories, mending their frocks, tucking them up in +their snug little beds at night, sometimes praising them, sometimes +scolding them; always loving and looking after them. Milly and Olly +honestly believed that theirs was the best mother in the whole world. +Nobody else could find out such nice plays, or tell them such wonderful +stories, or dress dolls half so well. Two little neighbours of theirs, +Jacky and Francis, had a poor sick mother who always lay on the sofa, +and could hardly bear to have her little boys in the room with her. +Milly and Oliver were never tired of wondering how Jacky and Francis got +on with a mother like that. "How funny, and how dreadful it must be. +Poor Jacky and Francis!" It never came into their, heads to say, "Poor +Jacky's mother" too, but then you see they were such little people, and +little people have only room in their heads for a very few thoughts at a +time. + +However, Milly had been away from her mother a good deal lately. About +six months before my story begins she had been sent to school, to a +kindergarten, as she was taught to call it. And there Milly had learnt +all kinds of wonderful things--she had learnt how to make mats out of +paper, blue mats, and pink mats, and yellow mats, and red mats; she had +learned how to make a bit of soft clay look like a box, or a stool, or a +bird's nest with three clay eggs inside it; she had begun to add up and +take away; and, above all, she had begun to learn geography, and +Fräulein--for Milly's mistress was a German, and had a German name--was +just now teaching her about islands, and lakes, and capes, and +peninsulas, and many other things that all little girls have to learn +about some time or other, unless they wish to grow up dunces. + +As for Milly's looks, I have told you already that she had blue eyes and +a turn-up nose, and a dear sensible little face. And she had very thick +fair hair, that was always tumbling about her eyes, and making her look, +as nurse told her, like "a yellow owl in an ivy bush." Milly loved most +people, except perhaps John the gardener, who was rather cross to the +children, and was always calling to them not to walk "on them beds," and +to be sure not to touch any of his fruit or flowers. She loved her +father and her mother; she loved Olly with all her whole heart, though +he was a tease, she loved her nurse, whom she and Olly called Nana, and +who had been with them ever since Milly was born; and she loved +Fräulein, and was always begging flowers from her mother that she might +take them to school for Fräulein's table. So you see Milly was made up +of loving. And she was a thoughtful little girl too, tidy with her +dress, quick and quiet at her lessons, and always ready to sit still +with her fairy-book or her doll, when mother was busy or tired. But +there were two things in which Milly was not at all sensible in spite of +her sensible face. She was much too ready to cry when any little thing +went wrong, and she was dreadfully afraid of creatures of all sorts. She +was afraid of her father's big dog, she was afraid of the dear brown cow +that lived in the field beyond the garden, she was afraid of earwigs. I +am even ashamed to say she was afraid of spiders. Once she ran away as +if a lion were behind her from a white kitten that pulled her dress with +its frolicsome paws to make her play with it; but that, Milly would tell +you, was "when I was little," and she was quite sure she was a good deal +braver now. + +Now what am I to tell you about Olly? + +Olly was just a round ball of fun and mischief. He had brown hair, brown +eyes, a brown face, and brown hands. He was always touching and meddling +with everything, indoors and out, to see what was inside it, or what it +was made of. He liked teasing Milly, he liked his walks, he liked his +sleep in the morning, he liked his dinner, he liked his tea, he liked +everything in the world, except learning to read, and that he hated. He +could only do one thing besides mischief. He could sing all kinds of +tunes--quick tunes, slow tunes, and merry tunes. He had been able to +sing tunes ever since he was quite a tiny baby, and his father and +mother often talked together of how, in about a year, he should be +taught to play on the piano, or perhaps on the violin, if he liked it +better. You might hear his sharp, shrill little voice, singing about the +house and the garden all day long. John the gardener called it +"squealin'," and told Olly his songs were "capital good" for frightening +away the birds. + +Now, perhaps, you know a little more about Milly and Olly than you did +when I began to tell you about them, and it is time you should hear of +what happened to them on that wonderful journey of theirs up to the +mountains. + +First of all came the packing up. Milly could not make up her mind about +her dolls; she had three--Rose, Mattie, and Katie--but Rose's frocks +were very dirty, Mattie had a leg broken, and Katie's paint had been all +washed off one wet night, when Olly left her out on the lawn. Now which +of these was the tidiest and most respectable doll to take out on a +visit? Milly did not know how to settle it. + +[Illustration: "'I can't do without my toys, Nana'"] + +"I think, Nana," she said at last to her nurse, who was packing the +children's trunk, "I will take Katie. Mother always sends us away when +we get white faces to make us look nice and red again; so, perhaps, if I +take Katie her colour will come back too, you know." + +"Perhaps it will, Miss Milly," said nurse, laughing; "anyhow, you had +better give me the doll you want directly, for it is time I packed all +the toys now. Now, Master Olly, you know I can't let you take all those +things." + +For there was Olly dragging along his wheelbarrow heaped up with toys +with one hand, and his cart and horse with a box of bricks standing up +in it with the other. He would not listen to what Milly said about it, +and he would scarcely listen to nurse now. + +"I can't do without my toys, Nana. I _must_ do mischief if you won't let +me take all my toys; I can't help it." + +"I haven't got room for half those, Master Olly, and you'll have ever so +many new things to play with when we get to Ravensnest." + +"There'll be the new children, Olly," said Milly, "and the little rivers +and all the funny new flowers." + +"Those aren't toys," said Olly, looking ready to cry. "I don't know +nothing about them." + +"Now," said nurse, making a place in the box, "bring me your bricks and +your big ball, and your picture-books. There, that's all I can spare +you." + +"Wait one minute," said Olly, rushing off; and just then Mrs. Norton +called nurse away to speak to her in the drawing-room. When nurse came +back she saw nobody in the nursery. Milly had gone out in the garden, +Olly was nowhere to be seen. And who had shut down the trunk, which was +open when she left it? Me-ow, sounded very softly from somewhere close +by. + +"Why--Spot! Spot!" called nurse. + +Me-ow, Me-ow, came again; a sad choky little mew, right from the middle +of the children's trunk. "Master Olly and his tricks again," said nurse, +running to the box and opening it. There, on the top, lay a quantity of +frocks that nurse had left folded up on the floor, thrown in anyhow, +with some toys scattered among them, and the frocks and toys were all +dancing up and down as if they were bewitched. Nurse took out the +frocks, and there was the children's collar-box, a large round +cardboard-box with a lid, jumping from side to side like a box in a +fairy tale; and such dreadful pitiful little mews coming from the +inside! Nurse undid the lid, and out sprang Spot like a flash of +lightning, and ran as if she were running for her life out of the door +and down the stairs, and safe into the kitchen, where she cuddled +herself up in a corner of the fender, wishing with all her poor +trembling little heart that there were no such things in the world as +small boys. And then nurse heard a kind of kicking and scuffling in the +china cupboard, and when she opened it there sat Olly doubled up, his +brown eyes dancing like will-o'-the-wisps, and his little white teeth +grinning. + +"Oh! Nana, she _did_ make a funny me-ow! I just said to her, Now, +Spottie, _wouldn't_ you like to go in my box? and she said, Yes; and I +made her such a comfy bed, and then I stuck all those frocks on the top +of her to keep her warm. Why did you let her out, Nana?" + +"You little mischief," said Nana, "do you know you might have smothered +poor little Spot? And look at all these frocks; do you think I have got +nothing better to do than to tidy up after your tricks?" + +But nurse never knew how to be very hard upon Olly; so all she did was +to set him up on a high chair with a picture-book, where she could see +all he was doing. There was no saying what he might take a fancy to pack +up next if she didn't keep an eye on him. + +Well, presently all the packing was done, and Milly and Olly had gone to +say good-bye to Fräulein, and to Jacky and Francis. Wednesday evening +came, and they were to start early on Thursday morning. Olly begged +nurse to put him to bed very early, that he might "wake up krick"--quick +was a word Olly never could say. So to bed he went at half-past six, and +his head had scarcely touched the pillow two minutes before he had gone +cantering away into dreamland, and was seeing all the sights and hearing +all the delicious stories that children do see and hear in dreamland, +though they don't always remember them when they wake up. Both Milly and +he woke up very early on Thursday morning; and directly his eyes were +open Olly jumped out of bed like an india-rubber ball, and began to put +on his stockings in a terrible hurry. The noise of his jump woke nurse, +and she called out in a sleepy voice: + +"Get into bed again, Master Olly, directly. It is only just six o'clock, +and I can't have you out of bed till seven. You'll only be under my +feet, and in everybody's way." + +"Nana, I won't be in _anybody's_ way," exclaimed Olly, running up to her +and scrambling on to her bed with his little bare toes half way into his +stockings. "I can't keep still in my bed all such a long time. There's +something inside of me, Nana, keeps jumping up and down, and won't let +me keep still. Now, if I get up, you know, Nana, I can help you." + +"Help me, indeed!" said nurse, kissing his little brown face, or as much +of it as could be seen through his curls. "A nice helping that would be. +Come back to bed, sir, and I'll give you some picture-books till I'm +ready to dress you." + +So back to bed Master Olly went, sorely against his will, and there he +had to stay till nurse and Milly were dressed, and the breakfast things +laid. Then nurse gave him his bath and dressed him, and put him up to +eat his bread and milk while she finished the packing. Olly was always +very quiet over his meals, and it was the only time in the day when he +was quiet. + +Presently up rattled the cab, and down ran the children with their +walking things on to see father and John lift the boxes on to the top; +and soon they were saying good-bye to Susan the cook, and Jenny the +housemaid, who were going to stay and take care of the house while they +were away; and then crack went the whip, and off they went to the +station. On the way they passed Jacky and Francis standing at their +gate, and all the children waved their hats and shouted "Hurrah! +hurrah!" At the station nurse kept tight hold of Olly till father had +got the tickets and put all the boxes into the train, and then he and +Milly were safely lifted up into the railway carriage, and nurse and +father and mother came next, with all the bags and shawls and umbrellas. + +Such a settling of legs and arms and packages there was; and in the +middle of it "whew" went the whistle, and off they went away to the +mountains. + +But they had a long way to go before they saw any mountains. First of +all they had to get to Bletchley, and it took about an hour doing that. +And oh! what a lovely morning it was, and how fresh and green the fields +looked as the train hurried along past them. Olly and Milly could see +hundreds and thousands of moon-daisies and buttercups growing among the +wet grass, and every now and then came great bushes of wild-roses, some +pink and some white, and long pools with yellow irises growing along the +side; and sometimes the train went rushing through a little village, and +they could see the little children trotting along to school, with their +books and slates tucked under their arms; and sometimes they went along +for miles together without seeing anything but the white-and-brown cows +in the fields, and the great mother-sheep with their fat white lambs +beside them. The sun shone so brightly, the buttercups were so yellow, +the roses so pink, and the sky so blue, it was like a fairy world. Olly +and Milly were always shouting and clapping their hands at something or +other, for Milly had grown almost as wild as Olly. + +Sh-sh-sh-sh went the train, getting slower and slower till at last it +stopped altogether. + +"Bletchley, Bletchley!" shouted Olly, jumping down off the seat. + +"No, my boy," said his father, catching hold of him, "we shall stop five +more times before we get to Bletchley; so don't be impatient." + +But at last came Bletchley, and the children were lifted out into the +middle of such a bustle, as it seemed to Milly. There were crowds of +people at the station, and they were all pushing backward and forward, +and shouting and talking. + +"Keep hold of me, Olly," said Milly, with an anxious little face. "Oh, +Nana, don't let him go!" + +But nurse held him fast; and very soon they were through the crowd, and +father had put them safe into their new train, into a carriage marked +"Windermere," which would take them all the way to their journey's end. + +"That was like lions and bears, wasn't it, mother?" said Olly, pointing +to the crowd in the station, as they went puffing away. Now, "lions and +bears" was a favourite game of the children's, a romping game, where +everybody ran about and pretended to be somebody else, and where the +more people played, and the more they ran and pushed and tumbled about, +the funnier, it was. And the running, scrambling people at the station +did look rather as if they were playing at lions and bears. + +And now the children had a long day before them. On rushed the train, +past towns and villages, and houses and trains. The sun got hotter and +hotter, and the children began to get a little tired of looking out of +window. Milly asked for a story-book, and was soon very happy reading +"Snow White and Rose Red." She had read it a hundred times before, but +that never mattered a bit. Olly came to sit on nurse's knee while she +showed him pictures, and so the time passed away. And now the train +stopped again, and father lifted Olly on his knee to see a great church +far away over the houses, and taught him to say "Lichfield Cathedral." +And then came Stafford; and Milly looked out for the castle, and +wondered whether the castles in her story-books looked like that, and +whether princesses and fairy godmothers and giants ever lived there in +old times. + +After they had left Stafford, Olly began to get tired and fidgety. First +he went to sit on his father's knee, then on mother's, then on +nurse's--none of them could keep him still, and nothing seemed to amuse +him for long together. + +"Come and have a sleep, Master Olly," said nurse. "You are just tired +and hot. This is a long way for little boys, and we've got ever so far +to go yet." + +"I'm not sleepy, Nana," said Olly, sitting straight up, with a little +flushed face and wide-open eyes. "I'm going to keep awake like father." + +"Father's going to sleep, then," said Mr. Norton, tucking himself up in +a shady corner; "so you go too, Olly, and see which of us can go +quickest." + +When Olly had seen his father's eyes tight shut, and heard him give just +one little snore--it was rather a make-believe snore--he did let nurse +draw him on to her knee; and very soon the little gipsy creature was +fast asleep, with all his brown curls lying like a soft mat over nurse's +arm. Milly, too, shut her eyes and sat very still; she did not mean to +go to sleep, but presently she began to think a great many sleepy +thoughts: Why did the hedges run so fast? and why did the telegraph +wires go up and down as if they were always making curtsies? and was +that really mother opposite, or was it Cinderella's fairy godmother? And +all of a sudden Milly came bump up against a tall blue mountain that had +a face like a man, and cried out when she bumped upon it! + +"Crewe, I declare," exclaimed father, jumping up with a start. "Why, +Olly and I have been asleep nearly an hour! Wake up, children, it's +dinner-time." + +Nurse had to shake Olly a great many times before he would open his +sleepy eyes, and then he stood up rubbing them as if he would rub them +quite away. Father lifted him out, and carried him into a big room, with +a big table in it, all ready for dinner, and hungry people sitting round +it. What fun it was having dinner at a station, with all the grown-up +people. Milly and Olly thought there never was such nice bread and such +nice apple-tart. Nothing at home ever tasted half so good. And after +dinner father took them a little walk up and down the platform, and at +last, just as it was time to get into the train again, he bought them a +paper full of pictures, called the _Graphic_, that amused Olly for a +long way. + +But it was a long long way to Windermere, and poor Milly and Olly began +to get very tired. The trees at Wigan did make them laugh a little bit, +but they were too tired to think them as funny as they would have +thought them in the morning. They are such comical trees! First of all, +the smoke from the smoky chimneys at Wigan has made them black, and +stopped the leaves from growing, and then the wind has blown them all +over on one side, so that they look like ugly little twisted dwarfs, as +if some cruel fairy had touched them with her wand. But Olly soon forgot +all about them; and he began to wander from one end to the other of the +carriage again, scrambling and jumping about, till he gave himself a +hard knock against the seat; and that made him begin to cry--poor tired +little Olly. Then mother lifted him on to her knee, and said to him, +very softly, "Are you very tired, Olly? Never mind, poor little man, we +shan't be very long now, and we're all tired, darling--father's tired, +and I'm tired; and look at Milly there, she looks like a little white +ghost. Suppose you be brave, and try a little extra hard to be good. +Then mother'll love you an extra bit. And what do you think we shall see +soon? such a lovely bit of blue sea with white ships on it. Just you +shut your eyes a little bit till it comes, I'll be sure to tell you." + +And sure enough, after Lancaster, mother gave a little cry, and Olly +jumped up, and Milly came running over, and there before them lay the +dancing windy blue sea, covered over with little white waves, running +and tumbling over each other. And on the other side of it, what did the +children see? + +"Mother, mother! what is it?" cried Olly, pointing with his little brown +hand far away; "is it a fairy palace, mother?" + +"Perhaps it is, Olly; anyway, the hill-fairies live there. For those are +the mountains, the beautiful mountains we are going to see." + +"But how shall we get across the sea to them?" asked Milly, with a +puzzled face. + +"This is only a corner of the sea, Milly--a bay. Don't you remember bays +in your geography? We can't go across it, but we can go round it, and we +shall find the mountains on the other side." + +Oh! how fast the train seemed to go now that there was something to look +at. Everywhere mountains were beginning to spring up. And when they had +said good-bye to the sea, the mountains began to grow taller and taller. +What had happened to the houses too? They had all turned white or gray; +there was no red one left. And the fields had stone walls instead of +hedges; and inside the walls there were small sheep, about as big as the +lambs they had seen near Oxford in the morning. + +Oxenholme, Kendal, Windermere. How glad the tired children were when the +train ran slowly down into Windermere station, and they could jump out +and say good-bye to it for a long, long time! They had to wait a little, +till father had found all the boxes and put them in the carriage that +was waiting for them, and then in they tumbled, nurse having first +wrapped them up in big shawls, for it was evening now, and the wind had +grown cold. That was a nice drive home among the mountains. How tall and +dark and quiet they were. And what was this shining on their left hand, +like a white face running beside them, and peeping from behind the +trees? Why, it was a lake; a great wide lake, with tiny boats upon it, +some with white sails and some without. + +"Mother! mother! may we go in those boats some day?" shouted Olly, in a +little sharp tired voice, and his mother smiled at him, and said--"Yes, +very likely." + +How happy mother looked. She knew all the mountains like old friends, +she could tell all their names; and every now and then, when they came +to a house, she and father would begin to talk about the people who +lived in it, just as if they were talking about people they knew quite +well. And now came a little town, the town of Wanwick mother called it, +right among the mountains, with a river running round it, and a tall +church spire. It began to get darker and darker, and the trees hung down +over the road, so that the children could hardly see. On they went, and +Olly was very nearly asleep again, when the carriage began to crunch +over gravel, and then it stopped, and father called out--"Here we are, +children, here we are at Ravensnest." + +And out they all jumped. What were those bright lights shining? Olly and +Milly hardly knew where they were going as nurse took them in, and one +of Uncle Richard's servants showed them the way upstairs to the nursery. +Such a nice nursery, with candles lit, and a little fire burning, two +bowls of hot bread and milk on the table, and in the corner two little +white beds, as soft and fresh as nests! In twenty minutes Olly was in +one of these little white beds, and Milly in the other. And you may +guess whether they were long about going to sleep. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +RAVENSNEST + + +"Poor little souls! How late they are sleeping. They must have been +tired last night." + +So said nurse at eight o'clock, when she came back into the nursery from +a journey to the kitchen after the breakfast things, and found the +children still fast asleep; so fast that it looked as if they meant to +go on sleeping till dinner-time. + +"Milly!" she called softly, shaking her very gently, "Milly, it's +breakfast-time, wake up!" + +Milly began to move about, and muttered something about "whistles" and +"hedges" in her sleep. + +Then nurse gave her another little shake, and at last Milly's eyes did +try very hard to open--"What is it? What do you want, Nana? Where are +we?--Oh, I know!" + +And up sprang Milly in a second and ran to the window, her sleepy eyes +wide open at last. "Yes, there they are! Come and look, Nana! There, +past those trees--don't you see the mountains? And there is father +walking about; and oh! do look at those roses over there. Dress me +quick, dress me quick, please, dear Nana." + +Thump! bump! and there was Olly out of bed, sitting on the floor rubbing +his eyes. Olly used always to jump out of bed half asleep, and then sit +a long time on the floor waking up. Nurse and Milly always left him +alone till he was quite woke up. It made him cross if you began to talk +to him too soon. + +"Milly," said Olly presently, in a sleepy voice, "I'm going right up the +mountains after breakfast. Aren't you?" + +"Wait till you see them, Master Olly," said nurse, taking him up and +kissing him, "perhaps your little legs won't find it quite so easy to +climb up the mountains as you think." + +"I can climb up three, four, six, seven mountains," said Olly stoutly; +"mountains aren't a bit hard. Mother says they're meant to climb up." + +"Well, I suppose it's like going up stairs a long way," said Milly, +thoughtfully, pulling on her stockings. "You didn't like going up the +stairs in Auntie Margaret's house, Olly." + +Auntie Margaret's house was a tall London house, with ever so many +stairs. The children when they were staying there were put to sleep at +the top, and Olly used to sit down on the stairs and pout and grumble +every time they had to go up. + +But Olly shook his obstinate little head. + +"I don't believe it's a bit like going up stairs." + +However, as they couldn't know what it was like before they tried, nurse +told them it was no good talking about it. So they hurried on with their +dressing, and presently there stood as fresh a pair of morning children +as anyone could wish to see, with rosy cheeks, and smooth hair, and +clean print frocks--for Olly was still in frocks--though when the winter +came mother said she was going to put him into knickerbockers. + +And then nurse took them each by the hand and led them through some long +passages, down a pretty staircase, and through a swing door, into what +looked like a great nagged kitchen, only there was no fireplace in it. +The real kitchen opened out of it at one side, and through the door came +a smell of coffee and toast that made the children feel as hungry as +little hunters. But their own room was straight in front, across the +kitchen without a fireplace, a tiny room with one large window hung +round with roses, and looking out on to a green lawn. + +"Nana, isn't it pretty? Nana, I think it's lovely!" said Milly, looking +out and clapping her hands. And it _was_ a pretty garden they could see +from the window. An up-and-down garden, with beds full of bright +flowers, and grass which was nearly all moss, and so soft that no +cushion could be softer. In the distance they could hear a little +splish-splash among the trees, which came, Milly supposed, from the +river mother had told them about; while, reaching up all round the +house, so that they could not see the top of it from the window, was the +green wild mountain itself, the mountain of Brownholme, under which +Uncle Richard's house was built. + +The children hurried through their breakfast, and then nurse covered +them up with garden pinafores, and took them to the dining-room to find +father and mother. Mr. and Mrs. Norton were reading letters when the +children's curly heads appeared at the open door, and Mrs. Norton was +just saying to her husband: + +"Aunt Emma sends a few lines just to welcome us, and to say that she +can't come over to us to-day, but will we all come over to her to-morrow +and have early dinner, and perhaps a row afterward--" + +"Oh, a row, mother, a row!" shouted Olly, clambering on to his mother's +knee and half-strangling her with his strong little arms; "I can row, +father said I might. Are we going to-day?" + +"No, to-morrow, Olly, when we've seen a little bit of Ravensnest first. +Which of you remembers Aunt Emma, I wonder?" + +"I remember her," said Milly, nodding her head wisely, "she had a big +white cap, and she told me stories. But I don't quite remember her face, +mother--not _quite_." + +"I don't remember her, not one bit," said Olly. "Mother, does she keep +saying, 'Don't do that;' 'Go up stairs, naughty boys,' like Jacky's aunt +does?" + +For the children's playfellows, Jacky and Francis, had an aunt living +with them whom Milly and Olly couldn't bear. They believed that she +couldn't say anything else except "Don't!" and "Go up stairs!" and they +were always in dread lest they should come across an aunt like her. + +"She's the dearest aunt in the whole world," said mother, "and she never +says, 'Don't,' except when she's obliged, but when she does say it +little boys have to mind. When I was a little girl I thought there was +nobody like Aunt Emma, nobody who could make such plans or tell such +splendid stories." + +"And, mother, can't she cut out card dolls? asked Milly. Don't you know +those beautiful card dolls you have in your drawer at home--didn't Aunt +Emma make them?" + +"Yes, of course she did. She made me a whole family once for my +birthday, a father and a mother, and two little girls and two little +boys. And each of the children had two paper dresses and two hats, one +for best and one for every day--and the mother had a white evening dress +trimmed with red, and a hat and a bonnet." + +"I know, mother! they're all in your drawer at home, only one of the +little boys has his head broken off. Do you think Aunt Emma would make +me a set if I asked her?" + +"I can't say, Milly. But I believe Aunt Emma's fingers are just as quick +as ever they were. Now, children, father says he will take you out while +I go and speak to cook. Olly, how do you think we're going to get any +meat for you and Milly here? There are no shops on the mountains." + +"Then we'll eat fisses, little fisses like those!" cried Olly, pointing +to a plate of tiny red-spotted fish that father and mother had been +having for breakfast. + +"Thank you, Olly," said Mr. Norton, laughing; "it would cost a good deal +to keep you in trout, sir. I think we'll try for some plain mutton for +you, even if we have to catch the sheep on the mountains ourselves. But +now come along till mother is ready, and I'll show you the river where +those little fishes lived." + +Out ran the children, ready to go anywhere and see anything in this +beautiful new place, which seemed to them a palace of wonders. And +presently they were skipping over the soft green grass, each holding one +of father's hands, and chattering away to him as if their little tongues +would never stop. What a hot day it was going to be! The sky overhead +was deep blue, with scarcely a cloud, they could hear nothing in the +still air but the sleepy cooing of the doves in the trees by the gate, +and the trees and flowers all looked as if they were going to sleep in +the heat. + +"Father, why did that old gentleman at Willingham last week tell mother +that it always rained in the mountains?" asked Milly, looking up at the +blue sky. + +"Well, Milly, I'm afraid you'll find out before you go home that it does +know how to rain here. Sometimes it rains and rains as if the sky were +coming down and all the world were going to turn into water. But never +mind about that now--it isn't going to rain to-day." + +Down they went through the garden, across the road, and into a field on +the other side of it, a beautiful hay-field full of flowers, with just a +narrow little path through it where the children and Mr. Norton could +walk one behind another. And at the end of the path what do you think +they found? Why, a chattering sparkling river, running along over +hundreds and thousands of brown and green pebbles, so fast that it +seemed to be trying to catch the birds as they skimmed across it. The +children had never seen a river like this before, where you could see +right to the very bottom, and count the stones there if you liked, and +which behaved like a river at play, scrambling and dancing and rushing +along as if it were out for a holiday, like the children themselves. + +"What do you think of that for a river, children?" said Mr. Norton. +"Very early this morning, when you little sleepyheads were in bed, I got +up and came down here, and had my bath over there, look--in that nice +brown pool under the tree." + +"Oh, father!" cried both children, dancing round him. "Let us have our +baths in the river too. Do ask Nana--do, father! We can have our bathing +things on that we had at the sea, and you can come too and teach us to +swim." + +"Well, just once perhaps, if mother says yes, and it's very warm +weather, and you get up very _very_ early. But you won't like it quite +as much as you think. Rivers are very cold to bathe in, and those pretty +stones at the bottom won't feel at all nice to your little toes." + +"Oh, but, father," interrupted Milly, "we could put on our sand shoes." + +"And wouldn't we splash!" said Olly. "Nurse won't let us splash in our +bath, father, she says it makes a mess. I'm sure it doesn't make a +_great_ mess." + +"What do you know about it, shrimp?" said Mr. Norton, "you don't have to +tidy up. Hush, isn't that mother calling? Let's go and fetch her, and +then we'll go and see Uncle Richard's farm, where the milk you had for +breakfast came from. There are three children there, Milly, besides cows +and pigs, and ducks and chickens." + +Back ran Milly and Olly, and there was mother watching for them with a +basket on her arm which had already got some roses lying in it. + +"Oh, mother! where did you get those roses?" cried Milly. + +"Wheeler, the gardener, gave them to me. And now suppose we go first of +all to see Mrs. Wheeler, and gardener's two little children. They live +in that cottage over there, across the brook, and the two little ones +have just been peeping over the wall to try and get a look at you." + +Up clambered Milly and Olly along a steep path that seemed to take them +up into the mountain, when suddenly they turned, and there was another +river, but such a tiny river, Milly could almost jump across it, and it +was tumbling and leaping down the rocks on its way to the big river +which they had just seen, as if it were a little child hurrying to its +mother. + +"Why, mother, what a lot of rivers," said Olly, running on to a little +bridge that had been built across the little stream, and looking over. + +"Just to begin with," said Mrs. Norton. "You'll see plenty more before +you've done. But I can't have you calling this a river, Olly. These baby +rivers are called becks in Westmoreland--some of the big ones, too, +indeed." + +On the other side of the little bridge was the gardener's cottage, and +in front of the door stood two funny fair-haired little children with +their fingers in their mouths, staring at Milly and Olly. One was a +little girl who was really about Milly's age, though she looked much +younger, and the other was a very shy small boy, with blue eyes and +straggling yellow hair, and a face that might have been pretty if you +could have seen it properly. But Charlie seemed to have made up his mind +that nobody ever should see it properly. However often his mother might +wash him, and she was a tidy woman, who liked to see her children look +clean and nice, Charlie was always black. His face was black, his hands +were black, his pinafore was sure to be covered with black marks ten +minutes after he had put it on. Do what you would to him, it was no use, +Charlie always looked as if he had just come out of the coal-hole. + +"Well, Bessie," said Mrs. Norton to the little girl, "is your mother +in?" + +"Naw," said Bessie, without taking her fingers out of her mouth. + +"Oh, I'm sorry for that. Do you know when she's likely to be in?" + +"Naw," said Bessie again, beginning to eat her pinafore as well as her +fingers. Meanwhile Charlie had been creeping behind Bessie to get out of +Olly's way; for Olly, who always wanted to make friends, was trying to +shake hands with him, and Charlie was dreadfully afraid that he wanted +to kiss him too. + +"What a pity," said Mrs. Norton, "I wanted to ask her a question. Come +away, Olly, and don't tease Charlie if he doesn't want to shake hands. +Can you remember, Bessie, to tell your mother that I came to see her?" + +"Yis," said Bessie. + +"And can you remember, too, to ask her if she will let you and Charlie +come down to tea with Miss Milly and Master Olly, this afternoon, at +five o'clock?" + +"Yis," said Bessie, getting shyer and shyer, and eating up her pinafore +faster than ever. + +"Good-bye, then," said Mrs. Norton. + +"Good-bye, Bessie," said Milly, softly, taking her hand. + +Bessie stared at her, but didn't say anything. + +Olly, having quite failed in shaking hands, was now trying to kiss +Charlie; but Charlie wouldn't have it at all, and every time Olly came +near, Charlie pushed him away with his little fists. This made Olly +rather cross, and he began to try with all his strength to make Charlie +kiss him, when suddenly Charlie got away from him, and running to a pile +of logs of wood which was lying in the yard he climbed up the logs like +a little squirrel, and was soon at the top of the heap, looking down on +Olly, who was very much astonished. + +"Mother, _do_ let me climb up too!" entreated Olly, as Mrs. Norton took +his hand to lead him away. "I want to climb up krick like that! Oh, do +let me try!" + +"No, no, Olly! come along. We shall never get to the farm if you stay +climbing here. And you wouldn't find it as easy as Charlie does, I can +tell you." + +"Why, I'm bigger than Charlie," said Olly, pouting, as they walked away. + +"But you haven't got such stout legs; and, besides, Charlie is always +out of doors all day long, climbing and poking about. I daresay he can +do outdoor things better than you can. You're a little town boy, you +know." + +"Charlie's got a black face," said Olly, who was not at all pleased that +Charlie, who was smaller than he was, and dirty besides, could do +anything better than he could. + +"Well, you see, he hasn't got a Nana always looking after him as you +have." + +"Hasn't he got _any_ Nana?" asked Olly, looking as if he didn't +understand how there could be little children without Nanas. + +"He hasn't got any nurse but his mother, and Mrs. Wheeler has a great +deal else to do than looking after him. What would you be like, do you +think, Olly, if I had to do all the housework, and cook the dinner, and +mind the baby, and there was no nurse to wash your face and hands for +you?" + +"I should get just like shock-headed Peter," said Olly, shaking his head +gravely at the idea. Shock-headed Peter was a dirty little boy in one of +Olly's picture-books; but I am sure you must have heard about him +already, and must have seen the picture of him with his bushy hair, and +his terrible long nails like birds' claws. Olly was never tired of +hearing about him, and about all the other children in that +picture-book. + +"What a funny little girl Bessie is, mother!" said Milly. "Do they +always say _Naw_ and _Yis_ in this country, instead of saying No and +Yes, like we do?" + +"Well, most of the people that live here do," said Mrs. Norton. "Their +way of talking sounds odd and queer at first, Milly, but when you get +used to it you will like it as I do, because it seems like a part of the +mountains." + +All this time they had been climbing up a steep path behind the +gardener's house, and now Mr. Norton opened a door in a high wall, and +let the children into a beautiful kitchen-garden made on the mountain +side, so that when they looked down from the gate they could see the +chimneys of Ravensnest just below them. Inside there were all kinds of +fruit and vegetables, but gooseberry bushes and the strawberries had +nothing but green gooseberries and white strawberries to show, to Olly's +great disappointment. + +"Why aren't the strawberries red, mother?" he asked in a discontented +voice, as if it must be somebody's fault that they weren't red. "Ours at +home were ripe." + +"Well, Olly, I suppose the strawberries know best. All I can tell you +is, that things always get ripe here later than at Willingham. Their +summer begins a little later than ours does, and so everything gets +pushed on a little. But there will be plenty by-and-by. And suppose just +now, instead of looking at the strawberries, you give just one look at +the mountains. Count how many you can see all round." + +"One, two, three, five," counted Olly. "What great big humps! Should we +be able to touch the sky if we got up to the top of that one, mother?" +and he pointed to a great blue mountain where the clouds seemed to be +resting on the top. + +"Well, if you were up there just now, you would be all among the clouds, +and it would seem like a white fog all round you. So you would be +touching the clouds at any rate." + +Olly opened his eyes very wide at the idea of touching the clouds. + +"Why, mother, we can't touch the clouds at home!" + +"That comes of living in a country as flat as a pancake," said Mr. +Norton. "Just you wait till we can buy a tame mountain, and carry it to +Willingham with us. Then we'll put it down in the middle of the garden, +and the clouds will come down to sit on the top of it just as they do +here. But now, who can scramble over that gate?" + +For the gate at the other end of the garden was locked, and as the +gardener couldn't be found, everybody had to scramble over, mother +included. However, Mr. Norton helped them all over, and then they found +themselves on a path running along the green mountain side. On they +went, through pretty bits of steep hay-fields, where the grass seemed +all clover and moon-daisies, till presently they came upon a small +hunched-up house, with a number of sheds on one side of it and a +kitchen-garden in front. This was Uncle Richard's farm; a very tiny +farm, where a man called John Backhouse lived, with his wife and two +little girls and a baby-boy. Except just in the hay-time, John Backhouse +had no men to help him, and he and his wife had to do all the work, to +look after the sheep, and the cows, the pigs, the horse, and the +chickens, to manage the garden and the hayfield, and to take the butter +and milk to the people who wanted to buy it. When their children grew up +and were able to help, Backhouse and his wife would be able to do it all +very well; but just now, when they were still quite small, it was very +hard work; it was all the farmer and his wife could do to make enough to +keep themselves and their children fed and clothed. + +Milly and Olly were very anxious to see the farmer's children and looked +out for them in the garden as they walked up to the house, but there +were no signs of them. The door was opened by Mrs. Backhouse, the +farmer's wife, who held a fair-haired baby in her arms sucking a great +crust of brown bread, and when Mr. and Mrs. Norton had shaken hands with +her--"I'm sure, ma'am, I'm very pleased to see you here," said Mrs. +Backhouse. "John told me you were come (only Mrs. Backhouse said +'coom'), and Becky and Tiza went down with their father when he took the +milk this morning, hoping they would catch a sight of your children. +They have been just wild to see them, but I told them they weren't +likely to be up at that time in the morning." + +"Where are they now?" asked Mrs. Norton. "Mine have been looking out for +them as we came along." + +"Well, ma'am, I can't say, unless they're in the cherry-tree. Becky! +Tiza!" + +A faint "Yis" came from the other end of the garden, but still Milly and +Olly could see nothing but a big cherry-tree growing where the voice +seemed to come from. + +"You go along that path, missy, and call again. You'll be sure to find +them," said Mrs. Backhouse, pointing to the tree. "And won't you come +in, ma'am, and rest a bit? You'll be maybe tired with walking this hot +day." + +So Mr. and Mrs. Norton went into the farmhouse, and the children went +hand-in-hand down the garden, looking for Becky and Tiza. + +Suddenly, as they came close to the cherry-tree, they heard a laugh and +a little scuffling, and looking up, what should they see but two little +girls perched up on one of the cherry-tree branches, one of them sewing, +the other nursing a baby kitten. Both of them had coloured print +bonnets, but the smaller had taken hers off and was rolling the kitten +up in it. The little girl sewing had a sensible, sober face; as for the +other, she could not have looked sober if she had tried for a week of +Sundays. It made you laugh only to look at Tiza. From the top of her +curly head to the soles of her skipping little feet, she was the +sauciest, merriest, noisiest creature. It was she who was always playing +tricks on the cows and the horse, and the big sheep-dogs; who liked +nothing so well as teasing Becky and dressing up the kittens, and who +was always tumbling into the milkpail, or rolling downstairs, or losing +herself in the woods, without somehow ever coming to any harm. If she +and Olly had been left alone in the world together they _must_ have come +to a bad end, but luckily each of them had wiser people to take care of +them. + +"Becky," said Milly, shyly, looking up into the tree, "will you come +down and say how do you do to us?" + +Becky stuck her needle in her work and scrambled down with a red shy +face to shake hands; but Tiza, instead of coming down, only climbed a +little higher, and peeped at the others between the branches. + +"We came down to the house when fayther took the milk this morning," +said Becky. "We thought maybe we'd see you in the garden. Only Tiza said +she'd run away if she did see you." + +"Why doesn't Tiza come down?" asked Olly, looking hard up into the tree. +"I want to see her." + +Thump! What was that rattling down on Olly's head? He looked down at his +feet very much astonished, and saw a bunch of green cherries which Tiza +had just thrown at him. + +"Throw some more! Throw some more!" he cried out, and Tiza began to pelt +him fast, while Olly ran here and there picking them up, and every now +and then trying to throw them back at Tiza; but she was too high up for +him to reach, and they only came rattling about his head again. + +"She won't come down," said Becky, looking up at her sister. "Maybe she +won't speak to you for two or three days. And if you run after her she +hides in such queer places you can never find her." + +"But mother wants you and her to come to tea with us this afternoon," +said Milly; "won't Tiza come?" + +"I suppose mother'll make her," said Becky, "but she doesn't like it. +Have you been on the fell?" + +Milly looked puzzled. "Do you mean on the mountain? No, not yet. We're +going to-morrow when we go to Aunt Emma's. But we've been to the river +with father." + +"Did you go over the stepping-stones?" + +"No," said Milly, "I don't know what they are. Can we go this evening +after tea?" + +"Oh yes," said Becky, "they're just close by your house. Does your +mother let you go in the water?" + +Now Becky said a great many of these words very funnily, so that Milly +could hardly understand her. She said "doos" and "oop," and "knaw," and +"jist," and "la-ike," but it sounded quite pretty from her soft little +mouth, and Milly thought she had a very nice way of talking. + +"No, mother doesn't let us go in the water here, at least, not unless +it's very warm. We paddle when we go to the sea, and some day father +says we may have our bath in the river if it's very fine." + +"We never have a bath in the river," said Becky, looking very much +astonished at the idea. + +"Do you have your bath in the nursery like we do?" asked Milly. + +"We haven't got a nursery," said Becky, staring at her, "mother puts us +in the toob on Saturday nights. I don't mind it but Tiza doesn't like it +a bit. Sometimes she hides when it's Saturday night, so that mother +can't find her till it's too late." + +"Don't you have a bath except on Saturday?" said Milly. "Olly and I have +one every morning. Mother says we should get like shock-headed Peter if +we didn't." + +"I don't know about him," said Becky, shaking her head. + +"He's a little boy in a picture-book. I'll show him you when you come to +tea. But there's mother calling. Come along, Olly. Tiza won't come down +Becky says." + +"She's a very rude girl," said Olly, who was rather hot and tired with +his game, and didn't think it was all fun that Tiza should always hit +him and he should never be able to hit Tiza. "I won't sit next her when +she comes to tea with us." + +"Tiza's only in fun," said Becky, "she's always like that. Tiza, are you +coming down? I am going to get baby out, I heard him crying just now." + +"May you take baby out all by yourself?" asked Milly. + +"Why, I always take him out, and I put him to sleep at nights; and +mother says he won't go to sleep for anybody as quick as for me," said +Becky proudly. + +Milly felt a good deal puzzled. It _must_ be funny to have no Nana. + +"Will you and he," said Becky, pointing to Olly, "come up this afternoon +and help us call the cows?" + +"If we may," said Milly; "who calls them?" + +"Tiza and I," answered Becky; "when I'm a big girl I shall learn how to +milk, but fayther says I'm too little yet." + +"I wish I lived at a farm," said Milly disconsolately. + +Becky didn't quite know what to say to this, so she began to call Tiza +again. + +"Swish!" went something past them as quick as lightning. It was Tiza +running to the house. Olly set out to run after her as fast as he could +run, but he came bang up against his mother standing at the farmhouse +door, just as Tiza got safely in and was seen no more. + +"Ah, you won't catch Tiza, master," said Mrs. Backhouse, patting his +head; "she's a rough girl, always at some tricks or other--we think she +ought to have been a boy, really." + +"Mother, isn't Becky very nice?" said Milly, as they walked away. "Her +mother lets her do such a lot of things--nurse the baby, and call the +cows, and make pinafores. Oh, I wish father was a farmer." + +"Well, it's not a bad kind of life when the sun shines, and everything +is going right," said Mrs. Norton; "but I think you had better wait a +little bit till the rain comes before you quite make up your mind about +it, Milly." + +But Milly was quite sure she knew enough about it already to make up her +mind, and all the way home she kept saying to herself, "If I could only +turn into a little farmer's girl! Why don't people have fairy godmothers +now like Cinderella?" + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +OUT ON THE HILLS + + +Milly and Olly, and the four little Westmoreland children, had a very +pleasant tea together in the afternoon of the Nortons's first day at +Ravensnest. Bessie and Charlie certainly didn't talk much; but Tiza, +when once her mother had made her come, thought proper to get rid of a +great deal of her shyness, and to chatter and romp so much that they +quite fell in love with her, and could not be persuaded to go anywhere +or do anything without her. Nurse would not let Milly and Olly go to +call the cows, though she promised they should some other day; but she +took the whole party down to the stepping-stones after tea, and great +fun it was to see Becky and Tiza running over the stepping-stones, and +jumping from one stone to another like little fawns. Milly and Olly +wanted sorely to go too, but there was no persuading Nana to let them go +without their father to fish them out if they tumbled in, so they had to +content themselves with dangling their legs over the first +stepping-stone and watching the others. But perhaps you don't quite +known what stepping-stones are? They are large high stones, with flat +tops, which people put in, a little way apart from each other, right +across a river, so that by stepping from one to the other you can cross +to the opposite side. Of course they only do for little rivers, where +the water isn't very deep. And they don't always do even there. +Sometimes in the river Thora, where Milly and Olly's stepping-stones +were, when it rained very much, the water rose so high that it dashed +right over the stepping-stones and nobody could go across. Milly and +Olly saw the stepping-stones covered with water once or twice while they +were at Ravensnest; but the first evening they saw them the river was +very low, and the stones stood up high and dry out of the water. Milly +thought that stepping-stones were much nicer than bridges, and that it +was the most amusing and interesting way of getting across a river that +she knew. But then Milly was inclined to think everything wonderful and +interesting at Ravensnest--from the tall mountains that seemed to shut +them in all around like a wall, down to the tiny gleaming wild +strawberries, that were just beginning to show their little scarlet +balls on the banks in the Ravensnest woods. Both she and Olly went to +bed after their first day at Ravensnest with their little hearts full of +happiness, and their little heads full of plans. To-morrow they were to +go to Aunt Emma's, and perhaps the day after that father would take them +to bathe in the river, and nurse would let them go and help Becky and +Tiza call the cows. Holidays _were_ nice; still geography lessons were +nice too sometimes, thought Milly sleepily, just as she was slipping, +slipping away into dreamland, and in her dreams her faithful little +thoughts went back lovingly to Fräulein's kind old face, and to the +capes and islands and seas she had been learning about a week ago. + +[Illustration: "The flowers Milly gathered for her mother"] + +The next morning Mr. and Mrs. Norton were busy indoors till about twelve +o'clock; and the children wandered about the garden with nurse, finding +out many new nooks and corners, especially a delightful steep path which +led up and up into the woods, till at last it took the children to a +little brown summer-house at the top, where they could sit and look over +the trees below, away to the river and the hay-fields and the mountains. +And between the stones and this path grew the prettiest wild +strawberries, only, as Milly said, it was not much good looking for them +yet, for there were so few red ones you could scarcely get enough to +taste what they were like. But in a week or two, she and Olly planned +that they would take up a basket with some green leaves in it, and +gather a lot for father and mother--enough for regular dessert--and some +wild raspberries too, for these also grew in the wood, to the great +delight of the children, who had never seen any before. They began to +feel presently as if it would be nothing very extraordinary to find +trees covered with barley sugar or jam tarts in this wonderful wood. And +as for the flowers Milly gathered for her mother, they were a sight to +see--moon-daisies and meadow-sweet, wild roses and ragged-robins, and +bright bits of rhododendrons. For both the woods and the garden at +Ravensnest were full of rhododendrons of all colours, pink and red, and +white and flame colour; and Milly and Olly amused themselves with making +up bunches of different coloured flowers with as many different colours +in them as they could find. There were no rhododendrons at Willingham; +and the children thought them the loveliest, gayest things they had ever +seen. + +But at last twelve o'clock came. Nurse tidied the children, gave them +some biscuits and milk, and then sent them to the drawing-room to find +father and mother. Only Mrs. Norton was there, but she said there was no +need to wait for father, as he was out already and would meet them on +the way. They were to go straight over the mountain instead of walking +round by the road, which would have taken much longer. So off they +set--Olly skipping, and chattering as he always did; while Milly stuck +close to her mother, telling her every now and then, when Olly left off +talking, about their morning in the wood, the flowers they had gathered +and the strawberries they had found. At the top of the garden was a +little gate, and beside the gate stood Bessie and Charlie, who had +really been watching for the children all the morning, though they +didn't dare to come into the garden without leave. + +"Bessie, we are going to Aunt Emma's," said Milly, running up to them. +"Where are you and Charlie going to?" + +"Nawhere," said Bessie, who, as usual, had her pinafore in her mouth, +and never said more than one word at a time if she could help it. + +"Nowhere! what do you do all the morning, Bessie?" + +"I doan't know," said Bessie, gravely looking up at her; "sometimes I +mind the baby." + +"Do you mind the baby, too? Dear, dear! And what does Charlie do?" + +"Nawthing," said Bessie again. "He only makes himself dirty." + +"Don't you go to school ever?" + +"No, but mother's going to send us," said Bessie, whose big eyes grew +round and frightened at the idea, as if it was a dreadful prospect. "Are +you going to be away for all day?" + +"Yes; we shan't be back till quite evening, mother says. Here she is. +Good-bye, Bessie; good-bye, Charlie. Will you come and play with us +to-morrow morning?" + +Bessie nodded, but Charlie ran off without answering; for he saw Olly +coming, and was afraid he might want to kiss him. On the other side of +the gate they had to begin to climb up a steep bit of soft green grass; +and very hard work it was. After quite a little way the children began +to puff and pant like two little steam engines. + +"It _is_ a little bit like going upstairs, don't you think, Olly?" said +Milly, sitting down by her mother on a flat bit of gray stone. + +"No, it isn't a bit like going upstairs," said Olly, shaking his head; +for Olly always liked contradicting Milly if he could. "It's like--it's +like--walking up a house!" + +Suddenly they heard far above them a shout of "Hullo!" Both the children +started up and looked about them. It was like father's voice, but they +couldn't see him anywhere. + +"Where are you, father?" + +"Hullo!" again. And this time it sounded much nearer to them. Where +could it be? The children began to run about and look behind the bushes +and the rocks, till all of a sudden, just as Milly got near a big rock, +out jumped Mr. Norton from behind it with a great shout, and began to +run after her. Away ran Milly and Olly as fast as their small feet could +carry them, up and down, up and down, till at last there came a steep +place--one of Milly's feet tripped up, down she went, rolling over and +over--down came Olly on the top of her, and the two of them rolled away +together till they stopped at the bottom of the steep place, all mixed +up in a heap of legs and arms and hats and pinafores. + +"Here's a boy and girl tied up in a knot," said Mr. Norton, scrambling +down after them and lifting them up. "There's no harm done, is there?" + +"I've got a bump on my arm," said Milly, turning up her sleeve. + +"And I've got a scratch on my nose," said Olly, rubbing it. + +"That's not much for a nice tumble like that," said Mr. Norton, "you +wouldn't mind another, would you, Milly?" + +"Not a bit," said Milly, merrily skipping along beside him. "Hide again, +father." + +"Another day, not now, for we want to get to Aunt Emma's. But tomorrow, +if you like, we'll come up here and have a capital game. Only we must +choose a nice dry place where there are no bogs." + +"What are bogs?" asked Olly. + +"Wet places, where your feet go sinking deeper and deeper into the mud, +and you can't find any stiff firm bit to stand on. Sometimes people sink +down and down into a bog till the mud comes right over their head and +face and chokes them; but we haven't got any bogs as bad as that here. +Now, children, step along in front. Very soon we shall get to the top of +the mountain, and then we shall see wonderful things on the other side." + +So Milly and Olly ran on, pushing their way through the great tall fern, +or scampering over the short green grass where the little mountain sheep +were nibbling, and where a beautiful creeping moss grew all over the +ground, which, mother told Milly, was called "Stags' horn moss," because +its little green branches were so like stags' horns. + +"Now look, children," shouted their father to them from behind. "Here we +are at the top." + +And then, all of a sudden, instead of only the green mountain and the +sheep, they could see far away on the other side of the mountain. There, +all round them, were numbers of other mountains; and below, at their +feet, were houses and trees and fields, while straight in front lay a +great big blue lake stretching away ever so far, till it seemed to be +lost in the sky. + +"Look, look, mother!" cried Milly, clapping her hands, "there's +Windermere lake, the lake we saw when we were coming from the station. +Look at that steamer, with all the people on board! What funny little +black people. And oh, mother, look at that little boat over there! How +can people go out in such a weeny boat as that?" + +"It isn't such a weeny boat, Milly. It only looks so small because it's +such a long way off. When father and I take you and Olly on the lake, we +shall go in a boat just like that. And now, instead of looking so far +away, look just down here below you, and tell me what you see." + +"Some chimneys, and some trees, and some smoke, ever so far down," +shouted the children. "Is it a house, mother?" + +"That's Aunt Emma's house, the old house where I used to come and stay +when I was a little girl, and when your dear great-grandfather and +great-grandmother were alive. I used to think it the nicest place in the +world." + +"Were you a very little girl, mother, and were you ever naughty?" asked +Milly, slipping her little hand into her mother's and beginning to feel +rather tired with her long walk. + +"I'm afraid I was very often naughty, Milly. I used to get into great +rages and scream, till everybody was quite tired out. But Aunt Emma was +very good to me, and took a great deal of pains to cure me of going into +rages. Besides, it always did naughty children good to live in the same +house with great-grandmamma, and so after a while I got better. Take +care how you go, children, it's very steep just here, and you might soon +tumble over on your noses. Olly, take care! take care! where _are_ you +going?" + +Where, indeed, was Olly going? Just the moment before the little man had +spied a lovely flower growing a little way off the path, in the middle +of some bright yellow-green moss. And without thinking of anything but +getting it, off he rushed. But oh! splish, splash, splish, down went +Olly's feet, up splashed the muddy water, and there was Olly stuck in a +bog. + +"Father, pull me out, pull me out!" cried the little boy in terror, as +he felt his feet stuck fast. But almost before he could speak there was +father close beside him, standing on a round little hump of dry grass +which was sticking up out of the bog, and with one grip he got hold of +Olly under his arm, and then jump! on to another little hump of grass, +jump! on to another, and there they were safe on the path again. + +"Oh, you black boy!" cried father and mother and Milly all together. Was +there ever such a little object! All his nice clean holland frock was +splashed with black mud; and what had happened to his stockings? + +"I've got mud-stockings on," shouted Olly, capering about, and pointing +to his legs which were caked with mud up to his knees. + +"You're a nice respectable boy to take out to dinner," said Mrs. Norton. +"I think we'll leave you on the mountain to have dinner with the sheep." + +"Oh no, father," pleaded Milly, taking Olly fast by the hand. "We can +wash him at Aunt Emma's, you know." + +"Don't go too close to him, Milly!" exclaimed Mrs. Norton, "or you'll +get as black as he is. We shall have to put him under the pump at Aunt +Emma's, that's quite certain. But there's nothing to wash him with here, +so he must just go as he is for a bit. Now, Olly, run along and your +feet will soon dry. Father's going first, you go next, just where he +goes, I'm coming after you, and Milly shall go last. Perhaps in that way +we shall get you down safe." + +"Oh, but, mother, look at my flower," said Olly, holding it up +triumphantly. "Isn't it a beauty?" + +"Shall I tell you what it's called, Olly? It's called a butterwort, and +it always grows in boggy places; I wouldn't advise you to go after one +again without asking father first." + +It was a very different thing going down the mountain from climbing up +it. It seemed only a few minutes before they had got almost to the +bottom, and there was a gate leading into a road, and a little village +of white houses in front of them. They walked up the road a little way, +and then father opened a big gate and let them into a beautiful garden +full of rhododendrons like the Ravensnest garden. And who was this +walking down the drive to meet them? Such a pretty little elderly lady, +with gray hair and a white cap. + +"Dear Aunt Emma!" said Mrs. Norton, running up to her and taking both +her hands and kissing her. + +"Well, Lucy," said the little lady, holding her hands and looking at her +(Lucy was Mrs. Norton's Christian name), "it _is_ nice to see you all +here. And there's dear little Milly, I remember her. But where's Olly? +I've never seen that small creature, you know. Come, Olly, don't be shy. +Little boys are never shy with Aunt Emma." + +"Except when they tumble into bogs," said Mr. Norton, laughing and +pulling Olly forward, who was trying to hide his mud-stockings behind +his mother. "There's a clean tidy boy to bring to dinner, isn't he, Aunt +Emma? I think I'll take him to the yard and pump on him a little before +we bring him in." + +Aunt Emma put up her spectacles to look at Olly. + +"Why, Olly, I think Mother Quiverquake has been catching hold of you. +Don't you know about old Mother Quiverquake, who lives in the bogs? Oh, +I can tell you splendid stories about her some day. But now catch hold +of my hand, and keep your little legs away from my dress, and we'll soon +make a proper boy of you again." + +And then Aunt Emma took one of Milly's hands and one of Olly's, and up +they went to the house. But I must start another chapter before I begin +to tell you what the children saw in Aunt Emma's house, and of the happy +time they spent there. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +AUNT EMMA'S PICNIC + + +Instead of taking them straight into the house, however, Aunt Emma took +the children up a little shady path which very soon brought them to a +white cottage covered with honeysuckle and climbing roses. + +"This is where my coachman's wife lives," said Aunt Emma, "and she owns +a small boy who might perhaps find you a pair of stockings, Olly, to put +on while your own are washed." + +Olly opened his brown eyes very wide at the idea of wearing some other +little boy's stockings, but he said nothing. + +Aunt Emma tapped at the door, and out came a stout kind-looking woman. + +"Mrs. Tyson, do you think your Johnny could lend my little nephew a pair +of his stockings while we get his own washed? Master Olly has been +tumbling into a bog by way of making friends with the mountains, and I +don't quite know how I am to let those legs into my dining-room." + +"Dear me, ma'am, but Johnny'll be proud if he's got any clean, but I'll +not answer for it. Won't ye come in?" + +In they walked, and there was a nice tidy kitchen, with a wooden cradle +in the corner, and a little fair-haired boy sitting by it and rocking +the baby. This was Johnny, and Olly looked at him with great curiosity. +"I've got bigger legs than Johnny," he whispered solemnly at last to +Aunt Emma, while they were waiting for Mrs. Tyson, who had gone upstairs +to fetch the stockings. + +"Perhaps you eat more bread and milk than Johnny does," said Aunt Emma, +very solemnly too, "However, most likely Johnny's stockings will +stretch. How's the baby, Johnny?" + +"She's a great deal better, ma'am," said the little boy, smiling at her. +Milly and Olly made him feel shy, but he loved Aunt Emma. + +"Have you been taking care of her all the morning for mother?" + +"Yes, ma'am, and she's never cried but once," said Johnny proudly. + +"Well done! Ah! there comes Mrs. Tyson. Now, Olly, sit up on that chair, +and we'll see to you." + +Off came the dirty stockings, and Mrs. Tyson slipped on a pair of woolen +socks that tickled Olly very much. They were very thick, and not a bit +like his own stockings; and when he got up again he kept turning round +and round to look at his legs, as if he couldn't make them out. + +"Do they feel funny to you?" said Mrs. Tyson, patting his shoulder. +"Never you mind, little master; I know they're nice and warm, for I +knitted them myself." + +"Mother buys our stockings in the shop," said Olly, when they got +outside again; "why doesn't Mrs. Tyson?" + +"Perhaps we haven't so many shops, or such nice ones here, Olly, as you +have at Willingham; and the people here have always been used to do a +great many things for themselves. Some of them live in such lonely +places among the mountains that it is very difficult for them to get to +any shops. Not very long ago the mothers used to make all the stuffs for +their own dresses and their children's. What would you say, Milly, if +mother had to weave the stuff for it every time you had a new dress?" + +"Mother wouldn't give me a great many new dresses," said Milly, gravely, +shaking her head. "I like shops best, Aunt Emma." + +"Well, I suppose it's best to like what we've got," said Aunt Emma, +laughing. + +Indoors, Olly's muddy stockings were given to Aunt Emma's maid, who +promised to have them washed and dried by the time they had to go home, +and then, when Mrs. Norton had covered up the black spots on his frock +with a clean pinafore she had brought with her, Olly looked quite +respectable again. + +The children thought they had never seen quite such a nice house as Aunt +Emma's. First of all it had a large hall, with all kinds of corners in +it, just made for playing hide-and-seek in; and the drawing-room was +full of the most delightful things. There were stuffed birds in cases, +and little ivory chessmen riding upon ivory elephants. There were +picture-books, and there were mysterious drawers full of cards and +puzzles, and glass marbles and old-fashioned toys, that the children's +mother and aunts and uncles, and their great-aunts and uncles before +that, had loved and played with years and years ago. On the wall hung a +great many pictures, some of them of funny little stiff boys in blue +coats with brass buttons, and some of them of little girls with mob-caps +and mittens, and these little boys and girls were all either dead now, +or elderly men and women, for they were the great-aunts and uncles; and +over the mantelpiece hung a picture of a lovely old lady, with bright, +soft brown hair and smiling eyes and lips, that looked as if they were +just going to speak to the two strange little children who had come for +their first visit to their mother's old home. Milly knew quite well that +it was a picture of great-grandmamma. She had seen others like it +before, only not so large as this one, and she looked at it quietly, +with her grave blue eyes, while Olly was eagerly wandering round the +room, spying into everything, and longing to touch this, that, and the +other, if only mother would let go his hand. + +"You know who that is, don't you, little woman?" said Aunt Emma, taking +her up on her knee. + +"Yes," said Milly, nodding, "it's great-grandmamma. I wish we could have +seen her." + +"I wish you could, Milly. She would have smiled at you as she is smiling +in the picture and you would have been sure to have loved her; all +little children did. I can remember seeing your mother, Milly, when she +was about as old as you, cuddled up in a corner of that sofa over there, +in 'grandmamma's pocket,' as she used to call it, listening with all her +ears to great-grandmamma's stories. There was one story called 'Leonora' +that went on for years and years, till all the little children in +it--and the little children who listened to it--were almost grown up; +and then great-grandmamma always carried about with her a wonderful +blue-silk bag full of treasures, which we used to be allowed to turn out +whenever any of us had been quite good at our lessons for a whole week." + +"Mother has a bag like that," said Milly; "it has lots of little toys in +it that father had when he was a little boy. She lets us look at it on +our birthdays. Can you tell stories, Aunt Emma?" + +"Tell us about old Mother Quiverquake," cried Olly, running up and +climbing on his aunt's knee. + +"Oh dear, no!" said Aunt Emma; "it's much too fine to-day for +stories--indoors, at any rate. Wait till we get a real wet day, and then +we'll see. After dinner to-day, what do you think we're going to do? +Suppose we have a row on the lake to get water-lilies, and suppose we +take a kettle and make ourselves some tea on the other side of the lake. +What would you say to that, Master Olly?" + +The children began to dance about with delight at the idea of a row and +a picnic both together, when suddenly there was a knock at the door, and +when Aunt Emma said, "Come in!" what do you think appeared? Why, a great +green cage, carried by a servant, and in it a gray parrot, swinging +about from side to side, and cocking his head wickedly, first over one +shoulder and then over the other. + +"Now, children," said Aunt Emma, while the children stood quite still +with surprise, "let me introduce you to my old friend, Mr. Poll Parrot. +Perhaps you thought I lived all alone in this big house. Not at all. +Here is somebody who talks to me when I talk to him, who sings and +chatters and whistles and cheers me up wonderfully in the winter +evenings, when the rains come and make me feel dull. Put him down here, +Margaret," said Aunt Emma to the maid, clearing a small table for the +cage. "Now, Olly, what do you think of my parrot?" + +"Can it talk?" asked Olly, looking at it with very wide open eyes. + +"It _can_ talk; whether it _will_ talk is quite another thing. Parrots +are contradictious birds. I feel very often as if I should like to beat +Polly, he's so provoking. Now, Polly, how are you to-day?" + +"Polly's got a bad cold; fetch the doc--" said the bird at once, in such +a funny cracked voice, that it made Olly jump as if he had heard one of +the witches in Grimm's "Fairy Tales" talking. + +"Come, Polly, that's very well behaved of you; but you mustn't leave off +in the middle, begin again. Olly, if you don't keep your fingers out of +the way Polly will snap them up for his dinner. Parrots like fingers +very much." Olly put his hands behind his back in a great hurry, and +mother came to stand behind him to keep him quiet. By this time, +however, Polly had begun to find out that there were some new people in +the room he didn't know, and for a long time Aunt Emma could not make +him talk at all. He would do nothing but put his head first on one side +and then on the other and make angry clicks with his beak. + +"Come, Polly," said Aunt Emma, "what a cross parrot you are. +One--two--three--four. Now, Polly, count." + +"Polly's got a bad cold, fetch the doc--" said Polly again while Aunt +Emma was speaking. "One--two--six--seven--eight--nine--two--_Quick_ +march!" + +And then Polly began to lift first one claw and then the other as if he +were marching, while the children shouted with laughter at his +ridiculous ways and his gruff cracked voice. + +Then Aunt Emma went behind him and rapped gently on the table. The +parrot stopped marching, stuck his head on one side and listened. Aunt +Emma rapped again. + +"Come in!" said the parrot suddenly, quite softly, as if he had turned +into quite another person. "Hush--sh--sh, cat's got a mouse!" + +"Well, Polly," said Aunt Emma, "I suppose she may have a mouse if she +likes. Is that all you've got to tell us? Polly, where's gardener?" + +"Get away! get away!" screamed Polly, while all his feathers began to +stand up straight, and his eyes looked fierce and red like two little +live coals. + +"That always makes him cross," said Aunt Emma; "he can't bear gardener. +Come, Polly, don't get in such a temper." + +"Oh, isn't he like the witches on the broom-sticks in our fairy-book, +Olly?" cried Milly. "Don't you think, Aunt Emma, he must have been +changed into something? Perhaps he was a wicked witch once, or a +magician, you know, and the fairies changed him into a parrot." + +"Well, Milly, I can't say. He was a parrot when I had him first, twelve +years ago. That's all I know about it. But I believe he's very old. Some +people say he's older than I am--think of that! So you see he's had time +to be a good many things. Well, Polly, good-night. You're not a nice +bird to-night at all. Take him away, Margaret." + +"Jane! Jane!" screamed Polly, as the maid lifted up the cage again. +"Make haste, Jane! cat's in the larder!" + +"Oh, you bad Polly," said Aunt Emma, "you're always telling tales. +Jane's my cook, Milly, and Polly doesn't like cats, so you see he tries +to make Jane believe that our old cat steals the meat out of the larder. +Good-bye, Polly, good-bye. You're an ill-natured old bird, but I'm very +fond of you all the same." + +"Do get us a parrot, mother!" said Olly, jumping about round his mother, +when Polly was gone. + +"How many more things will you want before you get home, Olly, do you +think?" asked his mother, kissing him. "Perhaps you'll want to take home +a few mountains, and two or three little rivers, and a bog or two, and a +few sheep--eh, young man?" + +By this time dinner was ready, and there was the dinner-bell ringing. Up +ran the children to Aunt Emma's room to get their hands washed and their +hair brushed, and presently there were two tidy little folks sitting on +either side of Aunt Emma's chair, and thinking to themselves that they +had never felt quite so hungry before. But hungry as Milly was she +didn't forget to look out of the window before she began her dinner, and +it was worth while looking out of the window in Aunt Emma's dining-room. + +Before the windows was a green lawn, like the lawn at Ravensnest, only +this lawn went sloping away, away till there was just a little rim of +white beach, and then beyond came the wide, dancing blue lake, that the +children had seen from the top of the mountain. Here it was close to +them, so close that Milly could hear the little waves plashing, through +the open window. + +"Milly," whispered Aunt Emma when they were all waiting for pudding, "do +you see that little house down there by the water's edge? That's where +the boat lives--we call it a boathouse. Do you think you'll be +frightened of the water, little woman?" + +"No, I don't think so," said Milly, shaking her little wise head +gravely. "I am frightened sometimes, very. Mother calls me a little +goose because I run away from Jenny sometimes--that's our cow at home, +Aunt Emma, but then she's got such long horns, and I can't help feeling +afraid." + +"Well, the lake hasn't got horns, Milly," said Aunt Emma, laughing, "so +perhaps you will manage not to be afraid of it." + +How kind and nice Aunt Emma looked as she sat between the children, with +her pretty soft gray hair, and her white cap and large white collar. +Mrs. Norton could not help thinking of the times when she was a little +girl, and used always to insist on sitting by Aunt Emma at dinner-time. +That was before Aunt Emma's hair had turned gray. And now here were her +own little children sitting where she used to sit at their age, and +stealing their small hands into Aunt Emma's lap as she used to do so +long ago. + +After dinner the children had to sit quiet in the drawing-room for a +time, while Aunt Emma and father and mother talked; but they had +picture-books to look at, and Aunt Emma gave them leave to turn out +everything in one of the toy-drawers, and that kept them busy and happy +for a long time. But at last, just when Olly was beginning to get tired +of the drawer, Aunt Emma called to them from the other end of the room +to come with her into the kitchen for a minute. Up jumped the children +and ran after their aunt across the hall into the kitchen. + +"Now, children," said Aunt Emma, pointing to a big basket on the kitchen +table, "suppose you help me to pack up our tea-things. Olly, you go and +fetch the spoons, and, Milly, bring the plates one by one." + +The tea things were all piled up on the kitchen table, and the children +brought them one after another to Aunt Emma to pack them carefully into +the big basket. + +"Ain't I a useful boy, Aunt Emma?" asked Olly proudly, coming up laden +with a big table-cloth which he could scarcely carry. + +"Very useful, Olly, though our table-cloth won't look over tidy at tea +if you crumple it up like that. Now, Milly, bring me that tray of bread +and the little bundle of salt; and, Olly, bring me that bit of butter +over there, done up in the green leaves, but mind you carry it +carefully. Now for some knives too; and there are the cups and saucers, +Milly, look, in that corner; and there is the cake all ready cut up, and +there is the bread and butter. Now have we got everything? Everything, I +think, but the kettle, and some wood and some matches, and these must go +in another basket." + +"Aunt Emma," said Milly, creeping up close to her, "were you ever a +fairy godmother?" + +"Not that I know of, Milly. Would you like me better if I had a wand and +a pair of pet dragons, like old Fairy Blackstick?" + +"No," said Milly, stroking her aunt's hand, "but you do such nice +things, just like fairy godmothers do." + +"Do I, little woman? Aunt Emma likes doing nice things for good +children. But now come along, it's quite time we were off. Let us go +and fetch father and mother. Gardener will bring the baskets." + +Such a merry party they were, trooping down to the boathouse. There lay +the boat; a pretty new boat, painted dark blue, with a little red flag +floating at her bows, and her name, "Ariel," written in large white +letters on the stern. And all around the boathouse stretched the +beautiful blue water, so clear and sunny and sparkling that it dazzled +Milly's eyes to look at it. She and Olly were lifted into the boat +beside Aunt Emma and mother, father sat in the middle and took the oars, +while gardener put the baskets into the stern, and then, untying the +rope which kept the boat tied into the boathouse, he gave it a good push +with one hand and off she went out into the blue lake, rising up and +down on the water like a swan. + +"Oh! mother, mother, look up there," shouted Olly, "there's the +mountain. Isn't that where we climbed up this morning?" + +Yes, there it was, the beautiful green rocky mountain, rising up above +Aunt Emma's house. They could see it all so clearly as they got farther +out into the lake; first the blue sky, then the mountain with the little +white dots on it, which Milly knew were sheep; then some trees, and in +front, Aunt Emma's house with the lawn and the boathouse. And as they +looked all round them they could see far bigger and grander mountains +than Brownholme, some near and green like Brownholme, and some far away +and blue like the sky, while down by the edge of the lake were hayfields +full of flowers, or bits of rock with trees growing on the top of them. +The children hardly knew what it was made them so quiet; but I think it +was because everything was so beautiful. They were really in the +hill-fairies' palace now. + +"Aren't there any water-fairies in this lake, mother?" whispered Milly, +presently, looking down into the clear blue water, and trying to see the +bottom. + +"I can't tell, Milly, I never saw any. But there used to be +water-fairies in old days. After tea suppose we ask Aunt Emma to tell us +a story about a king in olden times whom the water-fairies loved; she +used to tell it to me when I was small, and I liked it best of all +stories. But, Olly, you must sit still, or the boat will go tipping over +to one side, and father won't be able to row." + +"Do let me row, father," begged Olly. + +"Not yet, old man--I must get used to the boat first, and find out how +to manage her, but presently you shall come and try, and so shall Milly +if she likes." + +On they rowed, farther and farther from the shore, till Aunt Emma's +house began to look quite small, and they could hardly see the gardener +working on the lawn. + +"Father, what a long way we've come," cried Milly, looking all round. +"Where are we going to?" + +"Well, presently, Milly, I am going to turn the boat a little bit, so as +to make her go over to that side of the lake over there. Do you see a +big rock with some trees on it, far away, sticking out into the lake?" + +"Yes," said the children, looking very hard. + +"Well, that's where we're going to have tea. It's called Birdsnest +Point, because the rocks come out in a point into the lake. But first I +thought I would bring you right out into the middle of the lake, that +you might see how big it is, and look at the mountains all round." +"Father," said Olly, "if a big stone fell down out of the sky and made +ever such a big hole in the boat, and the water came into the hole, +should we all be dead?" + +"I daresay we should, Olly, for I don't think I could carry mother, and +Aunt Emma, and Milly, and you on my back, safe home again, and you see +none of you can swim but me." + +"Then I hope a big stone won't come," said Milly, feeling just a little +bit frightened at Olly's suggestion. + +"Well, big stones don't grow in the sky generally, Milly, if that's any +comfort to you. But do you know, one day long ago, when I was out rowing +on this lake, I thought all of a sudden I heard some one shouting and +screaming, and for a long time I looked and waited, but could see +nothing; till at last I fancied I could see, a long distance off, what +looked like a pole, with something white tied to it. And I rowed, and +rowed, and rowed, as fast as I could, and all the time the shouting and +screaming went on, and at last what do you think I saw? I saw a boat, +which looked as if something was dragging it down into the water. Part +of it had already sunk down into the lake, and in the part which was +still above the water there were three people sitting, a gentleman, and +two little girls who looked about ten years old. And they were shouting +'Help! help!' at the top of their voices, and waving an oar with a +handkerchief tied to it. And the boat in which they sat was sinking +farther and farther into the water, and if I had'n't come up just when I +did, the gentleman and the two little girls would have been drowned." + +"Oh, father!" cried Milly, "what made their boat do like that? And did +they get into yours?" + +"There was a great hole in the bottom of their boat, Milly, and the +water was coming through it, and making the boat so heavy that it was +sinking down and down into the lake, just as a stone would sink if you +threw it in. How the hole came there we never quite knew: I thought they +must have knocked their boat against a sharp rock--in some parts of the +lake there are rocks under the water which you can't see--and the rock +had made the hole; but other people thought it had happened in some +other way. However, there they were, and when I took them all into my +boat you never saw such miserable little creatures as the two little +girls were. They were wet through, they were as white as little ghosts, +and when they were safe in my boat they began to cry and shake so, poor +little souls, though their father and I wrapped them up in our coats, +that I did want their mother to come and comfort them." + +"Oh, but, father, you took them safe home to their mother, didn't you? +And do tell me what she said." + +"They had no mother, Milly, they had only their father, who was with +them. But he was very good to them, and I think on the whole they were +happy little girls. The Christmas after that I got a little parcel one +morning, and what do you think was in it? Why, two photographs of the +same little girls, looking so neat and tidy and happy, I could hardly +believe they were really the same as the little drowned rats I had +pulled out of the water. Ask mother to show you the pictures when we get +home; she has them somewhere. Now, Olly, would you like to row?" + +"Oh, father, don't bump against any rocks," said Milly, whose thoughts +were very full of the little girls. + +"Don't you trouble your head about rocks, old woman. I know a good deal +more about this lake than those little girls' father did, and I won't +take you into any harm. Come along, Olly." + +Olly was helped along the boat by mother and Aunt Emma till his father +caught hold of him and pulled him on to his seat, where he let him put +his two small paws on one of the oars, and try what he could do with it. +Mr. Norton pulled too; but Olly thought it was all his doing, and that +it was really he who was making the boat go. + +"Don't we go fast, father?" he cried out presently, his little face +flushed with pleasure and excitement. "You couldn't row so fast without +me, could you, father?" + +"You little fly-on-the-wheel," said his father, smiling at him. + +"What does that mean, father?" + +"Never mind, you'll know when you're bigger. But now look, children, how +close we are coming to the shore. And quick, Milly, quick! What do you +see over there?" + +Mr. Norton pointed over the water to a place where some green rushes +were standing up out of the water, not very far from the edge. What were +those great white and gold things shining among the rushes; and what +were those large round green leaves lying on the water all about them? + +"Water-lilies! water-lilies!" cried Milly, stamping her little feet with +delight. "Oh, mother, look! it was on one of those leaves that the old +toad put little Tiny in my fairy-book, don't you remember? Only the +little fishes came and bit off the stalk and set her free. Oh, I wish we +could see little Tiny sitting on one of those leaves!" + +"Well," said Aunt Emma, "there's no saying what you may find in these +parts if you look long enough. This is a very strange country. But now, +Milly, look out for the lilies. Father's going to take us in among them, +and I'll hold you, while you gather them." + +And presently, swish went the boat up against the rushes, and there were +the lovely white lilies lying spread out on the water all round them, +some quite open and showing their golden middles, and some still buds, +with their wet green cases just falling off, and their white petals +beginning to unclose. But what slippery stalks they had. Aunt Emma held +Milly, and father held Olly, while they dived their hands under the +water and pulled hard. And some of the lilies came out with such short +bits of stalk you could scarcely hold them, and sometimes, flop! out +came a long green stalk, like a long green snake curling and twisting +about in the boat. The children dabbled, and splashed, and pulled, to +their hearts' content, till at last Mr. Norton told them they had got +enough and now they must sit quite still while he rowed them in to the +land. + +"Oh, father, just those two over there!" pleaded Milly, who could not +bear leaving so many beauties behind. + +"No, Milly, no more. Look where the sun is now. If we don't make haste +and have our tea, we shall never get back to Ravensnest to-night." + +Milly's face looked as if it would like to cry, as the boat began to +move away from the rushes, and the beautiful lilies were left behind. I +told you, to begin with, that Milly was ready to cry oftener than a +sensible little girl should. But Aunt Emma was not going to have any +crying at her picnic. + +"Who's going to gather me sticks to make my fire?" she said suddenly, in +a solemn voice. + +"I am! I am!" shouted both the children at once, and out came Milly's +smiles again, like the sun from behind a cloud. + +"And who's going to lay the table-cloth?" + +"We are! we are!" + +"And who's going to hand the bread and butter?" + +"I am!" exclaimed Milly, "and Olly shall hand the cake." + +"And who's going to _eat_ the bread and butter?" + +"All of us!" shouted the children, and Milly added, "Father will want a +_big_ plate of bread and butter, I daresay." + +"I should think he would, after all this rowing," said Mr. Norton. "Now +then, look out for a bump!" + +[Illustration: "So they put Olly up on a tall piece of rock, and he +sang."] + +Bump! Splash! there was the boat scraping along the pebbles near the +shore; out sprang Mr. Norton, first on to a big stone, then on to the +shore, and with one great pull he brought the boat in till it was close +enough for Aunt Emma and Mrs. Norton to step on to the rocks, and for +the children to be lifted out. + +"Oh! what a nice place!" cried Milly, looking about her, and clapping +her hands, as she always did when she was pleased. It was a point of +rock running out into the lake, a "peninsula" Milly called it, when she +had been all round it, and it was covered with brown heather spread all +over the ground, and was delightfully soft and springy to sit upon. In +the middle of the bit of rock there were two or three trees standing up +together, birch trees with silvery stems, and on every side but one +there was shallow brown water, so clear that they could see every stone +at the bottom. And when they looked away across the lake, there were the +grand old mountains pushing their heads into the clouds on the other +side, and far away near the edge of the lake they saw a white dot which +they knew was Aunt Emma's house. How the sun shone on everything! How it +made the water of the lake sparkle and glitter as if it were alive! And +yet the air was not hot, for a little wind was coming to them across the +water, and moving the trees gently up and down. + +And what was this under the trees? Why, a kind of fireplace made of +stones, and in front of it a round green bit of grass, with tufts of +heather all round it, just like a table with seats. + +"Who put these stones here, Aunt Emma?" asked Olly, as she and mother +and Mr. Norton brought up the baskets, and put them in the green place +by the stones. + +"Well, Olly, long ago, when all your uncles and aunts were little, and +they used to come here for picnics, they thought it would be very nice +to have a stone fireplace, built up properly, so that they needn't make +one every time. It was Uncle Richard's idea, and we had such fun +building it up. The little ones brought the stones; and the big ones +piled them together till you see we made quite a nice fireplace. And it +has lasted ever since. Whenever I come here I mend it up if any of the +stones have tumbled down. Numbers of little children come to picnic here +every summer, and they always use our fireplace. But now, come along +into the woods, children, and gather sticks." + +Off they ran after Aunt Emma, and soon they were scrambling about the +wood which grew along the shore, picking up the dry sticks and dry fern +under the trees. Milly filled her cotton frock full, and gathered it up +with both her hands; while Olly of course went straight at the biggest +branch he could see, and staggered along with it, puffing and panting. + +"You grasshopper, you!" said Mr. Norton, catching hold of him, "don't +you think you'd better try a whole tree next time? There, let me break +it for you." Father broke it up into short lengths, and then off ran +Olly with his little skirts full to Aunt Emma, who was laden too with an +armful of sticks. "That'll do to begin with, old man. Come along, and +you and I'll light the fire." + +What fun it was, heaping up the sticks on the stones, and how they did +blaze and crackle away when Aunt Emma put a match to them. Puff! puff! +out came the smoke; fizz--crack--sputter--went the dry fir branches, as +if they were Christmas fireworks. + +"Haven't we made a blazey fire, Aunt Emma?" said Olly, out of breath +with dragging up sticks, and standing still to look. + +"Splendid," said Mr. Norton, who had just come out of the wood with his +bundle. "Now, Olly, let me just put you on the top of it to finish it +off. How you would fizz!" + +Off ran Olly, with his father after him, and they had a romp among the +heather till Mr. Norton caught him, and carried him kicking and laughing +under his arm to Aunt Emma. + +"Now, Aunt Emma, shall I put him on?" + +"Oh dear, no!" said Aunt Emma, "my kettle wouldn't sit straight on him, +and it's just boiling beautifully. We'll put him on presently when the +fire gets low." + +"Olly, do come and help mother and me with the tea-things," cried Milly, +who was laying the cloth as busily and gravely as a little housemaid. + +"Run along, shrimp," said his father, setting him down. + +And off ran Olly, while Mr. Norton and Aunt Emma heaped the wood on the +fire, and kept the kettle straight, so that it shouldn't tip over and +spill. + +Laying the cloth was delightful, Milly thought. First of all, they put a +heavy stone on each corner of the cloth to keep it down, and prevent the +wind from blowing it up, and then they put the little plates all round, +and in the middle two piles of bread and butter and cake. + +"But we haven't got any flowers," said Milly, looking at it presently, +with a dissatisfied face, "you always have flowers on the table at home, +mother." + +"Why, Milly, have you forgotten your water-lilies; where did you leave +them?" + +"Down by the water," said Milly. "Father told me just to put their +stalks in the water, and he put a stone to keep them safe. Oh! that'll +be splendid, mother. Do give me a cup, and we'll get some water for +them." + +Mother found a cup, and the children scrambled down to the edge of the +lake. There lay the lilies with their stalks in the water, close to the +boat. + +"They look rather sad, mother, don't they?" said Milly, gathering them +up. "Perhaps they don't like being taken away from their home." + +"They never look so beautiful out of the water," said mother; "but when +we get home we'll put them into a soup-plate, and let them swim about in +it. They'll look very nice then. Now, Olly, fill the cup with water, and +we'll put five or six of the biggest in, and gather some leaves." + +"There, look! look! Aunt Emma," shouted Milly, when they had put the +lilies and some fern leaves in the middle of the table. "Haven't we made +it beautiful?" + +"That you have," said Aunt Emma, coming up with the kettle which had +just boiled. "Now for the tea, and then we're ready." + +"We never had such a nice tea as this before," said Olly, presently +looking up from a piece of bread and butter which had kept him quiet for +some time. "It's nicer than having dinner at the railway station even." + +Aunt Emma and mother laughed; for it doesn't seem so delightful to +grown-up people to have dinner at the railway station. + +"Well, Olly," said mother, "I hope we shall often have tea out of doors +while we are at Ravensnest." + +Milly shook her head. "It'll rain, mother. That old gentleman said it +would be sure to rain." + +"That old gentleman is about right, Milly," said Mr. Norton. "I think it +rains dreadfully here, but mother doesn't seem to mind it a bit. Once +upon a time when mother was a little girl, there came a funny old fairy +and threw some golden dust in her eyes, and ever since then she can't +see straight when she comes to the mountains. It's all right everywhere +else, but as soon as she comes here, the dust begins to fly about in her +eyes, and makes the mountains look quite different to her from what they +look to anybody else." + +"Let me look, mother," said Olly, pulling her down to him. + +Mrs. Norton opened her eyes at him, smiling. + +"I can't see any dust, father." + +"Ah, that's because it's fairy dust," said Mr. Norton, gravely. "Now, +Olly, don't you eat too much cake, else you won't be able to row." + +"It'll be my turn first, father," said Milly, "you know I haven't rowed +at all yet." + +"Well, don't you catch any crabs, Milly," said Aunt Emma. + +"Catch crabs, Aunt Emma!" said Milly, very much puzzled. "Crabs are only +in the sea, aren't they?" + +"There's a very big kind just about here," said Mr. Norton, "and they're +always looking out for little children, particularly little girls." + +"I don't understand, father," said Milly, opening her eyes very wide. + +"Have some more tea, then," said Mr. Norton, "that always makes people +feel wiser." + +"Father, aren't you talking nonsense?" said Olly, stopping in the middle +of a piece of cake to think about what his father was saying. + +"Very likely, Olly. People always do at picnics. Aunt Emma, when are you +going to tell us your story?" + +"When we've washed the things and put them away," said Aunt Emma, "then +Olly shall sing us two songs, and I'll tell you my story." + +But the children were so hungry that it was a long time before they gave +up eating bread and butter, and then, when at last tea was over, what +fun it was washing the cups and plates in the lake! Aunt Emma and Olly +washed, and mother and Milly dried the things on a towel, and then +everything was packed away into the baskets, and mother and Aunt Emma +folded up the table-cloth, and put it tidily on the top of everything. + +"I did like that," said Milly, sighing as the last basket was fastened +down. "I wish you'd let me help Sarah wash up the tea-things at home, +mother." + +"If Sarah liked to let you, I shouldn't say no, Milly," said Mrs. +Norton. "How soon would you get tired of it, old woman, I wonder? But +come along, let's put Olly up on a rock, and make him sing, and then +we'll have Aunt Emma's story." + +So they put Olly up on a tall piece of rock, and he sang "The Minstrel +Boy," and "Bonnie Dundee," and "Hot Cross Buns," just as if he were a +little musical box, and you had nothing to do but to wind him up. He had +a sweet, clear, little voice, and he looked a delightful brown gipsy, as +he sat perched up on the rock with his long legs dangling, and his curls +blowing about his face. + +"There!" said Olly, when he had shouted out the last note of "Hot Cross +Buns." "I have singed three whole songs; and now, Aunt Emma, tell us +about the king and the fairies. Krick, please." + +"It must be 'krick' indeed," said Aunt Emma, "if we want to get home +to-night." + +For the sun had almost sunk behind the mountains at their back, and the +wind blowing across the lake was beginning to get a little cold, while +over their heads the rooks went flying, singing "caw, caw," on their way +to bed. And how the sun was turning the water to gold! It seemed to be +making a great golden pathway across the lake, and the mountains were +turning a deep blue, and plash, plash, went the little waves on the +rocks, so softly they seemed to be saying "Good-night! good-night!" + +"Well," said Aunt Emma, settling herself on a soft piece of heather, and +putting her arms round Milly and Olly, "Once upon a time there was a +great king. He was a good king and a wise man, and he tried to make all +the people round about him wiser and better than they were before he +came to rule over them; and for a long time he was very powerful and +happy, and he and the brave men who helped him and were his friends did +a great deal of good, and kept the savage people who lived all about him +in order, and taught them a great many things. But at last some of the +savage people got tired of obeying the king, and they said they would +not have him to reign over them any more; so they made an army, and they +came together against the king to try and kill him and his friends. And +the king made an army too, and there was a great battle; and the savage +people were the strongest, and they killed nearly all the king's brave +men, and the king himself was terribly hurt in the fight. And at last, +when night came on, there were left only the king and one of his +friends--his knights, as they were called. The king was hurt so much +that he could not move, and his friend thought he was dying. They were +left alone in a rocky desert place, and close by there was a great lake +with mountains round it--like this, Olly. It was very cold, and the moon +was shining, and the king lay so still that once or twice his friend +almost thought that he was dead. But at last, about the middle of the +night, he began to speak, and he told his friend to take his sword that +was by his side and to go down to the side of the lake and throw it as +far as he could into the water. Now, this sword was a magic sword. Long +before, the king was once walking beside this lake, when he suddenly saw +an arm in a long white sleeve rising out of the lake, and in the hand at +the end of it was a splendid sword with a glistening handle. And the +king got into a boat and rowed as fast as he could till he got near +enough to take hold of the sword, and then the arm sank down under the +water and was seen no more. And with the sword the king won a great many +battles, and he loved it, and never would part with it; but now that he +was dying, he told his friend to take the sword and throw it back into +the lake where he had found it, and see what would happen. And his +friend took it, and went away over the rocks till he came to the edge of +the lake, and then he took the sword out of its case and swung it above +his head that he might throw it far into the water; but as he lifted it +up the precious stones in the handle shone so splendidly in the +moonlight that he could not make up his mind to throw it into the water, +it seemed such a pity. So he hid it away among the rushes by the water +side, and went back to the king. And the king said, 'What did you see by +the lake?' + +"And the knight said, 'I saw nothing except the water, and the +mountains, and the rushes.' + +"And the king said, 'Oh, unkind friend! Why will you not do as I ask +you, now that I am dying and can do nothing for myself? Go back and +throw the sword into the lake, as I told you.' + +"And the knight went back, and once more he lifted the sword to throw it +into the water but it looked so beautiful that he _could_ not throw it +away. There would be nothing left, he thought, to remember the king by +when he was dead if he threw away the sword; so again he hid it among +the rushes, and then he went back to the king. And again the king asked, +'What did you see by the lake?' and again the knight answered, 'I saw +nothing except the water and the mountains.' + +"'Oh, unkind, false friend!' cried the king, 'you are crueller to me +than those who gave me this wound. Go back and throw the sword into the +water, or, weak as I am, I will rise up and kill you.' + +"Back went the knight, and this time he seized the sword without looking +at it, so that he should not see how beautiful it was, and then he swung +it once, twice, thrice, round his head, and away it went into the lake. +And as it fell, up rose a hand and arm in a long white sleeve out of the +water, and the hand caught the sword and drew it down under the water. +And then for a moment, all round the lake, the knight fancied he heard a +sound of sobbing and weeping, and he thought in his heart that it must +be the water-fairies weeping for the king's death. + +"'What did you see by the lake?' asked the king again, when he came +back, and the knight told him. Then the king told him to lift him up and +carry him on his back down to the edge of the lake, and when they got +there, what do you think they saw?" + +But the children could not guess, and Milly pressed Aunt Emma's hand +hard to make her go on. + +"They saw a great black ship coming slowly over the water, and on the +ship were numbers of people in black, sobbing and crying, so that the +air was full of a sound of weeping, and in front sat three queens in +long black dresses, and with gold crowns on their heads, and they, too, +were weeping and wringing their hands. + +"'Lift me up,' said the king, when the ship came close beside them, 'and +put me into the ship.' And the knight lifted him up, while the three +queens stretched out their hands and drew him into the ship. + +"'Oh, king! take me with you,' said the knight, 'take me too. What shall +I do all alone without you?' But the ship began to move away, and the +knight was left standing on the shore. Only he fancied he heard the +king's voice saying, 'Wait for me, I shall come again. Farewell!' + +"And the ship went faster and faster away into the darkness, for it was +a fairy ship, till at last the knight could see it no more. So then he +knew that the king had been carried away by the fairies of the lake--the +same fairies who had given him the sword in old days, and who had loved +him and watched over him all his life. But what did the king mean by +saying, 'I shall come again'?" + +Then Aunt Emma stopped and looked at the children. + +"What did he mean, auntie?" asked Milly, who had been listening with all +her ears, and whose little eyes were wet, "and did he ever come back +again?" + +"Not while the knight lived, Milly. He grew to be quite an old man, and +was always hoping that the fairies would bring the king again. But the +king never came, and his friend died without seeing him." + +"But did he _ever_ come again?" asked Olly. + +"I don't know, Olly. Some people think that he is still hidden away +somewhere by the kind water-fairies, and that some day, when the world +wants him very much, he will come back again." + +"Do you think he is here in this lake?" whispered Milly, looking at the +water. + +"How can we tell what's at the bottom of the lake?" said Aunt Emma, +smiling. "But no, I don't think the king is hidden in this lake. He +didn't live near here." + +"What was his name?" asked Milly. + +"His name was King Arthur. But now, children, hurry; there is father +putting all the baskets into the boat. We must get home as quick as we +can." + +They rowed home very quickly, except just for a little time when Milly +rowed, and they did not go quite so fast as if father were rowing alone. +It was quite evening now on the lake, and there were great shadows from +the mountains lying across the water. Somehow the children felt much +quieter now than when they started in the afternoon. Milly had curled +herself up inside mother's arm, and was thinking a great deal about King +Arthur and the fairy ship, while Olly was quite taken up with watching +the oars as they dipped in and out of the water, and occasionally asking +his father when he should be big enough to row quite by himself. It +seemed a very little time after all before they were stepping out of the +boat at Aunt Emma's boathouse, and the picnic and the row were both +over. + +"Good-bye, dear lake," said Milly, turning with her hands full of +water-lilies to look back before they went up to the house. "Good-night, +mountains; good-night, Birdsnest Point. I shall soon come and see you +again." + +A few minutes more, and they were safely packed into a carriage which +drove them back to Ravensnest, and Aunt Emma was saying good-bye to +them. + +"Next time, I shall come and see you, Milly," she said, as she kissed +Milly's little sleepy face. "Don't forget me till then." + +"Then you'll tell us about old Mother Quiverquake," said Olly, hugging +her with his small arms. "Aunt Emma, I haven't given Johnny back his +stockings. They did tickle me so in the boat." + +"We'll get them some time," said Aunt Emma. "Good-night, good-night." + +It was a sleepy pair of children that nurse lifted out of the carriage +at Ravensnest. And though they tried to tell her something about it, she +had to wait till next morning before she could really understand +anything about their wonderful day at Aunt Emma's house. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +WET DAYS AT RAVENSNEST + + +For about a week after the row on the lake the weather was lovely, and +Milly wondered more than ever what the old gentleman who warned them of +the rain in the mountains could have been thinking about. She and Olly +were out all day, and nearly every afternoon nurse lifted the tea-table +through the low nursery window on to the lawn, and let them have their +tea out of doors among the flowers and trees and twittering birds. They +had found out a fly-catcher's nest in the ivy above the front door, and +every evening the two children used to fetch out their father to watch +the parent birds catching flies and carrying them to the hungry little +ones, whom they could just hear chirping up above the ivy. Olly was wild +to get the gardener's ladder that he might climb up and look into the +nest, but Mr. Norton would not have it lest it should frighten away the +old birds. + +One delicious warm morning, too, the children had their long-promised +bathe, and what fun it was. Nurse woke them up at five o'clock in the +morning--fancy waking up as early as that!--and they slipped on their +little blue bathing gowns, and their sand shoes that mother had bought +them in Cromer the year before, and then nurse wrapped them up in +shawls, and she and they and father went down and opened the front door +while everybody else in the house was asleep, and slipped out. What a +quiet strange world it seemed, the grass and the flowers dripping with +dew, and overhead such a blue sky with white clouds sailing slowly about +in it. + +"Why don't we always get up at five o'clock, father?" asked Olly, as he +and Milly skipped along--such an odd little pair of figures--beside Mr. +Norton. "Isn't it nice and funny?" + +"Very," said Mr. Norton. "Still, I imagine Olly, if you had to get up +every day at five o'clock, you might think it funny, but I'm sure you +wouldn't always think it nice." + +"Oh! I'm sure we should," said Milly, seriously. "Why, father, it's just +as if everything was ours and nobody else's, the garden and the river I +mean. Is there _anybody_ up yet do you think--in those houses?" And +Milly pointed to the few houses they could see from the Ravensnest +garden. + +"I can't tell, Milly. But I'll tell you who's sure to be up now, and +that's John Backhouse. I should think he's just beginning to milk the +cows." + +"Oh then, Becky and Tiza'll be up too," cried Milly, dancing about. "I +wish we could see them. Somehow it would be quite different seeing them +now, father. I feel so queer, as if I was somebody else." + +If you have ever been up _very_ early on a summer morning, you will know +what Milly meant, but if not I can hardly explain it. Such a pretty +quiet little walk they had down to the river. Nobody on the road, nobody +in the fields, but the birds chattering and the sun shining, as if they +were having a good time all to themselves, before anybody woke up to +interrupt them. Mr. Norton took the children down to the +stepping-stones, and then, while Milly and nurse stayed on the bank he +lifted Olly up, and carried him to the middle of the stepping-stones, +where the water would about come up to his chest. Mr. Norton had already +taken off his own shoes and stockings, and when they came to the middle +stone, he put Olly down on the stone, and stepped into the water +himself. "Now, Olly, give me your hands and jump in. Mind, it'll feel +very cold." + +Olly shut his eyes, and opened his mouth, as he always did when he felt +just a little frightened, and then in he went; splash! ugh! it was so +cold--much colder than the sea used to feel--but after a few splashes +Olly began to get used to it, and to think it fine fun. + +"Oh, father, fetch Milly, and then we'll all dance about," entreated +Olly. + +"Come, Milly," called Mr. Norton. "Try whether you can manage the +stepping-stones by yourself." So Milly came, holding up her bathing +dress, and stepping from one big stone to another with a very grave +face, as if she felt that there would be an end of her altogether if she +tumbled in. And then, splash! In she jumped by the side of Olly, and +after a little shiver or two she also began to think that the river was +a delightful bathing place, almost as nice as the sea, perhaps in some +ways nicer, because it was such a strange and funny one. They danced and +splashed about in the brown sparkling water till they were tired, and at +last Olly stopped to take breath. + +"I should think the fishes must be frightened of us," he said, peering +down into the river. "I can't see any, father." + +"Well, they wouldn't choose to swim about just where little children are +shouting and capering. The fishes are hidden safe away under the banks +and the big stones. Besides, it's going to be a very hot day, and they +like the shady bits of the river. Just here there's no shade." + +Suddenly there was a great commotion in the river, and when Mr. Norton +looked round for a second he could see nothing of Milly, till up came a +dripping head and a pair of hands, and there was Milly kneeling on the +stones at the bottom of the river, with just her head above water, +looking very much astonished and rather frightened. + +"Why, what happened, old woman?" said Mr. Norton, holding out his hand +to help her up. + +"I--I--don't quite know, father; I was standing on a big stone, and all +of a sudden it tipped up, and I tumbled right in." + +"First of all I thought you was a big fish, and then I thought you was +going to be drowned," said Olly, cheerfully. "I'm glad you wasn't +drowned." + +"Miss Milly! Miss Milly!" shouted nurse from the bank, "it's quite time +you came out now. If you stay in so long you'll get cold, and you, too, +Master Olly." + +Olly was not inclined to come. He would have liked to go on dabbling and +splashing till breakfast-time, but Mr. Norton hurried him out, and the +two dripping little creatures were well wrapped up in large shawls which +nurse had brought with her. Then nurse took up Olly in her arms, and +father took up Milly, who was small and light for her age, and they set +off up the bit of road to the house. By this time it was past six +o'clock, and whom should they meet at the Ravensnest gate but John +Backhouse, with Becky and Tiza, and his two dogs. He was just bringing +the milk, and both he and his children looked as brisk and wide awake as +if they had been up and about for hours. + +Milly and Olly were very much excited at the sight of them, and Olly +struggled hard to get down, but nurse held him tight. + +"Oh, Becky! we've had such a nice bathe," cried Milly, as she passed +them muffled up in her shawl, her little wet feet dangling out. + +Becky and Tiza looked longingly after them as they disappeared into the +house. They wished they could have had a bathe too, but they knew very +well that their hard-worked father and mother had something else to do +on a fine summer's morning than to take them to bathe, and in a few +minutes they had forgotten all about it, and were busy playing with the +dogs, or chattering to their father about the hay-making, which was soon +to begin now. + +That evening there were strange clouds at sunset time, and Mr. Norton +shook his head as he heard Mrs. Norton arrange to take the children next +day to a small mountain village near Ravensnest, to call on some old +friends of hers. + +"I wouldn't make much of a plan for to-morrow if I were you," he said to +his wife, "the weather doesn't look promising." + +"Oh, father!" said Milly, protesting. "There are some red clouds over +there--look! and Nana always says it's going to be fine when there are +red clouds." + +"Well, Milly, your red clouds may be right and I may be wrong. We shall +see." + +But, alas! father was quite right. When Milly woke up next morning there +was no nice sunshine creeping on to her bed as it had done almost ever +since they came to Ravensnest; but instead there was rain beating +steadily against the window, coming down out of a heavy gray sky, and +looking as if it meant to go on for ever. + +"Oh dear!" sighed Milly, as she began to dress, "we can't go out, and +the wild strawberries will get so wet. I meant to have gathered some for +mother to-day. There would have been such nice ones in the wood." + +But it was no use thinking about woods or strawberries, and when Mrs. +Norton came into the children's room just as they were finishing +breakfast, she found a pair of dull little faces staring out at the +rain, as if looking at it would make it stop. + +"Nasty rain," said Olly, climbing up on his mother's knee. "Go to Spain. +I don't want you to come and spoil my nicey time." + +"I am afraid scolding the rain won't make it go away," said his mother, +smiling into his brown face as he knelt on her lap, with his arms round +her neck. "Now what are we going to do to-day?" + +"I don't know," said Milly, sitting down opposite her mother, and +resting her face gravely on her hands. "Well, we brought _some_ toys, +you know, mother. Olly's got his top; I can help him spin it, and I can +play with Katie a bit." + +"That won't take very long," said Mrs. Norton. "Suppose we do some +lessons first of all." + +"Oh, mother, lessons!" said Milly, in a very doubtful voice. + +"It's holidays, mother, it's holidays," cried Olly. "I don't like +lessons--not a bit." + +"Well, but, Olly, think a bit; you can't spin your top and look at +picture-books all day, and I'm afraid it's going to rain all day--it +looks very like it. If you come and do some reading and counting with me +this morning, I can give you some spills to make, or some letters to +tear up for me afterwards. That will save the toys for this afternoon; +and some time this afternoon, if it doesn't stop raining, we'll all +have a romp. And as for you, Milly, don't you think it's quite time +Katie had a new frock? I believe I can find a beautiful bit of blue silk +in my bag, and I'm sure nurse will show you how to make it." + +Milly's face brightened up very much at this, and the two children went +skipping upstairs to the drawing-room after their mother, in very fair +spirits again. Olly did some reading, while Milly wrote in her copybook, +and then Olly had his counting-slate and tried to find out what 6 and 4 +made, and 5 and 3, and other little sums of the same kind. He yawned a +good deal over his reading, and was quite sure several times that h-a-y +spelt "ham," and s-a-w spelt "was," but still, on the whole, he got +through very well. Milly wrote her copy, then she learnt some verses of +a poem called "Lucy Gray," and last of all mother found her a big map of +Westmoreland, the county in which the mountains are, and they had a most +delightful geography lesson. Mother pretended to take Milly a drive all +about the mountains, and made her find out their names, and the names of +the towns and the lakes, beginning with Lake Windermere. Olly was +interested too, for Mrs. Norton told them a great many things about the +places, and made quite a story out of it. + +[Illustration: "He was quite sure that h-a-y spelt 'ham' and s-a-w spelt +'was.'"] + +"Why, mother, I never could go all that long way all at once--_really_, +could I?" asked Milly, when they had been all round the mountains, in +and out and round about. + +"No, Milly, not quite," said Mrs. Norton, laughing, "but it's very easy +to go a long way in a pretendy drive. It would only take us about ten +minutes that way to get to the other side of the world." + +"How long would it take really?" asked Olly. + +"About three months." + +"If we could fly up, and up, ever so far," said Olly, standing on +tiptoe, and stretching out his little arms as high as they would reach, +"it wouldn't take us long. Mother, don't you wish you was a bird?" + +"No, I don't think so, Olly; why do you?" + +"Because I should like to go so _krick_. Mother, the fly-catchers do fly +so krick; I can't see them sometimes when they're flying, they go so +fast. Oh, I do wish father would let me get up a ladder to look at +them." + +"No Olly, you'll frighten them," said Milly, putting on her wise face. +"Besides, father says you're too little, and you'd tumble down." + +Olly looked as if he didn't believe a word of it, as he generally did +when Milly talked wisely to him; but just then he found that mother had +put into his lap a whole basketful of letters to tear up, and that +interested him so much that he forgot the fly-catchers. Nurse cut out a +most fashionable blue dress for Katie, and Milly was quite happy all the +rest of the morning in running up the seams and hemming the bottom. So +the morning passed away. After dinner there were the toys to play with, +and Katie's frock to try on, for nurse had taken a turn at the body +while Milly had been making the skirt. It fitted very well, and Milly +had only the band to put on and the sleeves to make before it would be +quite finished. Then nurse promised to put a little white lace round the +neck, and cut out a blue sash, that Katie might be quite turned into an +elegant young lady. Tea came very soon, and when it was cleared away +father and mother came into the big kitchen without a fireplace, next to +the children's room, and they all had a splendid romp. Mr. Norton made +himself into a tiger, with a tiger-skin in the hall, that Uncle Richard +had brought home from India, and Olly shot him all over with a +walking-stick from the tip of his nose to the tip of his tail. When they +were tired of this, mother set them to play hide-and-seek, and Milly hid +herself in such out-of-the-way cupboards, and squeezed herself into such +small corners, that mother said she was like a needle in a bundle of +hay--there was no finding her. + +Seven o'clock came before they had time to think about it, and the +children went chattering and skipping up to bed, though on fine evenings +they had been staying up much later. How the rain did rattle on the +window while they were undressing. + +"Oh, you tiresome rain," said Milly, standing by the window in her +nightdress, and gazing up into the sky. "Where does it all come from, I +wonder? Won't it be wet to-morrow, Nana? and oh, what is that roaring +over there?" + +"That's the beck," said nurse, who was brushing Olly's hair, and trying +hard to make him stand still for two minutes. + +"The beck! why, what's the matter with it?" + +"It's the rain has made it so full I suppose," said nurse. "To-morrow, +gardener says, it'll be over the lawn if the rain goes on." + +"Oh, but it mustn't go on," said Milly. "Now, rain, dear rain, good +rain, do go away to-night, right away up into the mountains. There's +plenty of room for you up there, and down here we don't want you a bit. +So do be polite and go away." + +But the rain didn't see any good reason for going away, in spite of +Milly's pretty speeches, and next morning there was the same patter on +the window, the same gray sky and dripping garden. After breakfast there +was just a hope of its clearing up. For about an hour the rain seemed to +get less and the clouds a little brighter. But it soon came on again as +fast as ever, and the poor children were very much disappointed. + +"Mother," said Milly, when they had settled down to their lessons again +in the drawing-room, "when we get back to Willingham, do you know what I +shall do?" + +"No, Milly." + +"I shall ask you to take me to see that old gentleman--you know who I +mean--who told you about the rain. And I shall say to him, 'please, Mr. +Old Gentleman, at first I thought you were quite wrong about the rain, +but afterwards I thought you were quite right, and it does rain +dreadfully much in the mountains.'" + +"Very well, Milly. But you have only just had a taste of what the rain +can do in the lakes you know, so far. Father and I have been here +sometimes when it has rained two or three weeks without stopping." + +"Oh dear!" said Milly, looking extremely melancholy. "I like the +mountains very much, mother; but _do_ you think we'd better come to +Ravensnest again after this year?" + +"Oh you ungrateful little woman!" said Mrs. Norton, whose love for the +place was so real that Milly's speech gave her quite a pang. "Have you +forgotten all your happy sunshiny days here, just because it has rained +for two? Why, when I was a little girl, and used to come here, the rainy +days never made me love the place a bit the less. I always used to think +the fine days made up." + +"But then, mother, you were a nice little girl," said Milly, throwing +her arms round her mother's neck and kissing her. "Now, I don't feel a +bit nice this morning. It makes me so cross not to be able to go out and +get flowers and wild strawberries. And you know at home it hardly ever +rains all day." + +"Gardener says sometimes it rains all over the road," interrupted Olly, +"and people can't walk along, and they have to go right up on the +mountains to get past the water place. And sometimes they have to get a +boat to take people across. Do you think we shall have to go in a boat +to church on Sunday, mother?" + +"Well, we're a long way off that yet, Olly. It will take a good many +days' rain to flood the roads so deep that we can't get along them, and +this is only the second rainy day. Come, I don't think we've got much +to complain of. Now suppose, instead of doing all your lessons this +morning, you were presently to write to Jacky and Francis--you write to +Jacky, Milly, and Olly to Francis. Don't you think that would be a good +thing?" + +"Oh yes, yes!" cried Milly, shutting up her copybook in a great hurry. +"They'll be so much astonished, mother, for we didn't _promise_ to write +to them. I don't believe they ever get any letters." + +The children had a great deal of affection and some secret pity for +these playfellows of theirs, who had a sick mother, and who did not get +half the pleasures and amusements that they did. And, as I have already +told you, they could not bear Miss Chesterton, the little boys' aunt, +who lived with them. They felt sure that Jacky and Francis must be +unhappy, only because they had to live with Miss Chesterton. + +This was Milly's letter when it was done. Milly could only write very +slowly, in rather big hand, so that her letters were never very long: + + MY DEAR JACKY--Don't you think it very odd getting a letter from + me? It is nearly a fortnight since we came here. At first it was + _very_ nice. We went up the mountains, and Aunt Emma took us in + a boat on the lake. And we gathered some wild strawberries, only + some of them were quite white--not red a bit. But now it has + begun to rain, and we don't like it at all. Perhaps we sha'n't + be able to get home because the rain will cover up the roads. It + is _very_ dull staying in, only mother makes us such nice plays. + Good-bye, Jacky. I send my love to Francis. Mind you don't + forget us. + + Your loving little friend, + MILLY. + +Olly wrote a much longer letter, that is to say, mother wrote for him, +and he told her what to say, and as this was a much easier way of +writing than Milly's way, he got on very fast, and Mrs. Norton had to +write as quickly as she could, to keep up with him. And this was what +Olly had to say: + + MY DEAR FRANCIS--I wonder what you'll say to-morrow morning + when the postman brings you this letter. I hope you'll write + back, because it won't be fair if you don't. It isn't such fun + here now because it does rain so. Milly and I are always telling + the rain to go away, but it won't--though it did at home. Last + week we went out in a boat, and I rowed. I rowed a great way, + much farther than Milly. We went very slow when Milly rowed. It + was very jolly at the picnic. Aunt Emma gave me some cake, and + mother gave me some bread and jam. Nana won't let us have cake + and jam both, when we have tea at home. Aunt Emma told us a + story about King Arthur. I don't believe you ever heard it. The + water-fairies took him away, and his friend wanted to go too, + but the king said 'No! you must stop behind.' Milly cried + because she felt sad about the king. I didn't cry, because I'm a + little boy. Mother says you won't understand about the story, + and she says we must tell it you when we get home. So we will, + only perhaps we sha'n't remember. Do you do lessons now? We + don't do any--only when it rains. Milly's writing a letter to + Jacky--mine's much longer than hers. + + Your little friend, + OLLY. + +Then came the putting up the letters, addressing them, and stamping +them, all of which the children enjoyed very much, and by the time they +were laid on the hall table ready to go to the post it was nearly +dinner-time. + +How the beck did roar that afternoon. And when the children looked out +from the drawing-room window they could see a little flood on the lawn, +where the water had come over the side of the stream. While they were +having their tea, with mother sitting by, working and chattering to +them, they heard a knock at the door, and when they opened it there was +father standing in the unused kitchen, with the water running off his +waterproof coat, making little streams all over the stone floor. + +"I have been down to look at the river," he said to Mrs. Norton. "Keep +off, children! I'm much too wet to touch. Such rain! It does know how +to come down here! The water's over the road just by the +stepping-stones. John Backhouse says if it goes on another twenty-four +hours like this, there'll be no getting to Wanwick by the road, on +foot." + +"Father," said Milly, looking at him with a very solemn face, "wouldn't +it be dreadful if it went on raining and raining, and if the river came +up and up, right up to the drive and into the hall, and we all had to +sit upstairs, and the butcher couldn't bring us any meat, and John +Backhouse couldn't bring us any milk, and we all _died_ of hunger." + +"Then they would put us into some black boxes," said Olly, cheerfully, +with his mouth full of bread and butter, "and they would put the black +boxes into some boats, and take us right away and bury us +krick--wouldn't they, mother?" + +"Well, but--" said Mr. Norton, who had by this time got rid of his wet +coat, and was seated by Milly, helping himself to some tea, "suppose we +got into the boats before we were dead, and rowed away to Windermere +station?" + +"Oh no! father," said Milly, who always liked her stories to be as +gloomy as possible, "they wouldn't know anything about us till we were +dead you know, and then they'd come and find us, and be _very_ sorry for +us, and say, 'Oh dear! oh dear! what a pity!'" + +Olly began to look so dismal as Milly's fancies grew more and more +melancholy, that Mrs. Norton took to laughing at them all. What did they +know about Westmoreland rain indeed. This was nothing--just nothing at +all; she _could_ remember some floods in the wintertime, when she was a +little girl, and used to stay with Aunt Emma and great-grandmamma; but +as for this, why, it was a good summer wetting, and that was all. + +A romp sent the children to bed in excellent spirits again. This time +both Milly and Olly stood at the window together, and told the rain to +be sure to go to Spain that night, and never come back again while they +were at Ravensnest. + +"Or you might go to Willingham, you know, dear Mr. Rain," said Milly; "I +daresay mother's flowers want a good watering. And there's Spot--you +might give her a good washing--she _can_ wash herself, but she won't. +Only we don't want you here, Mr. Rain." + +But what an obstinate disagreeable Mr. Rain it was! All that night it +went on pouring, till the little beck in the garden was so full it was +almost choked, and could only get along by sputtering and foaming as if +some wicked water-fairies were driving it along and tormenting it. And +all the little pools on the mountain, the "tarns," as Becky and Tiza +called them, filled up, and the rain made the mountain itself so wet +that it was like one big bog all over. + +When the children woke up the flood on the lawn was growing bigger, and +it seemed to them as if the house and garden were all wrapped up in a +wet white cloud-blanket. They could not see the mountain at all from the +window, it was all covered with a thick white mist, and the dark fir +trees in the garden looked sad and drooping, as if the weight of +raindrops was too much for them to carry. + +The children had made up their minds so completely the night before that +it _couldn't_ rain more than two days running, that they felt as if they +could hardly be expected to bear this third wet morning cheerfully. +Nurse found them cross and out of spirits at breakfast. Even a prospect +of asking Becky and Tiza to tea did not bring any smiles to their +forlorn little faces. It would be no fun having anybody to tea. They +couldn't go out, and there was nothing amusing indoors. + +After breakfast, Olly set to work to get into mischief, as he generally +did when he felt dull. Nurse discovered him smearing Katie's cheeks with +raspberry jam "to make them get red kricker" as he said, and alas! some +of the jam had stuck to the new silk frock, and spoilt all its smart +fresh look. + +When Milly found it out she began to cry, and when Mrs. Norton came in +she saw a heap on the floor, which was Milly, sobbing, while Olly sat +beside her with his mouth wide open, as if he was a good deal astonished +at the result of his first attempt at doctoring. + +"Pick up the pieces, old woman," said Mrs. Norton, taking hold of the +heap and lifting it up. "What's the matter with you both?" + +"Olly's spoilt my doll," sobbed Milly, "and it _will_ go on raining--and +I feel so--so--dull." + +"I didn't spoil her doll, mother," cried Olly, eagerly. "I only rubbed +some jam on its cheeks to make them a nicey pink--only some of it +_would_ sticky her dress--I didn't mean to." + +"How would you like some jam rubbed on your cheeks, sir?" said Mrs. +Norton, who could scarcely help laughing at poor Katie's appearance when +nurse handed the doll to her. "Suppose you leave Milly's dolls alone for +the future; but cheer up, Milly! I think I can make Katie very nearly +right again. Come upstairs to my room and we'll try." + +After a good deal of sponging and rubbing, and careful drying by the +kitchen fire, Katie came very nearly right again, and then Mrs. Norton +tried whether some lessons would drive the rain out of the children's +heads. But the lessons did not go well. It was all Milly could do to +help crying every time she got a figure wrong in her sum, and Olly took +about ten minutes to read two lines of his reading-book. Olly had just +begun his sums, and Milly was standing up to say some poetry to her +mother, looking a woebegone little figure, with pale cheeks and heavy +eyes, when suddenly there was a noise of wheels outside, and both the +children turned to look out of the window. + +"A carriage! a carriage!" shouted Olly, jumping down, and running to the +window. + +There, indeed, was one of the shut-up "cars," as the Westmoreland people +call them, coming up the Ravensnest drive. + +"It's Aunt Emma," said Mrs. Norton, starting up, "how good of her to +come over on such a day. Run, children, and open the front door." + +Down flew Milly and Olly, tumbling over one another in their hurry; but +father had already thrown the door open, and who should they see +stepping down the carriage-steps but Aunt Emma herself, with her soft +gray hair shining under her veil, and her dear kind face as gentle and +cheery as ever. + +"Aunt Emma! Aunt Emma!" shouted Olly, dancing up to her, and throwing +his arms round her, "_are_ you come to tell us about old Mother +Quiverquake?" + +"You gipsy, don't strangle me! Well, Lucy dear, here I am. Will you have +me to dinner? I thought we'd all be company for each other this bad day. +Why, Milly, what have you been doing to your cheeks?" + +"She's been crying," said Olly, in spite of Milly's pulling him by the +sleeve to be quiet, "because I stickened her doll." + +"Well, and quite right too. Dolls weren't made to be stickied. But now, +who's going to carry my bag upstairs? Take it gently, Milly, it's got my +cap inside, and if you crumple my cap I shall have to sit with my head +in a bandbox at dinner. Old ladies are _never_ seen without their caps +you know. The most dreadful things would happen if they were! Olly, you +may put my umbrella away. There now, I'll go to mother's room and take +off my things." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +A STORY-TELLING GAME + + +When Aunt Emma was safely settled, cap and all, in one of the +drawing-room arm-chairs, it seemed to the children as if the rain and +the gray sky did not matter nearly so much as they had done half an hour +before. In the first place, her coming made something new and +interesting to think about; and in the second place, they felt quite +sure that Aunt Emma hadn't brought her little black bag into the +drawing-room with her for nothing. If only her cap had been in it, why +of course she would have left it in mother's bedroom. But here it was in +her lap, with her two hands folded tight over it, as if it contained +something precious! How very puzzling and interesting! + +However, for a long time it seemed as if Aunt Emma had nothing at all to +say about her bag. She began to tell them about her drive--how in two +places the horse had to go splashing through the water, and how once, +when they were crossing a little river that ran across the road, the +water came so far up the wheels that "I put my head out of the window," +said Aunt Emma, "and said to my old coachman, 'Now, John, if it's going +to get any deeper than this, you'd better turn him round and go home, +for I'm an old woman, not a fish, and I can't swim. Of course, if the +horse can swim with the carriage behind him it's all right, but I have +my doubts.' Now John, my dears, has been with me a great many years, and +he knows very well that I'm rather a nervous old woman. It's very sad, +but it is so. Don't you be nervous when you're old people. So all he +said was 'All right, ma'am. Bless you, he can swim like a trout.' And +crack went the whip, splash went the water! It seemed to me it was just +going to come in under the door, when, lo and behold! there we were safe +and sound on dry ground again. But whether my old horse swam through or +walked through I can't tell you. I like to believe he swam, because I'm +so fond of him, and one likes to believe the creatures one loves can do +clever things." + +"I'll ask John when he comes to take you away, Aunt Emma," said Olly. "I +don't believe horses can swim when they're in a carriage." + +"You're a matter-of-fact monkey," said Aunt Emma. "Dear me, what's +that?" + +For a loud squeak had suddenly startled the children, who were now +looking about them everywhere in vain, to find out where it came from. +Squeak! again. This time the voice certainly came from near Aunt Emma's +chair, but there was nothing to be seen. + +"What a strange house you live in," said Aunt Emma, with a perfectly +grave face. "You must have caught a magician somehow. That's a +magician's squeak." + +Again came the noise! + +"I know, I know!" shouted Olly. "It's Aunt Emma's bag! I'm sure it came +out of the bag." + +"My bag!"--holding it up and looking at it. "Now does it look like a bag +that squeaks? It's a perfectly well-behaved bag, and never did such a +thing in its life." + +"I know, Aunt Emma," said Olly, dancing round her in great excitement. +"You've got the parrot in there!" + +"Well now," said Aunt Emma. "This is really serious. If you think I am +such a cruel old woman as to shut up a poor poll-parrot in a bag, +there's no help for it, we must open the bag. But it's a very curious +bag--I wouldn't stand too near it if I were you." + +Click! went the fastening of the bag, and out jumped--what do you think? +Why, the very biggest frog that was ever seen, in this part of the world +at any rate, a green speckled frog, that hopped on to Aunt Emma's knee, +and then on to the floor, where it went hopping and squeaking along the +carpet, till all of a sudden, when it got to the door, it turned over on +its back, and lay there quite quiet with its legs in the air. + +The children followed it with looks half of horror, half of amazement. + +"What is it, Aunt Emma? Is it alive?" asked Milly, jumping on to a chair +as the frog came near her, and drawing her little skirts tight round her +legs, while Olly went cautiously after it, with his hands on his knees, +one step at a time. + +"You'd better ask it," said Aunt Emma, who had at last begun to laugh a +little, as if it was impossible to keep grave any longer. "I'm sure it +looks very peaceable just now, poor thing." + +So the children crept up to it, and examined it closely. Yes, it was a +green speckled frog, but what it was made of, and whether it was alive, +and if it was not alive how it managed to hop and squeak--these were the +puzzles. + +"Take hold of it, Milly," said Mr. Norton, who had just come up from his +work, and was standing laughing near the door. "Turn it over on its legs +again." + +"No, I'll turn it," cried Olly, making a dash, and turning it over in a +great hurry, keeping his legs and feet well out of the way. Hop! squeak! +there it was off again, right down the room with the children after it, +till it suddenly came up against a table leg, and once more turned over +on its back and lay quite still. + +"Oh, Aunt Emma, is it a toy?" asked Milly, who now felt brave enough to +take it up and look at it. + +"Well, Milly, I believe so--a very lively one. Bring it here, and I'll +tell you something about it." + +So the children brought it very cautiously, as if they were not quite +sure what it would do next, and then Aunt Emma explained to them that +she had once paid a visit to a shop in London where Japanese toys--toys +made in the country of Japan--far away on the other side of the +world--were sold, and that there she found master froggy. + +"And there never was such a toy as froggy for a wet day," said Aunt +Emma. "I have tried him on all sorts of boys and girls, and he never +fails. He's as good a cure for a cross face as a poultice is for a sore +finger. But, Milly, listen! I declare there's something else going on in +my bag. I really think, my dear bag, you might be quiet now that you +have got rid of froggy! What can all this chattering be about? Sh! sh!" +and Aunt Emma held up her finger at the children, while she held the bag +up to her ear, and listened carefully. Olly was almost beside himself +with excitement, but Milly had got his little brown hands tight in hers +for fear he should make a jump at the bag. "Yes," said Aunt Emma. "It's +just as I thought. The bag declares it's not his fault at all, but that +if I will give him such noisy creatures to carry I must take the +consequences. He says there's a whole family now inside him, making such +a noise he can hardly hear himself speak. It's enough, he says, to drive +a respectable bag mad, and he must blow up if it goes on. Dear me! I +must look into this. Milly, come here!" + +Milly came near, and Aunt Emma opened the bag solemnly. + +"Now, Milly, I'll hold it for fear it should take it into its poor head +to blow up, and you put your hand in and see what you can find." + +So Milly put her hand in, feeling a good deal excited as to what might +happen--and what do you think she brought out? A whole handful of the +most delicious dolls:--cardboard dolls of all sorts and kinds, like +those in mother's drawer at home; paper dolls, mamma dolls, little boy +dolls and little girl dolls, baby dolls and nurse dolls; dolls in suits +and dolls in frocks; dolls in hats and dolls in nightgowns; a papa in +trousers and a mamma in a magnificent blue dress with flounces and a +train; a nurse in white cap and apron and the most bewitching baby doll +you ever saw, with a frilled paper cap that slipped on and off, and a +white frock with pink ribbons. And the best of these dolls was, that +each of them had a piece of cardboard fastened on behind and a little +bit of cardboard to stand on, so that when you spread out the piece +behind they stood up as naturally as possible, and looked as if they +were going to talk to you. + +"Oh, Aunt Emma, dear Aunt Emma!" cried Milly, beside herself with +delight as she spread them all out in her lap. "They're just like +mother's at home, mother's that you made for her when she was a little +girl--only ever so many more." + +"Well, Milly, I made mother's for her long ago, when it rained for days +and days without stopping, and she had grown tired of pretty nearly +everything and everybody indoors; and now I have been spending part of +these rainy days in making a new set for mother's little girl. There, +dear little woman, I think you must have given me a kiss for each of +them by this time. Suppose you try and make them stand up." + +"But, Aunt Emma," said Olly, who was busy examining the mysterious +bag--how could the dolls talk? they're only paper." + +"I know nothing about it," answered Aunt Emma, rescuing the bag, and +putting it safely under her chair. "You _might_ ask the bag--but it +wouldn't answer you. Magical bags never do talk except to their masters +or mistresses." + +So Olly had to puzzle it out for himself while he played with the +Japanese frog. That was an extraordinary frog! You should have seen +nurse's start when Olly hid himself in the passage and sent the frog +hopping and squeaking through the open door of the night nursery, where +nurse was sitting sewing; and as for cook, when the creature came +flopping over her kitchen floor she very nearly spoilt the hash she was +making for dinner by dropping a whole pepper-box into the middle of it! +There was no end to the fun to be got out of froggy, and Olly amused +himself with it the whole of the morning, while Milly went through long +stories with her dolls upstairs, helped every now and then by Aunt Emma, +who sat knitting and talking to mother. + +At dinner the children had to sit quiet while Mr. and Mrs. Norton and +Aunt Emma talked. Father and mother had been almost as much cheered up +by Aunt Emma's coming as the children themselves, and now the +dinner-table was lively with pleasant talk; talk about books, and talk +about pictures, and talk about foreign places, and talk about the +mountains and the people living near Ravensnest, many of whom mother had +known when she was a little girl. Milly, who was old enough to listen, +could only understand a little bit here and there; but there was always +Aunt Emma's friendly gentle face to look at, and her soft old hand in +its black mitten, to slip her own little fingers into; while Olly was so +taken up with the prospects of the black-currant pudding which he had +seen cook making in the morning, and the delight of it when it came, +that it seemed no trouble to him to sit still. + +As for the rain, there was not much difference. Perhaps there were a few +breaks in the clouds, and it might be beating a little less heavily on +the glass conservatory outside the dining-room, still, on the whole, the +weather was much the same as it had been. It was wonderful to see how +little notice the children had taken of it since Aunt Emma came, and +when they escorted her upstairs after dinner, they quite forgot to rush +to the window and look out, as they had been doing the last three days +at every possible opportunity. + +The children got her safe into a chair, and then Olly brought a stool to +one side of her, and Milly brought a stool to the other. + +"_Now,_ can you remember about old Mother Quiverquake?" said Olly, +resting his little sunburnt chin on Aunt Emma's knee, and looking up to +her with eager eyes. + +[Illustration: "'Suppose we have a story-telling game'"] + +"Well, I daresay I shall begin to remember about her presently; but +suppose, children, we have a _story-telling game_. We'll tell +stories--you and Olly, father, mother, and everybody. That's much fairer +than that one person should do all the telling." + +"We couldn't," said Milly, shaking her head gravely, "we are only little +children. Little children can't make up stories." + +"Suppose little children try," said mother. "I think Aunt Emma's is an +excellent plan. Now, father, you'll have to tell one too." + +"Father's lazy," said Mr. Norton, coming out from behind his newspaper. +"But, perhaps, if you all of you tell very exciting stories you may stir +him up." + +"Oh, father!" cried Olly, who had a vivid remembrance of his father's +stories, though they only came very seldom, "tell us about the rat with +three tails, and the dog that walked on its nose." + +"Oh dear, no!" said Mr. Norton, "those won't do for such a grand +story-telling as this. I must think of some story which is all long +words and good children." + +"_Don't_ father," said Milly, imploringly, "it's ever so much nicer when +they get into scrapes, you know, and tumble down, and all that." + +"Who's to begin?" said Aunt Emma. "I think mother had better begin. +Afterwards it will be your turn, Olly; then father, then Milly, and then +me." + +"I don't believe I've got a scrap of a story in my head," said Mrs. +Norton. "It's weeks since I caught one last." + +"Then look here, Olly," said Aunt Emma, "I'll tell you what to do. Go up +gently behind mother, and kiss her three times on the top of the head. +That's the way to send the stories in. Mother will soon begin to feel +one fidgeting inside her head after that." + +So Olly went gently up behind his mother, climbed on a stool at the back +of her chair, and kissed her softly three times at the back of her head. +Mrs. Norton lay still for a few moments after the kisses, with closed +eyes. + +"Ah!" she said at last. "Now I think I've caught one. But it's a very +little one, poor little thing. And yet, strange to say, though it's very +little, it's very old. Now, children, you must be kind to my story. I +caught him first a great many years ago in an old book, but I am afraid +you will hardly care for him as much as I did. Well, once upon a time +there was a great king." + +"Was it King Arthur, mother?" interrupted Olly, eagerly. + +"Oh no! this king lived in a different country altogether. He lived in a +beautiful hot country over the sea, called Spain." + +"Oh, mother! a _hot_ country!" protested Milly, "that's where the rain +goes to." + +"Well, Milly, I don't think you know any more about it, except that you +_tell_ the rain to go there. Don't you know by this time that the rain +never does what it's told? Really, very little rain goes to Spain, and +in some parts of the country the people would be very glad indeed if we +could send them some of the rain we don't want at Ravensnest. But now, +you mustn't interrupt me, or I shall forget my story--Well there was +once a king who lived in a _very_ hot part of Spain, where they don't +have much rain, and where it hardly ever snows or freezes. And this king +had a beautiful wife, whom he loved very much. But, unluckily, this +beautiful wife had one great fault. She was always wishing for the most +unreasonable and impossible things, and though the king was always +trying to get her what she wanted she was never satisfied, and every day +she seemed to grow more and more discontented and exacting. At last, one +day in the winter, a most extraordinary thing happened. A shower of snow +fell in Cordova, which was the name of the town where the king and queen +lived, and it whitened the hills all around the town, so that they +looked as if somebody had been dusting white sugar over them. Now snow +was hardly ever seen in Cordova, and the people in the town wondered at +it, and talked about it a great deal. But after she had looked at it a +little-while the queen began to cry bitterly. None of her ladies could +comfort her, nor would she tell any of them what was the matter. There +she sat at her window, weeping, till the king came to see her. When he +came he could not imagine what she was crying about, and begged her to +tell him why. 'I am weeping,' she said, sobbing all the time, 'because +the hills--are not always--covered with snow. See how pretty they look! +And yet--I have never, till now, seen them look like that. If you really +loved me, you would manage some way or other that it should snow once a +year at any rate.' + +"'But how can I make it snow?' cried the king in great trouble, because +she would go on weeping and weeping, and spoiling her pretty eyes. + +"'I'm sure I don't know,' said the queen, crossly, 'but you can't love +me a bit, or you'd certainly try.' + +"Well, the king thought and thought, and at last he hit upon a beautiful +plan. He sent into all parts of Spain to buy almond trees, and planted +them on the hills all round the town. Now the almond tree, as you know, +has a lovely pinky-white blossom, so when the next spring arrived all +these thousands of almond trees came out into bloom all over the hills +round Cordova, so that they looked at a distance as if they were covered +with white snow. And for once the queen was delighted, and could not +help saying a nice 'Thank you' to the king for all the trouble he had +taken to please her. But it was not very long before she grew +discontented again, and began once more to wish for all kinds of +ridiculous things. One day she was sitting at her window, and she saw +some ragged little children playing by the river that ran round the +palace. They were dabbling in the mud at the side, sticking their little +bare feet into it, or scooping up pieces which they rolled into balls +and threw at one another. The queen watched them for some time, and at +last she began to weep bitterly. One of her maidens ran and told the +king that the queen was weeping, and he came in a great hurry to see +what was the matter. + +"'Just look at those children down there!' said the queen, sobbing and +pointing to them. 'Did you ever see anybody so happy? Why can't I have +mud to dabble in too, and why can't I take off my shoes and stockings, +and amuse myself like the children do, instead of being so dull and +stuck-up all day long?' + +"'Because it isn't proper for queens to dabble in the mud,' said the +poor king in great perplexity, for he didn't at all like the idea of +his beautiful queen dabbling in the mud with the little ragged children. + +"'That's just like you,' said the queen, beginning to cry faster than +ever,' you never do anything to please me. What's the good of being +proper? What's the good of being a queen at all?' + +"This made the king very unhappy, and again he thought and thought, till +at last he hit upon a plan. He ordered a very large shallow bath of +white marble to be made in the palace-garden. Then he poured into it all +kinds of precious stones, and chips of sweet-smelling wood, besides a +thousand cartloads of rose-leaves and a thousand cartloads of orange +flowers. All these he ordered to be stirred up together with a great +ivory spoon, till they made a kind of wonderful mud, and then he had the +bath filled up with scented water. + +"'Now then,' he said to the queen, when he had brought her down to look +at it, 'you may take off your shoes and stockings and paddle about in +this mud as much as you like.' You may imagine that this was a very +pleasant kind of mud to dabble in, and the queen and her ladies amused +themselves with it immensely for some time. But nothing could keep this +tiresome queen amused for long together, and in about a fortnight she +had grown quite tired of her wonderful bath. It seemed as if the king's +pains had been all thrown away. She grew cross and discontented again, +and her ladies began to say to each other, 'What will she wish for next, +I wonder? The king might as well try to drink up the sea as try to get +her all she wants.' At last, one day, when she and her ladies were +walking near the palace, they met a shepherdess driving a flock of sheep +up into the hills. The shepherdess looked so pretty and bright in her +red petticoat and tall yellow cap, that the queen stopped to speak to +her. + +"'Where are you going, pretty maiden, with your woolly white sheep?' she +asked. + +"'I am going up to the hills,' said the shepherdess. 'Now the sun has +scorched up the fields down below we must take our sheep up to the cool +hills, where the grass is still fresh and green. Good-day, good-day, the +sheep are going so fast I cannot wait.' So on she tripped, singing and +calling to her sheep, who came every now and then to rub their soft +coats against her, as if they loved her. The queen looked after her, and +her face began to pucker up. + +"'Why am I not a shepherdess?' she exclaimed, bursting into tears. 'I +_hate_ being a queen! I never sang as merrily as that little maiden in +all my life. I must and will be a shepherdess, and drive sheep up into +the mountain, or I shall die!" + +"And all that night the foolish queen sat at her window crying, and when +the morning came she had made herself look quite old and ugly. When the +king came to see her he was dreadfully troubled, and begged her to tell +him what was the matter now. + +"'I want to be a shepherdess, and drive sheep up into the mountains,' +sobbed the queen. 'Why should the little shepherdess girls look always +so happy and merry, while I am dying of dulness?' + +"The king thought it was very unkind of her to say she was dying of +dulness when he had taken so much trouble to get her all she wanted; but +he knew it was no good talking to her while she was in such a temper. So +all he said was: + +"'How can I turn you into a shepherdess? These shepherdesses stay out +all night with their sheep on the hills, and live on water and a crust +of bread. How would you like that?' + +"'Of course I-should like it,' said the queen, 'anything for a change. +Besides, nothing could be nicer than staying out of doors these lovely +nights. And as for food, you know very well that I am never hungry here, +and that it doesn't matter in the least to me what I eat!' + +"'Well,' said the king, 'you shall go up to the hills, if you promise to +take your ladies with you, and if you will let me send a tent to shelter +you at night, and some servants to look after you.' + +"'As if that would give me any pleasure!' said the queen, 'to be +followed about and waited upon is just what I detest. I will go alone; +just like that pretty little shepherdess, if I go at all.' + +"But the king declared that nothing would induce him to let her go +alone. So the queen set to work to cry, and she cried for two days and +two nights without stopping, and at the end of that time the poor king +was ready to let her go anywhere or do anything for the sake of a little +peace. + +"So she had her own way. They found her a flock of the loveliest white +sheep, all with blue ribbons round their necks, and blue rosettes on +their little white tails; and the queen dressed herself up in a red silk +petticoat and a cap embroidered in gold and silver, and then she set out +by herself. + +"At first it was all delightful. She drove the sheep up the soft green +hillsides, and laughed with delight to see them nibbling the fresh +grass, and running hither and thither after her, and after each other. +The evening sun shone brightly, and she sat herself down on a rock and +sang all the tunes she knew, that she might be just like the little +shepherdess. But while she was singing the sheep strayed away, and she +had to run after them as fast as she could, to catch them up. This made +her hot and tired, so she tried to make them lie down under a chestnut +tree, that she might rest beside them. But the sheep were not a bit +tired, and had no mind to rest at all. While she was calling one set of +them together the other set ran scampering off, and the queen found out +that she must just give up her way for once and follow theirs. On went +the sheep, up hill and down dale, nibbling and frisking and trotting to +their hearts' content, till the queen was worn out. + +"At last, by the time the sun was setting, the poor queen was so tired +that she could walk no longer. Down she sat, and the ungrateful sheep +kicked up their little hind legs and trotted away out of sight as fast +as they could trot. There she was left on the hillside all alone. It +began to get dark, and the sky, instead of being blue and clear as it +had been, filled with black clouds. + +"'Oh dear! oh dear!' sighed the queen, 'here is a storm coming. If I +could only find my way down the hill, if I could only see the town!' + +"But there were trees all about her, which hid the view, and soon it was +so dark there was nothing to be seen, not even the stars. And presently, +crash came the thunder, and after the thunder the rain--such rain! It +soaked the queen's golden cap till it was so heavy with water she was +obliged to throw it away, and her silk petticoat was as wet as if she +had been taking a bath in it. In vain she ran hither and thither, trying +to find a way through the trees, while the rain blinded her, and the +thunder deafened her, till at last she was forced to sink down on the +ground, feeling more wretched and frightened and cold than any queen +ever felt before. Oh, if she were only safe back in her beautiful +palace! If only she had the tent the king wanted to send with her! But +there all night she had to stay, and all night the storm went on, till +the queen was lying in a flood, and the owls and bats, startled out of +their holes, went flying past her in the dark, and frightening her out +of her senses. When the morning came there was such a shivering, +crumpled up queen sitting on the grass, that even her own ladies would +scarcely have known her. + +"'Oh, husband! husband!' she cried, getting up and wringing her cold +little hands. 'You will never find me, and your poor wicked wife will +die of cold and hunger.' + +"Tirra-lirra! tirra-lirra! What was that sounding in the forest? +Surely--surely--it was a hunting horn. But who could be blowing it so +early in the cold gray morning, when it was scarcely light? On ran the +queen toward where the sound came from. Over rocks and grass she ran, +till, all of a sudden, stepping out from behind a tree, came the king +himself, who had been looking for her for hours. And then what do you +think the discontented queen did? She folded her hands, and hung her +head, and said, quite sadly and simply: + +"'Oh, my lord king, make me a shepherdess really. I don't deserve to be +a queen. Send me away, and let me knit and spin for my living. I have +plagued you long enough.' + +"And suddenly it seemed to the king as if there had been a black speck +in the queen's heart, which had been all washed away by the rain; and he +took her hands, and led her home to the palace in joy and gladness. And +so they lived happy ever afterward." + +"Thank you _very_ much, mother," said Milly, stretching up her arms and +drawing down Mrs. Norton's face to kiss her. "Do you really think the +queen was never discontented any more?" + +"I can't tell you any more than the story does," said Mrs. Norton. "You +see there would always be that dreadful night to think about, if she +ever felt inclined to be; but I daresay the queen didn't find it very +easy at first." + +"I would have made her be a shepherdess," said Olly, shaking his head +gravely. "She wasn't nice, not a bit." + +"Little Mr. Severity!" said Aunt Emma, pulling his brown curls. "It's +your turn next, Olly." + +"Then Milly must kiss me first," said Olly, looking rather scared, as if +something he didn't quite understand was going to happen to him. + +So Milly went through the operation of kissing him three times on the +back of the head, and then Olly's eyes, finding it did no good to stare +at Aunt Emma or mother, went wandering all round the room in search of +something else to help him. Suddenly they came to the window, where a +brown speck was dancing up and down, and then Olly's face brightened, +and he began in a great hurry: + +"Once upon a time there was a daddy-long-legs--" + +"Well," said Milly, when they had waited a little while, and nothing +more came. + +"I don't know any more," said Olly. + +"Oh, that _is_ silly," said Milly, "why, that isn't a story at all. Shut +your eyes tight, that's much the best way of making a story." + +So Olly shut his eyes, and pressed his two hands tightly over them, and +then he began again: + +"Once upon a time there was a daddy-long-legs--" + +Another stop. + +"Was it a _good_ daddy-long-legs?" asked Milly, anxious to help him on. + +"Yes," said Olly, "that's it, Milly. Once upon a time there was a good +daddy-long-legs--" + +"Well, what did he do?" asked Milly, impatiently. + +"He--he--flewed on to father's nose!" said Olly, keeping his hands tight +over his eyes, while his little white teeth appeared below in a broad +grin. + +"And father said, 'Who's that on my nose?' and the daddy-long-legs said, +'It's me, don't you know?' And father said, 'Get away off my nose, I +don't like you a bit.' And the daddy-long-legs said, 'I shan't go away. +It's hot on the window, the sun gets in my eyes. I like sitting up here +best.' So father took a big sofa-cushion and gave his nose _ever_ such a +bang! And the daddy-long-legs tumbled down dead. And the cushion tumbled +down dead. And father tumbled down dead. And that's all," said Olly +opening his eyes, and looking extremely proud of himself. + +"Oh, you silly boy!" cried Milly, "that isn't a bit like a real story." + +But Aunt Emma and father and mother laughed a good deal at Olly's story, +and Aunt Emma said it would do very well for such a small boy. + +Whose turn was it next? + +"Father's turn! father's turn!" cried the children, in great glee, +looking round for him; but while Olly's story had been going on, Mr. +Norton, who was sitting behind them in a big arm-chair, had been +covering himself up with sofa cushions and newspapers, till there was +only the tip of one of his boots to be seen, coming out from under the +heap. The children were a long time dragging him out, for he pelted them +with cushions, and crumpled the newspapers over their heads, till they +were so tired with laughing and struggling they had no strength left. + +"Father, it isn't fair, I don't think," said Milly at last, sitting a +breathless heap on the floor. "Of course little people can't _make_ big +people do things, so the big people ought to do them without making." + +"That's not at all good reasoning, Milly," said Mr. Norton, who could +not resist the temptation of throwing one more sofa cushion at her +laughing face. "You can't _make_ nurse stand on her head, but that's no +reason why nurse should stand on her head." + +Just then Olly, moving up a stool behind his father's chair, brought his +little mouth suddenly down on his father's head, and gave him three +kisses in a great hurry, with a shout of triumph at the end. + +"Dear me!" said Mr. Norton, shutting his eyes and falling back as if +something had happened to him. "This is very serious. Aunt Emma, that +spell of yours is really _too_ strong. My poor head! It will certainly +burst if I don't get this story out directly! Come, jump up, +children--quick!" + +Up jumped the children, one on each knee, and Mr. Norton began at once. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE STORY OF BEOWULF + + +Once upon a time there was a great--" + +"Father," interrupted Milly, "I shall soon be getting tired of 'Once +upon a time there was a great king.'" + +"Don't cry till you're hurt, Milly; which means, wait till I get to the +end of my sentence. Well, once upon a time there was a great--hero." + +"What is a hero?" asked Olly. + +"I know," said Milly, eagerly, "it's a brave man that's always fighting +and killing giants and dragons and cruel people." + +"That'll do to begin with," said Mr. Norton, "though, when you grow +older, you will find that people can be heroes without fighting or +killing. However, the man I am going to tell you about was just the kind +of hero you're thinking of, Milly. He loved fighting with giants and +dragons and wild people, and my story is going to be about two of his +fights--the greatest he ever fought. The name of this hero was Beowulf, +and he lived in a country called Sweden (Milly knows all about Sweden, +Olly, and you must get her to show it you on the map), with a number of +other brave men who were his friends, and helped him in his battles. And +one day a messenger came over the sea from another country close by, +called Denmark, and the messenger said, 'Which of all you brave men will +come over and help my master, King Hrothgar, who is in sore trouble?' +And the messenger told them how Hrothgar, for many years past, had been +plagued by a monster--the hateful monster Grendel--half a man and half a +beast, who lived at the bottom of a great bog near the king's palace. +Every night, he said, Grendel the monster came out of the bog with his +horrible mother beside him--a wolf-like creature, fearful to look +upon--and he and she would roam about the country, killing and slaying +all whom they met. Sometimes they would come stalking to the king's +palace, where his brave men were sleeping round the fire in the big +hall, and before anyone could withstand him Grendel would fall upon the +king's warriors, kill them by tens and twenties, and carry off their +dead bodies to his bog. Many a brave man had tried to slay the monster, +but none had been able so much as to wound him. + +"When Beowulf and his friends had heard this story they thought a while, +and then each said to the other, 'Let us go across the sea and rid King +Hrothgar of this monster.' So they took ship and went across the sea to +Hrothgar's country, and Hrothgar welcomed them royally, and made a great +feast in their honour. And after the feast Hrothgar said to Beowulf, +'Now, I give over to you the hall of my palace, that you may guard it +against the monster.' So Beowulf and the brave men who had come over +with him made a great fire in the hall, and they all lay down to sleep +beside it. You may imagine that they did not find it very easy to get to +sleep, and some of them thought as they lay there that very likely they +should never see their homes in Sweden again. But they were tired with +journeying and feasting, and one after another they all fell asleep. +Then in the dead of the night, when all was still, Grendel rose up out +of the bog, and came stalking over the moor to the palace. His eyes +flamed with a kind of horrible light in the darkness, and his steps +seemed to shake the earth; but those inside the palace were sleeping so +heavily that they heard nothing, not even when Grendel burst open the +door of the hall and came in among them. Before anyone had wakened, the +monster had seized one of the sleeping men and torn him to pieces. Then +he came to Beowulf; but Beowulf sprang up out of his sleep and laid hold +upon him boldly. He used no sword to strike him, for there was no sword +which men could make was strong enough to hurt Grendel; but he seized +him with his strong hands, and the two struggled together in the palace. +And they fought till the benches were torn from the walls, and +everything in the hall was smashed and broken. The brave men, springing +up all round, seized their swords and would gladly have helped their +lord, but there was no one but Beowulf could harm Grendel. + +"So they fought, till at last Beowulf tore away Grendel's hand and arm, +and the monster fled away howling into the darkness. Over the moor he +rushed till he came to his bog, and there he sank down into the middle +of the bog, wailing and shrieking like one whose last hour was come. +Then there was great rejoicing at Heorot, the palace, and King Hrothgar, +when he saw Grendel's hand which Beowulf had torn away, embraced him and +blessed him, and he and all his friends were laden with splendid gifts. + +"But all was not over yet. When the next night came, and Hrothgar's men +and Beowulf's men were asleep together in the great hall, Grendel's +horrible mother, half a woman and half a wolf, came rushing to the +palace and while they were all asleep she carried off one of Hrothgar's +dearest friends--a young noble whom he loved best of all his nobles. And +she killed him, and carried his body back to the bog. Then the next +morning there was grief and weeping in Heorot; but Beowulf said to the +king, 'Grieve not, O king! till we have found out Grendel's mother and +punished her for her evil deeds. I promise you she shall give an account +for this. She shall not be able to hide herself in the water, nor under +the earth, nor in the forest, nor at the bottom of the sea; let her go +where she will, I will find a way after her.' + +"So Beowulf and his friends put on their armour and mounted their +horses, and set out to look for her. And when they had ridden a long and +weary way over steep lonely paths and past caves where dragons and +serpents lived, they came at last to Grendel's bog--a fearful place +indeed. There in the middle of it lay a pool of black water, and over +the water hung withered trees, which seemed as if they had been poisoned +by the air rising from the water beneath them. No bird or beast would +ever come near Grendel's pool. If the hounds were hunting a stag, and +they drove him down to the edge, he would sooner let them tear him to +pieces than hide himself in the water. And every night the black water +seemed to burn and flame, and it hissed and bubbled and groaned as if +there were evil creatures tossing underneath. And now when Beowulf and +his men came near it, they saw fierce water dragons lying near the edge +or swimming about the pool. There also, beside the water, they found the +dead body of Hrothgar's friend, who had been killed by Grendel's mother, +and they took it up, and mourned over him afresh. + +"But Beowulf took an old and splendid sword that Hrothgar had given him, +and he put on his golden helmet and his iron war shirt that no sword +could cut through, and when he had bade his friends farewell he leapt +straight into the middle of the bog. Down he sank, deeper and deeper +into the water, among strange water beasts that struck at him with their +tusks as he passed them, till at last Grendel's mother, the water-wolf, +looked up from the bottom and saw him coming. Then she sprang upon him, +and seized him, and dragged him down, and he found himself in a sort of +hall under the water, with a pale strange light in it. And then he +turned from the horrible water-wolf and raised his sword and struck her +on the head; but his blow did her no harm. No sword made by mortal men +could harm Grendel or his mother; and as he struck her Beowulf stumbled +and fell. Then the water-wolf rushed forward and sat upon him as he lay +there, and raised aloft her own sharp dagger to drive it into his +breast; but Beowulf shook her off, and sprang up, and there, on the +wall, he saw hanging a strange old sword that had been made in the old +times, long, long ago, when the world was full of giants. So he threw +his own sword aside and took down the old sword, and once more he smote +the water-wolf. And this time his sword did him good service, and +Grendel's fierce mother sank down dead upon the ground. + +"Then Beowulf looked round him, and he saw lying in a corner the body of +Grendel himself. He cut off the monster's head, and lo and behold! when +he had cut it off the blade of the old sword melted away, and there was +nothing left in his hands but the hilt, with strange letters on it, +telling how it was made in old days by the giants for a great king. So +with that, and Hrothgar's sword and Grendel's head, Beowulf rose up +again through the bog, and just as his brave men had begun to think they +should never see their dear lord more he came swimming to land, bearing +the great head with him. + +"Then Hrothgar and all his people rejoiced greatly, for they knew that +the land would never more be troubled by these hateful monsters, but +that the ploughers might plough, and the shepherds might lead their +sheep, and brave men might sleep at night, without fear any more of +Grendel and his mother." + +"Oh, father!" said Milly, breathlessly, when he stopped. "Is that all?" + +But Olly sat quite still, without speaking, gazing at his father with +wide open brown eyes, and a face as grave and terrified as if Grendel +were actually beside him. + +"That's all for this time," said Mr. Norton. "Why, Olly, where are your +little wits gone to? Did it frighten you, old man?" + +"Oh!" said Olly, drawing a long breath. "I did think he would never have +comed up out of that bog!" + +"It was splendid," said Milly. "But, father, I don't understand about +that pool. Why didn't Beowulf get drowned when he went down under the +water?" + +"The story doesn't tell us anything about that," said Mr. Norton. "But +heroes in those days, Milly, must have had something magical about them +so that they were able to do things that men and women can't do now. Do +you know, children, that this story that you have been listening to is +more than a thousand years old? Can you fancy that?" + +"No," said Milly, shaking her head. "I can't fancy it a bit, father. +It's too long. It makes me puzzled to think of so many years." + +"Years and years and years and _years_!" said Olly. "When father's +grandfather was a little boy." + +Mr. Norton laughed. "Can't you think of anything farther back than that, +Olly? It would take a great many grandfathers, and grandfathers' +grandfathers, to get back to the time when the story of Beowulf was +made. And here am I telling it to you just in the same way as fathers +used to tell it to their children a thousand years ago." + +"I suppose the children liked it so, they wouldn't let their fathers +forget it," said Milly. "And then when they grew up they told it to +their children. I shall tell it to my children when I grow up. I think I +shall tell it to Katie to-morrow." + +"Father," said Olly, "did Beowulf die--ever?" + +"Yes. When he was quite an old man he had another great fight with a +dragon, who was guarding a cave full of golden treasure on the +sea-shore; and though he killed the dragon, the dragon gave him a +terrible wound, so that when his friends came to look for him they found +him lying all but dead in the cave. He was just able to tell them to +make a great mound of earth over him when he was dead, on a high rock +close by, that sailors might see it from their ships and think of him +when they saw it, and then he died. And when he was dead they carried +him up to the rock, and there they burned his body, and then they built +up a great high mound of earth, and they put Beowulf's bones inside, and +all the treasure from the dragon's cave. They were ten days building up +the mound. Then when it was all done they rode around it weeping and +chanting sorrowful songs, and at last they left him there, saying as +they went away that never should they see so good a king or so true a +master any more. And for hundreds of years afterwards, when the sailors +out at sea saw the high mound rising on its point of rock, they said one +to another, 'There is Beowulf's Mount,' and they began to tell each +other of Beowulf's brave deeds--how he lived and how he died, and how he +fought with Grendel and the wild sea dragons. There, now, I have told +you all I know about Beowulf," said Mr. Norton, getting up and turning +the children off his knee, "and if it isn't somebody else's turn now it +ought to be." + +"Aunt Emma! Aunt Emma!" shouted Olly, who was so greedy for stories that +he could almost listen all day long without being tired. + +But Aunt Emma only smiled through her spectacles and pointed to the +window. The children ran to look out, and they could hardly believe +their eyes when they saw that it had actually stopped raining, and that +over the tree-tops was a narrow strip of blue sky, the first they had +seen for three whole days. + +"Oh you nice blue sky!" exclaimed Milly, dancing up and down before the +window with a beaming face. "Mind you stay there and get bigger. We'll +get on our hats presently and come out to look at you. Oh! there's John +Backhouse coming down the hill with the dogs. Mother, may we go up +ourselves and ask Becky and Tiza to come to tea?" + +"But Aunt Emma must tell us her story first," persisted Olly, who hated +being cheated out of a story by anything or anybody. "She promised." + +"You silly boy!" said Aunt Emma, "as if I was going to keep you indoors +listening to stories just now, when the sun's shining for the first time +for three whole days. I promised you my story on a wet day, and you +shall have it--never fear. There'll be plenty more wet days before you +go away from Ravensnest, I'm afraid. There goes my knitting, and +mother's putting away her work, and father's stretching himself--which +means we're all going for a walk." + +"To fetch Becky and Tiza, mother?" asked Milly; and when mother said +"Yes, if you like," the two children raced off down the long passage to +the nursery in the highest possible spirits. + +Soon they were all walking along the dripping drive past high banks of +wet fern, and under trees which threw down showers of rain-drops at +every puff of wind. And when they got into the road beside the river the +children shouted with glee to see their brown shallow little river +turned into a raging flood of water, which went sweeping and hurrying +through the fields, and every now and then spreading itself over them +and making great pools among the poor drowned hay. They ran on to look +for the stepping-stones, but to their amazement there was not a stone to +be seen. The water was rushing over them with a great roar and swirl, +and Milly shivered a little bit when she remembered their bathe there a +week before. + +"Well, old woman," said Mr. Norton, coming up to them, "I don't suppose +you'd like, a bathe to-day--quite." + +"If we were in there now," said Olly, watching the river with great +excitement, "the water would push us down krick! and the fishes would +come and etten us all up." + +"They'd be a long time gobbling you up, Master Fatty," said his father. +"Come, run along; it's too cold to stand about." + +But how brilliant and beautiful it was after the rain! Little tiny +trickling rivers were running down all the roads, and sparkling in the +sun; the wet leaves and grass were glittering, and the great mountains +all around stood up green and fresh against the blue sky, as if the rain +had washed the dust off them from top to toe, and left them clean and +bright. Two things only seemed the worse for the rain--the hay and the +wild strawberries. Milly peered into all the banks along the road where +she generally found her favourite little red berries, but most of them +were washed away, and the few miserable things that were left tasted of +nothing but rain water. And as for the hay-fields, they looked so wet +and drenched that it was hard to believe any sunshine could ever dry +them. + +"Poor John Backhouse!" said Aunt Emma; "I'm afraid his hay is a good +deal spoilt. Aren't you glad father's not a farmer, Milly?" + +"Why, Aunt Emma," said Milly, "I'm always wishing father _was_ a farmer. +I want to be like Becky, and call the cows, and mind the baby all by +myself. It must be nice feeding the chickens, and making the hay, and +taking the milk around." + +"Yes, all that's very nice, but how would you like your hay washed away, +and your corn beaten down, and your fruit all spoilt? Those are things +that are constantly happening to John Backhouse, I expect, in the rainy +country." + +"Yes, and it won't always be summer," said Milly, considering. "I don't +think I should like to stay in that little weeny house all the winter. +Is it very cold here in the winter, Aunt Emma?" + +"Not very, generally. But last winter was very cold here, and the snow +lay on the ground for weeks and weeks. On Christmas eve, do you know, +Milly, I wanted to have a children's party in my kitchen, and what do +you think I did? The snow was lying deep on the roads, so I sent out two +sledges." + +"What are sledges?" asked Olly. + +"Carriages with the wheels taken off and two long pieces of wood +fastened on instead, so that they slip along smoothly over the snow. And +my old coachman drove one and my gardener the other, and they went round +all the farmhouses near by, and gathered up the children, little and +big, into the sledges, till the coachman had got eight in his sledge, +and the gardener had got nine in his, and then they came trotting back +with the bells round the horses' necks jingling and clattering, and two +such merry loads of rosy-faced children. I wish you had been there; I +gave them tea in the kitchen, and afterward we had a Christmas tree in +the drawing-room." + +"Oh what fun," said Milly. "Why didn't you ask us too, Aunt Emma? We +could have come quite well in the train, you know. But how did the +children get home?" + +"We covered them up warm with rugs and blankets, and sent them back in +the sledges. And they looked so happy with their toys and buns cuddled +up in their arms, that it did one's heart good to see them." + +"Mind you ask us next time, Aunt Emma," said Milly, hanging round her +neck coaxingly. + +"Mind you get two pairs of wings by that time, then," said Aunt Emma, +"for mother's not likely to let you come to my Christmas tree unless you +promise to fly there and back. But suppose, instead of your coming to +me, I come to you next Christmas?" + +"Oh yes! yes!" cried Olly, who had just joined Aunt Emma and Milly, +"come to our Christmas tree, Aunt Emma. We'll give you ever such nice +things--a ball and a top, and a train--perhaps--and--" + +"As if Aunt Emma would care for those kind of things!" said Milly. "No, +you shall give her some muffetees, you know, to keep her hands warm, and +I'll make her a needlebook. But, Aunt Emma, do listen! What can be the +matter?" + +They were just climbing the little bit of steep road which led to the +farm, and suddenly they heard somebody roaring and screaming, and then +an angry voice scolding, and then a great clatter, and then louder +roaring than ever. + +"What _is_ the matter?" cried Milly, running on to the farm door, which +was open. But just as she got there, out rushed a tattered little figure +with a tear-stained face, and hair flying behind. + +"Tiza!" cried Milly, trying to stop her. But Tiza ran past her as quick +as lightning down the garden path towards the cherry tree, and in +another minute, in spite of the shower of wet she shook down on herself +as she climbed up, she was sitting high and safe among the branches, +where there was no catching her nor even seeing her. + +"Ay, that's the best place for ye," said Mrs. Backhouse, appearing at +the door with an angry face, "you'll not get into so much mischief there +perhaps as you will indoors. Oh, is that you, Miss Elliot (that was Aunt +Emma's surname)? Walk in please, ma'am, though you'll find me sadly +untidy this afternoon. Tiza's been at her tricks again; she keeps me +sweeping up after her all day. Just look here, if you please, ma'am." + +Aunt Emma went in, and the children pressed in after her, full of +curiosity to see what crime Tiza had been committing. Poor Mrs. +Backhouse! all over her clean kitchen floor there were streams of water +running about, with little pieces of cabbage and carrot sticking up in +them here and there, while on the kitchen table lay a heap of meat and +vegetables, which Mrs. Backhouse had evidently just picked up out of the +grate before Aunt Emma and the children arrived. + +"Yes," said Mrs. Backhouse, pointing to the floor, "there's the supper +just spoilt. Tiza's never easy but when she's in mischief. I'm sure +these wet days I have'nt known what to do with her indoors all day. And +what must she do this afternoon but tie her tin mug to the cat's tail, +till the poor creature was nearly beside herself with fright, and went +rushing about upstairs like a mad thing. And then, just when I happened +to be out a minute looking after something, she lets the cat in here, +and the poor thing jumps into the saucepan I had just put on with the +broth for our supper, and in her fright and all turns it right over. And +now look at my grate, and the fender, and the floor, and the meat there +all messed! I expect her father'll give Tiza a good beating when he +comes in, and I'm sure I shan't stand in the way." + +"Oh no, please, Mrs. Backhouse!" said Milly, running up to her with a +grave imploring little face. "Don't let Mr. Backhouse beat her; she +didn't mean it, she was only in fun, I'm sure." + +"Well, missy, it's very troiblesome fun I'm sure," said Mrs. Backhouse, +patting Milly kindly on the shoulder, for she was a good-natured woman, +and it wasn't her way to be angry long. "I don't know what I'm to give +John for his supper, that I don't. I had nothing in the house but just +those little odds and ends of meat, that I thought would make a nice bit +of broth for supper. And now he'll come in wet and hungry, and there'll +be nothing for him. Well, we must do with something else, I suppose, but +I expect her father'll beat her." + +Milly and Olly looked rather awestruck at the idea of a beating from +John Backhouse, that great strong brawny farmer; and Milly, whispering +something quickly to Aunt Emma, slipped out into the garden again. By +this time father and mother had come up, and Becky appeared from the +farmyard, wheeling the baby in a little wooden cart, and radiant with +pleasure at the sight of Aunt Emma, whose godchild she was, so that +Milly's disappearance was not noticed. + +She ran down the garden path to the cherry tree, and as, in the various +times they had been together, Becky and Tiza had taught her a good deal +of climbing, she too clambered up into the wet branches, and was soon +sitting close by Tiza, who had turned her cotton pinafore over her head +and wouldn't look at Milly. + +"Tiza," said Milly softly, putting her hand on Tiza's lap, "do you feel +very bad?" + +No answer. + +"We came to take you down to have tea with us," said Milly, "do you +think your mother will let you come?" + +"Naw," said Tiza shortly, without moving from behind her pinafore. + +It certainly wasn't very easy talking to Tiza. Milly thought she'd +better try something else. + +"Tiza," she began timidly, "do your father and mother tell you stories +when it rains?" + +"Naw," said Tiza, in a very astonished voice, throwing down her pinafore +to stare at Milly. + +"Then what do you do, Tiza, when it rains?" + +"Nothing," said Tiza. "We has our dinners and tea, and sometimes Becky +minds the baby and sometimes I do, and father mostly goes to sleep." + +"Tiza," said Milly hurriedly, "did you _mean_ pussy to jump into the +saucepan?" + +Up went Tiza's pinafore again, and Milly was in dismay because she +thought she had made Tiza cry; but to her great surprise Tiza suddenly +burst into such fits of laughter, that she nearly tumbled off the cherry +tree. "Oh, she did jump so, and the mug made such a rattling! And when +she comed out there was just a little bit of carrot sticking to her +nose, and her tail was all over cabbage leaf. Oh, she did look funny!" + +Milly couldn't help laughing too, till she remembered all that Mrs. +Backhouse had been saying. + +"Oh, but, Tiza, Mrs. Backhouse says your father won't have anything for +his supper. Aren't you sorry you spoilt his supper?" + +"Yis," said Tiza, quickly. "I know father'll beat me, he said he would +next time I vexed mother." + +And this time the pinafore went up in earnest, and Tiza began to cry +piteously. + +"Don't cry, Tiza," said Milly, her own little cheeks getting wet, too. +"I'll beg him not. Can't you make up anyway? Mother says we must always +make up if we can when we've done any harm. I wish I had anything to +give you to make up." + +Tiza suddenly dried her eyes and looked at Milly, with a bright +expression which was very puzzling. + +"You come with me," she said suddenly, swinging herself down from the +tree. "Come here by the hedge, don't let mother see us." + +So they ran along the far side of the hedge till they got into the +farmyard, and then Tiza led Milly past the hen-house, up to the corner +where the hayricks were. In and out of the hayricks they went, till in +the very farthest corner of all, where hardly anybody ever came, and +which nobody could see into from the yard, Tiza suddenly knelt down and +put her hand under the hay at the bottom of the rick. + +"You come," she whispered eagerly to Milly, pulling her by the skirt, +"you come and look here." + +Milly stooped down, and there in a soft little place, just between the +hayrick and the ground, what do you think she saw? Three large brownish +eggs lying in a sort of rough nest in the hay, and looking so round and +fresh and tempting, that Milly gave a little cry of delight. + +"Oh, Tiza, how be--utiful! How did they get there?" + +"It's old Sally, our white hen you know, laid them. I found them just +after dinner. Mother doesn't know nothing about them. I never told +Becky, nor nobody. Aren't they beauties?" + +And Tiza took one up lovingly in her rough, little brown hands, and laid +it against her cheek, to feel how soft and satiny it was. + +"Oh, and Tiza, I know," exclaimed Milly eagerly, "you meant these would +do for supper. That would be a lovely make up. There's three. One for +Mr. Backhouse, one for Mrs. Backhouse, and one for Becky.--There's none +for you, Tiza." + +"Nor none for Becky neither," answered Tiza shortly. "Father'll want +two. Becky and me'll get bread and dripping." + +"Well, come along, Tiza, let's take them in." + +"No, you take them," said Tiza. "Mother won't want to see me no more, +and father'll perhaps be coming in." + +"Oh, but, Tiza, you'll come to tea with us?" + +"I don't know," said Tiza. "You ask." + +And off she ran as quick as lightning, off to her hiding-place in the +cherry tree, while Milly was left with the three brown eggs, feeling +rather puzzled and anxious. However, she put them gently in the skirt of +her frock, and holding it up in both hands she picked her way through +the wet yard back to the house. + +When she appeared at the kitchen door, Aunt Emma and Mrs. Backhouse were +chatting quietly. Mr. and Mrs. Norton, and Olly, had gone on for a +little stroll along the Wanwick road, and Becky was sitting on the +window-sill with the baby, who seemed very sleepy, but quite determined +not to go to sleep in spite of all Becky's rocking and patting. + +"Oh, Mrs. Backhouse," began Milly, coming in with a bright flushed face, +"just look here, what I've brought. Tiza found them just after dinner +to-day. They were under the hayrick right away in the corner, and she +wanted to make up, so she showed me where they were, so I brought them +in, and there's two for Mr. Backhouse, and one for you, you know. And, +please, won't you let Tiza come to tea with us?" + +Mrs. Backhouse looked in astonishment at the three eggs lying in Milly's +print skirt, and at Milly's pleading little face. + +"Ay, that's Sally, I suppose. She's always hiding her eggs is Sally, +where I can't find them. So it was Tiza found them, was it, Missy? Well, +they will come, in very handy for supper as it happens. Thank you kindly +for bringing them in." + +And Mrs. Backhouse took the eggs and put them safely away in a pie-dish, +while Becky secretly pulled Milly by the sleeve, and smiled up at her as +much as to say, + +"Thank you for helping Tiza out of her scrape." + +"And you'll let Becky and Tiza come to tea?" asked Milly again. + +"Well, I'm sure, Miss, I don't know," said Mrs. Backhouse, looking +puzzled; "Becky may come and welcome, but perhaps it would do Tiza good +to stay at home." + +"Don't you think she'd better have a little change?" said Aunt Emma in +her kind voice, which made Milly want to hug her. "I daresay staying +indoors so long made her restless. If you will let me carry them both +off, I daresay between us, Mrs. Backhouse, we can give Tiza a talking +to, and perhaps she'll come back in a more sensible mood." + +"Well, Miss Elliot, she shall go if you wish it. Come Becky, give me the +baby, and go and put your things on." And then going to the door, Mrs. +Backhouse shouted "Tiza!" After a second or two a little figure dropped +down out of the cherry tree and came slowly up the walk. Tiza had shaken +her hair about her face so that it could hardly be seen, and she never +looked once at Aunt Emma and Milly as she came up to her mother. + +"There, go along, Tiza, and get your things on," said Mrs. Backhouse, +taking her by the arm. "I wouldn't have let you go out to tea, you know, +if Miss Elliot and Missy hadn't asked particular. Mind you don't get +into no more mischief. And very like those eggs'll do for father's +supper; so, I daresay, I'll not say anything to him this time--just for +once. Now go up." + +Tiza didn't want to be told twice, and presently, just as Mr. and Mrs. +Norton and Olly were coming back from their walk, they met Aunt Emma +coming back from the farm holding Becky's hand, while Milly and Tiza +walked in front. + +"Well, Tiza," said Mr. Norton, patting her curly head, I declare I think +you beat Olly for mischief. Olly never spoilt my dinner yet, that I +remember. What should I do to him do you think, if he did?" + +"Beat him," said Tiza, looking up at Mr. Norton with her quick birdlike +eyes. + +"Oh dear, no!" said Mr. Norton, "that wouldn't do my dinner any good. I +should eat him up instead." + +"I don't believe little boys taste good a bit," said Olly, who always +believed firmly in his father's various threats. "If you ettened me, +father, you'd be ill." + +"Oh no," said Mr. Norton, "not if I eat you with plenty of bread-sauce. +That's the best way to cook little boys. Now, Milly, which of you three +girls can get to that gate first?" + +Off ran the three little girls full tilt down the hill leading to +Ravensnest, with Olly puffing and panting after them. Milly led the way +at first, for she was light and quick, and a very fair runner for her +age; but Tiza soon got up to her and passed her, and it was Tiza's +little stout legs that arrived first at Ravensnest gate. + +"Oh, Becky!" said Milly, putting her arm round Becky's neck as they went +into the house together, "I hope you may stay a good long time. What +time do you go to bed?" + +"Oh, I don't know," said Becky. "We go when fayther goes." + +"When fayther goes!" exclaimed Milly. "Why, we go ever so long before +father. Why do you stay up so late?" + +"Why, it isn't late," said Becky. "Fayther goes to bed, now it's +summertime, about half-past eight; but in winter, of course, he goes +earlier. And we all goes together, except baby. Mother puts him out of +the way before supper." + +"Well, but how funny," said Milly, "I can't think why you should be so +different from us." + +And Milly went on puzzling over Becky and her going to bed, till nurse +drove it all out of her head by fetching them to tea. Such a merry tea +they had, and after tea a romp in the big kitchen with father, which +delighted the little farm children beyond measure. Some time in the +evening, I believe, Aunt Emma managed to give Tiza a little talking to, +but none of the other children knew anything about it, except perhaps +Becky, who generally knew what was happening to Tiza. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +MILLY'S BIRTHDAY + + +Now we have come to a chapter which is going to be half merry and half +sad. I have not told you any sad things about Milly and Olly up till +now, I think. They were such happy little people, that there was nothing +sad to tell you. They cried sometimes, of course--you remember Milly +cried when Olly stickied her doll--but generally, by the time they had +dried up their tears they had quite forgotten what they were crying +about; and as for any real trouble, why they didn't know what it could +possibly be like. But now, just as they were going away from Ravensnest, +came a real sad thing, and you'll hear very soon how it happened. + +After those three wet days it was sometimes fine and sometimes rainy at +Ravensnest, but never so rainy as to keep the Nortons in all day. And +every now and then there were splendid days, when the children and their +father and mother were out all day long, wandering over the mountains, +or walking over to Aunt Emma's or tramping along the well-known roads to +Wanwick on one side, and the little village of Rydal and Rydal Lake on +the other. They had another row on Windermere; and one fine evening Mr. +Norton borrowed a friend's boat, and they went out fishing for perch on +Rydal Lake, the loveliest little lake in the world, lying softly in a +green mountain cup, and dotted with islands, which seemed to the +children when they landed on them like little bits of fairyland dropped +into the blue water. + +[Illustration: "Haymaking"] + +And then! crown of delights! came the haymaking. There were long fine +days, when the six small creatures--Milly, Olly, Becky, Tiza, Bessie, +and Charlie--followed John Backhouse and his men about in the hayfields +from early morning till evening, helping to make the hay, or simply +rolling about like a parcel of kittens in the flowery fragrant heaps. + +Aunt Emma was often at Ravensnest, and the children learned to love her +better and better, so that even wild little Olly would remember to bring +her stool, and carry her shawl, and change her plate at dinner; and +Milly, who was always clinging to somebody, was constantly puzzled to +know whose pocket to sit in, mother's or Aunt Emma's. + +Then there was the farmyard, the cows, and the milking, and the +chickens. Everything about them seemed delightful to Milly and Olly, and +the top of everything was reached when one evening John Backhouse +mounted both the children on his big carthorse Dobbin, and they and +Dobbin together dragged the hay home in triumph. + +And now they had only one week more to stay at Ravensnest. But that week +was a most important week, for it was to contain no less a day than +Milly's birthday. Milly would be seven years old on the 15th of July, +and for about a week before the 15th, Milly's little head could think of +nothing else. Olly too was very much excited about it, for though Milly +of course was the queen of the day, and all the presents were for her, +not for him, still it was good times for everybody on Milly's birthday; +besides which, he had his own little secret with mother about his +present to Milly, a secret which made him very happy, but which he was +on the point of telling at least a hundred times a day. + +"Father," said Milly, about four days before the birthday, when they +were all wandering about after tea one evening in the high garden which +was now a paradise of ripe red strawberries and fruit of every kind, +"does everybody have birthdays? Do policemen have birthdays?" + +"I expect so, Milly," said Mr. Norton, laughing, "but they haven't any +time to remember them." + +"But, father, what's the good of having birthdays if you don't keep +them, and have presents and all that? And do cats and dogs have +birthdays? I should like to find out Spot's birthday. We'd give her +cream instead of milk, you know, and I'd tie a blue ribbon round her +neck, and one round her tail like the queen's sheep in mother's story." + +"I don't suppose Spot would thank you at all," said Mr. Norton. "The +cream would make her ill, and the ribbon would fidget her dreadfully +till she pulled it off." + +"Oh dear!" sighed Milly. "Well, I suppose Spot had better not have any +birthday then. But, father, what do you think? Becky and Tiza don't care +about their birthdays a bit. Becky could hardly remember when hers was, +and they never have any presents unless Aunt Emma gives them one, or +people to tea, or anything.' + +"Well, you see, Milly, when people have only just pennies and shillings +enough to buy bread and meat to eat, and clothes to put on, they can't +go spending money on presents; and when they're very anxious and busy +all the year round they can't be remembering birthdays and taking pains +about them like richer people can, who have less to trouble them, and +whose work does not take up quite so much time." + +"Well, but why don't the rich people remember the poor people's +birthdays for them, father? Then they could give them presents, and ask +them to tea and all, you know." + +"Yes, that would be a very good arrangement," said Mr. Norton, smiling +at her eager little face. "Only, somehow, Milly, things don't come right +like that in this world." + +"Well, I'm going to try and remember Becky's and Tiza's birthdays," said +Milly. "I'll tell mother to put them down in her pocket-book--won't you, +mother? Oh, what fun! I'll send them birthday cards, and they'll be so +surprised, and wonder why; and then they'll say, 'Oh, why, of course +it's our birthday!'--No, not _our_ birthday--but you know what I mean, +father." + +"Well, but, Milly," asked Mrs. Norton, "have you made up your mind what +you want to do this birthday?" + +Milly stopped suddenly, with her hands behind her, opposite her mother, +with her lips tightly pressed together, her eyes smiling, as if there +was a tremendous secret hidden somewhere. + +"Well, monkey, out with it. What have you got hidden away in your little +head?" + +"Well, mother," said Milly, slowly, "I don't want to _have_ anybody to +tea. I want to go out to tea with somebody. Now can you guess?" + +"With Aunt Emma?" + +"Oh no, Aunt Emma's coming over here all day. She promised she would." + +"With Becky and Tiza?" + +Milly nodded, and screwed up her little lips tighter than ever. + +"But I don't expect Mrs. Backhouse will want the trouble of having you +two to tea. + +"Oh mother, she won't mind a bit. I know she won't; because Becky told +me one day her mother would like us very much to come some time if you'd +let us. And Nana could come and help Mrs. Backhouse, and we could all +wash up the tea-things afterwards, like we did at the picnic." + +"Then Tiza mustn't sit next me," said Olly, who had been listening in +silence to all the arrangements. "She takes away my bread and butter +when I'm not looking, and I don't like it, not a bit." + +"No, Olly dear, she shan't," said Milly, taking his hand and fondling +it, as if she were at least twenty years older. "I'll sit on one side of +you and Becky on the other," a prospect with which Olly was apparently +satisfied, for he made no more objections. + +"Well, you must ask Mrs. Backhouse yourselves," said Mrs. Norton. "And +if it is her washing-day, or inconvenient to her at all, you mustn't +think of going, you know." + +So early next morning, Milly and Nana and Olly went up to the farm, and +came back with the answer that Mrs. Backhouse would be very pleased to +see them at tea on Thursday, the 15th, and that John Backhouse would +have cut the hay-field by the river by then, and they could have a romp +in the hay afterwards. + +Wednesday was a deeply interesting day to Olly. He and his mother went +over by themselves to Wanwick, and they bought something which the +shopwoman at the toy-shop wrapped up in a neat little parcel, and which +Olly carried home, looking as important as a little king. + +"Milly," he began at dinner, "_wouldn't_ you like to know about your +presents? But of course I shan't tell you about mine. Perhaps I'm not +going to give you one at all. Oh, mother," in a loud whisper to Mrs. +Norton, "did you put it away safe where she can't see?" + +"Oh, you silly boy," said Milly, "you'll tell me if you don't take +care." + +"No, I shan't. I wouldn't tell you if you were to go on asking me all +day. It isn't very big, you know, Milly, and--and--it isn't pretty +outside--only--" + +"Be quiet, chatterbox," said Mr. Norton putting his hand over Olly's +mouth, "you'll tell in another minute, and then there'll be no fun +to-morrow." + +So Olly with great difficulty kept quiet, and began eating up his +pudding very fast, as if that was the only way of keeping his little +tongue out of mischief. + +"Father," he said after dinner, "do take Milly out for a walk, and +mother shall take me. Then I can't tell, you know." + +So the two went out different ways, and Olly kept away from Milly all +day, in great fear lest somehow or other his secret should fly out of +him in spite of all his efforts to keep it in. At night the children +made nurse hurry them to bed, so that when mother came to tuck them up, +as she generally did, she found the pair fast asleep, and nothing left +to kiss but two curly heads buried in the pillows. + +"Bless their hearts," said nurse to Mrs. Norton, "they can think of +nothing but to-morrow. They'll be sadly disappointed if it rains." + +But the stars came out, and the new moon shone softly all night on the +great fir trees and the rosebuds and the little dancing beck in the +Ravensnest garden; and when Milly awoke next morning the sun was +shining, and Brownholme was towering up clear and high into the breezy +blue sky, and the trees were throwing cool shadows on the dewy lawn +around the house. + +"Oh dear!" said Milly, jumping up, her face flushing with joy "it's my +birthday, and it's fine. Nana, bring me my things, please.--But where's +Olly?" + +Where indeed was Olly? There was his little bed, but there was a +nightdress rolled up in it, and not a wisp of his brown curls was to be +seen anywhere. + +"Why, Miss Milly, are you woke up at last? I hardly thought you'd have +slept so late this morning. Many happy returns of the day to you," said +nurse, giving her a hearty hug. + +"Thank you, _dear_ nurse. Oh, it is so nice having birthdays. But where +can Olly be?" + +"Don't you trouble your head about him," said nurse mysteriously, and +not another word could Milly get out of her. She had just slipped on her +white cotton frock when mother opened the door. + +"Well, birthday-girl! The top of the morning to you, and many, many +happy returns of the day." + +Whereupon Milly and mother went through a great deal of kissing which +need not be described, and then mother helped her brush her hair, and +put on her ribbon and tie her sash, so that in another minute or two she +was quite ready to go down. + +"Now, Milly, wait one minute till you hear the bell ring, and then you +may come down as fast as you like." + +So Milly waited, her little feet dancing with impatience, till the bell +began to ring as if it had gone quite mad. + +"Oh, that's Olly ringing," cried Milly, rushing off. And sure enough +when she got to the hall there was Olly ringing as if he meant to bring +the house down. He dropped the bell when he saw Milly, and dragged her +breathlessly into the dining-room. + +And what did Milly see there I wonder? Why, a heap of red and white +roses lying on the breakfast table, a big heap, with odd corners and +points sticking up all over it, and under the roses a white napkin, and +under the napkin treasures of all sorts--a book from father, a little +work-box from mother, with a picture of Windermere on the outside, and +inside the most delightful cottons and needles and bits of +bright-coloured stuffs; a china doll's dinner-service from Aunt Emma, a +mug from nurse, a little dish full of big red strawberries from +gardener, and last, but not least, Olly's present--a black paint-box, +with colours and brushes and all complete, and tied up with a little +drawing-book which mother had added to make it really useful. At the top +of the heap, too, lay two letters addressed in very big round hand to +"Miss Milly Norton," and one was signed Jacky and the other signed +Francis. Each of these presents had neat little labels fastened on to +them, and they were smothered in roses--deep red and pale pink roses, +with the morning dew sprinkled over them. + +"We got all those roses, mother and me, this morning, when you was fast +asleep, Milly," shouted Olly, who was capering about like a mad +creature. "Mother pulled me out of bed ever so early, and I putted on my +goloshes, and didn't we get wet just! Milly, _isn't_ my paint-box a +beauty?" + +But it's no good trying to describe what Milly felt. She felt as every +happy little girl feels on a happy birthday, just a little bit +bewitched, as if she had got into another kind of world altogether. + +"Now," said father, after breakfast, "I'm yours, Milly, for all this +morning. What are you going to do with me?" + +"Make you into a tiger, father, and shoot you," said Olly, who would +have liked to play at hunting and shooting games all day long. + +"I didn't ask you, sir," said Mr. Norton, "I'm not yours, I'm Milly's. +Now, Milly, what shall we do?" + +"Will you take us right to the top of Brownholme, father? You know we +haven't been to the very top yet." + +"Very well, we'll go if your legs will carry you. But you must ask them +very particularly first how they feel, for it'll be stiff work for +them." + +Not very long after breakfast, and before they started for their walk, +Aunt Emma's pony carriage came rattling up the drive, and she, too, +brought flowers for Milly, above all a bunch of water-lilies all wet +from the lake; and then she and mother settled under the trees with +their books and work while the children started on their walk. + +But first Milly had drawn mother into a corner where no one could see, +and there, with a couple of tears in her two blue eyes, she had +whispered in a great hurry, so that Mrs. Norton could scarcely hear, "I +don't want to have everything just as _I_ like, to-day, mother. Can't I +do what somebody else likes? I'd rather." + +Which means that Milly was a good deal excited, and her heart very full, +and that she was thinking of how, a year before, her birthday had been +rather spoilt toward the end of it by a little bit of crossness and +self-will, that she remembered afterward with a pang for many a long +day. Since then, Milly had learnt a good deal more of that long, long +lesson, which we go on learning, big people and little people, all our +lives--the lesson of self-forgetting--of how love brings joy, and to be +selfish is to be sad; and her birthday seemed to bring back to her all +that she had been learning. + +"Dear little woman," said Mrs. Norton, putting back her tangled hair +from her anxious little face, "go and be happy. That's what we all like +to-day. Besides, you'll find plenty of ways of doing what other people +like before the end of the day without my inventing any. Run along now, +and climb away. Mind you don't let Olly tumble into bogs, and mind you +bring me a bunch of ferns for the dinner-table--and there'll be two +things done at any rate." + +So away ran Milly; and all the morning she and Olly and father scrambled +and climbed, and raced and chatted, on the green back of old Brownholme. +They went to say good-morning to John Backhouse's cows in the "intake," +as he called his top field, and they just peeped over the wall at the +fierce young bull he had bought at Penrith fair a few days before, and +which looked as if, birthdays or no birthdays, he could have eaten Milly +at two mouthfuls, and swallowed Olly down afterwards without knowing it. + +Then they climbed and climbed after father, till, just as Olly was +beginning to feel his legs to make sure they weren't falling off, they +were so tired and shaky--there they were standing on the great pile of +stones which marks the top of the mountain--the very tip-top of all its +green points and rocks and grassy stretches. By this time the children +knew the names of most of the mountains around, and of all the lakes. +They went through them now like a lesson with their father; and even +Olly remembered a great many, and could chatter about Helvellyn, and +Fairfield, and Langdale Pikes, as if he had trudged to the top of them +all himself. + +Then came the getting down again. Father and Milly and Olly +hand-in-hand, racing over the short fine grass, startling the little +black-faced sheep, and racing down the steep bits, where Milly and Olly +generally tumbled over in some sort of a heap at the bottom. As for the +flowers they gathered, there were so many I have no time to tell you +about them--wood-flowers and bog-flowers and grass-flowers, and ferns of +all sizes to mix with them, from the great Osmunda, which grew along the +Ravensnest Beck, down to the tiny little parsley fern. It was all +delightful--the sights and the sounds, and the fresh mountain wind that +blew them about on the top so that long afterward Milly used to look +back to that walk on Brownholme when she was seven years old as one of +the merriest times she ever spent. + +Dinner was very welcome after all this scrambling; and after dinner came +a quiet time in the garden, when father read aloud to mother and Aunt +Emma, and the children kept still and listened to as much as they could +understand, at least until they went to sleep, which they both did lying +on a rug at Aunt Emma's feet. Milly couldn't understand how this had +happened at all, when she found herself waking up and rubbing her eyes, +but I think it was natural enough after their long walk in the sun and +wind. + +At four o'clock nurse came for them, and when they had been put into +clean frocks and pinafores, she took them up to the farm. Milly and Olly +felt that this was a very solemn occasion, and they walked up to the +farmhouse door hand-in-hand, feeling as shy as if they had never been +there before. But at the door were Becky and Tiza waiting for them, as +smart as new pins, with shining hair, and red ribbons under their little +white collars; and the children no sooner caught sight of one another +than all their shyness flew away, and they began to chatter as usual. + +In the farmhouse kitchen were Bessie and Charlie, and such a comfortable +tea spread out on a long table, covered with a red and black woollen +table-cloth instead of a white one. Becky and Tiza had filled two +tumblers with meadow-sweet and blue campanula, which stood up grandly in +the middle, and there were two home-made cakes at each end, and some of +Sally's brown eggs, and piles of tempting bread and butter. + +Each of the children had their gift for Milly too: Becky had plaited her +a basket of rushes, a thing she had often tried to teach Milly how to +make for herself, and Tiza pushed a bunch of wild raspberries into her +hand, and ran away before Milly could say thank you; Bessie shyly +produced a Christmas card that somebody had once sent to her; and even +Charlie had managed to provide himself with a bunch of the wild yellow +poppies which grew on the wall of the Ravensnest garden, and were a joy +to all beholders. + +Then Mrs. Backhouse put Milly at one end of the table, while she began +to pour out tea at the other, and the feast began. Certainly, Milly +thought, it was much more exciting going out to tea at a farmhouse than +having children to tea with you at home, just as you might anywhere, on +any day in the year. There were the big hens coming up to the door and +poking in their long necks to take a look at them; there were the +pigeons circling round and round in the yard; there was the sound of +milking going on in the shed close by, and many other sights and sounds +which were new and strange and delightful. + +As for Olly, he was very much taken up for a time with the red and black +table-cloth, and could not be kept from peering underneath it from time +to time, as if he suspected that the white table-cloth he was generally +accustomed to had been hidden away underneath for a joke. But when the +time for cake came, Olly forgot the table-cloth altogether. He had never +seen a cake quite like the bun-loaf, which kind Mrs. Backhouse had made +herself for the occasion, and of which she had given him a hunch, so in +his usual inquisitive way he began to turn it over and over, as if by +looking at it long enough he could find out how it was made and all +about it. Presently, when the others were all quietly enjoying their +bun-loaf, Olly's shrill little voice was heard saying--while he put two +separate fingers on two out of the few currants in his piece: + +"_This_ currant says to _that_ currant, 'I'm here, where are you? You're +so far off I can't see you nowhere.'" + +"Olly, be quiet," said Milly. + +"Well, but, Milly, I can't help it; it's so funny. There's only three +currants in my bit, and cookie puts such a lot in at home. I'm +pretending they're little children wanting to play, only they can't, +they're so far off. There, I've etten one up. Now there's only two. +That's you and me, Milly. I'll eat you up first--krick!" + +"Never mind about the currants, little master," said Mrs. Backhouse, +laughing at him. "It's nice and sweet any way, and you can eat as much +of it as you like, which is more than you can of rich cakes." + +Olly thought there was something in this, and by the time he had got +through his second bit of bun-loaf he had quite made up his mind that he +would get Susan to make bun-loaves at home too. + +They were just finishing tea when there was a great clatter outside, and +by came the hay-cart with John Backhouse leading the horse, and two men +walking beside it. + +"We're going to carry all the hay in yon lower field presently," he +shouted to his wife as he passed. "Send the young 'uns down to see." + +Up they all started, and presently the whole party were racing down the +hill to the riverfield, with Mrs. Backhouse and her baby walking soberly +with nurse behind them. Yes, there lay the hay piled up in large cocks +on the fresh clean-swept carpet of bright green grass, and in the middle +of the field stood the hay-cart with two horses harnessed, one man +standing in it to press down and settle the hay as John Backhouse and +two other men handed it up to him on pitchforks. Olly went head over +heels into the middle of one of the cocks, followed by Charlie, and +would have liked to go head over heels into all the rest, but Mr. +Norton, who had come into the field with mother and Aunt Emma, told him +he must be content to play with two cocks in one of the far corners of +the field without disturbing the others, which were all ready for +carrying, and that if he and Charlie strewed the hay about they must +tidy it up before John Backhouse wanted to put it on the cart. So Olly +and Charlie went off to their corner, and for a little while all the +other children played there too. Milly had invented a game called the +"Babes in the Wood," in which two children were the babes and pretended +to die on the grass, and all the rest were the robins, and covered them +up with hay instead of leaves. She and Tiza made beautiful babes: they +put their handkerchiefs over their faces and lay as still as mice, till +Olly had piled so much hay on the top of them that there was not a bit +of them to be seen anywhere, while Bessie began to cry out as if she was +suffocated before they had put two good armfuls over her. + +Presently, however, Milly got tired; and she and Tiza walked off by +themselves and sat down by the river to get cool. The water in the river +was quite low again now, and the children could watch the tiny minnows +darting and flashing about by the bank, and even amuse themselves by +fancying every now and then that they saw a trout shooting across the +clear brown water. Tiza had quite left off being shy now with Milly, and +the two chattered away, Milly telling Tiza all about her school, and +Jacky and Francis, and Spot and the garden at home; and Tiza telling +Milly about her father's new bull, how frightened she and Becky were of +him, and how father meant to make the fence stronger for fear he should +get out and toss people. + +"What a happy little party," said Aunt Emma to mother looking round the +field; "there's nothing like hay for children." + +By this time the hay-cart was quite full, and crack went John +Backhouse's whip, as he took hold of the first horse's head and gave him +a pull forward to start the cart on its way to the farm. + +"Gee-up," shouted John in his loud cheery voice, and the horse made a +step forward, while the children round cried "Hurrah!" and waved their +hands. But suddenly there was a loud piteous cry which made John give +the horse a sudden push back and drop his whip, and then, from where +they sat, Milly and Tiza heard a sound of crying and screaming, while +everybody in the field ran toward the hay-cart. They ran too; what could +have happened? + +Just as they came up to the crowd of people round the cart, Milly saw +her father with something in his arms. And this something was +Becky--poor little Becky, with a great mark on her temple, and her eyes +quite shut, and such a white face! + +"Oh, mother! mother!" cried Milly, rushing up to her, "tell me, mother, +what is the matter with Becky?" + +But Mrs. Norton had no time to attend to her. She was running to meet +Mrs. Backhouse, who had come hurrying up from another part of the field +with the baby in her arms. + +"She was under the cart when it moved on," said Mrs. Norton, taking the +baby from her. "We none of us know how it happened. She must have been +trying to hand up some hay at the last moment and tumbled under. I don't +think her head is much hurt." + +On ran Mrs. Backhouse, and Milly and her mother followed. + +"Better let me carry her up now without moving her," said Mr. Norton, as +Mrs. Backhouse tried to take the little bundle from him. "She has +fainted, I think. We must get some water at the stream." So on he went, +with the pale frightened mother, while the others followed. Aunt Emma +had got Tiza and Milly by the hand, and was trying to comfort them. + +"We hope she is not much hurt, darlings; the wheel did not go over her, +thank God. It was just upon her when her father backed the horse. But it +must have crushed her I'm afraid, and there was something hanging under +the cart which gave her that knock on the temple. Look, there is one of +the men starting off for the doctor." + +Whereupon Tiza, who had kept quiet till then, burst into a loud fit of +crying, and threw herself down on the grass. + +"Nurse," called Aunt Emma, "stay here with these two poor little ones +while I go and see if I can be of any use." + +So nurse came and sat beside them, and Milly crept up to her for +comfort. But poor little Tiza lay with her face buried in the grass and +nothing they could say to her seemed to reach her little deaf ears. + +Meanwhile, Aunt Emma hurried after the others, and presently caught them +up at a stream where Mr. Norton had stopped to bathe Becky's head and +face. The cold water had just revived her when Aunt Emma came up, and +for one moment she opened her heavy blue eyes and looked at her mother, +who was bending over her, and then they shut again. But her little hand +went feebly searching for her mother, who caught it up and kissed it. + +"Oh, Miss Emma, Miss Emma," she said, pointing to the child, "I'm afeard +but she's badly hurt." + +"I hope not, with all my heart," said Aunt Emma, gently taking her arm. +"But the doctor will soon be here; we must get her home before he +comes." + +So on they went again, Mr. Norton still carrying Becky, and Mr. +Backhouse helping his wife along. Mrs. Norton had got the baby safe in +her motherly arms, and so they all toiled up the hill to the farmhouse. +What a difference from the merry party that ran down the hill only an +hour before! + +They laid Becky down on her mother's bed, and then Aunt Emma, finding +that Mrs. Norton wished to stay till the doctor came, went back to the +children. She found a sad little group sitting in the hay-field; Milly +in nurse's lap crying quietly every now and then; Tiza still sobbing on +the grass, and Olly who had just crept down from the farmhouse, where he +and Charlie had seen Becky carried in, talking to nurse in eager +whispers, as if he daren't talk out loud. + +"Oh, Aunt Emma," cried Milly, when she opened the gate, "is she better?" + +"A little, I think, Milly, but the doctor will soon be here, and then we +shall know all about it. Tiza, you poor little woman, Mrs. Wheeler says +you must sleep with them to-night. Your mother will want the house very +quiet, and to-morrow, you know, you can go and see Becky if the doctor +says you may." + +At this Tiza began to cry again more piteously than ever. It seemed so +dreary and terrible to her to be shut out from home without Becky. But +Aunt Emma sat down on the grass beside her, and lifted her up and talked +to her; with anybody else Tiza would have kicked and struggled, for she +was a curious, passionate child, and her grief was always wild and +angry, but nobody could struggle with Aunt Emma, and at last she let +herself be comforted a little by the tender voice and soft caressing +hand. She stopped crying, and then they all took her up to the +Wheelers's cottage, where Mrs. Wheeler, a kind motherly body, took her +in, and promised that she should know everything there was to be known +about Becky. + +"Aunt Emma," said Milly, presently, when they were all sitting in the +conservatory which ran round the house, waiting for Mr. Norton to bring +them news from the farm, "how did Becky tumble under the cart?" + +"She was lifting up some hay, I think, which had fallen off, and one of +the men was stooping down to take it on his fork, and then she must have +slipped and fallen right under the cart, just as John Backhouse told the +horse to go on." + +"Oh, if the wheel _had_ gone over!" said Milly, shuddering. "Isn't it a +sad birthday, Aunt Emma, and we were so happy a little while ago? And +then I can't understand. I don't know why it happens like this." + +"Like what, Milly?" + +"Why, Aunt Emma, always in stories, you know, it's the bad people get +hurt and die. And now it's poor little Becky that's hurt. And she's such +a dear little girl, and helps her mother so. I don't think she ought to +have been hurt." + +"We don't know anything about 'oughts,' Milly, darling, you and I. God +knows, we trust, and that helps many people who love God to be patient +when they are in trouble or pain. But think if it had been poor +mischievous little Tiza who had been hurt, how she would have fretted. +And now very likely Becky will bear it beautifully, and so, without +knowing it, she will be teaching Tiza to be patient, and it will do Tiza +good to have to help Becky and take care of her for a bit, instead of +letting Becky always look after her and get her out of scrapes." + +"Oh, and Aunt Emma, can't we all take care of Becky? What can Olly and I +do?" said Milly, imploringly. + +"I can go and sing all my songs to Becky," said Olly, looking up +brightly. + +"By-and-by, perhaps," said Aunt Emma, smiling and patting his head. "But +hark! isn't that father's step?" + +It had grown so dark that they could hardly see who it was opening the +gate. + +"Oh yes, it is," cried Milly. "It's father and mother." Away they ran to +meet them, and Mrs. Norton took Milly's little pale face in both her +hands and kissed it. + +"She's not _very_ badly hurt, darling. The doctor says she must lie +quite quiet for two or three weeks, and then he hopes she'll be all +right. The wheel gave her a squeeze, which jarred her poor little back +and head very much, but it didn't break anything, and if she lies very +quite the doctor thinks she'll get quite well again." "Oh mother! and +does Tiza know?" + +"Yes, we have just been to tell her. Mrs. Wheeler had put her to bed, +but she went up to give her our message, and she said poor little Tiza +began to cry again, and wanted us to tell her mother she would be _so_ +quiet if only they would let her come back to Becky." + +"Will they, mother?" + +"In a few days, perhaps. But she is not to see anybody but Mrs. +Backhouse for a little while." + +"Oh dear!" sighed Milly, while the tears came into her eyes again. "We +shall be going away so soon, and we can't say good-bye. Isn't it sad, +mother, just happening last thing? and we've been so happy all the +time." + +"Yes, Milly," said Mr. Norton, lifting her on to his knee. "This is the +first really sad thing that ever happened to you in your little life I +think. Mother, and I, and Aunt Emma, tell you stories about sad things, +but that's very different, isn't it?" + +"Yes," said Milly, thinking. "Father, are there as many sad things +really as there are in stories?--you know what I mean." + +"There are a great many sad things and sad people in the world, Milly. +We don't have monsters plaguing us like King Hrothgar, but every day +there is trouble and grief going on somewhere, and we happy and strong +people must care for the sad ones if we want to do our duty and help to +straighten the world a little." + +"Father," whispered Milly, softly, "will you tell us how--Olly and me? +We would if we knew how." + +"Well, Milly, suppose you begin with Becky, and poor Tiza too, indeed. I +wonder whether a pair of little people could make a scrap-book for Becky +to look at when she is getting better?" + +"Oh yes, yes!" said Milly, joyfully, "I've got ever so many pictures in +mother's writing-book, she let me cut out of her 'Graphics,' and Olly +can help paste; can't you, Olly?" + +"Olly generally pastes his face more than anything else," said Mr. +Norton, giving a sly pull at his brown curls. "If I'm not very much +mistaken, there is a little fairy pasting up your eyes, old man." + +"I'm not sleepy, not a bit," said Olly, sitting bolt upright and +blinking very fast. + +"I think you're not sleepy, but just asleep," said Mr. Norton, catching +him up in his arms, and carrying him to his mother to say good-night. + +Milly went very soberly and quietly up to bed, and for some little time +she lay awake, her little heart feeling very sore and heavy about the +"sad things" in the world. Then with her thoughts full of Becky she fell +asleep. + +So ended Milly's birthday, a happy day and a sorrowful day, all in one. +When Milly grew older there was no birthday just before or after it she +remembered half so clearly as that on which she was seven years old. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +LAST DAYS AT RAVENSNEST + + +On Friday morning the children and their father trudged up very early to +the farm to get news of Becky. She had had a bad night Mr. Backhouse +said, but she had taken some milk and beef-tea; she knew her father and +mother quite well, and she had asked twice for Tiza. The doctor said +they must just be patient. Quiet and rest would make her well again, and +nothing else, and Tiza was not to go home for a day or two. + +As for poor Tiza, a long sleep had cheered her up greatly, and when +Milly and Olly went to take her out with them after breakfast, they +found her almost as merry and chatty as usual. But she didn't like being +kept at the Wheelers's, though they were very kind to her; and it was +all Mrs. Wheeler could do to prevent her from slipping up to the farm +unknown to anybody. + +"They don't have porridge for breakfast," said Tiza, tossing her head, +when she and Milly were out together. "Mother always gives us porridge. +And I won't sit next Charlie. He's always dirtying hisself. He stickied +hisself just all over this morning with treacle. Mother would have given +him a clout." + +However, on the whole, she was as good as such a wild creature could be, +and the children and she had some capital times together. Wheeler the +gardener let them gather strawberries and currants for making jam, a +delightful piece of work, which helped to keep Tiza out of mischief and +make her contented with staying away from home more than anything else. +At last, after three days, the doctor said she might come home if she +would promise to be quiet in the house. So one bright evening Tiza +slipped into the farmhouse and squeezed in after her mother to the +little room where Becky was lying, a white-faced feverish little +creature, low down among the pillows. + +"Becky," said Tiza, sitting down beside her sister, as if nothing had +happened, "here's some strawberries. Wheeler gave me some. You can have +some if you want." + +"Just one," said Becky, in her weak shaky voice, smiling at her; and +Tiza knelt on the bed and stuffed one softly into her mouth. + +"You'll have to nurse baby now, Tiza," said Becky presently; "he's been +under mother's feet terrible. Mind you don't let him eat nasty things. +He'll get at the coals if you don't mind him." + +"I'll not let him," said Tiza shortly, setting to work on her own +strawberries. + +All this didn't sound very affectionate; but I think all the same Tiza +did love Becky, and I believe she tried to do her best in her own funny +way while Becky was ill. Baby screamed a good deal certainly when she +nursed him, and it was quite impossible of course for Tiza to keep out +of mischief altogether for two or three weeks. Still, on the whole, she +was a help to her mother; while as for Becky she was never quite happy +when Tiza was out of the house. Becky, like Milly, had a way of loving +everybody about her, and next to her mother she loved Tiza best of +anybody. + +After all, the children were able to say good-bye to Becky. Just the day +before they were to go away Mr. Backhouse came down to say that Becky +would like to see them very much if they could come, and the doctor said +they might. + +So up they went; Milly a good deal excited, and Olly very curious to see +what Becky would look like. Mr. Backhouse took them in, and they found +Becky lying comfortably on a little bed, with a patchwork counterpane, +and her shoulders and arms covered up in a red flannel dressing-gown +that Aunt Emma had sent her. + +[Illustration: "'Haven't you got a bump?' asked Olly"] + +Milly kissed her, and Olly shook her hand, and they didn't all quite +know what to say. + +"Is your back better?" said Milly at last. "I'm so glad the doctor let +us come." + +"Haven't you got a bump?" asked Olly, looking at her with all his eyes. +"We thought you'd have a great black bump on your fore-head, you +know--ever so big." + +"No, it's a cut," said Becky; "there now, you can see how it's plastered +up." + +"Did it hurt?" said Olly, "did you kick? I should have kicked. And does +the doctor give you nasty medicine?" + +"No," said Becky, "I don't have any now. And it wasn't nasty at all what +I had first. And now I may have strawberries and raspberries, and Mr. +Wheeler sends mother a plate everyday." + +"I don't think it's fair that little boys shouldn't never be ill," said +Olly, with his eyes fastened on Becky's plate of strawberries, which was +on the chest of drawers. + +"Oh, you funny boy," said Milly, "why, mother gives you some every day +though you aren't ill; and I'm sure you wouldn't like staying in bed." + +"Yes, I should," said Olly, just for the sake of contradicting. "Do you +know, Becky, we've got a secret, and we're not to tell it you, only +Milly and I are going to--" + +"Don't!" said Milly, putting her hand over, his mouth. "You'll tell in a +minute. You're always telling secrets." + +"Well, just half, Milly, I won't tell it all you know. It's just like +something burning inside my mouth. We're going to make you something, +Becky, when we get home. Something be--ootiful, you know. And you can +look at it in bed, and we won't make it big, so you can turn over the +pages, and--" + +"Be quiet, Olly," said Milly, "I should think Becky'll guess now. It'll +come by post, Becky. Mother's going to help us make it. You'll like it +I know." + +"It's--it's--a picture-book!" said Olly, in a loud whisper, putting his +head down to Becky. "You won't tell, will you?" + +"Oh, you unkind boy," said Milly, pouting. "I'll never have a secret +with you again." + +But Becky looked very pleased, and said she would like a picture-book +she thought very much, for it was dull sometimes when mother was busy +and Tiza was nursing baby. So perhaps, after all, it didn't matter +having told her. + +"I'm going to write to you, Becky," said Milly, when the time came to go +away, "and at Christmas I'll send you a Christmas card, and perhaps +some day we'll come here again you know." + +"And then we'll milk the cows," said Olly, "won't we, Becky? And I'll +ride on your big horse. Mr. Backhouse says I may ride all alone some day +when I'm big; when I'm sixty--no, when I'm ninety-five you know." + +And then Milly and Olly kissed Becky's pale little face and went away, +while poor little Becky looked after them as if she was _very_ sorry to +see the last of them; and outside there were Tiza and baby and Mrs. +Backhouse and even John Backhouse himself, waiting to say good-bye to +them. It made Milly cry a little bit, and she ran away fast down the +hill, while Tiza and Olly were still trying which could squeeze hands +hardest. + +"Oh, you dear mountains," said Milly, as she and nurse walked along +together. "Look Nana, aren't they lovely?" + +They did look beautiful this last evening. The sun was shining on them +so brightly that everything on them, up to the very top, was clear and +plain, and high up, ever so far away, were little white dots moving, +which Milly knew were cows feeding. + +"Good-bye river, good-bye stepping-stones, good-bye doves, good-bye +fly-catchers! Mind you don't any of you go away till we come back +again." + +But I should find it very hard to tell you all the good-byes that Milly +and Olly said to the places and people at Ravensnest, to the woods and +the hay-fields, and the beck, to Aunt Emma's parrot, John Backhouse's +cows, to Windermere Lake and Rydal Lake, above all to dear Aunt Emma +herself. + +"Mind you come at Christmas," shouted both the children, as the train +moved away from Windermere station and left Aunt Emma standing on the +platform; and Aunt Emma nodded and smiled and waved her handkerchief to +them till they were quite out of sight. + +"Mother," said Milly, when they could not see Aunt Emma any more, and +the last bit of Brownholme was slipping away, away, quite out of sight, +"I think Ravensnest is the nicest place we ever stopped at. And I don't +think the rain matters either. I'm going to tell your old gentleman so. +He said it rained in the mountains, and it does, mother--doesn't it? but +he said the rain spoilt everything, and it doesn't--not a bit." + +"Why, there's that curious old fairy been sprinkling dust in your eyes +too, Milly!" + +But something or other had been sprinkling tears in mother's. For to the +old people there is nothing sweeter than to see the young ones opening +their hearts to all that they themselves have loved and rejoiced over. +So the chain of life goes on, and joy gives birth to joy and love to +love. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Milly and Olly, by Mrs. Humphry Ward + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MILLY AND OLLY *** + +***** This file should be named 13337-8.txt or 13337-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/3/3/13337/ + +Produced by Andrew Templeton, Juliet Sutherland, Barbara Tozier and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Milly and Olly + +Author: Mrs. Humphry Ward + +Release Date: August 31, 2004 [EBook #13337] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MILLY AND OLLY *** + + + + +Produced by Andrew Templeton, Juliet Sutherland, Barbara Tozier and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<center> +<img alt="Bookcover" src="images/cover.jpg" height="1062" width="655" /> +</center> + + + + +<div class="figure"><a href="images/illus1.png"><img src= +"images/illus1.png" alt= +"“Two funny fair-haired children with their fingers in their mouths”" +id="illus1" name="illus1" width="100%" /></a> +<p>“Two funny fair-haired children with their fingers in +their mouths”</p> +</div> +<hr /> +<h1>Milly And Olly</h1> +<h4>New Revised Edition</h4> +<h6>by</h6> +<h2>Mrs. Humphry Ward</h2> +<h6>Illustrated by</h6> +<h4>Ruth M. Hallock</h4> +<h6>Garden City New York<br /> +Doubleday, Page & Company<br /> +1914</h6> +<hr /> +<h2>Dedication</h2> +<p style="text-indent:0em;font-variant:small-caps;">To F.A., In the +name of the children of Fox how, this revival of a child’s +story written twenty-seven years ago, under the spell of Rotha and +Fairfield, is inscribed by the writer.</p> +<hr /> +<h2>Preface</h2> +<p>After many years this little book is once more to see the light. +The children for whom it was written are long since grown up. But +perhaps the pleasure they once took in it may still be felt by some +of the Millys and Ollys of to-day. Up in the dear mountain country +which it describes, the becks are still sparkling; +“Brownholme” still spreads its green steeps and ferny +hollows under rain and sun; the tiny trout still leap in its tiny +streams; and Fairfield, in its noble curve, still girdles the deep +valley where these children played: the valley of Wordsworth and +Arnold—the valley where Arnold’s poet-son rambled as a +boy—where, for me, the shy and passionate ghost of Charlotte +Brontë still haunts the open door-way of Fox How—where +poetry and generous life and ranging thought still dwell, and bring +their benediction to the passers-by. “Aunt Emma” in her +beautiful home, unchanged but for its vacant chairs, is now as she +ever was, the friend of old and young; and the children of to-day +still press to her side as their elders did before them. The parrot +alas! is gone where parrots may; but amid the voices that breathe +around Fox How—the voices of seventy years—his mimic +speech is still remembered by the children who teased and loved +him. For love, while love lasts, gives life to all things small and +great; and in those who have once felt it, the love of the +Fairfield valley, of the gray stone house that fronts the fells, +and of them that dwell therein, is “not Time’s +fool—”</p> +<p style="text-align:center;">“Or bends with the remover to +remove.”</p> +<p>Mary A. Ward.<br /> +September 18, 1907.</p> +<hr /> +<h2><a id="Contents" name="Contents">CONTENTS</a></h2> +<h3>CHAPTER</h3> +<ol type="I" start="1" style= +"margin: 0 0 0 25%;font-variant:small-caps;"> +<li><a href="#Chapter1">Making Plans</a></li> +<li><a href="#Chapter2">A Journey North</a></li> +<li><a href="#Chapter3">Ravensnest</a></li> +<li><a href="#Chapter4">Out on the Hills</a></li> +<li><a href="#Chapter5">Aunt Emma’s Picnic</a></li> +<li><a href="#Chapter6">Wet Days at Ravensnest</a></li> +<li><a href="#Chapter7">A Story-telling Game</a></li> +<li><a href="#Chapter8">The Story of Beowulf</a></li> +<li><a href="#Chapter9">Milly’s Birthday</a></li> +<li><a href="#Chapter10">Last Days at Ravensnest</a></li> +</ol> +<h3><a id="Illustrations" name= +"Illustrations">ILLUSTRATIONS</a></h3> +<ul style="list-style-type:none;margin: 0 0 0 5%;font-size:.9em;"> +<li><a href="#illus1">“Two funny fair-haired children with +their fingers in their mouths”</a></li> +<li><a href="#illus2">“‘I can’t do without my +toys, Nana’”</a></li> +<li><a href="#illus3">“The flowers Milly gathered for her +mother”</a></li> +<li><a href="#illus4">“So they put Olly up on a tall piece of +rock, and he sang”</a></li> +<li><a href="#illus5">“He was quite sure that h-a-y spelt +‘ham’ and s-a-w spelt ‘was’”</a></li> +<li><a href="#illus6">“‘Suppose we have a story-telling +game’”</a></li> +<li><a href="#illus7">“Haymaking”</a></li> +<li><a href="#illus8">“‘Haven’t you got a +bump?’ asked Olly”</a></li> +</ul> +<hr /> +<h2><a id="Chapter1" name="Chapter1">CHAPTER I</a></h2> +<h3>Making Plans</h3> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>“Milly, come down! come down directly! Mother wants you. +Do make haste!”</p> +<p>“I’m just coming, Olly. Don’t stamp so. Nurse +is tying my sash.”</p> +<p>But Master Olly went on stamping, and jumping up and down +stairs, as his way was when he was very much excited, till Milly +appeared. Presently down she came, a sober fair-haired little +maiden, with blue eyes and a turn-up nose, and a mouth that was +generally rather solemn-looking, though it could laugh merrily +enough when it tried. Milly was six years old. She looked older +than six. At any rate she looked a great deal older than Olly, who +was nearly five; and you will soon find out that she was a good +deal more than a year and a half wiser.</p> +<p>“What’s the matter, Olly? What made you shout +so?”</p> +<p>“Oh, come along, come along;” said the little boy, +pulling at his sister’s hand to make her run. “Mother +wants to tell us something, and she says it’s a nice +something, and I kissed her like anyfing! but she wouldn’t +tell me without you.”</p> +<p>Then the two children set off running, and they flew down a long +passage to the drawing-room, and were soon scrambling about a lady +who was sitting working by the window.</p> +<p>“Well, monkeys, don’t choke me before I tell you my +nice something. Sit on my knee Olly. Now, Milly, guess—what +have father and I just been talking about?”</p> +<p>“Sending Olly to school, perhaps,” said Milly. +“I heard Uncle Richard talking about it yesterday.”</p> +<p>“That wouldn’t be such a nice something,” said +Olly, making a long face. “I wouldn’t like it—not +a bit. Boys don’t never like going to school. I want to learn +my lessons with mother.”</p> +<p>“I know a little boy that doesn’t like learning +lessons with mother very much,” said the lady, laughing. +“But my nice something isn’t sending Olly to school, +Milly. You’re quite wrong—so try again.”</p> +<p>“Oh, mother! is it a strawberry tea?” cried Milly. +“The strawberries are just ripe, I know. Gardener told nurse +so this morning. And we can have tea on the lawn, and ask Jacky and +Francis!”</p> +<p>“Oh, jolly!” said Oliver, jumping off his +mother’s knee and beginning to dance about. “And +we’ll gather them ourselves—won’t you let us, +mother?”</p> +<p>“But it isn’t a strawberry tea even,” said his +mother. “Now, look here, children, what have I got +here?”</p> +<p>“It’s a map—a map of England,” said +Milly, looking very wise. Milly had just begun to learn geography, +and thought she knew all about maps.</p> +<p>“Well, and what happens when father and I look at maps in +the summertime?”</p> +<p>“Why,” said Milly, slowly, “you and father +pack up your things, and go away over the sea, and we stay behind +with nurse.”</p> +<p>“I don’t call <em>that</em> a nice something,” +said Olly, standing still again.</p> +<p>“Oh, mother, <em>are</em> you going away?” said +Milly, hanging round her mother’s neck.</p> +<p>“Yes, Milly, and so’s father, and so’s +nurse”—and their mother began to laugh.</p> +<p>“So’s nurse?” said Milly and Olly together, +and then they stopped and opened two pairs of round eyes very wide, +and stared at their mother. “Oh, mother, mother, take us +too!”</p> +<p>“Why, how should father and I get on, travelling about +with a pair of monkeys?” said their mother, catching hold of +the two children and lifting them on to her knee; “we should +want a cage to keep them in.”</p> +<p>“Oh, mother, we’ll be <em>ever</em> so good! But +where are we going? Oh, do take us to the sea!”</p> +<p>“Yes, the sea! the sea!” shouted Olly, careering +round the room again; “we’ll have buckets and spades, +and we’ll paddle and catch crabbies, and wet our clothes, and +have funny shoes, just like Cromer. And father’ll teach me to +swim—he said he would next time.”</p> +<p>“No,” said Mrs. Norton, for that was the name of +Milly’s and Oliver’s mother. “No, we are not +going to the sea this summer. We are going to a place mother loves +better than the sea, though perhaps you children mayn’t like +it quite so well. We’re going to the mountains. Uncle Richard +has lent father and mother his own nice house among the mountains +and we’re all going there next week—such a long way in +the train, Milly.”</p> +<p>“What are mountains?” said Olly, who had scarcely +ever seen a hill higher than the church steeple. “They +can’t be so nice as the sea, mother. Nothing can.”</p> +<p>“They’re humps, Olly,” answered Milly eagerly. +“Great, big humps of earth, you know; earth mixed with stone. +And they reach up ever so high, up into the sky. And it takes you a +whole day to get up to the top of them, and a whole day to get down +again. Doesn’t it, mother? Fräulein told me all about +mountains in my geography. And some mountains have got snow on +their tops all year, even in summer, when it’s so hot, and +we’re having strawberries. Will the mountains we’re +going to, have snow on them?”</p> +<p>“Oh, no. The snow mountains are far away over the sea. But +these are English mountains, kind, easy mountains, not too high for +you and me to climb up, and covered all over with soft green grass +and wild flowers, and tiny sheep with black faces.”</p> +<p>“And, mother, is there a garden to Uncle Richard’s +house, and are there any children there to play with?”</p> +<p>“There’s a delightful garden, full of roses, and +strawberries and grapes, and everything else that’s nice. And +it has a baby river all to itself, that runs and jumps and chatters +all through the middle of it, so perhaps Olly may have a paddle +sometimes, though we aren’t going to the sea. And the +gardener has got two little children, just about your age, Aunt +Mary says: and there are two more at the farm, two dear little +girls, who aren’t a bit shy, and will like playing with you +very much. But who else shall we see there, Milly? Who lives in the +mountains too, near Uncle Richard?”</p> +<p>Olly looked puzzled, but Milly thought a minute, and then said +quickly, “Aunt Emma, isn’t it, mother? Didn’t she +come here once? I think I remember.”</p> +<p>“Yes, she came once, but long ago, when you were quite +small. But now we shall see a great deal of her I hope, for she +lives just on the other side of the mountain from Uncle +Richard’s house, in a dear old house, where I spent many, +many happy days when I was small. Great-grandpapa and grandmamma +were alive then. But now Aunt Emma lives there quite alone. Except +for one creature, at least, an old gray poll-parrot, that chatters +away, and behaves as if it were quite sensible, and knew all about +everything.”</p> +<p>“Hasn’t she got any pussies, mother?” asked +Olly.</p> +<p>“Yes, two I believe; but they don’t get on with +Polly very well, so they live in the kitchen out of the +way—”</p> +<p>“I like pussies better than pollies,” said Olly +gravely.</p> +<p>“Why, what do you know about pollies, old man?”</p> +<p>“Pollies bite, I know they do. There was a polly bited +Francis once.”</p> +<p>“Well, and pussies scratch,” said Milly.</p> +<p>“No, they don’t, not if you’re nicey to +them,” said Olly; who was just then very much in love with a +white kitten, and thought there were no creatures so delightful as +pussies.</p> +<p>“Well, suppose you don’t make up your mind about +Aunt Emma’s Polly till you’ve seen her,” said +Mrs. Norton. “Now sit down on the rug there and let us have a +talk.”</p> +<p>Down squatted the children on the floor opposite their mother, +with their little heads full of plans and their eyes as bright as +sparks.</p> +<p>“I’ll take my cart and horse,” began Olly; +“and my big ball, and my whistle, and my wheelbarrow, and my +spade, and all my books, and the big scrap-book, +and—”</p> +<p>“You can’t, Olly,” exclaimed Milly. +“Nurse could never pack all those up. There’d be no +room for our clothes. You can take your whistle, and the top, and +the picture books, and I can take my dolls. That’ll be quite +enough, won’t it, mother?”</p> +<p>“Quite enough,” said Mrs. Norton. “If +it’s fine weather you’ll see—you won’t want +any toys. But now, look here, children,” and she held up the +map. “Shall I show you how we are going to get to the +mountains?”</p> +<p>“Oh yes,” said Milly, “that’ll be like +my geography lesson—come, Olly. Now mother’ll teach +<em>you</em> geography, like Fräulein does me.”</p> +<p>“That’s lessons,” said Olly, with half a pout, +“not fun a bit. It’s only girls like lessons—Boys +never do—Jacky doesn’t, and Francis doesn’t, and +I don’t.”</p> +<p>“Never mind about it’s being lessons, Olly. Come and +see if it isn’t interesting,” said Mrs. Norton. +“Now, Milly, find Willingham.”</p> +<p>Willingham was the name of the town where Milly and Oliver +lived. It is a little town in Oxfordshire, and if you look long +enough on the map you <em>may</em> find it, though I won’t +promise you.</p> +<p>“There it is,” said Milly triumphantly, showing it +to her mother and Olly.</p> +<p>“Quite right. Now look here,” and Mrs. Norton took a +pencil out of her pocket and drew a little line along the map. +“First of all we shall get into the train and go to a place +called—look, Milly.”</p> +<p>“Bletchley,” said Milly, following where the pencil +pointed. “What an ugly name.”</p> +<p>“It’s an ugly place,” said Mrs. Norton, +“so perhaps it doesn’t deserve a better name. And after +Bletchley—look again, Milly.”</p> +<p>“Rugby,” said Milly, reading the names as her mother +pointed, “and then Stafford, and then Crewe—what a +funny name, mother!—and then Wigan, and then Warrington, and +then Lancaster. Ox-en-holme, Kendal, Wind-er-mere. Oh, mother, what +a long way! Why, we’ve got right to the top of +England.”</p> +<p>“Stop a bit, Milly, and let me tell you something about +these places. First of all we shall get out of the train at +Bletchley, and get into another train that will go faster than the +first. And it will take us past all kinds of places, some pretty +and some ugly, and some big and some small. At Stafford there is an +old castle, Milly, where fierce people lived in old days and fought +their neighbours. And at Crewe we shall get out and have our +dinner. And at Wigan all the trees grow on one side as if some one +had come and given them a push in the night; and at Lancaster +there’s another old castle, a very famous one, only now they +have turned it into a prison, and people are shut up inside it. +Then a little way after Lancaster you’ll begin to see some +mountains, far, far away, but first you’ll see something +else—just a little bit of blue sea, with mountains on the +other side of it. And then will come Windermere, where we shall get +out and drive in a carriage. And we shall drive right into the +mountains, Olly, till they stand up all round us with their dear +kind old faces that mother has loved ever since she was a +baby.”</p> +<p>The children looked up wonderingly at their mother, and they saw +her face shining and her eyes as bright as theirs, as if she too +was a child going out for a holiday.</p> +<p>“Oh! And, mother,” said Olly, “you’ll +let us take Spot. She can go in my box.”</p> +<p>Now Spot was the white kitten, so Milly and mother began to +laugh.</p> +<p>“Suppose you go and ask Spot first, whether she’d +like it, Olly,” said Mrs. Norton, patting his sunburnt little +face.</p> +<h2><a id="Chapter2" name="Chapter2">CHAPTER II</a></h2> +<h3>A Journey North</h3> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>Milly and Oliver lived at Willingham, a little town in +Oxfordshire, as I have already told you. Their father was a doctor, +and they lived in an old-fashioned house, in a street, with a long +shady garden stretching away behind it. Milly and Oliver loved +their father, and whenever he put his brown face inside the nursery +door, two pairs of little feet went running to meet him, and two +pairs of little hands pulled him eagerly into the room. But they +saw him very seldom; whereas their mother was always with them, +teaching them their lessons, playing with them in the garden, +telling them stories, mending their frocks, tucking them up in +their snug little beds at night, sometimes praising them, sometimes +scolding them; always loving and looking after them. Milly and Olly +honestly believed that theirs was the best mother in the whole +world. Nobody else could find out such nice plays, or tell them +such wonderful stories, or dress dolls half so well. Two little +neighbours of theirs, Jacky and Francis, had a poor sick mother who +always lay on the sofa, and could hardly bear to have her little +boys in the room with her. Milly and Oliver were never tired of +wondering how Jacky and Francis got on with a mother like that. +“How funny, and how dreadful it must be. Poor Jacky and +Francis!” It never came into their, heads to say, “Poor +Jacky’s mother” too, but then you see they were such +little people, and little people have only room in their heads for +a very few thoughts at a time.</p> +<p>However, Milly had been away from her mother a good deal lately. +About six months before my story begins she had been sent to +school, to a kindergarten, as she was taught to call it. And there +Milly had learnt all kinds of wonderful things—she had learnt +how to make mats out of paper, blue mats, and pink mats, and yellow +mats, and red mats; she had learned how to make a bit of soft clay +look like a box, or a stool, or a bird’s nest with three clay +eggs inside it; she had begun to add up and take away; and, above +all, she had begun to learn geography, and Fräulein—for +Milly’s mistress was a German, and had a German +name—was just now teaching her about islands, and lakes, and +capes, and peninsulas, and many other things that all little girls +have to learn about some time or other, unless they wish to grow up +dunces.</p> +<p>As for Milly’s looks, I have told you already that she had +blue eyes and a turn-up nose, and a dear sensible little face. And +she had very thick fair hair, that was always tumbling about her +eyes, and making her look, as nurse told her, like “a yellow +owl in an ivy bush.” Milly loved most people, except perhaps +John the gardener, who was rather cross to the children, and was +always calling to them not to walk “on them beds,” and +to be sure not to touch any of his fruit or flowers. She loved her +father and her mother; she loved Olly with all her whole heart, +though he was a tease, she loved her nurse, whom she and Olly +called Nana, and who had been with them ever since Milly was born; +and she loved Fräulein, and was always begging flowers from +her mother that she might take them to school for +Fräulein’s table. So you see Milly was made up of +loving. And she was a thoughtful little girl too, tidy with her +dress, quick and quiet at her lessons, and always ready to sit +still with her fairy-book or her doll, when mother was busy or +tired. But there were two things in which Milly was not at all +sensible in spite of her sensible face. She was much too ready to +cry when any little thing went wrong, and she was dreadfully afraid +of creatures of all sorts. She was afraid of her father’s big +dog, she was afraid of the dear brown cow that lived in the field +beyond the garden, she was afraid of earwigs. I am even ashamed to +say she was afraid of spiders. Once she ran away as if a lion were +behind her from a white kitten that pulled her dress with its +frolicsome paws to make her play with it; but that, Milly would +tell you, was “when I was little,” and she was quite +sure she was a good deal braver now.</p> +<p>Now what am I to tell you about Olly?</p> +<p>Olly was just a round ball of fun and mischief. He had brown +hair, brown eyes, a brown face, and brown hands. He was always +touching and meddling with everything, indoors and out, to see what +was inside it, or what it was made of. He liked teasing Milly, he +liked his walks, he liked his sleep in the morning, he liked his +dinner, he liked his tea, he liked everything in the world, except +learning to read, and that he hated. He could only do one thing +besides mischief. He could sing all kinds of tunes—quick +tunes, slow tunes, and merry tunes. He had been able to sing tunes +ever since he was quite a tiny baby, and his father and mother +often talked together of how, in about a year, he should be taught +to play on the piano, or perhaps on the violin, if he liked it +better. You might hear his sharp, shrill little voice, singing +about the house and the garden all day long. John the gardener +called it “squealin’,” and told Olly his songs +were “capital good” for frightening away the birds.</p> +<p>Now, perhaps, you know a little more about Milly and Olly than +you did when I began to tell you about them, and it is time you +should hear of what happened to them on that wonderful journey of +theirs up to the mountains.</p> +<p>First of all came the packing up. Milly could not make up her +mind about her dolls; she had three—Rose, Mattie, and +Katie—but Rose’s frocks were very dirty, Mattie had a +leg broken, and Katie’s paint had been all washed off one wet +night, when Olly left her out on the lawn. Now which of these was +the tidiest and most respectable doll to take out on a visit? Milly +did not know how to settle it.</p> +<div class="figure"><a href="images/illus2.png"><img src= +"images/illus2.png" id="illus2" name="illus2" alt= +"“‘I can’t do without my toys, Nana’”" +width="100%" /></a> +<p>“‘I can’t do without my toys, +Nana’”</p> +</div> +<p>“I think, Nana,” she said at last to her nurse, who +was packing the children’s trunk, “I will take Katie. +Mother always sends us away when we get white faces to make us look +nice and red again; so, perhaps, if I take Katie her colour will +come back too, you know.”</p> +<p>“Perhaps it will, Miss Milly,” said nurse, laughing; +“anyhow, you had better give me the doll you want directly, +for it is time I packed all the toys now. Now, Master Olly, you +know I can’t let you take all those things.”</p> +<p>For there was Olly dragging along his wheelbarrow heaped up with +toys with one hand, and his cart and horse with a box of bricks +standing up in it with the other. He would not listen to what Milly +said about it, and he would scarcely listen to nurse now.</p> +<p>“I can’t do without my toys, Nana. I <em>must</em> +do mischief if you won’t let me take all my toys; I +can’t help it.”</p> +<p>“I haven’t got room for half those, Master Olly, and +you’ll have ever so many new things to play with when we get +to Ravensnest.”</p> +<p>“There’ll be the new children, Olly,” said +Milly, “and the little rivers and all the funny new +flowers.”</p> +<p>“Those aren’t toys,” said Olly, looking ready +to cry. “I don’t know nothing about them.”</p> +<p>“Now,” said nurse, making a place in the box, +“bring me your bricks and your big ball, and your +picture-books. There, that’s all I can spare you.”</p> +<p>“Wait one minute,” said Olly, rushing off; and just +then Mrs. Norton called nurse away to speak to her in the +drawing-room. When nurse came back she saw nobody in the nursery. +Milly had gone out in the garden, Olly was nowhere to be seen. And +who had shut down the trunk, which was open when she left it? +Me-ow, sounded very softly from somewhere close by.</p> +<p>“Why—Spot! Spot!” called nurse.</p> +<p>Me-ow, Me-ow, came again; a sad choky little mew, right from the +middle of the children’s trunk. “Master Olly and his +tricks again,” said nurse, running to the box and opening it. +There, on the top, lay a quantity of frocks that nurse had left +folded up on the floor, thrown in anyhow, with some toys scattered +among them, and the frocks and toys were all dancing up and down as +if they were bewitched. Nurse took out the frocks, and there was +the children’s collar-box, a large round cardboard-box with a +lid, jumping from side to side like a box in a fairy tale; and such +dreadful pitiful little mews coming from the inside! Nurse undid +the lid, and out sprang Spot like a flash of lightning, and ran as +if she were running for her life out of the door and down the +stairs, and safe into the kitchen, where she cuddled herself up in +a corner of the fender, wishing with all her poor trembling little +heart that there were no such things in the world as small boys. +And then nurse heard a kind of kicking and scuffling in the china +cupboard, and when she opened it there sat Olly doubled up, his +brown eyes dancing like will-o’-the-wisps, and his little +white teeth grinning.</p> +<p>“Oh! Nana, she <em>did</em> make a funny me-ow! I just +said to her, Now, Spottie, <em>wouldn’t</em> you like to go +in my box? and she said, Yes; and I made her such a comfy bed, and +then I stuck all those frocks on the top of her to keep her warm. +Why did you let her out, Nana?”</p> +<p>“You little mischief,” said Nana, “do you know +you might have smothered poor little Spot? And look at all these +frocks; do you think I have got nothing better to do than to tidy +up after your tricks?”</p> +<p>But nurse never knew how to be very hard upon Olly; so all she +did was to set him up on a high chair with a picture-book, where +she could see all he was doing. There was no saying what he might +take a fancy to pack up next if she didn’t keep an eye on +him.</p> +<p>Well, presently all the packing was done, and Milly and Olly had +gone to say good-bye to Fräulein, and to Jacky and Francis. +Wednesday evening came, and they were to start early on Thursday +morning. Olly begged nurse to put him to bed very early, that he +might “wake up krick”—quick was a word Olly never +could say. So to bed he went at half-past six, and his head had +scarcely touched the pillow two minutes before he had gone +cantering away into dreamland, and was seeing all the sights and +hearing all the delicious stories that children do see and hear in +dreamland, though they don’t always remember them when they +wake up. Both Milly and he woke up very early on Thursday morning; +and directly his eyes were open Olly jumped out of bed like an +india-rubber ball, and began to put on his stockings in a terrible +hurry. The noise of his jump woke nurse, and she called out in a +sleepy voice:</p> +<p>“Get into bed again, Master Olly, directly. It is only +just six o’clock, and I can’t have you out of bed till +seven. You’ll only be under my feet, and in everybody’s +way.”</p> +<p>“Nana, I won’t be in <em>anybody’s</em> +way,” exclaimed Olly, running up to her and scrambling on to +her bed with his little bare toes half way into his stockings. +“I can’t keep still in my bed all such a long time. +There’s something inside of me, Nana, keeps jumping up and +down, and won’t let me keep still. Now, if I get up, you +know, Nana, I can help you.”</p> +<p>“Help me, indeed!” said nurse, kissing his little +brown face, or as much of it as could be seen through his curls. +“A nice helping that would be. Come back to bed, sir, and +I’ll give you some picture-books till I’m ready to +dress you.”</p> +<p>So back to bed Master Olly went, sorely against his will, and +there he had to stay till nurse and Milly were dressed, and the +breakfast things laid. Then nurse gave him his bath and dressed +him, and put him up to eat his bread and milk while she finished +the packing. Olly was always very quiet over his meals, and it was +the only time in the day when he was quiet.</p> +<p>Presently up rattled the cab, and down ran the children with +their walking things on to see father and John lift the boxes on to +the top; and soon they were saying good-bye to Susan the cook, and +Jenny the housemaid, who were going to stay and take care of the +house while they were away; and then crack went the whip, and off +they went to the station. On the way they passed Jacky and Francis +standing at their gate, and all the children waved their hats and +shouted “Hurrah! hurrah!” At the station nurse kept +tight hold of Olly till father had got the tickets and put all the +boxes into the train, and then he and Milly were safely lifted up +into the railway carriage, and nurse and father and mother came +next, with all the bags and shawls and umbrellas.</p> +<p>Such a settling of legs and arms and packages there was; and in +the middle of it “whew” went the whistle, and off they +went away to the mountains.</p> +<p>But they had a long way to go before they saw any mountains. +First of all they had to get to Bletchley, and it took about an +hour doing that. And oh! what a lovely morning it was, and how +fresh and green the fields looked as the train hurried along past +them. Olly and Milly could see hundreds and thousands of +moon-daisies and buttercups growing among the wet grass, and every +now and then came great bushes of wild-roses, some pink and some +white, and long pools with yellow irises growing along the side; +and sometimes the train went rushing through a little village, and +they could see the little children trotting along to school, with +their books and slates tucked under their arms; and sometimes they +went along for miles together without seeing anything but the +white-and-brown cows in the fields, and the great mother-sheep with +their fat white lambs beside them. The sun shone so brightly, the +buttercups were so yellow, the roses so pink, and the sky so blue, +it was like a fairy world. Olly and Milly were always shouting and +clapping their hands at something or other, for Milly had grown +almost as wild as Olly.</p> +<p>Sh-sh-sh-sh went the train, getting slower and slower till at +last it stopped altogether.</p> +<p>“Bletchley, Bletchley!” shouted Olly, jumping down +off the seat.</p> +<p>“No, my boy,” said his father, catching hold of him, +“we shall stop five more times before we get to Bletchley; so +don’t be impatient.”</p> +<p>But at last came Bletchley, and the children were lifted out +into the middle of such a bustle, as it seemed to Milly. There were +crowds of people at the station, and they were all pushing backward +and forward, and shouting and talking.</p> +<p>“Keep hold of me, Olly,” said Milly, with an anxious +little face. “Oh, Nana, don’t let him go!”</p> +<p>But nurse held him fast; and very soon they were through the +crowd, and father had put them safe into their new train, into a +carriage marked “Windermere,” which would take them all +the way to their journey’s end.</p> +<p>“That was like lions and bears, wasn’t it, +mother?” said Olly, pointing to the crowd in the station, as +they went puffing away. Now, “lions and bears” was a +favourite game of the children’s, a romping game, where +everybody ran about and pretended to be somebody else, and where +the more people played, and the more they ran and pushed and +tumbled about, the funnier, it was. And the running, scrambling +people at the station did look rather as if they were playing at +lions and bears.</p> +<p>And now the children had a long day before them. On rushed the +train, past towns and villages, and houses and trains. The sun got +hotter and hotter, and the children began to get a little tired of +looking out of window. Milly asked for a story-book, and was soon +very happy reading “Snow White and Rose Red.” She had +read it a hundred times before, but that never mattered a bit. Olly +came to sit on nurse’s knee while she showed him pictures, +and so the time passed away. And now the train stopped again, and +father lifted Olly on his knee to see a great church far away over +the houses, and taught him to say “Lichfield +Cathedral.” And then came Stafford; and Milly looked out for +the castle, and wondered whether the castles in her story-books +looked like that, and whether princesses and fairy godmothers and +giants ever lived there in old times.</p> +<p>After they had left Stafford, Olly began to get tired and +fidgety. First he went to sit on his father’s knee, then on +mother’s, then on nurse’s—none of them could keep +him still, and nothing seemed to amuse him for long together.</p> +<p>“Come and have a sleep, Master Olly,” said nurse. +“You are just tired and hot. This is a long way for little +boys, and we’ve got ever so far to go yet.”</p> +<p>“I’m not sleepy, Nana,” said Olly, sitting +straight up, with a little flushed face and wide-open eyes. +“I’m going to keep awake like father.”</p> +<p>“Father’s going to sleep, then,” said Mr. +Norton, tucking himself up in a shady corner; “so you go too, +Olly, and see which of us can go quickest.”</p> +<p>When Olly had seen his father’s eyes tight shut, and heard +him give just one little snore—it was rather a make-believe +snore—he did let nurse draw him on to her knee; and very soon +the little gipsy creature was fast asleep, with all his brown curls +lying like a soft mat over nurse’s arm. Milly, too, shut her +eyes and sat very still; she did not mean to go to sleep, but +presently she began to think a great many sleepy thoughts: Why did +the hedges run so fast? and why did the telegraph wires go up and +down as if they were always making curtsies? and was that really +mother opposite, or was it Cinderella’s fairy godmother? And +all of a sudden Milly came bump up against a tall blue mountain +that had a face like a man, and cried out when she bumped upon +it!</p> +<p>“Crewe, I declare,” exclaimed father, jumping up +with a start. “Why, Olly and I have been asleep nearly an +hour! Wake up, children, it’s dinner-time.”</p> +<p>Nurse had to shake Olly a great many times before he would open +his sleepy eyes, and then he stood up rubbing them as if he would +rub them quite away. Father lifted him out, and carried him into a +big room, with a big table in it, all ready for dinner, and hungry +people sitting round it. What fun it was having dinner at a +station, with all the grown-up people. Milly and Olly thought there +never was such nice bread and such nice apple-tart. Nothing at home +ever tasted half so good. And after dinner father took them a +little walk up and down the platform, and at last, just as it was +time to get into the train again, he bought them a paper full of +pictures, called the <em>Graphic</em>, that amused Olly for a long +way.</p> +<p>But it was a long long way to Windermere, and poor Milly and +Olly began to get very tired. The trees at Wigan did make them +laugh a little bit, but they were too tired to think them as funny +as they would have thought them in the morning. They are such +comical trees! First of all, the smoke from the smoky chimneys at +Wigan has made them black, and stopped the leaves from growing, and +then the wind has blown them all over on one side, so that they +look like ugly little twisted dwarfs, as if some cruel fairy had +touched them with her wand. But Olly soon forgot all about them; +and he began to wander from one end to the other of the carriage +again, scrambling and jumping about, till he gave himself a hard +knock against the seat; and that made him begin to cry—poor +tired little Olly. Then mother lifted him on to her knee, and said +to him, very softly, “Are you very tired, Olly? Never mind, +poor little man, we shan’t be very long now, and we’re +all tired, darling—father’s tired, and I’m tired; +and look at Milly there, she looks like a little white ghost. +Suppose you be brave, and try a little extra hard to be good. Then +mother’ll love you an extra bit. And what do you think we +shall see soon? such a lovely bit of blue sea with white ships on +it. Just you shut your eyes a little bit till it comes, I’ll +be sure to tell you.”</p> +<p>And sure enough, after Lancaster, mother gave a little cry, and +Olly jumped up, and Milly came running over, and there before them +lay the dancing windy blue sea, covered over with little white +waves, running and tumbling over each other. And on the other side +of it, what did the children see?</p> +<p>“Mother, mother! what is it?” cried Olly, pointing +with his little brown hand far away; “is it a fairy palace, +mother?”</p> +<p>“Perhaps it is, Olly; anyway, the hill-fairies live there. +For those are the mountains, the beautiful mountains we are going +to see.”</p> +<p>“But how shall we get across the sea to them?” asked +Milly, with a puzzled face.</p> +<p>“This is only a corner of the sea, Milly—a bay. +Don’t you remember bays in your geography? We can’t go +across it, but we can go round it, and we shall find the mountains +on the other side.”</p> +<p>Oh! how fast the train seemed to go now that there was something +to look at. Everywhere mountains were beginning to spring up. And +when they had said good-bye to the sea, the mountains began to grow +taller and taller. What had happened to the houses too? They had +all turned white or gray; there was no red one left. And the fields +had stone walls instead of hedges; and inside the walls there were +small sheep, about as big as the lambs they had seen near Oxford in +the morning.</p> +<p>Oxenholme, Kendal, Windermere. How glad the tired children were +when the train ran slowly down into Windermere station, and they +could jump out and say good-bye to it for a long, long time! They +had to wait a little, till father had found all the boxes and put +them in the carriage that was waiting for them, and then in they +tumbled, nurse having first wrapped them up in big shawls, for it +was evening now, and the wind had grown cold. That was a nice drive +home among the mountains. How tall and dark and quiet they were. +And what was this shining on their left hand, like a white face +running beside them, and peeping from behind the trees? Why, it was +a lake; a great wide lake, with tiny boats upon it, some with white +sails and some without.</p> +<p>“Mother! mother! may we go in those boats some day?” +shouted Olly, in a little sharp tired voice, and his mother smiled +at him, and said—“Yes, very likely.”</p> +<p>How happy mother looked. She knew all the mountains like old +friends, she could tell all their names; and every now and then, +when they came to a house, she and father would begin to talk about +the people who lived in it, just as if they were talking about +people they knew quite well. And now came a little town, the town +of Wanwick mother called it, right among the mountains, with a +river running round it, and a tall church spire. It began to get +darker and darker, and the trees hung down over the road, so that +the children could hardly see. On they went, and Olly was very +nearly asleep again, when the carriage began to crunch over gravel, +and then it stopped, and father called out—“Here we +are, children, here we are at Ravensnest.”</p> +<p>And out they all jumped. What were those bright lights shining? +Olly and Milly hardly knew where they were going as nurse took them +in, and one of Uncle Richard’s servants showed them the way +upstairs to the nursery. Such a nice nursery, with candles lit, and +a little fire burning, two bowls of hot bread and milk on the +table, and in the corner two little white beds, as soft and fresh +as nests! In twenty minutes Olly was in one of these little white +beds, and Milly in the other. And you may guess whether they were +long about going to sleep.</p> +<h2><a id="Chapter3" name="Chapter3">CHAPTER III</a></h2> +<h3>Ravensnest</h3> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>“Poor little souls! How late they are sleeping. They must +have been tired last night.”</p> +<p>So said nurse at eight o’clock, when she came back into +the nursery from a journey to the kitchen after the breakfast +things, and found the children still fast asleep; so fast that it +looked as if they meant to go on sleeping till dinner-time.</p> +<p>“Milly!” she called softly, shaking her very gently, +“Milly, it’s breakfast-time, wake up!”</p> +<p>Milly began to move about, and muttered something about +“whistles” and “hedges” in her sleep.</p> +<p>Then nurse gave her another little shake, and at last +Milly’s eyes did try very hard to open—“What is +it? What do you want, Nana? Where are we?—Oh, I +know!”</p> +<p>And up sprang Milly in a second and ran to the window, her +sleepy eyes wide open at last. “Yes, there they are! Come and +look, Nana! There, past those trees—don’t you see the +mountains? And there is father walking about; and oh! do look at +those roses over there. Dress me quick, dress me quick, please, +dear Nana.”</p> +<p>Thump! bump! and there was Olly out of bed, sitting on the floor +rubbing his eyes. Olly used always to jump out of bed half asleep, +and then sit a long time on the floor waking up. Nurse and Milly +always left him alone till he was quite woke up. It made him cross +if you began to talk to him too soon.</p> +<p>“Milly,” said Olly presently, in a sleepy voice, +“I’m going right up the mountains after breakfast. +Aren’t you?”</p> +<p>“Wait till you see them, Master Olly,” said nurse, +taking him up and kissing him, “perhaps your little legs +won’t find it quite so easy to climb up the mountains as you +think.”</p> +<p>“I can climb up three, four, six, seven mountains,” +said Olly stoutly; “mountains aren’t a bit hard. Mother +says they’re meant to climb up.”</p> +<p>“Well, I suppose it’s like going up stairs a long +way,” said Milly, thoughtfully, pulling on her stockings. +“You didn’t like going up the stairs in Auntie +Margaret’s house, Olly.”</p> +<p>Auntie Margaret’s house was a tall London house, with ever +so many stairs. The children when they were staying there were put +to sleep at the top, and Olly used to sit down on the stairs and +pout and grumble every time they had to go up.</p> +<p>But Olly shook his obstinate little head.</p> +<p>“I don’t believe it’s a bit like going up +stairs.”</p> +<p>However, as they couldn’t know what it was like before +they tried, nurse told them it was no good talking about it. So +they hurried on with their dressing, and presently there stood as +fresh a pair of morning children as anyone could wish to see, with +rosy cheeks, and smooth hair, and clean print frocks—for Olly +was still in frocks—though when the winter came mother said +she was going to put him into knickerbockers.</p> +<p>And then nurse took them each by the hand and led them through +some long passages, down a pretty staircase, and through a swing +door, into what looked like a great nagged kitchen, only there was +no fireplace in it. The real kitchen opened out of it at one side, +and through the door came a smell of coffee and toast that made the +children feel as hungry as little hunters. But their own room was +straight in front, across the kitchen without a fireplace, a tiny +room with one large window hung round with roses, and looking out +on to a green lawn.</p> +<p>“Nana, isn’t it pretty? Nana, I think it’s +lovely!” said Milly, looking out and clapping her hands. And +it <em>was</em> a pretty garden they could see from the window. An +up-and-down garden, with beds full of bright flowers, and grass +which was nearly all moss, and so soft that no cushion could be +softer. In the distance they could hear a little splish-splash +among the trees, which came, Milly supposed, from the river mother +had told them about; while, reaching up all round the house, so +that they could not see the top of it from the window, was the +green wild mountain itself, the mountain of Brownholme, under which +Uncle Richard’s house was built.</p> +<p>The children hurried through their breakfast, and then nurse +covered them up with garden pinafores, and took them to the +dining-room to find father and mother. Mr. and Mrs. Norton were +reading letters when the children’s curly heads appeared at +the open door, and Mrs. Norton was just saying to her husband:</p> +<p>“Aunt Emma sends a few lines just to welcome us, and to +say that she can’t come over to us to-day, but will we all +come over to her to-morrow and have early dinner, and perhaps a row +afterward—”</p> +<p>“Oh, a row, mother, a row!” shouted Olly, clambering +on to his mother’s knee and half-strangling her with his +strong little arms; “I can row, father said I might. Are we +going to-day?”</p> +<p>“No, to-morrow, Olly, when we’ve seen a little bit +of Ravensnest first. Which of you remembers Aunt Emma, I +wonder?”</p> +<p>“I remember her,” said Milly, nodding her head +wisely, “she had a big white cap, and she told me stories. +But I don’t quite remember her face, mother—not +<em>quite</em>.”</p> +<p>“I don’t remember her, not one bit,” said +Olly. “Mother, does she keep saying, ‘Don’t do +that;’ ‘Go up stairs, naughty boys,’ like +Jacky’s aunt does?”</p> +<p>For the children’s playfellows, Jacky and Francis, had an +aunt living with them whom Milly and Olly couldn’t bear. They +believed that she couldn’t say anything else except +“Don’t!” and “Go up stairs!” and they +were always in dread lest they should come across an aunt like +her.</p> +<p>“She’s the dearest aunt in the whole world,” +said mother, “and she never says, ‘Don’t,’ +except when she’s obliged, but when she does say it little +boys have to mind. When I was a little girl I thought there was +nobody like Aunt Emma, nobody who could make such plans or tell +such splendid stories.”</p> +<p>“And, mother, can’t she cut out card dolls? asked +Milly. Don’t you know those beautiful card dolls you have in +your drawer at home—didn’t Aunt Emma make +them?”</p> +<p>“Yes, of course she did. She made me a whole family once +for my birthday, a father and a mother, and two little girls and +two little boys. And each of the children had two paper dresses and +two hats, one for best and one for every day—and the mother +had a white evening dress trimmed with red, and a hat and a +bonnet.”</p> +<p>“I know, mother! they’re all in your drawer at home, +only one of the little boys has his head broken off. Do you think +Aunt Emma would make me a set if I asked her?”</p> +<p>“I can’t say, Milly. But I believe Aunt Emma’s +fingers are just as quick as ever they were. Now, children, father +says he will take you out while I go and speak to cook. Olly, how +do you think we’re going to get any meat for you and Milly +here? There are no shops on the mountains.”</p> +<p>“Then we’ll eat fisses, little fisses like +those!” cried Olly, pointing to a plate of tiny red-spotted +fish that father and mother had been having for breakfast.</p> +<p>“Thank you, Olly,” said Mr. Norton, laughing; +“it would cost a good deal to keep you in trout, sir. I think +we’ll try for some plain mutton for you, even if we have to +catch the sheep on the mountains ourselves. But now come along till +mother is ready, and I’ll show you the river where those +little fishes lived.”</p> +<p>Out ran the children, ready to go anywhere and see anything in +this beautiful new place, which seemed to them a palace of wonders. +And presently they were skipping over the soft green grass, each +holding one of father’s hands, and chattering away to him as +if their little tongues would never stop. What a hot day it was +going to be! The sky overhead was deep blue, with scarcely a cloud, +they could hear nothing in the still air but the sleepy cooing of +the doves in the trees by the gate, and the trees and flowers all +looked as if they were going to sleep in the heat.</p> +<p>“Father, why did that old gentleman at Willingham last +week tell mother that it always rained in the mountains?” +asked Milly, looking up at the blue sky.</p> +<p>“Well, Milly, I’m afraid you’ll find out +before you go home that it does know how to rain here. Sometimes it +rains and rains as if the sky were coming down and all the world +were going to turn into water. But never mind about that +now—it isn’t going to rain to-day.”</p> +<p>Down they went through the garden, across the road, and into a +field on the other side of it, a beautiful hay-field full of +flowers, with just a narrow little path through it where the +children and Mr. Norton could walk one behind another. And at the +end of the path what do you think they found? Why, a chattering +sparkling river, running along over hundreds and thousands of brown +and green pebbles, so fast that it seemed to be trying to catch the +birds as they skimmed across it. The children had never seen a +river like this before, where you could see right to the very +bottom, and count the stones there if you liked, and which behaved +like a river at play, scrambling and dancing and rushing along as +if it were out for a holiday, like the children themselves.</p> +<p>“What do you think of that for a river, children?” +said Mr. Norton. “Very early this morning, when you little +sleepyheads were in bed, I got up and came down here, and had my +bath over there, look—in that nice brown pool under the +tree.”</p> +<p>“Oh, father!” cried both children, dancing round +him. “Let us have our baths in the river too. Do ask +Nana—do, father! We can have our bathing things on that we +had at the sea, and you can come too and teach us to +swim.”</p> +<p>“Well, just once perhaps, if mother says yes, and +it’s very warm weather, and you get up very <em>very</em> +early. But you won’t like it quite as much as you think. +Rivers are very cold to bathe in, and those pretty stones at the +bottom won’t feel at all nice to your little toes.”</p> +<p>“Oh, but, father,” interrupted Milly, “we +could put on our sand shoes.”</p> +<p>“And wouldn’t we splash!” said Olly. +“Nurse won’t let us splash in our bath, father, she +says it makes a mess. I’m sure it doesn’t make a +<em>great</em> mess.”</p> +<p>“What do you know about it, shrimp?” said Mr. +Norton, “you don’t have to tidy up. Hush, isn’t +that mother calling? Let’s go and fetch her, and then +we’ll go and see Uncle Richard’s farm, where the milk +you had for breakfast came from. There are three children there, +Milly, besides cows and pigs, and ducks and chickens.”</p> +<p>Back ran Milly and Olly, and there was mother watching for them +with a basket on her arm which had already got some roses lying in +it.</p> +<p>“Oh, mother! where did you get those roses?” cried +Milly.</p> +<p>“Wheeler, the gardener, gave them to me. And now suppose +we go first of all to see Mrs. Wheeler, and gardener’s two +little children. They live in that cottage over there, across the +brook, and the two little ones have just been peeping over the wall +to try and get a look at you.”</p> +<p>Up clambered Milly and Olly along a steep path that seemed to +take them up into the mountain, when suddenly they turned, and +there was another river, but such a tiny river, Milly could almost +jump across it, and it was tumbling and leaping down the rocks on +its way to the big river which they had just seen, as if it were a +little child hurrying to its mother.</p> +<p>“Why, mother, what a lot of rivers,” said Olly, +running on to a little bridge that had been built across the little +stream, and looking over.</p> +<p>“Just to begin with,” said Mrs. Norton. +“You’ll see plenty more before you’ve done. But I +can’t have you calling this a river, Olly. These baby rivers +are called becks in Westmoreland—some of the big ones, too, +indeed.”</p> +<p>On the other side of the little bridge was the gardener’s +cottage, and in front of the door stood two funny fair-haired +little children with their fingers in their mouths, staring at +Milly and Olly. One was a little girl who was really about +Milly’s age, though she looked much younger, and the other +was a very shy small boy, with blue eyes and straggling yellow +hair, and a face that might have been pretty if you could have seen +it properly. But Charlie seemed to have made up his mind that +nobody ever should see it properly. However often his mother might +wash him, and she was a tidy woman, who liked to see her children +look clean and nice, Charlie was always black. His face was black, +his hands were black, his pinafore was sure to be covered with +black marks ten minutes after he had put it on. Do what you would +to him, it was no use, Charlie always looked as if he had just come +out of the coal-hole.</p> +<p>“Well, Bessie,” said Mrs. Norton to the little girl, +“is your mother in?”</p> +<p>“Naw,” said Bessie, without taking her fingers out +of her mouth.</p> +<p>“Oh, I’m sorry for that. Do you know when +she’s likely to be in?”</p> +<p>“Naw,” said Bessie again, beginning to eat her +pinafore as well as her fingers. Meanwhile Charlie had been +creeping behind Bessie to get out of Olly’s way; for Olly, +who always wanted to make friends, was trying to shake hands with +him, and Charlie was dreadfully afraid that he wanted to kiss him +too.</p> +<p>“What a pity,” said Mrs. Norton, “I wanted to +ask her a question. Come away, Olly, and don’t tease Charlie +if he doesn’t want to shake hands. Can you remember, Bessie, +to tell your mother that I came to see her?”</p> +<p>“Yis,” said Bessie.</p> +<p>“And can you remember, too, to ask her if she will let you +and Charlie come down to tea with Miss Milly and Master Olly, this +afternoon, at five o’clock?”</p> +<p>“Yis,” said Bessie, getting shyer and shyer, and +eating up her pinafore faster than ever.</p> +<p>“Good-bye, then,” said Mrs. Norton.</p> +<p>“Good-bye, Bessie,” said Milly, softly, taking her +hand.</p> +<p>Bessie stared at her, but didn’t say anything.</p> +<p>Olly, having quite failed in shaking hands, was now trying to +kiss Charlie; but Charlie wouldn’t have it at all, and every +time Olly came near, Charlie pushed him away with his little fists. +This made Olly rather cross, and he began to try with all his +strength to make Charlie kiss him, when suddenly Charlie got away +from him, and running to a pile of logs of wood which was lying in +the yard he climbed up the logs like a little squirrel, and was +soon at the top of the heap, looking down on Olly, who was very +much astonished.</p> +<p>“Mother, <em>do</em> let me climb up too!” entreated +Olly, as Mrs. Norton took his hand to lead him away. “I want +to climb up krick like that! Oh, do let me try!”</p> +<p>“No, no, Olly! come along. We shall never get to the farm +if you stay climbing here. And you wouldn’t find it as easy +as Charlie does, I can tell you.”</p> +<p>“Why, I’m bigger than Charlie,” said Olly, +pouting, as they walked away.</p> +<p>“But you haven’t got such stout legs; and, besides, +Charlie is always out of doors all day long, climbing and poking +about. I daresay he can do outdoor things better than you can. +You’re a little town boy, you know.”</p> +<p>“Charlie’s got a black face,” said Olly, who +was not at all pleased that Charlie, who was smaller than he was, +and dirty besides, could do anything better than he could.</p> +<p>“Well, you see, he hasn’t got a Nana always looking +after him as you have.”</p> +<p>“Hasn’t he got <em>any</em> Nana?” asked Olly, +looking as if he didn’t understand how there could be little +children without Nanas.</p> +<p>“He hasn’t got any nurse but his mother, and Mrs. +Wheeler has a great deal else to do than looking after him. What +would you be like, do you think, Olly, if I had to do all the +housework, and cook the dinner, and mind the baby, and there was no +nurse to wash your face and hands for you?”</p> +<p>“I should get just like shock-headed Peter,” said +Olly, shaking his head gravely at the idea. Shock-headed Peter was +a dirty little boy in one of Olly’s picture-books; but I am +sure you must have heard about him already, and must have seen the +picture of him with his bushy hair, and his terrible long nails +like birds’ claws. Olly was never tired of hearing about him, +and about all the other children in that picture-book.</p> +<p>“What a funny little girl Bessie is, mother!” said +Milly. “Do they always say <em>Naw</em> and <em>Yis</em> in +this country, instead of saying No and Yes, like we do?”</p> +<p>“Well, most of the people that live here do,” said +Mrs. Norton. “Their way of talking sounds odd and queer at +first, Milly, but when you get used to it you will like it as I do, +because it seems like a part of the mountains.”</p> +<p>All this time they had been climbing up a steep path behind the +gardener’s house, and now Mr. Norton opened a door in a high +wall, and let the children into a beautiful kitchen-garden made on +the mountain side, so that when they looked down from the gate they +could see the chimneys of Ravensnest just below them. Inside there +were all kinds of fruit and vegetables, but gooseberry bushes and +the strawberries had nothing but green gooseberries and white +strawberries to show, to Olly’s great disappointment.</p> +<p>“Why aren’t the strawberries red, mother?” he +asked in a discontented voice, as if it must be somebody’s +fault that they weren’t red. “Ours at home were +ripe.”</p> +<p>“Well, Olly, I suppose the strawberries know best. All I +can tell you is, that things always get ripe here later than at +Willingham. Their summer begins a little later than ours does, and +so everything gets pushed on a little. But there will be plenty +by-and-by. And suppose just now, instead of looking at the +strawberries, you give just one look at the mountains. Count how +many you can see all round.”</p> +<p>“One, two, three, five,” counted Olly. “What +great big humps! Should we be able to touch the sky if we got up to +the top of that one, mother?” and he pointed to a great blue +mountain where the clouds seemed to be resting on the top.</p> +<p>“Well, if you were up there just now, you would be all +among the clouds, and it would seem like a white fog all round you. +So you would be touching the clouds at any rate.”</p> +<p>Olly opened his eyes very wide at the idea of touching the +clouds.</p> +<p>“Why, mother, we can’t touch the clouds at +home!”</p> +<p>“That comes of living in a country as flat as a +pancake,” said Mr. Norton. “Just you wait till we can +buy a tame mountain, and carry it to Willingham with us. Then +we’ll put it down in the middle of the garden, and the clouds +will come down to sit on the top of it just as they do here. But +now, who can scramble over that gate?”</p> +<p>For the gate at the other end of the garden was locked, and as +the gardener couldn’t be found, everybody had to scramble +over, mother included. However, Mr. Norton helped them all over, +and then they found themselves on a path running along the green +mountain side. On they went, through pretty bits of steep +hay-fields, where the grass seemed all clover and moon-daisies, +till presently they came upon a small hunched-up house, with a +number of sheds on one side of it and a kitchen-garden in front. +This was Uncle Richard’s farm; a very tiny farm, where a man +called John Backhouse lived, with his wife and two little girls and +a baby-boy. Except just in the hay-time, John Backhouse had no men +to help him, and he and his wife had to do all the work, to look +after the sheep, and the cows, the pigs, the horse, and the +chickens, to manage the garden and the hayfield, and to take the +butter and milk to the people who wanted to buy it. When their +children grew up and were able to help, Backhouse and his wife +would be able to do it all very well; but just now, when they were +still quite small, it was very hard work; it was all the farmer and +his wife could do to make enough to keep themselves and their +children fed and clothed.</p> +<p>Milly and Olly were very anxious to see the farmer’s +children and looked out for them in the garden as they walked up to +the house, but there were no signs of them. The door was opened by +Mrs. Backhouse, the farmer’s wife, who held a fair-haired +baby in her arms sucking a great crust of brown bread, and when Mr. +and Mrs. Norton had shaken hands with her—“I’m +sure, ma’am, I’m very pleased to see you here,” +said Mrs. Backhouse. “John told me you were come (only Mrs. +Backhouse said ‘coom’), and Becky and Tiza went down +with their father when he took the milk this morning, hoping they +would catch a sight of your children. They have been just wild to +see them, but I told them they weren’t likely to be up at +that time in the morning.”</p> +<p>“Where are they now?” asked Mrs. Norton. “Mine +have been looking out for them as we came along.”</p> +<p>“Well, ma’am, I can’t say, unless +they’re in the cherry-tree. Becky! Tiza!”</p> +<p>A faint “Yis” came from the other end of the garden, +but still Milly and Olly could see nothing but a big cherry-tree +growing where the voice seemed to come from.</p> +<p>“You go along that path, missy, and call again. +You’ll be sure to find them,” said Mrs. Backhouse, +pointing to the tree. “And won’t you come in, +ma’am, and rest a bit? You’ll be maybe tired with +walking this hot day.”</p> +<p>So Mr. and Mrs. Norton went into the farmhouse, and the children +went hand-in-hand down the garden, looking for Becky and Tiza.</p> +<p>Suddenly, as they came close to the cherry-tree, they heard a +laugh and a little scuffling, and looking up, what should they see +but two little girls perched up on one of the cherry-tree branches, +one of them sewing, the other nursing a baby kitten. Both of them +had coloured print bonnets, but the smaller had taken hers off and +was rolling the kitten up in it. The little girl sewing had a +sensible, sober face; as for the other, she could not have looked +sober if she had tried for a week of Sundays. It made you laugh +only to look at Tiza. From the top of her curly head to the soles +of her skipping little feet, she was the sauciest, merriest, +noisiest creature. It was she who was always playing tricks on the +cows and the horse, and the big sheep-dogs; who liked nothing so +well as teasing Becky and dressing up the kittens, and who was +always tumbling into the milkpail, or rolling downstairs, or losing +herself in the woods, without somehow ever coming to any harm. If +she and Olly had been left alone in the world together they +<em>must</em> have come to a bad end, but luckily each of them had +wiser people to take care of them.</p> +<p>“Becky,” said Milly, shyly, looking up into the +tree, “will you come down and say how do you do to +us?”</p> +<p>Becky stuck her needle in her work and scrambled down with a red +shy face to shake hands; but Tiza, instead of coming down, only +climbed a little higher, and peeped at the others between the +branches.</p> +<p>“We came down to the house when fayther took the milk this +morning,” said Becky. “We thought maybe we’d see +you in the garden. Only Tiza said she’d run away if she did +see you.”</p> +<p>“Why doesn’t Tiza come down?” asked Olly, +looking hard up into the tree. “I want to see her.”</p> +<p>Thump! What was that rattling down on Olly’s head? He +looked down at his feet very much astonished, and saw a bunch of +green cherries which Tiza had just thrown at him.</p> +<p>“Throw some more! Throw some more!” he cried out, +and Tiza began to pelt him fast, while Olly ran here and there +picking them up, and every now and then trying to throw them back +at Tiza; but she was too high up for him to reach, and they only +came rattling about his head again.</p> +<p>“She won’t come down,” said Becky, looking up +at her sister. “Maybe she won’t speak to you for two or +three days. And if you run after her she hides in such queer places +you can never find her.”</p> +<p>“But mother wants you and her to come to tea with us this +afternoon,” said Milly; “won’t Tiza +come?”</p> +<p>“I suppose mother’ll make her,” said Becky, +“but she doesn’t like it. Have you been on the +fell?”</p> +<p>Milly looked puzzled. “Do you mean on the mountain? No, +not yet. We’re going to-morrow when we go to Aunt +Emma’s. But we’ve been to the river with +father.”</p> +<p>“Did you go over the stepping-stones?”</p> +<p>“No,” said Milly, “I don’t know what +they are. Can we go this evening after tea?”</p> +<p>“Oh yes,” said Becky, “they’re just +close by your house. Does your mother let you go in the +water?”</p> +<p>Now Becky said a great many of these words very funnily, so that +Milly could hardly understand her. She said “doos” and +“oop,” and “knaw,” and “jist,” +and “la-ike,” but it sounded quite pretty from her soft +little mouth, and Milly thought she had a very nice way of +talking.</p> +<p>“No, mother doesn’t let us go in the water here, at +least, not unless it’s very warm. We paddle when we go to the +sea, and some day father says we may have our bath in the river if +it’s very fine.”</p> +<p>“We never have a bath in the river,” said Becky, +looking very much astonished at the idea.</p> +<p>“Do you have your bath in the nursery like we do?” +asked Milly.</p> +<p>“We haven’t got a nursery,” said Becky, +staring at her, “mother puts us in the toob on Saturday +nights. I don’t mind it but Tiza doesn’t like it a bit. +Sometimes she hides when it’s Saturday night, so that mother +can’t find her till it’s too late.”</p> +<p>“Don’t you have a bath except on Saturday?” +said Milly. “Olly and I have one every morning. Mother says +we should get like shock-headed Peter if we +didn’t.”</p> +<p>“I don’t know about him,” said Becky, shaking +her head.</p> +<p>“He’s a little boy in a picture-book. I’ll +show him you when you come to tea. But there’s mother +calling. Come along, Olly. Tiza won’t come down Becky +says.”</p> +<p>“She’s a very rude girl,” said Olly, who was +rather hot and tired with his game, and didn’t think it was +all fun that Tiza should always hit him and he should never be able +to hit Tiza. “I won’t sit next her when she comes to +tea with us.”</p> +<p>“Tiza’s only in fun,” said Becky, +“she’s always like that. Tiza, are you coming down? I +am going to get baby out, I heard him crying just now.”</p> +<p>“May you take baby out all by yourself?” asked +Milly.</p> +<p>“Why, I always take him out, and I put him to sleep at +nights; and mother says he won’t go to sleep for anybody as +quick as for me,” said Becky proudly.</p> +<p>Milly felt a good deal puzzled. It <em>must</em> be funny to +have no Nana.</p> +<p>“Will you and he,” said Becky, pointing to Olly, +“come up this afternoon and help us call the cows?”</p> +<p>“If we may,” said Milly; “who calls +them?”</p> +<p>“Tiza and I,” answered Becky; “when I’m +a big girl I shall learn how to milk, but fayther says I’m +too little yet.”</p> +<p>“I wish I lived at a farm,” said Milly +disconsolately.</p> +<p>Becky didn’t quite know what to say to this, so she began +to call Tiza again.</p> +<p>“Swish!” went something past them as quick as +lightning. It was Tiza running to the house. Olly set out to run +after her as fast as he could run, but he came bang up against his +mother standing at the farmhouse door, just as Tiza got safely in +and was seen no more.</p> +<p>“Ah, you won’t catch Tiza, master,” said Mrs. +Backhouse, patting his head; “she’s a rough girl, +always at some tricks or other—we think she ought to have +been a boy, really.”</p> +<p>“Mother, isn’t Becky very nice?” said Milly, +as they walked away. “Her mother lets her do such a lot of +things—nurse the baby, and call the cows, and make pinafores. +Oh, I wish father was a farmer.”</p> +<p>“Well, it’s not a bad kind of life when the sun +shines, and everything is going right,” said Mrs. Norton; +“but I think you had better wait a little bit till the rain +comes before you quite make up your mind about it, +Milly.”</p> +<p>But Milly was quite sure she knew enough about it already to +make up her mind, and all the way home she kept saying to herself, +“If I could only turn into a little farmer’s girl! Why +don’t people have fairy godmothers now like +Cinderella?”</p> +<h2><a id="Chapter4" name="Chapter4">CHAPTER IV</a></h2> +<h3>Out On The Hills</h3> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>Milly and Olly, and the four little Westmoreland children, had a +very pleasant tea together in the afternoon of the Nortons’s +first day at Ravensnest. Bessie and Charlie certainly didn’t +talk much; but Tiza, when once her mother had made her come, +thought proper to get rid of a great deal of her shyness, and to +chatter and romp so much that they quite fell in love with her, and +could not be persuaded to go anywhere or do anything without her. +Nurse would not let Milly and Olly go to call the cows, though she +promised they should some other day; but she took the whole party +down to the stepping-stones after tea, and great fun it was to see +Becky and Tiza running over the stepping-stones, and jumping from +one stone to another like little fawns. Milly and Olly wanted +sorely to go too, but there was no persuading Nana to let them go +without their father to fish them out if they tumbled in, so they +had to content themselves with dangling their legs over the first +stepping-stone and watching the others. But perhaps you don’t +quite known what stepping-stones are? They are large high stones, +with flat tops, which people put in, a little way apart from each +other, right across a river, so that by stepping from one to the +other you can cross to the opposite side. Of course they only do +for little rivers, where the water isn’t very deep. And they +don’t always do even there. Sometimes in the river Thora, +where Milly and Olly’s stepping-stones were, when it rained +very much, the water rose so high that it dashed right over the +stepping-stones and nobody could go across. Milly and Olly saw the +stepping-stones covered with water once or twice while they were at +Ravensnest; but the first evening they saw them the river was very +low, and the stones stood up high and dry out of the water. Milly +thought that stepping-stones were much nicer than bridges, and that +it was the most amusing and interesting way of getting across a +river that she knew. But then Milly was inclined to think +everything wonderful and interesting at Ravensnest—from the +tall mountains that seemed to shut them in all around like a wall, +down to the tiny gleaming wild strawberries, that were just +beginning to show their little scarlet balls on the banks in the +Ravensnest woods. Both she and Olly went to bed after their first +day at Ravensnest with their little hearts full of happiness, and +their little heads full of plans. To-morrow they were to go to Aunt +Emma’s, and perhaps the day after that father would take them +to bathe in the river, and nurse would let them go and help Becky +and Tiza call the cows. Holidays <em>were</em> nice; still +geography lessons were nice too sometimes, thought Milly sleepily, +just as she was slipping, slipping away into dreamland, and in her +dreams her faithful little thoughts went back lovingly to +Fräulein’s kind old face, and to the capes and islands +and seas she had been learning about a week ago.</p> +<div class="figure"><a href="images/illus3.png"><img src= +"images/illus3.png" alt= +"“The flowers Milly gathered for her mother”" id= +"illus3" name="illus3" width="100%" /></a> +<p>“The flowers Milly gathered for her mother”</p> +</div> +<p>The next morning Mr. and Mrs. Norton were busy indoors till +about twelve o’clock; and the children wandered about the +garden with nurse, finding out many new nooks and corners, +especially a delightful steep path which led up and up into the +woods, till at last it took the children to a little brown +summer-house at the top, where they could sit and look over the +trees below, away to the river and the hay-fields and the +mountains. And between the stones and this path grew the prettiest +wild strawberries, only, as Milly said, it was not much good +looking for them yet, for there were so few red ones you could +scarcely get enough to taste what they were like. But in a week or +two, she and Olly planned that they would take up a basket with +some green leaves in it, and gather a lot for father and +mother—enough for regular dessert—and some wild +raspberries too, for these also grew in the wood, to the great +delight of the children, who had never seen any before. They began +to feel presently as if it would be nothing very extraordinary to +find trees covered with barley sugar or jam tarts in this wonderful +wood. And as for the flowers Milly gathered for her mother, they +were a sight to see—moon-daisies and meadow-sweet, wild roses +and ragged-robins, and bright bits of rhododendrons. For both the +woods and the garden at Ravensnest were full of rhododendrons of +all colours, pink and red, and white and flame colour; and Milly +and Olly amused themselves with making up bunches of different +coloured flowers with as many different colours in them as they +could find. There were no rhododendrons at Willingham; and the +children thought them the loveliest, gayest things they had ever +seen.</p> +<p>But at last twelve o’clock came. Nurse tidied the +children, gave them some biscuits and milk, and then sent them to +the drawing-room to find father and mother. Only Mrs. Norton was +there, but she said there was no need to wait for father, as he was +out already and would meet them on the way. They were to go +straight over the mountain instead of walking round by the road, +which would have taken much longer. So off they set—Olly +skipping, and chattering as he always did; while Milly stuck close +to her mother, telling her every now and then, when Olly left off +talking, about their morning in the wood, the flowers they had +gathered and the strawberries they had found. At the top of the +garden was a little gate, and beside the gate stood Bessie and +Charlie, who had really been watching for the children all the +morning, though they didn’t dare to come into the garden +without leave.</p> +<p>“Bessie, we are going to Aunt Emma’s,” said +Milly, running up to them. “Where are you and Charlie going +to?”</p> +<p>“Nawhere,” said Bessie, who, as usual, had her +pinafore in her mouth, and never said more than one word at a time +if she could help it.</p> +<p>“Nowhere! what do you do all the morning, +Bessie?”</p> +<p>“I doan’t know,” said Bessie, gravely looking +up at her; “sometimes I mind the baby.”</p> +<p>“Do you mind the baby, too? Dear, dear! And what does +Charlie do?”</p> +<p>“Nawthing,” said Bessie again. “He only makes +himself dirty.”</p> +<p>“Don’t you go to school ever?”</p> +<p>“No, but mother’s going to send us,” said +Bessie, whose big eyes grew round and frightened at the idea, as if +it was a dreadful prospect. “Are you going to be away for all +day?”</p> +<p>“Yes; we shan’t be back till quite evening, mother +says. Here she is. Good-bye, Bessie; good-bye, Charlie. Will you +come and play with us to-morrow morning?”</p> +<p>Bessie nodded, but Charlie ran off without answering; for he saw +Olly coming, and was afraid he might want to kiss him. On the other +side of the gate they had to begin to climb up a steep bit of soft +green grass; and very hard work it was. After quite a little way +the children began to puff and pant like two little steam +engines.</p> +<p>“It <em>is</em> a little bit like going upstairs, +don’t you think, Olly?” said Milly, sitting down by her +mother on a flat bit of gray stone.</p> +<p>“No, it isn’t a bit like going upstairs,” said +Olly, shaking his head; for Olly always liked contradicting Milly +if he could. “It’s like—it’s +like—walking up a house!”</p> +<p>Suddenly they heard far above them a shout of +“Hullo!” Both the children started up and looked about +them. It was like father’s voice, but they couldn’t see +him anywhere.</p> +<p>“Where are you, father?”</p> +<p>“Hullo!” again. And this time it sounded much nearer +to them. Where could it be? The children began to run about and +look behind the bushes and the rocks, till all of a sudden, just as +Milly got near a big rock, out jumped Mr. Norton from behind it +with a great shout, and began to run after her. Away ran Milly and +Olly as fast as their small feet could carry them, up and down, up +and down, till at last there came a steep place—one of +Milly’s feet tripped up, down she went, rolling over and +over—down came Olly on the top of her, and the two of them +rolled away together till they stopped at the bottom of the steep +place, all mixed up in a heap of legs and arms and hats and +pinafores.</p> +<p>“Here’s a boy and girl tied up in a knot,” +said Mr. Norton, scrambling down after them and lifting them up. +“There’s no harm done, is there?”</p> +<p>“I’ve got a bump on my arm,” said Milly, +turning up her sleeve.</p> +<p>“And I’ve got a scratch on my nose,” said +Olly, rubbing it.</p> +<p>“That’s not much for a nice tumble like that,” +said Mr. Norton, “you wouldn’t mind another, would you, +Milly?”</p> +<p>“Not a bit,” said Milly, merrily skipping along +beside him. “Hide again, father.”</p> +<p>“Another day, not now, for we want to get to Aunt +Emma’s. But tomorrow, if you like, we’ll come up here +and have a capital game. Only we must choose a nice dry place where +there are no bogs.”</p> +<p>“What are bogs?” asked Olly.</p> +<p>“Wet places, where your feet go sinking deeper and deeper +into the mud, and you can’t find any stiff firm bit to stand +on. Sometimes people sink down and down into a bog till the mud +comes right over their head and face and chokes them; but we +haven’t got any bogs as bad as that here. Now, children, step +along in front. Very soon we shall get to the top of the mountain, +and then we shall see wonderful things on the other +side.”</p> +<p>So Milly and Olly ran on, pushing their way through the great +tall fern, or scampering over the short green grass where the +little mountain sheep were nibbling, and where a beautiful creeping +moss grew all over the ground, which, mother told Milly, was called +“Stags’ horn moss,” because its little green +branches were so like stags’ horns.</p> +<p>“Now look, children,” shouted their father to them +from behind. “Here we are at the top.”</p> +<p>And then, all of a sudden, instead of only the green mountain +and the sheep, they could see far away on the other side of the +mountain. There, all round them, were numbers of other mountains; +and below, at their feet, were houses and trees and fields, while +straight in front lay a great big blue lake stretching away ever so +far, till it seemed to be lost in the sky.</p> +<p>“Look, look, mother!” cried Milly, clapping her +hands, “there’s Windermere lake, the lake we saw when +we were coming from the station. Look at that steamer, with all the +people on board! What funny little black people. And oh, mother, +look at that little boat over there! How can people go out in such +a weeny boat as that?”</p> +<p>“It isn’t such a weeny boat, Milly. It only looks so +small because it’s such a long way off. When father and I +take you and Olly on the lake, we shall go in a boat just like +that. And now, instead of looking so far away, look just down here +below you, and tell me what you see.”</p> +<p>“Some chimneys, and some trees, and some smoke, ever so +far down,” shouted the children. “Is it a house, +mother?”</p> +<p>“That’s Aunt Emma’s house, the old house where +I used to come and stay when I was a little girl, and when your +dear great-grandfather and great-grandmother were alive. I used to +think it the nicest place in the world.”</p> +<p>“Were you a very little girl, mother, and were you ever +naughty?” asked Milly, slipping her little hand into her +mother’s and beginning to feel rather tired with her long +walk.</p> +<p>“I’m afraid I was very often naughty, Milly. I used +to get into great rages and scream, till everybody was quite tired +out. But Aunt Emma was very good to me, and took a great deal of +pains to cure me of going into rages. Besides, it always did +naughty children good to live in the same house with +great-grandmamma, and so after a while I got better. Take care how +you go, children, it’s very steep just here, and you might +soon tumble over on your noses. Olly, take care! take care! where +<em>are</em> you going?”</p> +<p>Where, indeed, was Olly going? Just the moment before the little +man had spied a lovely flower growing a little way off the path, in +the middle of some bright yellow-green moss. And without thinking +of anything but getting it, off he rushed. But oh! splish, splash, +splish, down went Olly’s feet, up splashed the muddy water, +and there was Olly stuck in a bog.</p> +<p>“Father, pull me out, pull me out!” cried the little +boy in terror, as he felt his feet stuck fast. But almost before he +could speak there was father close beside him, standing on a round +little hump of dry grass which was sticking up out of the bog, and +with one grip he got hold of Olly under his arm, and then jump! on +to another little hump of grass, jump! on to another, and there +they were safe on the path again.</p> +<p>“Oh, you black boy!” cried father and mother and +Milly all together. Was there ever such a little object! All his +nice clean holland frock was splashed with black mud; and what had +happened to his stockings?</p> +<p>“I’ve got mud-stockings on,” shouted Olly, +capering about, and pointing to his legs which were caked with mud +up to his knees.</p> +<p>“You’re a nice respectable boy to take out to +dinner,” said Mrs. Norton. “I think we’ll leave +you on the mountain to have dinner with the sheep.”</p> +<p>“Oh no, father,” pleaded Milly, taking Olly fast by +the hand. “We can wash him at Aunt Emma’s, you +know.”</p> +<p>“Don’t go too close to him, Milly!” exclaimed +Mrs. Norton, “or you’ll get as black as he is. We shall +have to put him under the pump at Aunt Emma’s, that’s +quite certain. But there’s nothing to wash him with here, so +he must just go as he is for a bit. Now, Olly, run along and your +feet will soon dry. Father’s going first, you go next, just +where he goes, I’m coming after you, and Milly shall go last. +Perhaps in that way we shall get you down safe.”</p> +<p>“Oh, but, mother, look at my flower,” said Olly, +holding it up triumphantly. “Isn’t it a +beauty?”</p> +<p>“Shall I tell you what it’s called, Olly? It’s +called a butterwort, and it always grows in boggy places; I +wouldn’t advise you to go after one again without asking +father first.”</p> +<p>It was a very different thing going down the mountain from +climbing up it. It seemed only a few minutes before they had got +almost to the bottom, and there was a gate leading into a road, and +a little village of white houses in front of them. They walked up +the road a little way, and then father opened a big gate and let +them into a beautiful garden full of rhododendrons like the +Ravensnest garden. And who was this walking down the drive to meet +them? Such a pretty little elderly lady, with gray hair and a white +cap.</p> +<p>“Dear Aunt Emma!” said Mrs. Norton, running up to +her and taking both her hands and kissing her.</p> +<p>“Well, Lucy,” said the little lady, holding her +hands and looking at her (Lucy was Mrs. Norton’s Christian +name), “it <em>is</em> nice to see you all here. And +there’s dear little Milly, I remember her. But where’s +Olly? I’ve never seen that small creature, you know. Come, +Olly, don’t be shy. Little boys are never shy with Aunt +Emma.”</p> +<p>“Except when they tumble into bogs,” said Mr. +Norton, laughing and pulling Olly forward, who was trying to hide +his mud-stockings behind his mother. “There’s a clean +tidy boy to bring to dinner, isn’t he, Aunt Emma? I think +I’ll take him to the yard and pump on him a little before we +bring him in.”</p> +<p>Aunt Emma put up her spectacles to look at Olly.</p> +<p>“Why, Olly, I think Mother Quiverquake has been catching +hold of you. Don’t you know about old Mother Quiverquake, who +lives in the bogs? Oh, I can tell you splendid stories about her +some day. But now catch hold of my hand, and keep your little legs +away from my dress, and we’ll soon make a proper boy of you +again.”</p> +<p>And then Aunt Emma took one of Milly’s hands and one of +Olly’s, and up they went to the house. But I must start +another chapter before I begin to tell you what the children saw in +Aunt Emma’s house, and of the happy time they spent +there.</p> +<h2><a id="Chapter5" name="Chapter5">CHAPTER V</a></h2> +<h3>Aunt Emma’s Picnic</h3> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>Instead of taking them straight into the house, however, Aunt +Emma took the children up a little shady path which very soon +brought them to a white cottage covered with honeysuckle and +climbing roses.</p> +<p>“This is where my coachman’s wife lives,” said +Aunt Emma, “and she owns a small boy who might perhaps find +you a pair of stockings, Olly, to put on while your own are +washed.”</p> +<p>Olly opened his brown eyes very wide at the idea of wearing some +other little boy’s stockings, but he said nothing.</p> +<p>Aunt Emma tapped at the door, and out came a stout kind-looking +woman.</p> +<p>“Mrs. Tyson, do you think your Johnny could lend my little +nephew a pair of his stockings while we get his own washed? Master +Olly has been tumbling into a bog by way of making friends with the +mountains, and I don’t quite know how I am to let those legs +into my dining-room.”</p> +<p>“Dear me, ma’am, but Johnny’ll be proud if +he’s got any clean, but I’ll not answer for it. +Won’t ye come in?”</p> +<p>In they walked, and there was a nice tidy kitchen, with a wooden +cradle in the corner, and a little fair-haired boy sitting by it +and rocking the baby. This was Johnny, and Olly looked at him with +great curiosity. “I’ve got bigger legs than +Johnny,” he whispered solemnly at last to Aunt Emma, while +they were waiting for Mrs. Tyson, who had gone upstairs to fetch +the stockings.</p> +<p>“Perhaps you eat more bread and milk than Johnny +does,” said Aunt Emma, very solemnly too, “However, +most likely Johnny’s stockings will stretch. How’s the +baby, Johnny?”</p> +<p>“She’s a great deal better, ma’am,” said +the little boy, smiling at her. Milly and Olly made him feel shy, +but he loved Aunt Emma.</p> +<p>“Have you been taking care of her all the morning for +mother?”</p> +<p>“Yes, ma’am, and she’s never cried but +once,” said Johnny proudly.</p> +<p>“Well done! Ah! there comes Mrs. Tyson. Now, Olly, sit up +on that chair, and we’ll see to you.”</p> +<p>Off came the dirty stockings, and Mrs. Tyson slipped on a pair +of woolen socks that tickled Olly very much. They were very thick, +and not a bit like his own stockings; and when he got up again he +kept turning round and round to look at his legs, as if he +couldn’t make them out.</p> +<p>“Do they feel funny to you?” said Mrs. Tyson, +patting his shoulder. “Never you mind, little master; I know +they’re nice and warm, for I knitted them myself.”</p> +<p>“Mother buys our stockings in the shop,” said Olly, +when they got outside again; “why doesn’t Mrs. +Tyson?”</p> +<p>“Perhaps we haven’t so many shops, or such nice ones +here, Olly, as you have at Willingham; and the people here have +always been used to do a great many things for themselves. Some of +them live in such lonely places among the mountains that it is very +difficult for them to get to any shops. Not very long ago the +mothers used to make all the stuffs for their own dresses and their +children’s. What would you say, Milly, if mother had to weave +the stuff for it every time you had a new dress?”</p> +<p>“Mother wouldn’t give me a great many new +dresses,” said Milly, gravely, shaking her head. “I +like shops best, Aunt Emma.”</p> +<p>“Well, I suppose it’s best to like what we’ve +got,” said Aunt Emma, laughing.</p> +<p>Indoors, Olly’s muddy stockings were given to Aunt +Emma’s maid, who promised to have them washed and dried by +the time they had to go home, and then, when Mrs. Norton had +covered up the black spots on his frock with a clean pinafore she +had brought with her, Olly looked quite respectable again.</p> +<p>The children thought they had never seen quite such a nice house +as Aunt Emma’s. First of all it had a large hall, with all +kinds of corners in it, just made for playing hide-and-seek in; and +the drawing-room was full of the most delightful things. There were +stuffed birds in cases, and little ivory chessmen riding upon ivory +elephants. There were picture-books, and there were mysterious +drawers full of cards and puzzles, and glass marbles and +old-fashioned toys, that the children’s mother and aunts and +uncles, and their great-aunts and uncles before that, had loved and +played with years and years ago. On the wall hung a great many +pictures, some of them of funny little stiff boys in blue coats +with brass buttons, and some of them of little girls with mob-caps +and mittens, and these little boys and girls were all either dead +now, or elderly men and women, for they were the great-aunts and +uncles; and over the mantelpiece hung a picture of a lovely old +lady, with bright, soft brown hair and smiling eyes and lips, that +looked as if they were just going to speak to the two strange +little children who had come for their first visit to their +mother’s old home. Milly knew quite well that it was a +picture of great-grandmamma. She had seen others like it before, +only not so large as this one, and she looked at it quietly, with +her grave blue eyes, while Olly was eagerly wandering round the +room, spying into everything, and longing to touch this, that, and +the other, if only mother would let go his hand.</p> +<p>“You know who that is, don’t you, little +woman?” said Aunt Emma, taking her up on her knee.</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Milly, nodding, “it’s +great-grandmamma. I wish we could have seen her.”</p> +<p>“I wish you could, Milly. She would have smiled at you as +she is smiling in the picture and you would have been sure to have +loved her; all little children did. I can remember seeing your +mother, Milly, when she was about as old as you, cuddled up in a +corner of that sofa over there, in ‘grandmamma’s +pocket,’ as she used to call it, listening with all her ears +to great-grandmamma’s stories. There was one story called +‘Leonora’ that went on for years and years, till all +the little children in it—and the little children who +listened to it—were almost grown up; and then +great-grandmamma always carried about with her a wonderful +blue-silk bag full of treasures, which we used to be allowed to +turn out whenever any of us had been quite good at our lessons for +a whole week.”</p> +<p>“Mother has a bag like that,” said Milly; “it +has lots of little toys in it that father had when he was a little +boy. She lets us look at it on our birthdays. Can you tell stories, +Aunt Emma?”</p> +<p>“Tell us about old Mother Quiverquake,” cried Olly, +running up and climbing on his aunt’s knee.</p> +<p>“Oh dear, no!” said Aunt Emma; “it’s +much too fine to-day for stories—indoors, at any rate. Wait +till we get a real wet day, and then we’ll see. After dinner +to-day, what do you think we’re going to do? Suppose we have +a row on the lake to get water-lilies, and suppose we take a kettle +and make ourselves some tea on the other side of the lake. What +would you say to that, Master Olly?”</p> +<p>The children began to dance about with delight at the idea of a +row and a picnic both together, when suddenly there was a knock at +the door, and when Aunt Emma said, “Come in!” what do +you think appeared? Why, a great green cage, carried by a servant, +and in it a gray parrot, swinging about from side to side, and +cocking his head wickedly, first over one shoulder and then over +the other.</p> +<p>“Now, children,” said Aunt Emma, while the children +stood quite still with surprise, “let me introduce you to my +old friend, Mr. Poll Parrot. Perhaps you thought I lived all alone +in this big house. Not at all. Here is somebody who talks to me +when I talk to him, who sings and chatters and whistles and cheers +me up wonderfully in the winter evenings, when the rains come and +make me feel dull. Put him down here, Margaret,” said Aunt +Emma to the maid, clearing a small table for the cage. “Now, +Olly, what do you think of my parrot?”</p> +<p>“Can it talk?” asked Olly, looking at it with very +wide open eyes.</p> +<p>“It <em>can</em> talk; whether it <em>will</em> talk is +quite another thing. Parrots are contradictious birds. I feel very +often as if I should like to beat Polly, he’s so provoking. +Now, Polly, how are you to-day?”</p> +<p>“Polly’s got a bad cold; fetch the doc—” +said the bird at once, in such a funny cracked voice, that it made +Olly jump as if he had heard one of the witches in Grimm’s +“Fairy Tales” talking.</p> +<p>“Come, Polly, that’s very well behaved of you; but +you mustn’t leave off in the middle, begin again. Olly, if +you don’t keep your fingers out of the way Polly will snap +them up for his dinner. Parrots like fingers very much.” Olly +put his hands behind his back in a great hurry, and mother came to +stand behind him to keep him quiet. By this time, however, Polly +had begun to find out that there were some new people in the room +he didn’t know, and for a long time Aunt Emma could not make +him talk at all. He would do nothing but put his head first on one +side and then on the other and make angry clicks with his beak.</p> +<p>“Come, Polly,” said Aunt Emma, “what a cross +parrot you are. One—two—three—four. Now, Polly, +count.”</p> +<p>“Polly’s got a bad cold, fetch the doc—” +said Polly again while Aunt Emma was speaking. +“One—two—six—seven—eight—nine—two—<em> +Quick</em> march!”</p> +<p>And then Polly began to lift first one claw and then the other +as if he were marching, while the children shouted with laughter at +his ridiculous ways and his gruff cracked voice.</p> +<p>Then Aunt Emma went behind him and rapped gently on the table. +The parrot stopped marching, stuck his head on one side and +listened. Aunt Emma rapped again.</p> +<p>“Come in!” said the parrot suddenly, quite softly, +as if he had turned into quite another person. +“Hush—sh—sh, cat’s got a mouse!”</p> +<p>“Well, Polly,” said Aunt Emma, “I suppose she +may have a mouse if she likes. Is that all you’ve got to tell +us? Polly, where’s gardener?”</p> +<p>“Get away! get away!” screamed Polly, while all his +feathers began to stand up straight, and his eyes looked fierce and +red like two little live coals.</p> +<p>“That always makes him cross,” said Aunt Emma; +“he can’t bear gardener. Come, Polly, don’t get +in such a temper.”</p> +<p>“Oh, isn’t he like the witches on the broom-sticks +in our fairy-book, Olly?” cried Milly. “Don’t you +think, Aunt Emma, he must have been changed into something? Perhaps +he was a wicked witch once, or a magician, you know, and the +fairies changed him into a parrot.”</p> +<p>“Well, Milly, I can’t say. He was a parrot when I +had him first, twelve years ago. That’s all I know about it. +But I believe he’s very old. Some people say he’s older +than I am—think of that! So you see he’s had time to be +a good many things. Well, Polly, good-night. You’re not a +nice bird to-night at all. Take him away, Margaret.”</p> +<p>“Jane! Jane!” screamed Polly, as the maid lifted up +the cage again. “Make haste, Jane! cat’s in the +larder!”</p> +<p>“Oh, you bad Polly,” said Aunt Emma, +“you’re always telling tales. Jane’s my cook, +Milly, and Polly doesn’t like cats, so you see he tries to +make Jane believe that our old cat steals the meat out of the +larder. Good-bye, Polly, good-bye. You’re an ill-natured old +bird, but I’m very fond of you all the same.”</p> +<p>“Do get us a parrot, mother!” said Olly, jumping +about round his mother, when Polly was gone.</p> +<p>“How many more things will you want before you get home, +Olly, do you think?” asked his mother, kissing him. +“Perhaps you’ll want to take home a few mountains, and +two or three little rivers, and a bog or two, and a few +sheep—eh, young man?”</p> +<p>By this time dinner was ready, and there was the dinner-bell +ringing. Up ran the children to Aunt Emma’s room to get their +hands washed and their hair brushed, and presently there were two +tidy little folks sitting on either side of Aunt Emma’s +chair, and thinking to themselves that they had never felt quite so +hungry before. But hungry as Milly was she didn’t forget to +look out of the window before she began her dinner, and it was +worth while looking out of the window in Aunt Emma’s +dining-room.</p> +<p>Before the windows was a green lawn, like the lawn at +Ravensnest, only this lawn went sloping away, away till there was +just a little rim of white beach, and then beyond came the wide, +dancing blue lake, that the children had seen from the top of the +mountain. Here it was close to them, so close that Milly could hear +the little waves plashing, through the open window.</p> +<p>“Milly,” whispered Aunt Emma when they were all +waiting for pudding, “do you see that little house down there +by the water’s edge? That’s where the boat +lives—we call it a boathouse. Do you think you’ll be +frightened of the water, little woman?”</p> +<p>“No, I don’t think so,” said Milly, shaking +her little wise head gravely. “I am frightened sometimes, +very. Mother calls me a little goose because I run away from Jenny +sometimes—that’s our cow at home, Aunt Emma, but then +she’s got such long horns, and I can’t help feeling +afraid.”</p> +<p>“Well, the lake hasn’t got horns, Milly,” said +Aunt Emma, laughing, “so perhaps you will manage not to be +afraid of it.”</p> +<p>How kind and nice Aunt Emma looked as she sat between the +children, with her pretty soft gray hair, and her white cap and +large white collar. Mrs. Norton could not help thinking of the +times when she was a little girl, and used always to insist on +sitting by Aunt Emma at dinner-time. That was before Aunt +Emma’s hair had turned gray. And now here were her own little +children sitting where she used to sit at their age, and stealing +their small hands into Aunt Emma’s lap as she used to do so +long ago.</p> +<p>After dinner the children had to sit quiet in the drawing-room +for a time, while Aunt Emma and father and mother talked; but they +had picture-books to look at, and Aunt Emma gave them leave to turn +out everything in one of the toy-drawers, and that kept them busy +and happy for a long time. But at last, just when Olly was +beginning to get tired of the drawer, Aunt Emma called to them from +the other end of the room to come with her into the kitchen for a +minute. Up jumped the children and ran after their aunt across the +hall into the kitchen.</p> +<p>“Now, children,” said Aunt Emma, pointing to a big +basket on the kitchen table, “suppose you help me to pack up +our tea-things. Olly, you go and fetch the spoons, and, Milly, +bring the plates one by one.”</p> +<p>The tea things were all piled up on the kitchen table, and the +children brought them one after another to Aunt Emma to pack them +carefully into the big basket.</p> +<p>“Ain’t I a useful boy, Aunt Emma?” asked Olly +proudly, coming up laden with a big table-cloth which he could +scarcely carry.</p> +<p>“Very useful, Olly, though our table-cloth won’t +look over tidy at tea if you crumple it up like that. Now, Milly, +bring me that tray of bread and the little bundle of salt; and, +Olly, bring me that bit of butter over there, done up in the green +leaves, but mind you carry it carefully. Now for some knives too; +and there are the cups and saucers, Milly, look, in that corner; +and there is the cake all ready cut up, and there is the bread and +butter. Now have we got everything? Everything, I think, but the +kettle, and some wood and some matches, and these must go in +another basket.”</p> +<p>“Aunt Emma,” said Milly, creeping up close to her, +“were you ever a fairy godmother?”</p> +<p>“Not that I know of, Milly. Would you like me better if I +had a wand and a pair of pet dragons, like old Fairy +Blackstick?”</p> +<p>“No,” said Milly, stroking her aunt’s hand, +“but you do such nice things, just like fairy godmothers +do.”</p> +<p>“Do I, little woman? Aunt Emma likes doing nice things for +good children. But now come along, it’s quite time we were +off. Let us go and fetch father and mother. Gardener will bring the +baskets.”</p> +<p>Such a merry party they were, trooping down to the boathouse. +There lay the boat; a pretty new boat, painted dark blue, with a +little red flag floating at her bows, and her name, +“Ariel,” written in large white letters on the stern. +And all around the boathouse stretched the beautiful blue water, so +clear and sunny and sparkling that it dazzled Milly’s eyes to +look at it. She and Olly were lifted into the boat beside Aunt Emma +and mother, father sat in the middle and took the oars, while +gardener put the baskets into the stern, and then, untying the rope +which kept the boat tied into the boathouse, he gave it a good push +with one hand and off she went out into the blue lake, rising up +and down on the water like a swan.</p> +<p>“Oh! mother, mother, look up there,” shouted Olly, +“there’s the mountain. Isn’t that where we +climbed up this morning?”</p> +<p>Yes, there it was, the beautiful green rocky mountain, rising up +above Aunt Emma’s house. They could see it all so clearly as +they got farther out into the lake; first the blue sky, then the +mountain with the little white dots on it, which Milly knew were +sheep; then some trees, and in front, Aunt Emma’s house with +the lawn and the boathouse. And as they looked all round them they +could see far bigger and grander mountains than Brownholme, some +near and green like Brownholme, and some far away and blue like the +sky, while down by the edge of the lake were hayfields full of +flowers, or bits of rock with trees growing on the top of them. The +children hardly knew what it was made them so quiet; but I think it +was because everything was so beautiful. They were really in the +hill-fairies’ palace now.</p> +<p>“Aren’t there any water-fairies in this lake, +mother?” whispered Milly, presently, looking down into the +clear blue water, and trying to see the bottom.</p> +<p>“I can’t tell, Milly, I never saw any. But there +used to be water-fairies in old days. After tea suppose we ask Aunt +Emma to tell us a story about a king in olden times whom the +water-fairies loved; she used to tell it to me when I was small, +and I liked it best of all stories. But, Olly, you must sit still, +or the boat will go tipping over to one side, and father +won’t be able to row.”</p> +<p>“Do let me row, father,” begged Olly.</p> +<p>“Not yet, old man—I must get used to the boat first, +and find out how to manage her, but presently you shall come and +try, and so shall Milly if she likes.”</p> +<p>On they rowed, farther and farther from the shore, till Aunt +Emma’s house began to look quite small, and they could hardly +see the gardener working on the lawn.</p> +<p>“Father, what a long way we’ve come,” cried +Milly, looking all round. “Where are we going to?”</p> +<p>“Well, presently, Milly, I am going to turn the boat a +little bit, so as to make her go over to that side of the lake over +there. Do you see a big rock with some trees on it, far away, +sticking out into the lake?”</p> +<p>“Yes,” said the children, looking very hard.</p> +<p>“Well, that’s where we’re going to have tea. +It’s called Birdsnest Point, because the rocks come out in a +point into the lake. But first I thought I would bring you right +out into the middle of the lake, that you might see how big it is, +and look at the mountains all round.” “Father,” +said Olly, “if a big stone fell down out of the sky and made +ever such a big hole in the boat, and the water came into the hole, +should we all be dead?”</p> +<p>“I daresay we should, Olly, for I don’t think I +could carry mother, and Aunt Emma, and Milly, and you on my back, +safe home again, and you see none of you can swim but +me.”</p> +<p>“Then I hope a big stone won’t come,” said +Milly, feeling just a little bit frightened at Olly’s +suggestion.</p> +<p>“Well, big stones don’t grow in the sky generally, +Milly, if that’s any comfort to you. But do you know, one day +long ago, when I was out rowing on this lake, I thought all of a +sudden I heard some one shouting and screaming, and for a long time +I looked and waited, but could see nothing; till at last I fancied +I could see, a long distance off, what looked like a pole, with +something white tied to it. And I rowed, and rowed, and rowed, as +fast as I could, and all the time the shouting and screaming went +on, and at last what do you think I saw? I saw a boat, which looked +as if something was dragging it down into the water. Part of it had +already sunk down into the lake, and in the part which was still +above the water there were three people sitting, a gentleman, and +two little girls who looked about ten years old. And they were +shouting ‘Help! help!’ at the top of their voices, and +waving an oar with a handkerchief tied to it. And the boat in which +they sat was sinking farther and farther into the water, and if I +had’n’t come up just when I did, the gentleman and the +two little girls would have been drowned.”</p> +<p>“Oh, father!” cried Milly, “what made their +boat do like that? And did they get into yours?”</p> +<p>“There was a great hole in the bottom of their boat, +Milly, and the water was coming through it, and making the boat so +heavy that it was sinking down and down into the lake, just as a +stone would sink if you threw it in. How the hole came there we +never quite knew: I thought they must have knocked their boat +against a sharp rock—in some parts of the lake there are +rocks under the water which you can’t see—and the rock +had made the hole; but other people thought it had happened in some +other way. However, there they were, and when I took them all into +my boat you never saw such miserable little creatures as the two +little girls were. They were wet through, they were as white as +little ghosts, and when they were safe in my boat they began to cry +and shake so, poor little souls, though their father and I wrapped +them up in our coats, that I did want their mother to come and +comfort them.”</p> +<p>“Oh, but, father, you took them safe home to their mother, +didn’t you? And do tell me what she said.”</p> +<p>“They had no mother, Milly, they had only their father, +who was with them. But he was very good to them, and I think on the +whole they were happy little girls. The Christmas after that I got +a little parcel one morning, and what do you think was in it? Why, +two photographs of the same little girls, looking so neat and tidy +and happy, I could hardly believe they were really the same as the +little drowned rats I had pulled out of the water. Ask mother to +show you the pictures when we get home; she has them somewhere. +Now, Olly, would you like to row?”</p> +<p>“Oh, father, don’t bump against any rocks,” +said Milly, whose thoughts were very full of the little girls.</p> +<p>“Don’t you trouble your head about rocks, old woman. +I know a good deal more about this lake than those little +girls’ father did, and I won’t take you into any harm. +Come along, Olly.”</p> +<p>Olly was helped along the boat by mother and Aunt Emma till his +father caught hold of him and pulled him on to his seat, where he +let him put his two small paws on one of the oars, and try what he +could do with it. Mr. Norton pulled too; but Olly thought it was +all his doing, and that it was really he who was making the boat +go.</p> +<p>“Don’t we go fast, father?” he cried out +presently, his little face flushed with pleasure and excitement. +“You couldn’t row so fast without me, could you, +father?”</p> +<p>“You little fly-on-the-wheel,” said his father, +smiling at him.</p> +<p>“What does that mean, father?”</p> +<p>“Never mind, you’ll know when you’re bigger. +But now look, children, how close we are coming to the shore. And +quick, Milly, quick! What do you see over there?”</p> +<p>Mr. Norton pointed over the water to a place where some green +rushes were standing up out of the water, not very far from the +edge. What were those great white and gold things shining among the +rushes; and what were those large round green leaves lying on the +water all about them?</p> +<p>“Water-lilies! water-lilies!” cried Milly, stamping +her little feet with delight. “Oh, mother, look! it was on +one of those leaves that the old toad put little Tiny in my +fairy-book, don’t you remember? Only the little fishes came +and bit off the stalk and set her free. Oh, I wish we could see +little Tiny sitting on one of those leaves!”</p> +<p>“Well,” said Aunt Emma, “there’s no +saying what you may find in these parts if you look long enough. +This is a very strange country. But now, Milly, look out for the +lilies. Father’s going to take us in among them, and +I’ll hold you, while you gather them.”</p> +<p>And presently, swish went the boat up against the rushes, and +there were the lovely white lilies lying spread out on the water +all round them, some quite open and showing their golden middles, +and some still buds, with their wet green cases just falling off, +and their white petals beginning to unclose. But what slippery +stalks they had. Aunt Emma held Milly, and father held Olly, while +they dived their hands under the water and pulled hard. And some of +the lilies came out with such short bits of stalk you could +scarcely hold them, and sometimes, flop! out came a long green +stalk, like a long green snake curling and twisting about in the +boat. The children dabbled, and splashed, and pulled, to their +hearts’ content, till at last Mr. Norton told them they had +got enough and now they must sit quite still while he rowed them in +to the land.</p> +<p>“Oh, father, just those two over there!” pleaded +Milly, who could not bear leaving so many beauties behind.</p> +<p>“No, Milly, no more. Look where the sun is now. If we +don’t make haste and have our tea, we shall never get back to +Ravensnest to-night.”</p> +<p>Milly’s face looked as if it would like to cry, as the +boat began to move away from the rushes, and the beautiful lilies +were left behind. I told you, to begin with, that Milly was ready +to cry oftener than a sensible little girl should. But Aunt Emma +was not going to have any crying at her picnic.</p> +<p>“Who’s going to gather me sticks to make my +fire?” she said suddenly, in a solemn voice.</p> +<p>“I am! I am!” shouted both the children at once, and +out came Milly’s smiles again, like the sun from behind a +cloud.</p> +<p>“And who’s going to lay the table-cloth?”</p> +<p>“We are! we are!”</p> +<p>“And who’s going to hand the bread and +butter?”</p> +<p>“I am!” exclaimed Milly, “and Olly shall hand +the cake.”</p> +<p>“And who’s going to <em>eat</em> the bread and +butter?”</p> +<p>“All of us!” shouted the children, and Milly added, +“Father will want a <em>big</em> plate of bread and butter, I +daresay.”</p> +<p>“I should think he would, after all this rowing,” +said Mr. Norton. “Now then, look out for a bump!”</p> +<div class="figure"><a href="images/illus4.png"><img src= +"images/illus4.png" alt= +"“So they put Olly up on a tall piece of rock, and he sang.”" +id="illus4" name="illus4" width="100%" /></a> +<p>“So they put Olly up on a tall piece of rock, and he +sang.”</p> +</div> +<p>Bump! Splash! there was the boat scraping along the pebbles near +the shore; out sprang Mr. Norton, first on to a big stone, then on +to the shore, and with one great pull he brought the boat in till +it was close enough for Aunt Emma and Mrs. Norton to step on to the +rocks, and for the children to be lifted out.</p> +<p>“Oh! what a nice place!” cried Milly, looking about +her, and clapping her hands, as she always did when she was +pleased. It was a point of rock running out into the lake, a +“peninsula” Milly called it, when she had been all +round it, and it was covered with brown heather spread all over the +ground, and was delightfully soft and springy to sit upon. In the +middle of the bit of rock there were two or three trees standing up +together, birch trees with silvery stems, and on every side but one +there was shallow brown water, so clear that they could see every +stone at the bottom. And when they looked away across the lake, +there were the grand old mountains pushing their heads into the +clouds on the other side, and far away near the edge of the lake +they saw a white dot which they knew was Aunt Emma’s house. +How the sun shone on everything! How it made the water of the lake +sparkle and glitter as if it were alive! And yet the air was not +hot, for a little wind was coming to them across the water, and +moving the trees gently up and down.</p> +<p>And what was this under the trees? Why, a kind of fireplace made +of stones, and in front of it a round green bit of grass, with +tufts of heather all round it, just like a table with seats.</p> +<p>“Who put these stones here, Aunt Emma?” asked Olly, +as she and mother and Mr. Norton brought up the baskets, and put +them in the green place by the stones.</p> +<p>“Well, Olly, long ago, when all your uncles and aunts were +little, and they used to come here for picnics, they thought it +would be very nice to have a stone fireplace, built up properly, so +that they needn’t make one every time. It was Uncle +Richard’s idea, and we had such fun building it up. The +little ones brought the stones; and the big ones piled them +together till you see we made quite a nice fireplace. And it has +lasted ever since. Whenever I come here I mend it up if any of the +stones have tumbled down. Numbers of little children come to picnic +here every summer, and they always use our fireplace. But now, come +along into the woods, children, and gather sticks.”</p> +<p>Off they ran after Aunt Emma, and soon they were scrambling +about the wood which grew along the shore, picking up the dry +sticks and dry fern under the trees. Milly filled her cotton frock +full, and gathered it up with both her hands; while Olly of course +went straight at the biggest branch he could see, and staggered +along with it, puffing and panting.</p> +<p>“You grasshopper, you!” said Mr. Norton, catching +hold of him, “don’t you think you’d better try a +whole tree next time? There, let me break it for you.” Father +broke it up into short lengths, and then off ran Olly with his +little skirts full to Aunt Emma, who was laden too with an armful +of sticks. “That’ll do to begin with, old man. Come +along, and you and I’ll light the fire.”</p> +<p>What fun it was, heaping up the sticks on the stones, and how +they did blaze and crackle away when Aunt Emma put a match to them. +Puff! puff! out came the smoke; +fizz—crack—sputter—went the dry fir branches, as +if they were Christmas fireworks.</p> +<p>“Haven’t we made a blazey fire, Aunt Emma?” +said Olly, out of breath with dragging up sticks, and standing +still to look.</p> +<p>“Splendid,” said Mr. Norton, who had just come out +of the wood with his bundle. “Now, Olly, let me just put you +on the top of it to finish it off. How you would fizz!”</p> +<p>Off ran Olly, with his father after him, and they had a romp +among the heather till Mr. Norton caught him, and carried him +kicking and laughing under his arm to Aunt Emma.</p> +<p>“Now, Aunt Emma, shall I put him on?”</p> +<p>“Oh dear, no!” said Aunt Emma, “my kettle +wouldn’t sit straight on him, and it’s just boiling +beautifully. We’ll put him on presently when the fire gets +low.”</p> +<p>“Olly, do come and help mother and me with the +tea-things,” cried Milly, who was laying the cloth as busily +and gravely as a little housemaid.</p> +<p>“Run along, shrimp,” said his father, setting him +down.</p> +<p>And off ran Olly, while Mr. Norton and Aunt Emma heaped the wood +on the fire, and kept the kettle straight, so that it +shouldn’t tip over and spill.</p> +<p>Laying the cloth was delightful, Milly thought. First of all, +they put a heavy stone on each corner of the cloth to keep it down, +and prevent the wind from blowing it up, and then they put the +little plates all round, and in the middle two piles of bread and +butter and cake.</p> +<p>“But we haven’t got any flowers,” said Milly, +looking at it presently, with a dissatisfied face, “you +always have flowers on the table at home, mother.”</p> +<p>“Why, Milly, have you forgotten your water-lilies; where +did you leave them?”</p> +<p>“Down by the water,” said Milly. “Father told +me just to put their stalks in the water, and he put a stone to +keep them safe. Oh! that’ll be splendid, mother. Do give me a +cup, and we’ll get some water for them.”</p> +<p>Mother found a cup, and the children scrambled down to the edge +of the lake. There lay the lilies with their stalks in the water, +close to the boat.</p> +<p>“They look rather sad, mother, don’t they?” +said Milly, gathering them up. “Perhaps they don’t like +being taken away from their home.”</p> +<p>“They never look so beautiful out of the water,” +said mother; “but when we get home we’ll put them into +a soup-plate, and let them swim about in it. They’ll look +very nice then. Now, Olly, fill the cup with water, and we’ll +put five or six of the biggest in, and gather some +leaves.”</p> +<p>“There, look! look! Aunt Emma,” shouted Milly, when +they had put the lilies and some fern leaves in the middle of the +table. “Haven’t we made it beautiful?”</p> +<p>“That you have,” said Aunt Emma, coming up with the +kettle which had just boiled. “Now for the tea, and then +we’re ready.”</p> +<p>“We never had such a nice tea as this before,” said +Olly, presently looking up from a piece of bread and butter which +had kept him quiet for some time. “It’s nicer than +having dinner at the railway station even.”</p> +<p>Aunt Emma and mother laughed; for it doesn’t seem so +delightful to grown-up people to have dinner at the railway +station.</p> +<p>“Well, Olly,” said mother, “I hope we shall +often have tea out of doors while we are at Ravensnest.”</p> +<p>Milly shook her head. “It’ll rain, mother. That old +gentleman said it would be sure to rain.”</p> +<p>“That old gentleman is about right, Milly,” said Mr. +Norton. “I think it rains dreadfully here, but mother +doesn’t seem to mind it a bit. Once upon a time when mother +was a little girl, there came a funny old fairy and threw some +golden dust in her eyes, and ever since then she can’t see +straight when she comes to the mountains. It’s all right +everywhere else, but as soon as she comes here, the dust begins to +fly about in her eyes, and makes the mountains look quite different +to her from what they look to anybody else.”</p> +<p>“Let me look, mother,” said Olly, pulling her down +to him.</p> +<p>Mrs. Norton opened her eyes at him, smiling.</p> +<p>“I can’t see any dust, father.”</p> +<p>“Ah, that’s because it’s fairy dust,” +said Mr. Norton, gravely. “Now, Olly, don’t you eat too +much cake, else you won’t be able to row.”</p> +<p>“It’ll be my turn first, father,” said Milly, +“you know I haven’t rowed at all yet.”</p> +<p>“Well, don’t you catch any crabs, Milly,” said +Aunt Emma.</p> +<p>“Catch crabs, Aunt Emma!” said Milly, very much +puzzled. “Crabs are only in the sea, aren’t +they?”</p> +<p>“There’s a very big kind just about here,” +said Mr. Norton, “and they’re always looking out for +little children, particularly little girls.”</p> +<p>“I don’t understand, father,” said Milly, +opening her eyes very wide.</p> +<p>“Have some more tea, then,” said Mr. Norton, +“that always makes people feel wiser.”</p> +<p>“Father, aren’t you talking nonsense?” said +Olly, stopping in the middle of a piece of cake to think about what +his father was saying.</p> +<p>“Very likely, Olly. People always do at picnics. Aunt +Emma, when are you going to tell us your story?”</p> +<p>“When we’ve washed the things and put them +away,” said Aunt Emma, “then Olly shall sing us two +songs, and I’ll tell you my story.”</p> +<p>But the children were so hungry that it was a long time before +they gave up eating bread and butter, and then, when at last tea +was over, what fun it was washing the cups and plates in the lake! +Aunt Emma and Olly washed, and mother and Milly dried the things on +a towel, and then everything was packed away into the baskets, and +mother and Aunt Emma folded up the table-cloth, and put it tidily +on the top of everything.</p> +<p>“I did like that,” said Milly, sighing as the last +basket was fastened down. “I wish you’d let me help +Sarah wash up the tea-things at home, mother.”</p> +<p>“If Sarah liked to let you, I shouldn’t say no, +Milly,” said Mrs. Norton. “How soon would you get tired +of it, old woman, I wonder? But come along, let’s put Olly up +on a rock, and make him sing, and then we’ll have Aunt +Emma’s story.”</p> +<p>So they put Olly up on a tall piece of rock, and he sang +“The Minstrel Boy,” and “Bonnie Dundee,” +and “Hot Cross Buns,” just as if he were a little +musical box, and you had nothing to do but to wind him up. He had a +sweet, clear, little voice, and he looked a delightful brown gipsy, +as he sat perched up on the rock with his long legs dangling, and +his curls blowing about his face.</p> +<p>“There!” said Olly, when he had shouted out the last +note of “Hot Cross Buns.” “I have singed three +whole songs; and now, Aunt Emma, tell us about the king and the +fairies. Krick, please.”</p> +<p>“It must be ‘krick’ indeed,” said Aunt +Emma, “if we want to get home to-night.”</p> +<p>For the sun had almost sunk behind the mountains at their back, +and the wind blowing across the lake was beginning to get a little +cold, while over their heads the rooks went flying, singing +“caw, caw,” on their way to bed. And how the sun was +turning the water to gold! It seemed to be making a great golden +pathway across the lake, and the mountains were turning a deep +blue, and plash, plash, went the little waves on the rocks, so +softly they seemed to be saying “Good-night! +good-night!”</p> +<p>“Well,” said Aunt Emma, settling herself on a soft +piece of heather, and putting her arms round Milly and Olly, +“Once upon a time there was a great king. He was a good king +and a wise man, and he tried to make all the people round about him +wiser and better than they were before he came to rule over them; +and for a long time he was very powerful and happy, and he and the +brave men who helped him and were his friends did a great deal of +good, and kept the savage people who lived all about him in order, +and taught them a great many things. But at last some of the savage +people got tired of obeying the king, and they said they would not +have him to reign over them any more; so they made an army, and +they came together against the king to try and kill him and his +friends. And the king made an army too, and there was a great +battle; and the savage people were the strongest, and they killed +nearly all the king’s brave men, and the king himself was +terribly hurt in the fight. And at last, when night came on, there +were left only the king and one of his friends—his knights, +as they were called. The king was hurt so much that he could not +move, and his friend thought he was dying. They were left alone in +a rocky desert place, and close by there was a great lake with +mountains round it—like this, Olly. It was very cold, and the +moon was shining, and the king lay so still that once or twice his +friend almost thought that he was dead. But at last, about the +middle of the night, he began to speak, and he told his friend to +take his sword that was by his side and to go down to the side of +the lake and throw it as far as he could into the water. Now, this +sword was a magic sword. Long before, the king was once walking +beside this lake, when he suddenly saw an arm in a long white +sleeve rising out of the lake, and in the hand at the end of it was +a splendid sword with a glistening handle. And the king got into a +boat and rowed as fast as he could till he got near enough to take +hold of the sword, and then the arm sank down under the water and +was seen no more. And with the sword the king won a great many +battles, and he loved it, and never would part with it; but now +that he was dying, he told his friend to take the sword and throw +it back into the lake where he had found it, and see what would +happen. And his friend took it, and went away over the rocks till +he came to the edge of the lake, and then he took the sword out of +its case and swung it above his head that he might throw it far +into the water; but as he lifted it up the precious stones in the +handle shone so splendidly in the moonlight that he could not make +up his mind to throw it into the water, it seemed such a pity. So +he hid it away among the rushes by the water side, and went back to +the king. And the king said, ‘What did you see by the +lake?’</p> +<p>“And the knight said, ‘I saw nothing except the +water, and the mountains, and the rushes.’</p> +<p>“And the king said, ‘Oh, unkind friend! Why will you +not do as I ask you, now that I am dying and can do nothing for +myself? Go back and throw the sword into the lake, as I told +you.’</p> +<p>“And the knight went back, and once more he lifted the +sword to throw it into the water but it looked so beautiful that he +<em>could</em> not throw it away. There would be nothing left, he +thought, to remember the king by when he was dead if he threw away +the sword; so again he hid it among the rushes, and then he went +back to the king. And again the king asked, ‘What did you see +by the lake?’ and again the knight answered, ‘I saw +nothing except the water and the mountains.’</p> +<p>“‘Oh, unkind, false friend!’ cried the king, +‘you are crueller to me than those who gave me this wound. Go +back and throw the sword into the water, or, weak as I am, I will +rise up and kill you.’</p> +<p>“Back went the knight, and this time he seized the sword +without looking at it, so that he should not see how beautiful it +was, and then he swung it once, twice, thrice, round his head, and +away it went into the lake. And as it fell, up rose a hand and arm +in a long white sleeve out of the water, and the hand caught the +sword and drew it down under the water. And then for a moment, all +round the lake, the knight fancied he heard a sound of sobbing and +weeping, and he thought in his heart that it must be the +water-fairies weeping for the king’s death.</p> +<p>“‘What did you see by the lake?’ asked the +king again, when he came back, and the knight told him. Then the +king told him to lift him up and carry him on his back down to the +edge of the lake, and when they got there, what do you think they +saw?”</p> +<p>But the children could not guess, and Milly pressed Aunt +Emma’s hand hard to make her go on.</p> +<p>“They saw a great black ship coming slowly over the water, +and on the ship were numbers of people in black, sobbing and +crying, so that the air was full of a sound of weeping, and in +front sat three queens in long black dresses, and with gold crowns +on their heads, and they, too, were weeping and wringing their +hands.</p> +<p>“‘Lift me up,’ said the king, when the ship +came close beside them, ‘and put me into the ship.’ And +the knight lifted him up, while the three queens stretched out +their hands and drew him into the ship.</p> +<p>“‘Oh, king! take me with you,’ said the +knight, ‘take me too. What shall I do all alone without +you?’ But the ship began to move away, and the knight was +left standing on the shore. Only he fancied he heard the +king’s voice saying, ‘Wait for me, I shall come again. +Farewell!’</p> +<p>“And the ship went faster and faster away into the +darkness, for it was a fairy ship, till at last the knight could +see it no more. So then he knew that the king had been carried away +by the fairies of the lake—the same fairies who had given him +the sword in old days, and who had loved him and watched over him +all his life. But what did the king mean by saying, ‘I shall +come again’?”</p> +<p>Then Aunt Emma stopped and looked at the children.</p> +<p>“What did he mean, auntie?” asked Milly, who had +been listening with all her ears, and whose little eyes were wet, +“and did he ever come back again?”</p> +<p>“Not while the knight lived, Milly. He grew to be quite an +old man, and was always hoping that the fairies would bring the +king again. But the king never came, and his friend died without +seeing him.”</p> +<p>“But did he <em>ever</em> come again?” asked +Olly.</p> +<p>“I don’t know, Olly. Some people think that he is +still hidden away somewhere by the kind water-fairies, and that +some day, when the world wants him very much, he will come back +again.”</p> +<p>“Do you think he is here in this lake?” whispered +Milly, looking at the water.</p> +<p>“How can we tell what’s at the bottom of the +lake?” said Aunt Emma, smiling. “But no, I don’t +think the king is hidden in this lake. He didn’t live near +here.”</p> +<p>“What was his name?” asked Milly.</p> +<p>“His name was King Arthur. But now, children, hurry; there +is father putting all the baskets into the boat. We must get home +as quick as we can.”</p> +<p>They rowed home very quickly, except just for a little time when +Milly rowed, and they did not go quite so fast as if father were +rowing alone. It was quite evening now on the lake, and there were +great shadows from the mountains lying across the water. Somehow +the children felt much quieter now than when they started in the +afternoon. Milly had curled herself up inside mother’s arm, +and was thinking a great deal about King Arthur and the fairy ship, +while Olly was quite taken up with watching the oars as they dipped +in and out of the water, and occasionally asking his father when he +should be big enough to row quite by himself. It seemed a very +little time after all before they were stepping out of the boat at +Aunt Emma’s boathouse, and the picnic and the row were both +over.</p> +<p>“Good-bye, dear lake,” said Milly, turning with her +hands full of water-lilies to look back before they went up to the +house. “Good-night, mountains; good-night, Birdsnest Point. I +shall soon come and see you again.”</p> +<p>A few minutes more, and they were safely packed into a carriage +which drove them back to Ravensnest, and Aunt Emma was saying +good-bye to them.</p> +<p>“Next time, I shall come and see you, Milly,” she +said, as she kissed Milly’s little sleepy face. +“Don’t forget me till then.”</p> +<p>“Then you’ll tell us about old Mother +Quiverquake,” said Olly, hugging her with his small arms. +“Aunt Emma, I haven’t given Johnny back his stockings. +They did tickle me so in the boat.”</p> +<p>“We’ll get them some time,” said Aunt Emma. +“Good-night, good-night.”</p> +<p>It was a sleepy pair of children that nurse lifted out of the +carriage at Ravensnest. And though they tried to tell her something +about it, she had to wait till next morning before she could really +understand anything about their wonderful day at Aunt Emma’s +house.</p> +<h2><a id="Chapter6" name="Chapter6">CHAPTER VI</a></h2> +<h3>Wet Days At Ravensnest</h3> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>For about a week after the row on the lake the weather was +lovely, and Milly wondered more than ever what the old gentleman +who warned them of the rain in the mountains could have been +thinking about. She and Olly were out all day, and nearly every +afternoon nurse lifted the tea-table through the low nursery window +on to the lawn, and let them have their tea out of doors among the +flowers and trees and twittering birds. They had found out a +fly-catcher’s nest in the ivy above the front door, and every +evening the two children used to fetch out their father to watch +the parent birds catching flies and carrying them to the hungry +little ones, whom they could just hear chirping up above the ivy. +Olly was wild to get the gardener’s ladder that he might +climb up and look into the nest, but Mr. Norton would not have it +lest it should frighten away the old birds.</p> +<p>One delicious warm morning, too, the children had their +long-promised bathe, and what fun it was. Nurse woke them up at +five o’clock in the morning—fancy waking up as early as +that!—and they slipped on their little blue bathing gowns, +and their sand shoes that mother had bought them in Cromer the year +before, and then nurse wrapped them up in shawls, and she and they +and father went down and opened the front door while everybody else +in the house was asleep, and slipped out. What a quiet strange +world it seemed, the grass and the flowers dripping with dew, and +overhead such a blue sky with white clouds sailing slowly about in +it.</p> +<p>“Why don’t we always get up at five o’clock, +father?” asked Olly, as he and Milly skipped along—such +an odd little pair of figures—beside Mr. Norton. +“Isn’t it nice and funny?”</p> +<p>“Very,” said Mr. Norton. “Still, I imagine +Olly, if you had to get up every day at five o’clock, you +might think it funny, but I’m sure you wouldn’t always +think it nice.”</p> +<p>“Oh! I’m sure we should,” said Milly, +seriously. “Why, father, it’s just as if everything was +ours and nobody else’s, the garden and the river I mean. Is +there <em>anybody</em> up yet do you think—in those +houses?” And Milly pointed to the few houses they could see +from the Ravensnest garden.</p> +<p>“I can’t tell, Milly. But I’ll tell you +who’s sure to be up now, and that’s John Backhouse. I +should think he’s just beginning to milk the cows.”</p> +<p>“Oh then, Becky and Tiza’ll be up too,” cried +Milly, dancing about. “I wish we could see them. Somehow it +would be quite different seeing them now, father. I feel so queer, +as if I was somebody else.”</p> +<p>If you have ever been up <em>very</em> early on a summer +morning, you will know what Milly meant, but if not I can hardly +explain it. Such a pretty quiet little walk they had down to the +river. Nobody on the road, nobody in the fields, but the birds +chattering and the sun shining, as if they were having a good time +all to themselves, before anybody woke up to interrupt them. Mr. +Norton took the children down to the stepping-stones, and then, +while Milly and nurse stayed on the bank he lifted Olly up, and +carried him to the middle of the stepping-stones, where the water +would about come up to his chest. Mr. Norton had already taken off +his own shoes and stockings, and when they came to the middle +stone, he put Olly down on the stone, and stepped into the water +himself. “Now, Olly, give me your hands and jump in. Mind, +it’ll feel very cold.”</p> +<p>Olly shut his eyes, and opened his mouth, as he always did when +he felt just a little frightened, and then in he went; splash! ugh! +it was so cold—much colder than the sea used to +feel—but after a few splashes Olly began to get used to it, +and to think it fine fun.</p> +<p>“Oh, father, fetch Milly, and then we’ll all dance +about,” entreated Olly.</p> +<p>“Come, Milly,” called Mr. Norton. “Try whether +you can manage the stepping-stones by yourself.” So Milly +came, holding up her bathing dress, and stepping from one big stone +to another with a very grave face, as if she felt that there would +be an end of her altogether if she tumbled in. And then, splash! In +she jumped by the side of Olly, and after a little shiver or two +she also began to think that the river was a delightful bathing +place, almost as nice as the sea, perhaps in some ways nicer, +because it was such a strange and funny one. They danced and +splashed about in the brown sparkling water till they were tired, +and at last Olly stopped to take breath.</p> +<p>“I should think the fishes must be frightened of +us,” he said, peering down into the river. “I +can’t see any, father.”</p> +<p>“Well, they wouldn’t choose to swim about just where +little children are shouting and capering. The fishes are hidden +safe away under the banks and the big stones. Besides, it’s +going to be a very hot day, and they like the shady bits of the +river. Just here there’s no shade.”</p> +<p>Suddenly there was a great commotion in the river, and when Mr. +Norton looked round for a second he could see nothing of Milly, +till up came a dripping head and a pair of hands, and there was +Milly kneeling on the stones at the bottom of the river, with just +her head above water, looking very much astonished and rather +frightened.</p> +<p>“Why, what happened, old woman?” said Mr. Norton, +holding out his hand to help her up.</p> +<p>“I—I—don’t quite know, father; I was +standing on a big stone, and all of a sudden it tipped up, and I +tumbled right in.”</p> +<p>“First of all I thought you was a big fish, and then I +thought you was going to be drowned,” said Olly, cheerfully. +“I’m glad you wasn’t drowned.”</p> +<p>“Miss Milly! Miss Milly!” shouted nurse from the +bank, “it’s quite time you came out now. If you stay in +so long you’ll get cold, and you, too, Master +Olly.”</p> +<p>Olly was not inclined to come. He would have liked to go on +dabbling and splashing till breakfast-time, but Mr. Norton hurried +him out, and the two dripping little creatures were well wrapped up +in large shawls which nurse had brought with her. Then nurse took +up Olly in her arms, and father took up Milly, who was small and +light for her age, and they set off up the bit of road to the +house. By this time it was past six o’clock, and whom should +they meet at the Ravensnest gate but John Backhouse, with Becky and +Tiza, and his two dogs. He was just bringing the milk, and both he +and his children looked as brisk and wide awake as if they had been +up and about for hours.</p> +<p>Milly and Olly were very much excited at the sight of them, and +Olly struggled hard to get down, but nurse held him tight.</p> +<p>“Oh, Becky! we’ve had such a nice bathe,” +cried Milly, as she passed them muffled up in her shawl, her little +wet feet dangling out.</p> +<p>Becky and Tiza looked longingly after them as they disappeared +into the house. They wished they could have had a bathe too, but +they knew very well that their hard-worked father and mother had +something else to do on a fine summer’s morning than to take +them to bathe, and in a few minutes they had forgotten all about +it, and were busy playing with the dogs, or chattering to their +father about the hay-making, which was soon to begin now.</p> +<p>That evening there were strange clouds at sunset time, and Mr. +Norton shook his head as he heard Mrs. Norton arrange to take the +children next day to a small mountain village near Ravensnest, to +call on some old friends of hers.</p> +<p>“I wouldn’t make much of a plan for to-morrow if I +were you,” he said to his wife, “the weather +doesn’t look promising.”</p> +<p>“Oh, father!” said Milly, protesting. “There +are some red clouds over there—look! and Nana always says +it’s going to be fine when there are red clouds.”</p> +<p>“Well, Milly, your red clouds may be right and I may be +wrong. We shall see.”</p> +<p>But, alas! father was quite right. When Milly woke up next +morning there was no nice sunshine creeping on to her bed as it had +done almost ever since they came to Ravensnest; but instead there +was rain beating steadily against the window, coming down out of a +heavy gray sky, and looking as if it meant to go on for ever.</p> +<p>“Oh dear!” sighed Milly, as she began to dress, +“we can’t go out, and the wild strawberries will get so +wet. I meant to have gathered some for mother to-day. There would +have been such nice ones in the wood.”</p> +<p>But it was no use thinking about woods or strawberries, and when +Mrs. Norton came into the children’s room just as they were +finishing breakfast, she found a pair of dull little faces staring +out at the rain, as if looking at it would make it stop.</p> +<p>“Nasty rain,” said Olly, climbing up on his +mother’s knee. “Go to Spain. I don’t want you to +come and spoil my nicey time.”</p> +<p>“I am afraid scolding the rain won’t make it go +away,” said his mother, smiling into his brown face as he +knelt on her lap, with his arms round her neck. “Now what are +we going to do to-day?”</p> +<p>“I don’t know,” said Milly, sitting down +opposite her mother, and resting her face gravely on her hands. +“Well, we brought <em>some</em> toys, you know, mother. +Olly’s got his top; I can help him spin it, and I can play +with Katie a bit.”</p> +<p>“That won’t take very long,” said Mrs. Norton. +“Suppose we do some lessons first of all.”</p> +<p>“Oh, mother, lessons!” said Milly, in a very +doubtful voice.</p> +<p>“It’s holidays, mother, it’s holidays,” +cried Olly. “I don’t like lessons—not a +bit.”</p> +<p>“Well, but, Olly, think a bit; you can’t spin your +top and look at picture-books all day, and I’m afraid +it’s going to rain all day—it looks very like it. If +you come and do some reading and counting with me this morning, I +can give you some spills to make, or some letters to tear up for me +afterwards. That will save the toys for this afternoon; and some +time this afternoon, if it doesn’t stop raining, we’ll +all have a romp. And as for you, Milly, don’t you think +it’s quite time Katie had a new frock? I believe I can find a +beautiful bit of blue silk in my bag, and I’m sure nurse will +show you how to make it.”</p> +<p>Milly’s face brightened up very much at this, and the two +children went skipping upstairs to the drawing-room after their +mother, in very fair spirits again. Olly did some reading, while +Milly wrote in her copybook, and then Olly had his counting-slate +and tried to find out what 6 and 4 made, and 5 and 3, and other +little sums of the same kind. He yawned a good deal over his +reading, and was quite sure several times that h-a-y spelt +“ham,” and s-a-w spelt “was,” but still, on +the whole, he got through very well. Milly wrote her copy, then she +learnt some verses of a poem called “Lucy Gray,” and +last of all mother found her a big map of Westmoreland, the county +in which the mountains are, and they had a most delightful +geography lesson. Mother pretended to take Milly a drive all about +the mountains, and made her find out their names, and the names of +the towns and the lakes, beginning with Lake Windermere. Olly was +interested too, for Mrs. Norton told them a great many things about +the places, and made quite a story out of it.</p> +<div class="figure"><a href="images/illus5.png"><img src= +"images/illus5.png" id="illus5" name="illus5" alt= +"“He was quite sure that h-a-y spelt ‘ham’ and s-a-w spelt ‘was.’”" +width="100%" /></a> +<p>“He was quite sure that h-a-y spelt ‘ham’ and +s-a-w spelt ‘was.’”</p> +</div> +<p>“Why, mother, I never could go all that long way all at +once—<em>really</em>, could I?” asked Milly, when they +had been all round the mountains, in and out and round about.</p> +<p>“No, Milly, not quite,” said Mrs. Norton, laughing, +“but it’s very easy to go a long way in a pretendy +drive. It would only take us about ten minutes that way to get to +the other side of the world.”</p> +<p>“How long would it take really?” asked Olly.</p> +<p>“About three months.”</p> +<p>“If we could fly up, and up, ever so far,” said +Olly, standing on tiptoe, and stretching out his little arms as +high as they would reach, “it wouldn’t take us long. +Mother, don’t you wish you was a bird?”</p> +<p>“No, I don’t think so, Olly; why do you?”</p> +<p>“Because I should like to go so <em>krick</em>. Mother, +the fly-catchers do fly so krick; I can’t see them sometimes +when they’re flying, they go so fast. Oh, I do wish father +would let me get up a ladder to look at them.”</p> +<p>“No Olly, you’ll frighten them,” said Milly, +putting on her wise face. “Besides, father says you’re +too little, and you’d tumble down.”</p> +<p>Olly looked as if he didn’t believe a word of it, as he +generally did when Milly talked wisely to him; but just then he +found that mother had put into his lap a whole basketful of letters +to tear up, and that interested him so much that he forgot the +fly-catchers. Nurse cut out a most fashionable blue dress for +Katie, and Milly was quite happy all the rest of the morning in +running up the seams and hemming the bottom. So the morning passed +away. After dinner there were the toys to play with, and +Katie’s frock to try on, for nurse had taken a turn at the +body while Milly had been making the skirt. It fitted very well, +and Milly had only the band to put on and the sleeves to make +before it would be quite finished. Then nurse promised to put a +little white lace round the neck, and cut out a blue sash, that +Katie might be quite turned into an elegant young lady. Tea came +very soon, and when it was cleared away father and mother came into +the big kitchen without a fireplace, next to the children’s +room, and they all had a splendid romp. Mr. Norton made himself +into a tiger, with a tiger-skin in the hall, that Uncle Richard had +brought home from India, and Olly shot him all over with a +walking-stick from the tip of his nose to the tip of his tail. When +they were tired of this, mother set them to play hide-and-seek, and +Milly hid herself in such out-of-the-way cupboards, and squeezed +herself into such small corners, that mother said she was like a +needle in a bundle of hay—there was no finding her.</p> +<p>Seven o’clock came before they had time to think about it, +and the children went chattering and skipping up to bed, though on +fine evenings they had been staying up much later. How the rain did +rattle on the window while they were undressing.</p> +<p>“Oh, you tiresome rain,” said Milly, standing by the +window in her nightdress, and gazing up into the sky. “Where +does it all come from, I wonder? Won’t it be wet to-morrow, +Nana? and oh, what is that roaring over there?”</p> +<p>“That’s the beck,” said nurse, who was +brushing Olly’s hair, and trying hard to make him stand still +for two minutes.</p> +<p>“The beck! why, what’s the matter with +it?”</p> +<p>“It’s the rain has made it so full I suppose,” +said nurse. “To-morrow, gardener says, it’ll be over +the lawn if the rain goes on.”</p> +<p>“Oh, but it mustn’t go on,” said Milly. +“Now, rain, dear rain, good rain, do go away to-night, right +away up into the mountains. There’s plenty of room for you up +there, and down here we don’t want you a bit. So do be polite +and go away.”</p> +<p>But the rain didn’t see any good reason for going away, in +spite of Milly’s pretty speeches, and next morning there was +the same patter on the window, the same gray sky and dripping +garden. After breakfast there was just a hope of its clearing up. +For about an hour the rain seemed to get less and the clouds a +little brighter. But it soon came on again as fast as ever, and the +poor children were very much disappointed.</p> +<p>“Mother,” said Milly, when they had settled down to +their lessons again in the drawing-room, “when we get back to +Willingham, do you know what I shall do?”</p> +<p>“No, Milly.”</p> +<p>“I shall ask you to take me to see that old +gentleman—you know who I mean—who told you about the +rain. And I shall say to him, ‘please, Mr. Old Gentleman, at +first I thought you were quite wrong about the rain, but afterwards +I thought you were quite right, and it does rain dreadfully much in +the mountains.’”</p> +<p>“Very well, Milly. But you have only just had a taste of +what the rain can do in the lakes you know, so far. Father and I +have been here sometimes when it has rained two or three weeks +without stopping.”</p> +<p>“Oh dear!” said Milly, looking extremely melancholy. +“I like the mountains very much, mother; but <em>do</em> you +think we’d better come to Ravensnest again after this +year?”</p> +<p>“Oh you ungrateful little woman!” said Mrs. Norton, +whose love for the place was so real that Milly’s speech gave +her quite a pang. “Have you forgotten all your happy sunshiny +days here, just because it has rained for two? Why, when I was a +little girl, and used to come here, the rainy days never made me +love the place a bit the less. I always used to think the fine days +made up.”</p> +<p>“But then, mother, you were a nice little girl,” +said Milly, throwing her arms round her mother’s neck and +kissing her. “Now, I don’t feel a bit nice this +morning. It makes me so cross not to be able to go out and get +flowers and wild strawberries. And you know at home it hardly ever +rains all day.”</p> +<p>“Gardener says sometimes it rains all over the +road,” interrupted Olly, “and people can’t walk +along, and they have to go right up on the mountains to get past +the water place. And sometimes they have to get a boat to take +people across. Do you think we shall have to go in a boat to church +on Sunday, mother?”</p> +<p>“Well, we’re a long way off that yet, Olly. It will +take a good many days’ rain to flood the roads so deep that +we can’t get along them, and this is only the second rainy +day. Come, I don’t think we’ve got much to complain of. +Now suppose, instead of doing all your lessons this morning, you +were presently to write to Jacky and Francis—you write to +Jacky, Milly, and Olly to Francis. Don’t you think that would +be a good thing?”</p> +<p>“Oh yes, yes!” cried Milly, shutting up her copybook +in a great hurry. “They’ll be so much astonished, +mother, for we didn’t <em>promise</em> to write to them. I +don’t believe they ever get any letters.”</p> +<p>The children had a great deal of affection and some secret pity +for these playfellows of theirs, who had a sick mother, and who did +not get half the pleasures and amusements that they did. And, as I +have already told you, they could not bear Miss Chesterton, the +little boys’ aunt, who lived with them. They felt sure that +Jacky and Francis must be unhappy, only because they had to live +with Miss Chesterton.</p> +<p>This was Milly’s letter when it was done. Milly could only +write very slowly, in rather big hand, so that her letters were +never very long:</p> +<blockquote> +<p><span style="font-variant:small-caps;">My Dear +Jacky</span>—Don’t you think it very odd getting a +letter from me? It is nearly a fortnight since we came here. At +first it was <em>very</em> nice. We went up the mountains, and Aunt +Emma took us in a boat on the lake. And we gathered some wild +strawberries, only some of them were quite white—not red a +bit. But now it has begun to rain, and we don’t like it at +all. Perhaps we sha’n’t be able to get home because the +rain will cover up the roads. It is <em>very</em> dull staying in, +only mother makes us such nice plays. Good-bye, Jacky. I send my +love to Francis. Mind you don’t forget us.</p> +<p>Your loving little friend,<br /> +MILLY.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Olly wrote a much longer letter, that is to say, mother wrote +for him, and he told her what to say, and as this was a much easier +way of writing than Milly’s way, he got on very fast, and +Mrs. Norton had to write as quickly as she could, to keep up with +him. And this was what Olly had to say:</p> +<blockquote> +<p><span style="font-variant:small-caps;">My Dear +Francis</span>—I wonder what you’ll say to-morrow +morning when the postman brings you this letter. I hope +you’ll write back, because it won’t be fair if you +don’t. It isn’t such fun here now because it does rain +so. Milly and I are always telling the rain to go away, but it +won’t—though it did at home. Last week we went out in a +boat, and I rowed. I rowed a great way, much farther than Milly. We +went very slow when Milly rowed. It was very jolly at the picnic. +Aunt Emma gave me some cake, and mother gave me some bread and jam. +Nana won’t let us have cake and jam both, when we have tea at +home. Aunt Emma told us a story about King Arthur. I don’t +believe you ever heard it. The water-fairies took him away, and his +friend wanted to go too, but the king said ‘No! you must stop +behind.’ Milly cried because she felt sad about the king. I +didn’t cry, because I’m a little boy. Mother says you +won’t understand about the story, and she says we must tell +it you when we get home. So we will, only perhaps we +sha’n’t remember. Do you do lessons now? We don’t +do any—only when it rains. Milly’s writing a letter to +Jacky—mine’s much longer than hers.</p> +<p>Your little friend,<br /> +OLLY.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Then came the putting up the letters, addressing them, and +stamping them, all of which the children enjoyed very much, and by +the time they were laid on the hall table ready to go to the post +it was nearly dinner-time.</p> +<p>How the beck did roar that afternoon. And when the children +looked out from the drawing-room window they could see a little +flood on the lawn, where the water had come over the side of the +stream. While they were having their tea, with mother sitting by, +working and chattering to them, they heard a knock at the door, and +when they opened it there was father standing in the unused +kitchen, with the water running off his waterproof coat, making +little streams all over the stone floor.</p> +<p>“I have been down to look at the river,” he said to +Mrs. Norton. “Keep off, children! I’m much too wet to +touch. Such rain! It does know how to come down here! The +water’s over the road just by the stepping-stones. John +Backhouse says if it goes on another twenty-four hours like this, +there’ll be no getting to Wanwick by the road, on +foot.”</p> +<p>“Father,” said Milly, looking at him with a very +solemn face, “wouldn’t it be dreadful if it went on +raining and raining, and if the river came up and up, right up to +the drive and into the hall, and we all had to sit upstairs, and +the butcher couldn’t bring us any meat, and John Backhouse +couldn’t bring us any milk, and we all <em>died</em> of +hunger.”</p> +<p>“Then they would put us into some black boxes,” said +Olly, cheerfully, with his mouth full of bread and butter, +“and they would put the black boxes into some boats, and take +us right away and bury us krick—wouldn’t they, +mother?”</p> +<p>“Well, but—” said Mr. Norton, who had by this +time got rid of his wet coat, and was seated by Milly, helping +himself to some tea, “suppose we got into the boats before we +were dead, and rowed away to Windermere station?”</p> +<p>“Oh no! father,” said Milly, who always liked her +stories to be as gloomy as possible, “they wouldn’t +know anything about us till we were dead you know, and then +they’d come and find us, and be <em>very</em> sorry for us, +and say, ‘Oh dear! oh dear! what a pity!’”</p> +<p>Olly began to look so dismal as Milly’s fancies grew more +and more melancholy, that Mrs. Norton took to laughing at them all. +What did they know about Westmoreland rain indeed. This was +nothing—just nothing at all; she <em>could</em> remember some +floods in the wintertime, when she was a little girl, and used to +stay with Aunt Emma and great-grandmamma; but as for this, why, it +was a good summer wetting, and that was all.</p> +<p>A romp sent the children to bed in excellent spirits again. This +time both Milly and Olly stood at the window together, and told the +rain to be sure to go to Spain that night, and never come back +again while they were at Ravensnest.</p> +<p>“Or you might go to Willingham, you know, dear Mr. +Rain,” said Milly; “I daresay mother’s flowers +want a good watering. And there’s Spot—you might give +her a good washing—she <em>can</em> wash herself, but she +won’t. Only we don’t want you here, Mr. +Rain.”</p> +<p>But what an obstinate disagreeable Mr. Rain it was! All that +night it went on pouring, till the little beck in the garden was so +full it was almost choked, and could only get along by sputtering +and foaming as if some wicked water-fairies were driving it along +and tormenting it. And all the little pools on the mountain, the +“tarns,” as Becky and Tiza called them, filled up, and +the rain made the mountain itself so wet that it was like one big +bog all over.</p> +<p>When the children woke up the flood on the lawn was growing +bigger, and it seemed to them as if the house and garden were all +wrapped up in a wet white cloud-blanket. They could not see the +mountain at all from the window, it was all covered with a thick +white mist, and the dark fir trees in the garden looked sad and +drooping, as if the weight of raindrops was too much for them to +carry.</p> +<p>The children had made up their minds so completely the night +before that it <em>couldn’t</em> rain more than two days +running, that they felt as if they could hardly be expected to bear +this third wet morning cheerfully. Nurse found them cross and out +of spirits at breakfast. Even a prospect of asking Becky and Tiza +to tea did not bring any smiles to their forlorn little faces. It +would be no fun having anybody to tea. They couldn’t go out, +and there was nothing amusing indoors.</p> +<p>After breakfast, Olly set to work to get into mischief, as he +generally did when he felt dull. Nurse discovered him smearing +Katie’s cheeks with raspberry jam “to make them get red +kricker” as he said, and alas! some of the jam had stuck to +the new silk frock, and spoilt all its smart fresh look.</p> +<p>When Milly found it out she began to cry, and when Mrs. Norton +came in she saw a heap on the floor, which was Milly, sobbing, +while Olly sat beside her with his mouth wide open, as if he was a +good deal astonished at the result of his first attempt at +doctoring.</p> +<p>“Pick up the pieces, old woman,” said Mrs. Norton, +taking hold of the heap and lifting it up. “What’s the +matter with you both?”</p> +<p>“Olly’s spoilt my doll,” sobbed Milly, +“and it <em>will</em> go on raining—and I feel +so—so—dull.”</p> +<p>“I didn’t spoil her doll, mother,” cried Olly, +eagerly. “I only rubbed some jam on its cheeks to make them a +nicey pink—only some of it <em>would</em> sticky her +dress—I didn’t mean to.”</p> +<p>“How would you like some jam rubbed on your cheeks, +sir?” said Mrs. Norton, who could scarcely help laughing at +poor Katie’s appearance when nurse handed the doll to her. +“Suppose you leave Milly’s dolls alone for the future; +but cheer up, Milly! I think I can make Katie very nearly right +again. Come upstairs to my room and we’ll try.”</p> +<p>After a good deal of sponging and rubbing, and careful drying by +the kitchen fire, Katie came very nearly right again, and then Mrs. +Norton tried whether some lessons would drive the rain out of the +children’s heads. But the lessons did not go well. It was all +Milly could do to help crying every time she got a figure wrong in +her sum, and Olly took about ten minutes to read two lines of his +reading-book. Olly had just begun his sums, and Milly was standing +up to say some poetry to her mother, looking a woebegone little +figure, with pale cheeks and heavy eyes, when suddenly there was a +noise of wheels outside, and both the children turned to look out +of the window.</p> +<p>“A carriage! a carriage!” shouted Olly, jumping +down, and running to the window.</p> +<p>There, indeed, was one of the shut-up “cars,” as the +Westmoreland people call them, coming up the Ravensnest drive.</p> +<p>“It’s Aunt Emma,” said Mrs. Norton, starting +up, “how good of her to come over on such a day. Run, +children, and open the front door.”</p> +<p>Down flew Milly and Olly, tumbling over one another in their +hurry; but father had already thrown the door open, and who should +they see stepping down the carriage-steps but Aunt Emma herself, +with her soft gray hair shining under her veil, and her dear kind +face as gentle and cheery as ever.</p> +<p>“Aunt Emma! Aunt Emma!” shouted Olly, dancing up to +her, and throwing his arms round her, “<em>are</em> you come +to tell us about old Mother Quiverquake?”</p> +<p>“You gipsy, don’t strangle me! Well, Lucy dear, here +I am. Will you have me to dinner? I thought we’d all be +company for each other this bad day. Why, Milly, what have you been +doing to your cheeks?”</p> +<p>“She’s been crying,” said Olly, in spite of +Milly’s pulling him by the sleeve to be quiet, “because +I stickened her doll.”</p> +<p>“Well, and quite right too. Dolls weren’t made to be +stickied. But now, who’s going to carry my bag upstairs? Take +it gently, Milly, it’s got my cap inside, and if you crumple +my cap I shall have to sit with my head in a bandbox at dinner. Old +ladies are <em>never</em> seen without their caps you know. The +most dreadful things would happen if they were! Olly, you may put +my umbrella away. There now, I’ll go to mother’s room +and take off my things.”</p> +<h2><a id="Chapter7" name="Chapter7">CHAPTER VII</a></h2> +<h3>A Story-Telling Game</h3> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>When Aunt Emma was safely settled, cap and all, in one of the +drawing-room arm-chairs, it seemed to the children as if the rain +and the gray sky did not matter nearly so much as they had done +half an hour before. In the first place, her coming made something +new and interesting to think about; and in the second place, they +felt quite sure that Aunt Emma hadn’t brought her little +black bag into the drawing-room with her for nothing. If only her +cap had been in it, why of course she would have left it in +mother’s bedroom. But here it was in her lap, with her two +hands folded tight over it, as if it contained something precious! +How very puzzling and interesting!</p> +<p>However, for a long time it seemed as if Aunt Emma had nothing +at all to say about her bag. She began to tell them about her +drive—how in two places the horse had to go splashing through +the water, and how once, when they were crossing a little river +that ran across the road, the water came so far up the wheels that +“I put my head out of the window,” said Aunt Emma, +“and said to my old coachman, ‘Now, John, if it’s +going to get any deeper than this, you’d better turn him +round and go home, for I’m an old woman, not a fish, and I +can’t swim. Of course, if the horse can swim with the +carriage behind him it’s all right, but I have my +doubts.’ Now John, my dears, has been with me a great many +years, and he knows very well that I’m rather a nervous old +woman. It’s very sad, but it is so. Don’t you be +nervous when you’re old people. So all he said was ‘All +right, ma’am. Bless you, he can swim like a trout.’ And +crack went the whip, splash went the water! It seemed to me it was +just going to come in under the door, when, lo and behold! there we +were safe and sound on dry ground again. But whether my old horse +swam through or walked through I can’t tell you. I like to +believe he swam, because I’m so fond of him, and one likes to +believe the creatures one loves can do clever things.”</p> +<p>“I’ll ask John when he comes to take you away, Aunt +Emma,” said Olly. “I don’t believe horses can +swim when they’re in a carriage.”</p> +<p>“You’re a matter-of-fact monkey,” said Aunt +Emma. “Dear me, what’s that?”</p> +<p>For a loud squeak had suddenly startled the children, who were +now looking about them everywhere in vain, to find out where it +came from. Squeak! again. This time the voice certainly came from +near Aunt Emma’s chair, but there was nothing to be seen.</p> +<p>“What a strange house you live in,” said Aunt Emma, +with a perfectly grave face. “You must have caught a magician +somehow. That’s a magician’s squeak.”</p> +<p>Again came the noise!</p> +<p>“I know, I know!” shouted Olly. “It’s +Aunt Emma’s bag! I’m sure it came out of the +bag.”</p> +<p>“My bag!”—holding it up and looking at it. +“Now does it look like a bag that squeaks? It’s a +perfectly well-behaved bag, and never did such a thing in its +life.”</p> +<p>“I know, Aunt Emma,” said Olly, dancing round her in +great excitement. “You’ve got the parrot in +there!”</p> +<p>“Well now,” said Aunt Emma. “This is really +serious. If you think I am such a cruel old woman as to shut up a +poor poll-parrot in a bag, there’s no help for it, we must +open the bag. But it’s a very curious bag—I +wouldn’t stand too near it if I were you.”</p> +<p>Click! went the fastening of the bag, and out jumped—what +do you think? Why, the very biggest frog that was ever seen, in +this part of the world at any rate, a green speckled frog, that +hopped on to Aunt Emma’s knee, and then on to the floor, +where it went hopping and squeaking along the carpet, till all of a +sudden, when it got to the door, it turned over on its back, and +lay there quite quiet with its legs in the air.</p> +<p>The children followed it with looks half of horror, half of +amazement.</p> +<p>“What is it, Aunt Emma? Is it alive?” asked Milly, +jumping on to a chair as the frog came near her, and drawing her +little skirts tight round her legs, while Olly went cautiously +after it, with his hands on his knees, one step at a time.</p> +<p>“You’d better ask it,” said Aunt Emma, who had +at last begun to laugh a little, as if it was impossible to keep +grave any longer. “I’m sure it looks very peaceable +just now, poor thing.”</p> +<p>So the children crept up to it, and examined it closely. Yes, it +was a green speckled frog, but what it was made of, and whether it +was alive, and if it was not alive how it managed to hop and +squeak—these were the puzzles.</p> +<p>“Take hold of it, Milly,” said Mr. Norton, who had +just come up from his work, and was standing laughing near the +door. “Turn it over on its legs again.”</p> +<p>“No, I’ll turn it,” cried Olly, making a dash, +and turning it over in a great hurry, keeping his legs and feet +well out of the way. Hop! squeak! there it was off again, right +down the room with the children after it, till it suddenly came up +against a table leg, and once more turned over on its back and lay +quite still.</p> +<p>“Oh, Aunt Emma, is it a toy?” asked Milly, who now +felt brave enough to take it up and look at it.</p> +<p>“Well, Milly, I believe so—a very lively one. Bring +it here, and I’ll tell you something about it.”</p> +<p>So the children brought it very cautiously, as if they were not +quite sure what it would do next, and then Aunt Emma explained to +them that she had once paid a visit to a shop in London where +Japanese toys—toys made in the country of Japan—far +away on the other side of the world—were sold, and that there +she found master froggy.</p> +<p>“And there never was such a toy as froggy for a wet +day,” said Aunt Emma. “I have tried him on all sorts of +boys and girls, and he never fails. He’s as good a cure for a +cross face as a poultice is for a sore finger. But, Milly, listen! +I declare there’s something else going on in my bag. I really +think, my dear bag, you might be quiet now that you have got rid of +froggy! What can all this chattering be about? Sh! sh!” and +Aunt Emma held up her finger at the children, while she held the +bag up to her ear, and listened carefully. Olly was almost beside +himself with excitement, but Milly had got his little brown hands +tight in hers for fear he should make a jump at the bag. +“Yes,” said Aunt Emma. “It’s just as I +thought. The bag declares it’s not his fault at all, but that +if I will give him such noisy creatures to carry I must take the +consequences. He says there’s a whole family now inside him, +making such a noise he can hardly hear himself speak. It’s +enough, he says, to drive a respectable bag mad, and he must blow +up if it goes on. Dear me! I must look into this. Milly, come +here!”</p> +<p>Milly came near, and Aunt Emma opened the bag solemnly.</p> +<p>“Now, Milly, I’ll hold it for fear it should take it +into its poor head to blow up, and you put your hand in and see +what you can find.”</p> +<p>So Milly put her hand in, feeling a good deal excited as to what +might happen—and what do you think she brought out? A whole +handful of the most delicious dolls:—cardboard dolls of all +sorts and kinds, like those in mother’s drawer at home; paper +dolls, mamma dolls, little boy dolls and little girl dolls, baby +dolls and nurse dolls; dolls in suits and dolls in frocks; dolls in +hats and dolls in nightgowns; a papa in trousers and a mamma in a +magnificent blue dress with flounces and a train; a nurse in white +cap and apron and the most bewitching baby doll you ever saw, with +a frilled paper cap that slipped on and off, and a white frock with +pink ribbons. And the best of these dolls was, that each of them +had a piece of cardboard fastened on behind and a little bit of +cardboard to stand on, so that when you spread out the piece behind +they stood up as naturally as possible, and looked as if they were +going to talk to you.</p> +<p>“Oh, Aunt Emma, dear Aunt Emma!” cried Milly, beside +herself with delight as she spread them all out in her lap. +“They’re just like mother’s at home, +mother’s that you made for her when she was a little +girl—only ever so many more.”</p> +<p>“Well, Milly, I made mother’s for her long ago, when +it rained for days and days without stopping, and she had grown +tired of pretty nearly everything and everybody indoors; and now I +have been spending part of these rainy days in making a new set for +mother’s little girl. There, dear little woman, I think you +must have given me a kiss for each of them by this time. Suppose +you try and make them stand up.”</p> +<p>“But, Aunt Emma,” said Olly, who was busy examining +the mysterious bag—how could the dolls talk? they’re +only paper.”</p> +<p>“I know nothing about it,” answered Aunt Emma, +rescuing the bag, and putting it safely under her chair. “You +<em>might</em> ask the bag—but it wouldn’t answer you. +Magical bags never do talk except to their masters or +mistresses.”</p> +<p>So Olly had to puzzle it out for himself while he played with +the Japanese frog. That was an extraordinary frog! You should have +seen nurse’s start when Olly hid himself in the passage and +sent the frog hopping and squeaking through the open door of the +night nursery, where nurse was sitting sewing; and as for cook, +when the creature came flopping over her kitchen floor she very +nearly spoilt the hash she was making for dinner by dropping a +whole pepper-box into the middle of it! There was no end to the fun +to be got out of froggy, and Olly amused himself with it the whole +of the morning, while Milly went through long stories with her +dolls upstairs, helped every now and then by Aunt Emma, who sat +knitting and talking to mother.</p> +<p>At dinner the children had to sit quiet while Mr. and Mrs. +Norton and Aunt Emma talked. Father and mother had been almost as +much cheered up by Aunt Emma’s coming as the children +themselves, and now the dinner-table was lively with pleasant talk; +talk about books, and talk about pictures, and talk about foreign +places, and talk about the mountains and the people living near +Ravensnest, many of whom mother had known when she was a little +girl. Milly, who was old enough to listen, could only understand a +little bit here and there; but there was always Aunt Emma’s +friendly gentle face to look at, and her soft old hand in its black +mitten, to slip her own little fingers into; while Olly was so +taken up with the prospects of the black-currant pudding which he +had seen cook making in the morning, and the delight of it when it +came, that it seemed no trouble to him to sit still.</p> +<p>As for the rain, there was not much difference. Perhaps there +were a few breaks in the clouds, and it might be beating a little +less heavily on the glass conservatory outside the dining-room, +still, on the whole, the weather was much the same as it had been. +It was wonderful to see how little notice the children had taken of +it since Aunt Emma came, and when they escorted her upstairs after +dinner, they quite forgot to rush to the window and look out, as +they had been doing the last three days at every possible +opportunity.</p> +<p>The children got her safe into a chair, and then Olly brought a +stool to one side of her, and Milly brought a stool to the +other.</p> +<p>“<em>Now,</em> can you remember about old Mother +Quiverquake?” said Olly, resting his little sunburnt chin on +Aunt Emma’s knee, and looking up to her with eager eyes.</p> +<div class="figure"><a href="images/illus6.png"><img src= +"images/illus6.png" id="illus6" name="illus6" alt= +"“‘Suppose we have a story-telling game’”" +width="100%" /></a> +<p>“‘Suppose we have a story-telling +game’”</p> +</div> +<p>“Well, I daresay I shall begin to remember about her +presently; but suppose, children, we have a <em>story-telling +game</em>. We’ll tell stories—you and Olly, father, +mother, and everybody. That’s much fairer than that one +person should do all the telling.”</p> +<p>“We couldn’t,” said Milly, shaking her head +gravely, “we are only little children. Little children +can’t make up stories.”</p> +<p>“Suppose little children try,” said mother. “I +think Aunt Emma’s is an excellent plan. Now, father, +you’ll have to tell one too.”</p> +<p>“Father’s lazy,” said Mr. Norton, coming out +from behind his newspaper. “But, perhaps, if you all of you +tell very exciting stories you may stir him up.”</p> +<p>“Oh, father!” cried Olly, who had a vivid +remembrance of his father’s stories, though they only came +very seldom, “tell us about the rat with three tails, and the +dog that walked on its nose.”</p> +<p>“Oh dear, no!” said Mr. Norton, “those +won’t do for such a grand story-telling as this. I must think +of some story which is all long words and good children.”</p> +<p>“<em>Don’t</em> father,” said Milly, +imploringly, “it’s ever so much nicer when they get +into scrapes, you know, and tumble down, and all that.”</p> +<p>“Who’s to begin?” said Aunt Emma. “I +think mother had better begin. Afterwards it will be your turn, +Olly; then father, then Milly, and then me.”</p> +<p>“I don’t believe I’ve got a scrap of a story +in my head,” said Mrs. Norton. “It’s weeks since +I caught one last.”</p> +<p>“Then look here, Olly,” said Aunt Emma, +“I’ll tell you what to do. Go up gently behind mother, +and kiss her three times on the top of the head. That’s the +way to send the stories in. Mother will soon begin to feel one +fidgeting inside her head after that.”</p> +<p>So Olly went gently up behind his mother, climbed on a stool at +the back of her chair, and kissed her softly three times at the +back of her head. Mrs. Norton lay still for a few moments after the +kisses, with closed eyes.</p> +<p>“Ah!” she said at last. “Now I think +I’ve caught one. But it’s a very little one, poor +little thing. And yet, strange to say, though it’s very +little, it’s very old. Now, children, you must be kind to my +story. I caught him first a great many years ago in an old book, +but I am afraid you will hardly care for him as much as I did. +Well, once upon a time there was a great king.”</p> +<p>“Was it King Arthur, mother?” interrupted Olly, +eagerly.</p> +<p>“Oh no! this king lived in a different country altogether. +He lived in a beautiful hot country over the sea, called +Spain.”</p> +<p>“Oh, mother! a <em>hot</em> country!” protested +Milly, “that’s where the rain goes to.”</p> +<p>“Well, Milly, I don’t think you know any more about +it, except that you <em>tell</em> the rain to go there. Don’t +you know by this time that the rain never does what it’s +told? Really, very little rain goes to Spain, and in some parts of +the country the people would be very glad indeed if we could send +them some of the rain we don’t want at Ravensnest. But now, +you mustn’t interrupt me, or I shall forget my +story—Well there was once a king who lived in a <em>very</em> +hot part of Spain, where they don’t have much rain, and where +it hardly ever snows or freezes. And this king had a beautiful +wife, whom he loved very much. But, unluckily, this beautiful wife +had one great fault. She was always wishing for the most +unreasonable and impossible things, and though the king was always +trying to get her what she wanted she was never satisfied, and +every day she seemed to grow more and more discontented and +exacting. At last, one day in the winter, a most extraordinary +thing happened. A shower of snow fell in Cordova, which was the +name of the town where the king and queen lived, and it whitened +the hills all around the town, so that they looked as if somebody +had been dusting white sugar over them. Now snow was hardly ever +seen in Cordova, and the people in the town wondered at it, and +talked about it a great deal. But after she had looked at it a +little-while the queen began to cry bitterly. None of her ladies +could comfort her, nor would she tell any of them what was the +matter. There she sat at her window, weeping, till the king came to +see her. When he came he could not imagine what she was crying +about, and begged her to tell him why. ‘I am weeping,’ +she said, sobbing all the time, ‘because the hills—are +not always—covered with snow. See how pretty they look! And +yet—I have never, till now, seen them look like that. If you +really loved me, you would manage some way or other that it should +snow once a year at any rate.’</p> +<p>“‘But how can I make it snow?’ cried the king +in great trouble, because she would go on weeping and weeping, and +spoiling her pretty eyes.</p> +<p>“‘I’m sure I don’t know,’ said the +queen, crossly, ‘but you can’t love me a bit, or +you’d certainly try.’</p> +<p>“Well, the king thought and thought, and at last he hit +upon a beautiful plan. He sent into all parts of Spain to buy +almond trees, and planted them on the hills all round the town. Now +the almond tree, as you know, has a lovely pinky-white blossom, so +when the next spring arrived all these thousands of almond trees +came out into bloom all over the hills round Cordova, so that they +looked at a distance as if they were covered with white snow. And +for once the queen was delighted, and could not help saying a nice +‘Thank you’ to the king for all the trouble he had +taken to please her. But it was not very long before she grew +discontented again, and began once more to wish for all kinds of +ridiculous things. One day she was sitting at her window, and she +saw some ragged little children playing by the river that ran round +the palace. They were dabbling in the mud at the side, sticking +their little bare feet into it, or scooping up pieces which they +rolled into balls and threw at one another. The queen watched them +for some time, and at last she began to weep bitterly. One of her +maidens ran and told the king that the queen was weeping, and he +came in a great hurry to see what was the matter.</p> +<p>“‘Just look at those children down there!’ +said the queen, sobbing and pointing to them. ‘Did you ever +see anybody so happy? Why can’t I have mud to dabble in too, +and why can’t I take off my shoes and stockings, and amuse +myself like the children do, instead of being so dull and stuck-up +all day long?’</p> +<p>“‘Because it isn’t proper for queens to dabble +in the mud,’ said the poor king in great perplexity, for he +didn’t at all like the idea of his beautiful queen dabbling +in the mud with the little ragged children.</p> +<p>“‘That’s just like you,’ said the queen, +beginning to cry faster than ever,’ you never do anything to +please me. What’s the good of being proper? What’s the +good of being a queen at all?’</p> +<p>“This made the king very unhappy, and again he thought and +thought, till at last he hit upon a plan. He ordered a very large +shallow bath of white marble to be made in the palace-garden. Then +he poured into it all kinds of precious stones, and chips of +sweet-smelling wood, besides a thousand cartloads of rose-leaves +and a thousand cartloads of orange flowers. All these he ordered to +be stirred up together with a great ivory spoon, till they made a +kind of wonderful mud, and then he had the bath filled up with +scented water.</p> +<p>“‘Now then,’ he said to the queen, when he had +brought her down to look at it, ‘you may take off your shoes +and stockings and paddle about in this mud as much as you +like.’ You may imagine that this was a very pleasant kind of +mud to dabble in, and the queen and her ladies amused themselves +with it immensely for some time. But nothing could keep this +tiresome queen amused for long together, and in about a fortnight +she had grown quite tired of her wonderful bath. It seemed as if +the king’s pains had been all thrown away. She grew cross and +discontented again, and her ladies began to say to each other, +‘What will she wish for next, I wonder? The king might as +well try to drink up the sea as try to get her all she +wants.’ At last, one day, when she and her ladies were +walking near the palace, they met a shepherdess driving a flock of +sheep up into the hills. The shepherdess looked so pretty and +bright in her red petticoat and tall yellow cap, that the queen +stopped to speak to her.</p> +<p>“‘Where are you going, pretty maiden, with your +woolly white sheep?’ she asked.</p> +<p>“‘I am going up to the hills,’ said the +shepherdess. ‘Now the sun has scorched up the fields down +below we must take our sheep up to the cool hills, where the grass +is still fresh and green. Good-day, good-day, the sheep are going +so fast I cannot wait.’ So on she tripped, singing and +calling to her sheep, who came every now and then to rub their soft +coats against her, as if they loved her. The queen looked after +her, and her face began to pucker up.</p> +<p>“‘Why am I not a shepherdess?’ she exclaimed, +bursting into tears. ‘I <em>hate</em> being a queen! I never +sang as merrily as that little maiden in all my life. I must and +will be a shepherdess, and drive sheep up into the mountain, or I +shall die!”</p> +<p>“And all that night the foolish queen sat at her window +crying, and when the morning came she had made herself look quite +old and ugly. When the king came to see her he was dreadfully +troubled, and begged her to tell him what was the matter now.</p> +<p>“‘I want to be a shepherdess, and drive sheep up +into the mountains,’ sobbed the queen. ‘Why should the +little shepherdess girls look always so happy and merry, while I am +dying of dulness?’</p> +<p>“The king thought it was very unkind of her to say she was +dying of dulness when he had taken so much trouble to get her all +she wanted; but he knew it was no good talking to her while she was +in such a temper. So all he said was:</p> +<p>“‘How can I turn you into a shepherdess? These +shepherdesses stay out all night with their sheep on the hills, and +live on water and a crust of bread. How would you like +that?’</p> +<p>“‘Of course I-should like it,’ said the queen, +‘anything for a change. Besides, nothing could be nicer than +staying out of doors these lovely nights. And as for food, you know +very well that I am never hungry here, and that it doesn’t +matter in the least to me what I eat!’</p> +<p>“‘Well,’ said the king, ‘you shall go up +to the hills, if you promise to take your ladies with you, and if +you will let me send a tent to shelter you at night, and some +servants to look after you.’</p> +<p>“‘As if that would give me any pleasure!’ said +the queen, ‘to be followed about and waited upon is just what +I detest. I will go alone; just like that pretty little +shepherdess, if I go at all.’</p> +<p>“But the king declared that nothing would induce him to +let her go alone. So the queen set to work to cry, and she cried +for two days and two nights without stopping, and at the end of +that time the poor king was ready to let her go anywhere or do +anything for the sake of a little peace.</p> +<p>“So she had her own way. They found her a flock of the +loveliest white sheep, all with blue ribbons round their necks, and +blue rosettes on their little white tails; and the queen dressed +herself up in a red silk petticoat and a cap embroidered in gold +and silver, and then she set out by herself.</p> +<p>“At first it was all delightful. She drove the sheep up +the soft green hillsides, and laughed with delight to see them +nibbling the fresh grass, and running hither and thither after her, +and after each other. The evening sun shone brightly, and she sat +herself down on a rock and sang all the tunes she knew, that she +might be just like the little shepherdess. But while she was +singing the sheep strayed away, and she had to run after them as +fast as she could, to catch them up. This made her hot and tired, +so she tried to make them lie down under a chestnut tree, that she +might rest beside them. But the sheep were not a bit tired, and had +no mind to rest at all. While she was calling one set of them +together the other set ran scampering off, and the queen found out +that she must just give up her way for once and follow theirs. On +went the sheep, up hill and down dale, nibbling and frisking and +trotting to their hearts’ content, till the queen was worn +out.</p> +<p>“At last, by the time the sun was setting, the poor queen +was so tired that she could walk no longer. Down she sat, and the +ungrateful sheep kicked up their little hind legs and trotted away +out of sight as fast as they could trot. There she was left on the +hillside all alone. It began to get dark, and the sky, instead of +being blue and clear as it had been, filled with black clouds.</p> +<p>“‘Oh dear! oh dear!’ sighed the queen, +‘here is a storm coming. If I could only find my way down the +hill, if I could only see the town!’</p> +<p>“But there were trees all about her, which hid the view, +and soon it was so dark there was nothing to be seen, not even the +stars. And presently, crash came the thunder, and after the thunder +the rain—such rain! It soaked the queen’s golden cap +till it was so heavy with water she was obliged to throw it away, +and her silk petticoat was as wet as if she had been taking a bath +in it. In vain she ran hither and thither, trying to find a way +through the trees, while the rain blinded her, and the thunder +deafened her, till at last she was forced to sink down on the +ground, feeling more wretched and frightened and cold than any +queen ever felt before. Oh, if she were only safe back in her +beautiful palace! If only she had the tent the king wanted to send +with her! But there all night she had to stay, and all night the +storm went on, till the queen was lying in a flood, and the owls +and bats, startled out of their holes, went flying past her in the +dark, and frightening her out of her senses. When the morning came +there was such a shivering, crumpled up queen sitting on the grass, +that even her own ladies would scarcely have known her.</p> +<p>“‘Oh, husband! husband!’ she cried, getting up +and wringing her cold little hands. ‘You will never find me, +and your poor wicked wife will die of cold and hunger.’</p> +<p>“Tirra-lirra! tirra-lirra! What was that sounding in the +forest? Surely—surely—it was a hunting horn. But who +could be blowing it so early in the cold gray morning, when it was +scarcely light? On ran the queen toward where the sound came from. +Over rocks and grass she ran, till, all of a sudden, stepping out +from behind a tree, came the king himself, who had been looking for +her for hours. And then what do you think the discontented queen +did? She folded her hands, and hung her head, and said, quite sadly +and simply:</p> +<p>“‘Oh, my lord king, make me a shepherdess really. I +don’t deserve to be a queen. Send me away, and let me knit +and spin for my living. I have plagued you long enough.’</p> +<p>“And suddenly it seemed to the king as if there had been a +black speck in the queen’s heart, which had been all washed +away by the rain; and he took her hands, and led her home to the +palace in joy and gladness. And so they lived happy ever +afterward.”</p> +<p>“Thank you <em>very</em> much, mother,” said Milly, +stretching up her arms and drawing down Mrs. Norton’s face to +kiss her. “Do you really think the queen was never +discontented any more?”</p> +<p>“I can’t tell you any more than the story +does,” said Mrs. Norton. “You see there would always be +that dreadful night to think about, if she ever felt inclined to +be; but I daresay the queen didn’t find it very easy at +first.”</p> +<p>“I would have made her be a shepherdess,” said Olly, +shaking his head gravely. “She wasn’t nice, not a +bit.”</p> +<p>“Little Mr. Severity!” said Aunt Emma, pulling his +brown curls. “It’s your turn next, Olly.”</p> +<p>“Then Milly must kiss me first,” said Olly, looking +rather scared, as if something he didn’t quite understand was +going to happen to him.</p> +<p>So Milly went through the operation of kissing him three times +on the back of the head, and then Olly’s eyes, finding it did +no good to stare at Aunt Emma or mother, went wandering all round +the room in search of something else to help him. Suddenly they +came to the window, where a brown speck was dancing up and down, +and then Olly’s face brightened, and he began in a great +hurry:</p> +<p>“Once upon a time there was a +daddy-long-legs—”</p> +<p>“Well,” said Milly, when they had waited a little +while, and nothing more came.</p> +<p>“I don’t know any more,” said Olly.</p> +<p>“Oh, that <em>is</em> silly,” said Milly, +“why, that isn’t a story at all. Shut your eyes tight, +that’s much the best way of making a story.”</p> +<p>So Olly shut his eyes, and pressed his two hands tightly over +them, and then he began again:</p> +<p>“Once upon a time there was a +daddy-long-legs—”</p> +<p>Another stop.</p> +<p>“Was it a <em>good</em> daddy-long-legs?” asked +Milly, anxious to help him on.</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Olly, “that’s it, Milly. +Once upon a time there was a good daddy-long-legs—”</p> +<p>“Well, what did he do?” asked Milly, +impatiently.</p> +<p>“He—he—flewed on to father’s +nose!” said Olly, keeping his hands tight over his eyes, +while his little white teeth appeared below in a broad grin.</p> +<p>“And father said, ‘Who’s that on my +nose?’ and the daddy-long-legs said, ‘It’s me, +don’t you know?’ And father said, ‘Get away off +my nose, I don’t like you a bit.’ And the +daddy-long-legs said, ‘I shan’t go away. It’s hot +on the window, the sun gets in my eyes. I like sitting up here +best.’ So father took a big sofa-cushion and gave his nose +<em>ever</em> such a bang! And the daddy-long-legs tumbled down +dead. And the cushion tumbled down dead. And father tumbled down +dead. And that’s all,” said Olly opening his eyes, and +looking extremely proud of himself.</p> +<p>“Oh, you silly boy!” cried Milly, “that +isn’t a bit like a real story.”</p> +<p>But Aunt Emma and father and mother laughed a good deal at +Olly’s story, and Aunt Emma said it would do very well for +such a small boy.</p> +<p>Whose turn was it next?</p> +<p>“Father’s turn! father’s turn!” cried +the children, in great glee, looking round for him; but while +Olly’s story had been going on, Mr. Norton, who was sitting +behind them in a big arm-chair, had been covering himself up with +sofa cushions and newspapers, till there was only the tip of one of +his boots to be seen, coming out from under the heap. The children +were a long time dragging him out, for he pelted them with +cushions, and crumpled the newspapers over their heads, till they +were so tired with laughing and struggling they had no strength +left.</p> +<p>“Father, it isn’t fair, I don’t think,” +said Milly at last, sitting a breathless heap on the floor. +“Of course little people can’t <em>make</em> big people +do things, so the big people ought to do them without +making.”</p> +<p>“That’s not at all good reasoning, Milly,” +said Mr. Norton, who could not resist the temptation of throwing +one more sofa cushion at her laughing face. “You can’t +<em>make</em> nurse stand on her head, but that’s no reason +why nurse should stand on her head.”</p> +<p>Just then Olly, moving up a stool behind his father’s +chair, brought his little mouth suddenly down on his father’s +head, and gave him three kisses in a great hurry, with a shout of +triumph at the end.</p> +<p>“Dear me!” said Mr. Norton, shutting his eyes and +falling back as if something had happened to him. “This is +very serious. Aunt Emma, that spell of yours is really <em>too</em> +strong. My poor head! It will certainly burst if I don’t get +this story out directly! Come, jump up, +children—quick!”</p> +<p>Up jumped the children, one on each knee, and Mr. Norton began +at once.</p> +<h2><a id="Chapter8" name="Chapter8">CHAPTER VIII</a></h2> +<h3>The Story of Beowulf</h3> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>Once upon a time there was a great—”</p> +<p>“Father,” interrupted Milly, “I shall soon be +getting tired of ‘Once upon a time there was a great +king.’”</p> +<p>“Don’t cry till you’re hurt, Milly; which +means, wait till I get to the end of my sentence. Well, once upon a +time there was a great—hero.”</p> +<p>“What is a hero?” asked Olly.</p> +<p>“I know,” said Milly, eagerly, “it’s a +brave man that’s always fighting and killing giants and +dragons and cruel people.”</p> +<p>“That’ll do to begin with,” said Mr. Norton, +“though, when you grow older, you will find that people can +be heroes without fighting or killing. However, the man I am going +to tell you about was just the kind of hero you’re thinking +of, Milly. He loved fighting with giants and dragons and wild +people, and my story is going to be about two of his +fights—the greatest he ever fought. The name of this hero was +Beowulf, and he lived in a country called Sweden (Milly knows all +about Sweden, Olly, and you must get her to show it you on the +map), with a number of other brave men who were his friends, and +helped him in his battles. And one day a messenger came over the +sea from another country close by, called Denmark, and the +messenger said, ‘Which of all you brave men will come over +and help my master, King Hrothgar, who is in sore trouble?’ +And the messenger told them how Hrothgar, for many years past, had +been plagued by a monster—the hateful monster +Grendel—half a man and half a beast, who lived at the bottom +of a great bog near the king’s palace. Every night, he said, +Grendel the monster came out of the bog with his horrible mother +beside him—a wolf-like creature, fearful to look +upon—and he and she would roam about the country, killing and +slaying all whom they met. Sometimes they would come stalking to +the king’s palace, where his brave men were sleeping round +the fire in the big hall, and before anyone could withstand him +Grendel would fall upon the king’s warriors, kill them by +tens and twenties, and carry off their dead bodies to his bog. Many +a brave man had tried to slay the monster, but none had been able +so much as to wound him.</p> +<p>“When Beowulf and his friends had heard this story they +thought a while, and then each said to the other, ‘Let us go +across the sea and rid King Hrothgar of this monster.’ So +they took ship and went across the sea to Hrothgar’s country, +and Hrothgar welcomed them royally, and made a great feast in their +honour. And after the feast Hrothgar said to Beowulf, ‘Now, I +give over to you the hall of my palace, that you may guard it +against the monster.’ So Beowulf and the brave men who had +come over with him made a great fire in the hall, and they all lay +down to sleep beside it. You may imagine that they did not find it +very easy to get to sleep, and some of them thought as they lay +there that very likely they should never see their homes in Sweden +again. But they were tired with journeying and feasting, and one +after another they all fell asleep. Then in the dead of the night, +when all was still, Grendel rose up out of the bog, and came +stalking over the moor to the palace. His eyes flamed with a kind +of horrible light in the darkness, and his steps seemed to shake +the earth; but those inside the palace were sleeping so heavily +that they heard nothing, not even when Grendel burst open the door +of the hall and came in among them. Before anyone had wakened, the +monster had seized one of the sleeping men and torn him to pieces. +Then he came to Beowulf; but Beowulf sprang up out of his sleep and +laid hold upon him boldly. He used no sword to strike him, for +there was no sword which men could make was strong enough to hurt +Grendel; but he seized him with his strong hands, and the two +struggled together in the palace. And they fought till the benches +were torn from the walls, and everything in the hall was smashed +and broken. The brave men, springing up all round, seized their +swords and would gladly have helped their lord, but there was no +one but Beowulf could harm Grendel.</p> +<p>“So they fought, till at last Beowulf tore away +Grendel’s hand and arm, and the monster fled away howling +into the darkness. Over the moor he rushed till he came to his bog, +and there he sank down into the middle of the bog, wailing and +shrieking like one whose last hour was come. Then there was great +rejoicing at Heorot, the palace, and King Hrothgar, when he saw +Grendel’s hand which Beowulf had torn away, embraced him and +blessed him, and he and all his friends were laden with splendid +gifts.</p> +<p>“But all was not over yet. When the next night came, and +Hrothgar’s men and Beowulf’s men were asleep together +in the great hall, Grendel’s horrible mother, half a woman +and half a wolf, came rushing to the palace and while they were all +asleep she carried off one of Hrothgar’s dearest +friends—a young noble whom he loved best of all his nobles. +And she killed him, and carried his body back to the bog. Then the +next morning there was grief and weeping in Heorot; but Beowulf +said to the king, ‘Grieve not, O king! till we have found out +Grendel’s mother and punished her for her evil deeds. I +promise you she shall give an account for this. She shall not be +able to hide herself in the water, nor under the earth, nor in the +forest, nor at the bottom of the sea; let her go where she will, I +will find a way after her.’</p> +<p>“So Beowulf and his friends put on their armour and +mounted their horses, and set out to look for her. And when they +had ridden a long and weary way over steep lonely paths and past +caves where dragons and serpents lived, they came at last to +Grendel’s bog—a fearful place indeed. There in the +middle of it lay a pool of black water, and over the water hung +withered trees, which seemed as if they had been poisoned by the +air rising from the water beneath them. No bird or beast would ever +come near Grendel’s pool. If the hounds were hunting a stag, +and they drove him down to the edge, he would sooner let them tear +him to pieces than hide himself in the water. And every night the +black water seemed to burn and flame, and it hissed and bubbled and +groaned as if there were evil creatures tossing underneath. And now +when Beowulf and his men came near it, they saw fierce water +dragons lying near the edge or swimming about the pool. There also, +beside the water, they found the dead body of Hrothgar’s +friend, who had been killed by Grendel’s mother, and they +took it up, and mourned over him afresh.</p> +<p>“But Beowulf took an old and splendid sword that Hrothgar +had given him, and he put on his golden helmet and his iron war +shirt that no sword could cut through, and when he had bade his +friends farewell he leapt straight into the middle of the bog. Down +he sank, deeper and deeper into the water, among strange water +beasts that struck at him with their tusks as he passed them, till +at last Grendel’s mother, the water-wolf, looked up from the +bottom and saw him coming. Then she sprang upon him, and seized +him, and dragged him down, and he found himself in a sort of hall +under the water, with a pale strange light in it. And then he +turned from the horrible water-wolf and raised his sword and struck +her on the head; but his blow did her no harm. No sword made by +mortal men could harm Grendel or his mother; and as he struck her +Beowulf stumbled and fell. Then the water-wolf rushed forward and +sat upon him as he lay there, and raised aloft her own sharp dagger +to drive it into his breast; but Beowulf shook her off, and sprang +up, and there, on the wall, he saw hanging a strange old sword that +had been made in the old times, long, long ago, when the world was +full of giants. So he threw his own sword aside and took down the +old sword, and once more he smote the water-wolf. And this time his +sword did him good service, and Grendel’s fierce mother sank +down dead upon the ground.</p> +<p>“Then Beowulf looked round him, and he saw lying in a +corner the body of Grendel himself. He cut off the monster’s +head, and lo and behold! when he had cut it off the blade of the +old sword melted away, and there was nothing left in his hands but +the hilt, with strange letters on it, telling how it was made in +old days by the giants for a great king. So with that, and +Hrothgar’s sword and Grendel’s head, Beowulf rose up +again through the bog, and just as his brave men had begun to think +they should never see their dear lord more he came swimming to +land, bearing the great head with him.</p> +<p>“Then Hrothgar and all his people rejoiced greatly, for +they knew that the land would never more be troubled by these +hateful monsters, but that the ploughers might plough, and the +shepherds might lead their sheep, and brave men might sleep at +night, without fear any more of Grendel and his mother.”</p> +<p>“Oh, father!” said Milly, breathlessly, when he +stopped. “Is that all?”</p> +<p>But Olly sat quite still, without speaking, gazing at his father +with wide open brown eyes, and a face as grave and terrified as if +Grendel were actually beside him.</p> +<p>“That’s all for this time,” said Mr. Norton. +“Why, Olly, where are your little wits gone to? Did it +frighten you, old man?”</p> +<p>“Oh!” said Olly, drawing a long breath. “I did +think he would never have comed up out of that bog!”</p> +<p>“It was splendid,” said Milly. “But, father, I +don’t understand about that pool. Why didn’t Beowulf +get drowned when he went down under the water?”</p> +<p>“The story doesn’t tell us anything about +that,” said Mr. Norton. “But heroes in those days, +Milly, must have had something magical about them so that they were +able to do things that men and women can’t do now. Do you +know, children, that this story that you have been listening to is +more than a thousand years old? Can you fancy that?”</p> +<p>“No,” said Milly, shaking her head. “I +can’t fancy it a bit, father. It’s too long. It makes +me puzzled to think of so many years.”</p> +<p>“Years and years and years and <em>years</em>!” said +Olly. “When father’s grandfather was a little +boy.”</p> +<p>Mr. Norton laughed. “Can’t you think of anything +farther back than that, Olly? It would take a great many +grandfathers, and grandfathers’ grandfathers, to get back to +the time when the story of Beowulf was made. And here am I telling +it to you just in the same way as fathers used to tell it to their +children a thousand years ago.”</p> +<p>“I suppose the children liked it so, they wouldn’t +let their fathers forget it,” said Milly. “And then +when they grew up they told it to their children. I shall tell it +to my children when I grow up. I think I shall tell it to Katie +to-morrow.”</p> +<p>“Father,” said Olly, “did Beowulf +die—ever?”</p> +<p>“Yes. When he was quite an old man he had another great +fight with a dragon, who was guarding a cave full of golden +treasure on the sea-shore; and though he killed the dragon, the +dragon gave him a terrible wound, so that when his friends came to +look for him they found him lying all but dead in the cave. He was +just able to tell them to make a great mound of earth over him when +he was dead, on a high rock close by, that sailors might see it +from their ships and think of him when they saw it, and then he +died. And when he was dead they carried him up to the rock, and +there they burned his body, and then they built up a great high +mound of earth, and they put Beowulf’s bones inside, and all +the treasure from the dragon’s cave. They were ten days +building up the mound. Then when it was all done they rode around +it weeping and chanting sorrowful songs, and at last they left him +there, saying as they went away that never should they see so good +a king or so true a master any more. And for hundreds of years +afterwards, when the sailors out at sea saw the high mound rising +on its point of rock, they said one to another, ‘There is +Beowulf’s Mount,’ and they began to tell each other of +Beowulf’s brave deeds—how he lived and how he died, and +how he fought with Grendel and the wild sea dragons. There, now, I +have told you all I know about Beowulf,” said Mr. Norton, +getting up and turning the children off his knee, “and if it +isn’t somebody else’s turn now it ought to +be.”</p> +<p>“Aunt Emma! Aunt Emma!” shouted Olly, who was so +greedy for stories that he could almost listen all day long without +being tired.</p> +<p>But Aunt Emma only smiled through her spectacles and pointed to +the window. The children ran to look out, and they could hardly +believe their eyes when they saw that it had actually stopped +raining, and that over the tree-tops was a narrow strip of blue +sky, the first they had seen for three whole days.</p> +<p>“Oh you nice blue sky!” exclaimed Milly, dancing up +and down before the window with a beaming face. “Mind you +stay there and get bigger. We’ll get on our hats presently +and come out to look at you. Oh! there’s John Backhouse +coming down the hill with the dogs. Mother, may we go up ourselves +and ask Becky and Tiza to come to tea?”</p> +<p>“But Aunt Emma must tell us her story first,” +persisted Olly, who hated being cheated out of a story by anything +or anybody. “She promised.”</p> +<p>“You silly boy!” said Aunt Emma, “as if I was +going to keep you indoors listening to stories just now, when the +sun’s shining for the first time for three whole days. I +promised you my story on a wet day, and you shall have +it—never fear. There’ll be plenty more wet days before +you go away from Ravensnest, I’m afraid. There goes my +knitting, and mother’s putting away her work, and +father’s stretching himself—which means we’re all +going for a walk.”</p> +<p>“To fetch Becky and Tiza, mother?” asked Milly; and +when mother said “Yes, if you like,” the two children +raced off down the long passage to the nursery in the highest +possible spirits.</p> +<p>Soon they were all walking along the dripping drive past high +banks of wet fern, and under trees which threw down showers of +rain-drops at every puff of wind. And when they got into the road +beside the river the children shouted with glee to see their brown +shallow little river turned into a raging flood of water, which +went sweeping and hurrying through the fields, and every now and +then spreading itself over them and making great pools among the +poor drowned hay. They ran on to look for the stepping-stones, but +to their amazement there was not a stone to be seen. The water was +rushing over them with a great roar and swirl, and Milly shivered a +little bit when she remembered their bathe there a week before.</p> +<p>“Well, old woman,” said Mr. Norton, coming up to +them, “I don’t suppose you’d like, a bathe +to-day—quite.”</p> +<p>“If we were in there now,” said Olly, watching the +river with great excitement, “the water would push us down +krick! and the fishes would come and etten us all up.”</p> +<p>“They’d be a long time gobbling you up, Master +Fatty,” said his father. “Come, run along; it’s +too cold to stand about.”</p> +<p>But how brilliant and beautiful it was after the rain! Little +tiny trickling rivers were running down all the roads, and +sparkling in the sun; the wet leaves and grass were glittering, and +the great mountains all around stood up green and fresh against the +blue sky, as if the rain had washed the dust off them from top to +toe, and left them clean and bright. Two things only seemed the +worse for the rain—the hay and the wild strawberries. Milly +peered into all the banks along the road where she generally found +her favourite little red berries, but most of them were washed +away, and the few miserable things that were left tasted of nothing +but rain water. And as for the hay-fields, they looked so wet and +drenched that it was hard to believe any sunshine could ever dry +them.</p> +<p>“Poor John Backhouse!” said Aunt Emma; +“I’m afraid his hay is a good deal spoilt. Aren’t +you glad father’s not a farmer, Milly?”</p> +<p>“Why, Aunt Emma,” said Milly, “I’m +always wishing father <em>was</em> a farmer. I want to be like +Becky, and call the cows, and mind the baby all by myself. It must +be nice feeding the chickens, and making the hay, and taking the +milk around.”</p> +<p>“Yes, all that’s very nice, but how would you like +your hay washed away, and your corn beaten down, and your fruit all +spoilt? Those are things that are constantly happening to John +Backhouse, I expect, in the rainy country.”</p> +<p>“Yes, and it won’t always be summer,” said +Milly, considering. “I don’t think I should like to +stay in that little weeny house all the winter. Is it very cold +here in the winter, Aunt Emma?”</p> +<p>“Not very, generally. But last winter was very cold here, +and the snow lay on the ground for weeks and weeks. On Christmas +eve, do you know, Milly, I wanted to have a children’s party +in my kitchen, and what do you think I did? The snow was lying deep +on the roads, so I sent out two sledges.”</p> +<p>“What are sledges?” asked Olly.</p> +<p>“Carriages with the wheels taken off and two long pieces +of wood fastened on instead, so that they slip along smoothly over +the snow. And my old coachman drove one and my gardener the other, +and they went round all the farmhouses near by, and gathered up the +children, little and big, into the sledges, till the coachman had +got eight in his sledge, and the gardener had got nine in his, and +then they came trotting back with the bells round the horses’ +necks jingling and clattering, and two such merry loads of +rosy-faced children. I wish you had been there; I gave them tea in +the kitchen, and afterward we had a Christmas tree in the +drawing-room.”</p> +<p>“Oh what fun,” said Milly. “Why didn’t +you ask us too, Aunt Emma? We could have come quite well in the +train, you know. But how did the children get home?”</p> +<p>“We covered them up warm with rugs and blankets, and sent +them back in the sledges. And they looked so happy with their toys +and buns cuddled up in their arms, that it did one’s heart +good to see them.”</p> +<p>“Mind you ask us next time, Aunt Emma,” said Milly, +hanging round her neck coaxingly.</p> +<p>“Mind you get two pairs of wings by that time, +then,” said Aunt Emma, “for mother’s not likely +to let you come to my Christmas tree unless you promise to fly +there and back. But suppose, instead of your coming to me, I come +to you next Christmas?”</p> +<p>“Oh yes! yes!” cried Olly, who had just joined Aunt +Emma and Milly, “come to our Christmas tree, Aunt Emma. +We’ll give you ever such nice things—a ball and a top, +and a train—perhaps—and—”</p> +<p>“As if Aunt Emma would care for those kind of +things!” said Milly. “No, you shall give her some +muffetees, you know, to keep her hands warm, and I’ll make +her a needlebook. But, Aunt Emma, do listen! What can be the +matter?”</p> +<p>They were just climbing the little bit of steep road which led +to the farm, and suddenly they heard somebody roaring and +screaming, and then an angry voice scolding, and then a great +clatter, and then louder roaring than ever.</p> +<p>“What <em>is</em> the matter?” cried Milly, running +on to the farm door, which was open. But just as she got there, out +rushed a tattered little figure with a tear-stained face, and hair +flying behind.</p> +<p>“Tiza!” cried Milly, trying to stop her. But Tiza +ran past her as quick as lightning down the garden path towards the +cherry tree, and in another minute, in spite of the shower of wet +she shook down on herself as she climbed up, she was sitting high +and safe among the branches, where there was no catching her nor +even seeing her.</p> +<p>“Ay, that’s the best place for ye,” said Mrs. +Backhouse, appearing at the door with an angry face, +“you’ll not get into so much mischief there perhaps as +you will indoors. Oh, is that you, Miss Elliot (that was Aunt +Emma’s surname)? Walk in please, ma’am, though +you’ll find me sadly untidy this afternoon. Tiza’s been +at her tricks again; she keeps me sweeping up after her all day. +Just look here, if you please, ma’am.”</p> +<p>Aunt Emma went in, and the children pressed in after her, full +of curiosity to see what crime Tiza had been committing. Poor Mrs. +Backhouse! all over her clean kitchen floor there were streams of +water running about, with little pieces of cabbage and carrot +sticking up in them here and there, while on the kitchen table lay +a heap of meat and vegetables, which Mrs. Backhouse had evidently +just picked up out of the grate before Aunt Emma and the children +arrived.</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Mrs. Backhouse, pointing to the floor, +“there’s the supper just spoilt. Tiza’s never +easy but when she’s in mischief. I’m sure these wet +days I have’nt known what to do with her indoors all day. And +what must she do this afternoon but tie her tin mug to the +cat’s tail, till the poor creature was nearly beside herself +with fright, and went rushing about upstairs like a mad thing. And +then, just when I happened to be out a minute looking after +something, she lets the cat in here, and the poor thing jumps into +the saucepan I had just put on with the broth for our supper, and +in her fright and all turns it right over. And now look at my +grate, and the fender, and the floor, and the meat there all +messed! I expect her father’ll give Tiza a good beating when +he comes in, and I’m sure I shan’t stand in the +way.”</p> +<p>“Oh no, please, Mrs. Backhouse!” said Milly, running +up to her with a grave imploring little face. “Don’t +let Mr. Backhouse beat her; she didn’t mean it, she was only +in fun, I’m sure.”</p> +<p>“Well, missy, it’s very troiblesome fun I’m +sure,” said Mrs. Backhouse, patting Milly kindly on the +shoulder, for she was a good-natured woman, and it wasn’t her +way to be angry long. “I don’t know what I’m to +give John for his supper, that I don’t. I had nothing in the +house but just those little odds and ends of meat, that I thought +would make a nice bit of broth for supper. And now he’ll come +in wet and hungry, and there’ll be nothing for him. Well, we +must do with something else, I suppose, but I expect her +father’ll beat her.”</p> +<p>Milly and Olly looked rather awestruck at the idea of a beating +from John Backhouse, that great strong brawny farmer; and Milly, +whispering something quickly to Aunt Emma, slipped out into the +garden again. By this time father and mother had come up, and Becky +appeared from the farmyard, wheeling the baby in a little wooden +cart, and radiant with pleasure at the sight of Aunt Emma, whose +godchild she was, so that Milly’s disappearance was not +noticed.</p> +<p>She ran down the garden path to the cherry tree, and as, in the +various times they had been together, Becky and Tiza had taught her +a good deal of climbing, she too clambered up into the wet +branches, and was soon sitting close by Tiza, who had turned her +cotton pinafore over her head and wouldn’t look at Milly.</p> +<p>“Tiza,” said Milly softly, putting her hand on +Tiza’s lap, “do you feel very bad?”</p> +<p>No answer.</p> +<p>“We came to take you down to have tea with us,” said +Milly, “do you think your mother will let you +come?”</p> +<p>“Naw,” said Tiza shortly, without moving from behind +her pinafore.</p> +<p>It certainly wasn’t very easy talking to Tiza. Milly +thought she’d better try something else.</p> +<p>“Tiza,” she began timidly, “do your father and +mother tell you stories when it rains?”</p> +<p>“Naw,” said Tiza, in a very astonished voice, +throwing down her pinafore to stare at Milly.</p> +<p>“Then what do you do, Tiza, when it rains?”</p> +<p>“Nothing,” said Tiza. “We has our dinners and +tea, and sometimes Becky minds the baby and sometimes I do, and +father mostly goes to sleep.”</p> +<p>“Tiza,” said Milly hurriedly, “did you +<em>mean</em> pussy to jump into the saucepan?”</p> +<p>Up went Tiza’s pinafore again, and Milly was in dismay +because she thought she had made Tiza cry; but to her great +surprise Tiza suddenly burst into such fits of laughter, that she +nearly tumbled off the cherry tree. “Oh, she did jump so, and +the mug made such a rattling! And when she comed out there was just +a little bit of carrot sticking to her nose, and her tail was all +over cabbage leaf. Oh, she did look funny!”</p> +<p>Milly couldn’t help laughing too, till she remembered all +that Mrs. Backhouse had been saying.</p> +<p>“Oh, but, Tiza, Mrs. Backhouse says your father +won’t have anything for his supper. Aren’t you sorry +you spoilt his supper?”</p> +<p>“Yis,” said Tiza, quickly. “I know +father’ll beat me, he said he would next time I vexed +mother.”</p> +<p>And this time the pinafore went up in earnest, and Tiza began to +cry piteously.</p> +<p>“Don’t cry, Tiza,” said Milly, her own little +cheeks getting wet, too. “I’ll beg him not. Can’t +you make up anyway? Mother says we must always make up if we can +when we’ve done any harm. I wish I had anything to give you +to make up.”</p> +<p>Tiza suddenly dried her eyes and looked at Milly, with a bright +expression which was very puzzling.</p> +<p>“You come with me,” she said suddenly, swinging +herself down from the tree. “Come here by the hedge, +don’t let mother see us.”</p> +<p>So they ran along the far side of the hedge till they got into +the farmyard, and then Tiza led Milly past the hen-house, up to the +corner where the hayricks were. In and out of the hayricks they +went, till in the very farthest corner of all, where hardly anybody +ever came, and which nobody could see into from the yard, Tiza +suddenly knelt down and put her hand under the hay at the bottom of +the rick.</p> +<p>“You come,” she whispered eagerly to Milly, pulling +her by the skirt, “you come and look here.”</p> +<p>Milly stooped down, and there in a soft little place, just +between the hayrick and the ground, what do you think she saw? +Three large brownish eggs lying in a sort of rough nest in the hay, +and looking so round and fresh and tempting, that Milly gave a +little cry of delight.</p> +<p>“Oh, Tiza, how be—utiful! How did they get +there?”</p> +<p>“It’s old Sally, our white hen you know, laid them. +I found them just after dinner. Mother doesn’t know nothing +about them. I never told Becky, nor nobody. Aren’t they +beauties?”</p> +<p>And Tiza took one up lovingly in her rough, little brown hands, +and laid it against her cheek, to feel how soft and satiny it +was.</p> +<p>“Oh, and Tiza, I know,” exclaimed Milly eagerly, +“you meant these would do for supper. That would be a lovely +make up. There’s three. One for Mr. Backhouse, one for Mrs. +Backhouse, and one for Becky.—There’s none for you, +Tiza.”</p> +<p>“Nor none for Becky neither,” answered Tiza shortly. +“Father’ll want two. Becky and me’ll get bread +and dripping.”</p> +<p>“Well, come along, Tiza, let’s take them +in.”</p> +<p>“No, you take them,” said Tiza. “Mother +won’t want to see me no more, and father’ll perhaps be +coming in.”</p> +<p>“Oh, but, Tiza, you’ll come to tea with +us?”</p> +<p>“I don’t know,” said Tiza. “You +ask.”</p> +<p>And off she ran as quick as lightning, off to her hiding-place +in the cherry tree, while Milly was left with the three brown eggs, +feeling rather puzzled and anxious. However, she put them gently in +the skirt of her frock, and holding it up in both hands she picked +her way through the wet yard back to the house.</p> +<p>When she appeared at the kitchen door, Aunt Emma and Mrs. +Backhouse were chatting quietly. Mr. and Mrs. Norton, and Olly, had +gone on for a little stroll along the Wanwick road, and Becky was +sitting on the window-sill with the baby, who seemed very sleepy, +but quite determined not to go to sleep in spite of all +Becky’s rocking and patting.</p> +<p>“Oh, Mrs. Backhouse,” began Milly, coming in with a +bright flushed face, “just look here, what I’ve +brought. Tiza found them just after dinner to-day. They were under +the hayrick right away in the corner, and she wanted to make up, so +she showed me where they were, so I brought them in, and +there’s two for Mr. Backhouse, and one for you, you know. +And, please, won’t you let Tiza come to tea with +us?”</p> +<p>Mrs. Backhouse looked in astonishment at the three eggs lying in +Milly’s print skirt, and at Milly’s pleading little +face.</p> +<p>“Ay, that’s Sally, I suppose. She’s always +hiding her eggs is Sally, where I can’t find them. So it was +Tiza found them, was it, Missy? Well, they will come, in very handy +for supper as it happens. Thank you kindly for bringing them +in.”</p> +<p>And Mrs. Backhouse took the eggs and put them safely away in a +pie-dish, while Becky secretly pulled Milly by the sleeve, and +smiled up at her as much as to say,</p> +<p>“Thank you for helping Tiza out of her scrape.”</p> +<p>“And you’ll let Becky and Tiza come to tea?” +asked Milly again.</p> +<p>“Well, I’m sure, Miss, I don’t know,” +said Mrs. Backhouse, looking puzzled; “Becky may come and +welcome, but perhaps it would do Tiza good to stay at +home.”</p> +<p>“Don’t you think she’d better have a little +change?” said Aunt Emma in her kind voice, which made Milly +want to hug her. “I daresay staying indoors so long made her +restless. If you will let me carry them both off, I daresay between +us, Mrs. Backhouse, we can give Tiza a talking to, and perhaps +she’ll come back in a more sensible mood.”</p> +<p>“Well, Miss Elliot, she shall go if you wish it. Come +Becky, give me the baby, and go and put your things on.” And +then going to the door, Mrs. Backhouse shouted “Tiza!” +After a second or two a little figure dropped down out of the +cherry tree and came slowly up the walk. Tiza had shaken her hair +about her face so that it could hardly be seen, and she never +looked once at Aunt Emma and Milly as she came up to her +mother.</p> +<p>“There, go along, Tiza, and get your things on,” +said Mrs. Backhouse, taking her by the arm. “I wouldn’t +have let you go out to tea, you know, if Miss Elliot and Missy +hadn’t asked particular. Mind you don’t get into no +more mischief. And very like those eggs’ll do for +father’s supper; so, I daresay, I’ll not say anything +to him this time—just for once. Now go up.”</p> +<p>Tiza didn’t want to be told twice, and presently, just as +Mr. and Mrs. Norton and Olly were coming back from their walk, they +met Aunt Emma coming back from the farm holding Becky’s hand, +while Milly and Tiza walked in front.</p> +<p>“Well, Tiza,” said Mr. Norton, patting her curly +head, I declare I think you beat Olly for mischief. Olly never +spoilt my dinner yet, that I remember. What should I do to him do +you think, if he did?”</p> +<p>“Beat him,” said Tiza, looking up at Mr. Norton with +her quick birdlike eyes.</p> +<p>“Oh dear, no!” said Mr. Norton, “that +wouldn’t do my dinner any good. I should eat him up +instead.”</p> +<p>“I don’t believe little boys taste good a +bit,” said Olly, who always believed firmly in his +father’s various threats. “If you ettened me, father, +you’d be ill.”</p> +<p>“Oh no,” said Mr. Norton, “not if I eat you +with plenty of bread-sauce. That’s the best way to cook +little boys. Now, Milly, which of you three girls can get to that +gate first?”</p> +<p>Off ran the three little girls full tilt down the hill leading +to Ravensnest, with Olly puffing and panting after them. Milly led +the way at first, for she was light and quick, and a very fair +runner for her age; but Tiza soon got up to her and passed her, and +it was Tiza’s little stout legs that arrived first at +Ravensnest gate.</p> +<p>“Oh, Becky!” said Milly, putting her arm round +Becky’s neck as they went into the house together, “I +hope you may stay a good long time. What time do you go to +bed?”</p> +<p>“Oh, I don’t know,” said Becky. “We go +when fayther goes.”</p> +<p>“When fayther goes!” exclaimed Milly. “Why, we +go ever so long before father. Why do you stay up so +late?”</p> +<p>“Why, it isn’t late,” said Becky. +“Fayther goes to bed, now it’s summertime, about +half-past eight; but in winter, of course, he goes earlier. And we +all goes together, except baby. Mother puts him out of the way +before supper.”</p> +<p>“Well, but how funny,” said Milly, “I +can’t think why you should be so different from +us.”</p> +<p>And Milly went on puzzling over Becky and her going to bed, till +nurse drove it all out of her head by fetching them to tea. Such a +merry tea they had, and after tea a romp in the big kitchen with +father, which delighted the little farm children beyond measure. +Some time in the evening, I believe, Aunt Emma managed to give Tiza +a little talking to, but none of the other children knew anything +about it, except perhaps Becky, who generally knew what was +happening to Tiza.</p> +<h2><a id="Chapter9" name="Chapter9">CHAPTER IX</a></h2> +<h3>MILLY’S BIRTHDAY</h3> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>Now we have come to a chapter which is going to be half merry +and half sad. I have not told you any sad things about Milly and +Olly up till now, I think. They were such happy little people, that +there was nothing sad to tell you. They cried sometimes, of +course—you remember Milly cried when Olly stickied her +doll—but generally, by the time they had dried up their tears +they had quite forgotten what they were crying about; and as for +any real trouble, why they didn’t know what it could possibly +be like. But now, just as they were going away from Ravensnest, +came a real sad thing, and you’ll hear very soon how it +happened.</p> +<p>After those three wet days it was sometimes fine and sometimes +rainy at Ravensnest, but never so rainy as to keep the Nortons in +all day. And every now and then there were splendid days, when the +children and their father and mother were out all day long, +wandering over the mountains, or walking over to Aunt Emma’s +or tramping along the well-known roads to Wanwick on one side, and +the little village of Rydal and Rydal Lake on the other. They had +another row on Windermere; and one fine evening Mr. Norton borrowed +a friend’s boat, and they went out fishing for perch on Rydal +Lake, the loveliest little lake in the world, lying softly in a +green mountain cup, and dotted with islands, which seemed to the +children when they landed on them like little bits of fairyland +dropped into the blue water.</p> +<div class="figure"><a href="images/illus7.png"><img src= +"images/illus7.png" alt="“Haymaking”" id="illus7" name= +"illus7" width="100%" /></a> +<p>“Haymaking”</p> +</div> +<p>And then! crown of delights! came the haymaking. There were long +fine days, when the six small creatures—Milly, Olly, Becky, +Tiza, Bessie, and Charlie—followed John Backhouse and his men +about in the hayfields from early morning till evening, helping to +make the hay, or simply rolling about like a parcel of kittens in +the flowery fragrant heaps.</p> +<p>Aunt Emma was often at Ravensnest, and the children learned to +love her better and better, so that even wild little Olly would +remember to bring her stool, and carry her shawl, and change her +plate at dinner; and Milly, who was always clinging to somebody, +was constantly puzzled to know whose pocket to sit in, +mother’s or Aunt Emma’s.</p> +<p>Then there was the farmyard, the cows, and the milking, and the +chickens. Everything about them seemed delightful to Milly and +Olly, and the top of everything was reached when one evening John +Backhouse mounted both the children on his big carthorse Dobbin, +and they and Dobbin together dragged the hay home in triumph.</p> +<p>And now they had only one week more to stay at Ravensnest. But +that week was a most important week, for it was to contain no less +a day than Milly’s birthday. Milly would be seven years old +on the 15th of July, and for about a week before the 15th, +Milly’s little head could think of nothing else. Olly too was +very much excited about it, for though Milly of course was the +queen of the day, and all the presents were for her, not for him, +still it was good times for everybody on Milly’s birthday; +besides which, he had his own little secret with mother about his +present to Milly, a secret which made him very happy, but which he +was on the point of telling at least a hundred times a day.</p> +<p>“Father,” said Milly, about four days before the +birthday, when they were all wandering about after tea one evening +in the high garden which was now a paradise of ripe red +strawberries and fruit of every kind, “does everybody have +birthdays? Do policemen have birthdays?”</p> +<p>“I expect so, Milly,” said Mr. Norton, laughing, +“but they haven’t any time to remember them.”</p> +<p>“But, father, what’s the good of having birthdays if +you don’t keep them, and have presents and all that? And do +cats and dogs have birthdays? I should like to find out +Spot’s birthday. We’d give her cream instead of milk, +you know, and I’d tie a blue ribbon round her neck, and one +round her tail like the queen’s sheep in mother’s +story.”</p> +<p>“I don’t suppose Spot would thank you at all,” +said Mr. Norton. “The cream would make her ill, and the +ribbon would fidget her dreadfully till she pulled it +off.”</p> +<p>“Oh dear!” sighed Milly. “Well, I suppose Spot +had better not have any birthday then. But, father, what do you +think? Becky and Tiza don’t care about their birthdays a bit. +Becky could hardly remember when hers was, and they never have any +presents unless Aunt Emma gives them one, or people to tea, or +anything.’</p> +<p>“Well, you see, Milly, when people have only just pennies +and shillings enough to buy bread and meat to eat, and clothes to +put on, they can’t go spending money on presents; and when +they’re very anxious and busy all the year round they +can’t be remembering birthdays and taking pains about them +like richer people can, who have less to trouble them, and whose +work does not take up quite so much time.”</p> +<p>“Well, but why don’t the rich people remember the +poor people’s birthdays for them, father? Then they could +give them presents, and ask them to tea and all, you +know.”</p> +<p>“Yes, that would be a very good arrangement,” said +Mr. Norton, smiling at her eager little face. “Only, somehow, +Milly, things don’t come right like that in this +world.”</p> +<p>“Well, I’m going to try and remember Becky’s +and Tiza’s birthdays,” said Milly. “I’ll +tell mother to put them down in her pocket-book—won’t +you, mother? Oh, what fun! I’ll send them birthday cards, and +they’ll be so surprised, and wonder why; and then +they’ll say, ‘Oh, why, of course it’s our +birthday!’—No, not <em>our</em> birthday—but you +know what I mean, father.”</p> +<p>“Well, but, Milly,” asked Mrs. Norton, “have +you made up your mind what you want to do this birthday?”</p> +<p>Milly stopped suddenly, with her hands behind her, opposite her +mother, with her lips tightly pressed together, her eyes smiling, +as if there was a tremendous secret hidden somewhere.</p> +<p>“Well, monkey, out with it. What have you got hidden away +in your little head?”</p> +<p>“Well, mother,” said Milly, slowly, “I +don’t want to <em>have</em> anybody to tea. I want to go out +to tea with somebody. Now can you guess?”</p> +<p>“With Aunt Emma?”</p> +<p>“Oh no, Aunt Emma’s coming over here all day. She +promised she would.”</p> +<p>“With Becky and Tiza?”</p> +<p>Milly nodded, and screwed up her little lips tighter than +ever.</p> +<p>“But I don’t expect Mrs. Backhouse will want the +trouble of having you two to tea.</p> +<p>“Oh mother, she won’t mind a bit. I know she +won’t; because Becky told me one day her mother would like us +very much to come some time if you’d let us. And Nana could +come and help Mrs. Backhouse, and we could all wash up the +tea-things afterwards, like we did at the picnic.”</p> +<p>“Then Tiza mustn’t sit next me,” said Olly, +who had been listening in silence to all the arrangements. +“She takes away my bread and butter when I’m not +looking, and I don’t like it, not a bit.”</p> +<p>“No, Olly dear, she shan’t,” said Milly, +taking his hand and fondling it, as if she were at least twenty +years older. “I’ll sit on one side of you and Becky on +the other,” a prospect with which Olly was apparently +satisfied, for he made no more objections.</p> +<p>“Well, you must ask Mrs. Backhouse yourselves,” said +Mrs. Norton. “And if it is her washing-day, or inconvenient +to her at all, you mustn’t think of going, you +know.”</p> +<p>So early next morning, Milly and Nana and Olly went up to the +farm, and came back with the answer that Mrs. Backhouse would be +very pleased to see them at tea on Thursday, the 15th, and that +John Backhouse would have cut the hay-field by the river by then, +and they could have a romp in the hay afterwards.</p> +<p>Wednesday was a deeply interesting day to Olly. He and his +mother went over by themselves to Wanwick, and they bought +something which the shopwoman at the toy-shop wrapped up in a neat +little parcel, and which Olly carried home, looking as important as +a little king.</p> +<p>“Milly,” he began at dinner, +“<em>wouldn’t</em> you like to know about your +presents? But of course I shan’t tell you about mine. Perhaps +I’m not going to give you one at all. Oh, mother,” in a +loud whisper to Mrs. Norton, “did you put it away safe where +she can’t see?”</p> +<p>“Oh, you silly boy,” said Milly, “you’ll +tell me if you don’t take care.”</p> +<p>“No, I shan’t. I wouldn’t tell you if you were +to go on asking me all day. It isn’t very big, you know, +Milly, and—and—it isn’t pretty +outside—only—”</p> +<p>“Be quiet, chatterbox,” said Mr. Norton putting his +hand over Olly’s mouth, “you’ll tell in another +minute, and then there’ll be no fun to-morrow.”</p> +<p>So Olly with great difficulty kept quiet, and began eating up +his pudding very fast, as if that was the only way of keeping his +little tongue out of mischief.</p> +<p>“Father,” he said after dinner, “do take Milly +out for a walk, and mother shall take me. Then I can’t tell, +you know.”</p> +<p>So the two went out different ways, and Olly kept away from +Milly all day, in great fear lest somehow or other his secret +should fly out of him in spite of all his efforts to keep it in. At +night the children made nurse hurry them to bed, so that when +mother came to tuck them up, as she generally did, she found the +pair fast asleep, and nothing left to kiss but two curly heads +buried in the pillows.</p> +<p>“Bless their hearts,” said nurse to Mrs. Norton, +“they can think of nothing but to-morrow. They’ll be +sadly disappointed if it rains.”</p> +<p>But the stars came out, and the new moon shone softly all night +on the great fir trees and the rosebuds and the little dancing beck +in the Ravensnest garden; and when Milly awoke next morning the sun +was shining, and Brownholme was towering up clear and high into the +breezy blue sky, and the trees were throwing cool shadows on the +dewy lawn around the house.</p> +<p>“Oh dear!” said Milly, jumping up, her face flushing +with joy “it’s my birthday, and it’s fine. Nana, +bring me my things, please.—But where’s +Olly?”</p> +<p>Where indeed was Olly? There was his little bed, but there was a +nightdress rolled up in it, and not a wisp of his brown curls was +to be seen anywhere.</p> +<p>“Why, Miss Milly, are you woke up at last? I hardly +thought you’d have slept so late this morning. Many happy +returns of the day to you,” said nurse, giving her a hearty +hug.</p> +<p>“Thank you, <em>dear</em> nurse. Oh, it is so nice having +birthdays. But where can Olly be?”</p> +<p>“Don’t you trouble your head about him,” said +nurse mysteriously, and not another word could Milly get out of +her. She had just slipped on her white cotton frock when mother +opened the door.</p> +<p>“Well, birthday-girl! The top of the morning to you, and +many, many happy returns of the day.”</p> +<p>Whereupon Milly and mother went through a great deal of kissing +which need not be described, and then mother helped her brush her +hair, and put on her ribbon and tie her sash, so that in another +minute or two she was quite ready to go down.</p> +<p>“Now, Milly, wait one minute till you hear the bell ring, +and then you may come down as fast as you like.”</p> +<p>So Milly waited, her little feet dancing with impatience, till +the bell began to ring as if it had gone quite mad.</p> +<p>“Oh, that’s Olly ringing,” cried Milly, +rushing off. And sure enough when she got to the hall there was +Olly ringing as if he meant to bring the house down. He dropped the +bell when he saw Milly, and dragged her breathlessly into the +dining-room.</p> +<p>And what did Milly see there I wonder? Why, a heap of red and +white roses lying on the breakfast table, a big heap, with odd +corners and points sticking up all over it, and under the roses a +white napkin, and under the napkin treasures of all sorts—a +book from father, a little work-box from mother, with a picture of +Windermere on the outside, and inside the most delightful cottons +and needles and bits of bright-coloured stuffs; a china +doll’s dinner-service from Aunt Emma, a mug from nurse, a +little dish full of big red strawberries from gardener, and last, +but not least, Olly’s present—a black paint-box, with +colours and brushes and all complete, and tied up with a little +drawing-book which mother had added to make it really useful. At +the top of the heap, too, lay two letters addressed in very big +round hand to “Miss Milly Norton,” and one was signed +Jacky and the other signed Francis. Each of these presents had neat +little labels fastened on to them, and they were smothered in +roses—deep red and pale pink roses, with the morning dew +sprinkled over them.</p> +<p>“We got all those roses, mother and me, this morning, when +you was fast asleep, Milly,” shouted Olly, who was capering +about like a mad creature. “Mother pulled me out of bed ever +so early, and I putted on my goloshes, and didn’t we get wet +just! Milly, <em>isn’t</em> my paint-box a beauty?”</p> +<p>But it’s no good trying to describe what Milly felt. She +felt as every happy little girl feels on a happy birthday, just a +little bit bewitched, as if she had got into another kind of world +altogether.</p> +<p>“Now,” said father, after breakfast, +“I’m yours, Milly, for all this morning. What are you +going to do with me?”</p> +<p>“Make you into a tiger, father, and shoot you,” said +Olly, who would have liked to play at hunting and shooting games +all day long.</p> +<p>“I didn’t ask you, sir,” said Mr. Norton, +“I’m not yours, I’m Milly’s. Now, Milly, +what shall we do?”</p> +<p>“Will you take us right to the top of Brownholme, father? +You know we haven’t been to the very top yet.”</p> +<p>“Very well, we’ll go if your legs will carry you. +But you must ask them very particularly first how they feel, for +it’ll be stiff work for them.”</p> +<p>Not very long after breakfast, and before they started for their +walk, Aunt Emma’s pony carriage came rattling up the drive, +and she, too, brought flowers for Milly, above all a bunch of +water-lilies all wet from the lake; and then she and mother settled +under the trees with their books and work while the children +started on their walk.</p> +<p>But first Milly had drawn mother into a corner where no one +could see, and there, with a couple of tears in her two blue eyes, +she had whispered in a great hurry, so that Mrs. Norton could +scarcely hear, “I don’t want to have everything just as +<em>I</em> like, to-day, mother. Can’t I do what somebody +else likes? I’d rather.”</p> +<p>Which means that Milly was a good deal excited, and her heart +very full, and that she was thinking of how, a year before, her +birthday had been rather spoilt toward the end of it by a little +bit of crossness and self-will, that she remembered afterward with +a pang for many a long day. Since then, Milly had learnt a good +deal more of that long, long lesson, which we go on learning, big +people and little people, all our lives—the lesson of +self-forgetting—of how love brings joy, and to be selfish is +to be sad; and her birthday seemed to bring back to her all that +she had been learning.</p> +<p>“Dear little woman,” said Mrs. Norton, putting back +her tangled hair from her anxious little face, “go and be +happy. That’s what we all like to-day. Besides, you’ll +find plenty of ways of doing what other people like before the end +of the day without my inventing any. Run along now, and climb away. +Mind you don’t let Olly tumble into bogs, and mind you bring +me a bunch of ferns for the dinner-table—and there’ll +be two things done at any rate.”</p> +<p>So away ran Milly; and all the morning she and Olly and father +scrambled and climbed, and raced and chatted, on the green back of +old Brownholme. They went to say good-morning to John +Backhouse’s cows in the “intake,” as he called +his top field, and they just peeped over the wall at the fierce +young bull he had bought at Penrith fair a few days before, and +which looked as if, birthdays or no birthdays, he could have eaten +Milly at two mouthfuls, and swallowed Olly down afterwards without +knowing it.</p> +<p>Then they climbed and climbed after father, till, just as Olly +was beginning to feel his legs to make sure they weren’t +falling off, they were so tired and shaky—there they were +standing on the great pile of stones which marks the top of the +mountain—the very tip-top of all its green points and rocks +and grassy stretches. By this time the children knew the names of +most of the mountains around, and of all the lakes. They went +through them now like a lesson with their father; and even Olly +remembered a great many, and could chatter about Helvellyn, and +Fairfield, and Langdale Pikes, as if he had trudged to the top of +them all himself.</p> +<p>Then came the getting down again. Father and Milly and Olly +hand-in-hand, racing over the short fine grass, startling the +little black-faced sheep, and racing down the steep bits, where +Milly and Olly generally tumbled over in some sort of a heap at the +bottom. As for the flowers they gathered, there were so many I have +no time to tell you about them—wood-flowers and bog-flowers +and grass-flowers, and ferns of all sizes to mix with them, from +the great Osmunda, which grew along the Ravensnest Beck, down to +the tiny little parsley fern. It was all delightful—the +sights and the sounds, and the fresh mountain wind that blew them +about on the top so that long afterward Milly used to look back to +that walk on Brownholme when she was seven years old as one of the +merriest times she ever spent.</p> +<p>Dinner was very welcome after all this scrambling; and after +dinner came a quiet time in the garden, when father read aloud to +mother and Aunt Emma, and the children kept still and listened to +as much as they could understand, at least until they went to +sleep, which they both did lying on a rug at Aunt Emma’s +feet. Milly couldn’t understand how this had happened at all, +when she found herself waking up and rubbing her eyes, but I think +it was natural enough after their long walk in the sun and +wind.</p> +<p>At four o’clock nurse came for them, and when they had +been put into clean frocks and pinafores, she took them up to the +farm. Milly and Olly felt that this was a very solemn occasion, and +they walked up to the farmhouse door hand-in-hand, feeling as shy +as if they had never been there before. But at the door were Becky +and Tiza waiting for them, as smart as new pins, with shining hair, +and red ribbons under their little white collars; and the children +no sooner caught sight of one another than all their shyness flew +away, and they began to chatter as usual.</p> +<p>In the farmhouse kitchen were Bessie and Charlie, and such a +comfortable tea spread out on a long table, covered with a red and +black woollen table-cloth instead of a white one. Becky and Tiza +had filled two tumblers with meadow-sweet and blue campanula, which +stood up grandly in the middle, and there were two home-made cakes +at each end, and some of Sally’s brown eggs, and piles of +tempting bread and butter.</p> +<p>Each of the children had their gift for Milly too: Becky had +plaited her a basket of rushes, a thing she had often tried to +teach Milly how to make for herself, and Tiza pushed a bunch of +wild raspberries into her hand, and ran away before Milly could say +thank you; Bessie shyly produced a Christmas card that somebody had +once sent to her; and even Charlie had managed to provide himself +with a bunch of the wild yellow poppies which grew on the wall of +the Ravensnest garden, and were a joy to all beholders.</p> +<p>Then Mrs. Backhouse put Milly at one end of the table, while she +began to pour out tea at the other, and the feast began. Certainly, +Milly thought, it was much more exciting going out to tea at a +farmhouse than having children to tea with you at home, just as you +might anywhere, on any day in the year. There were the big hens +coming up to the door and poking in their long necks to take a look +at them; there were the pigeons circling round and round in the +yard; there was the sound of milking going on in the shed close by, +and many other sights and sounds which were new and strange and +delightful.</p> +<p>As for Olly, he was very much taken up for a time with the red +and black table-cloth, and could not be kept from peering +underneath it from time to time, as if he suspected that the white +table-cloth he was generally accustomed to had been hidden away +underneath for a joke. But when the time for cake came, Olly forgot +the table-cloth altogether. He had never seen a cake quite like the +bun-loaf, which kind Mrs. Backhouse had made herself for the +occasion, and of which she had given him a hunch, so in his usual +inquisitive way he began to turn it over and over, as if by looking +at it long enough he could find out how it was made and all about +it. Presently, when the others were all quietly enjoying their +bun-loaf, Olly’s shrill little voice was heard +saying—while he put two separate fingers on two out of the +few currants in his piece:</p> +<p>“<em>This</em> currant says to <em>that</em> currant, +‘I’m here, where are you? You’re so far off I +can’t see you nowhere.’”</p> +<p>“Olly, be quiet,” said Milly.</p> +<p>“Well, but, Milly, I can’t help it; it’s so +funny. There’s only three currants in my bit, and cookie puts +such a lot in at home. I’m pretending they’re little +children wanting to play, only they can’t, they’re so +far off. There, I’ve etten one up. Now there’s only +two. That’s you and me, Milly. I’ll eat you up +first—krick!”</p> +<p>“Never mind about the currants, little master,” said +Mrs. Backhouse, laughing at him. “It’s nice and sweet +any way, and you can eat as much of it as you like, which is more +than you can of rich cakes.”</p> +<p>Olly thought there was something in this, and by the time he had +got through his second bit of bun-loaf he had quite made up his +mind that he would get Susan to make bun-loaves at home too.</p> +<p>They were just finishing tea when there was a great clatter +outside, and by came the hay-cart with John Backhouse leading the +horse, and two men walking beside it.</p> +<p>“We’re going to carry all the hay in yon lower field +presently,” he shouted to his wife as he passed. “Send +the young ‘uns down to see.”</p> +<p>Up they all started, and presently the whole party were racing +down the hill to the riverfield, with Mrs. Backhouse and her baby +walking soberly with nurse behind them. Yes, there lay the hay +piled up in large cocks on the fresh clean-swept carpet of bright +green grass, and in the middle of the field stood the hay-cart with +two horses harnessed, one man standing in it to press down and +settle the hay as John Backhouse and two other men handed it up to +him on pitchforks. Olly went head over heels into the middle of one +of the cocks, followed by Charlie, and would have liked to go head +over heels into all the rest, but Mr. Norton, who had come into the +field with mother and Aunt Emma, told him he must be content to +play with two cocks in one of the far corners of the field without +disturbing the others, which were all ready for carrying, and that +if he and Charlie strewed the hay about they must tidy it up before +John Backhouse wanted to put it on the cart. So Olly and Charlie +went off to their corner, and for a little while all the other +children played there too. Milly had invented a game called the +“Babes in the Wood,” in which two children were the +babes and pretended to die on the grass, and all the rest were the +robins, and covered them up with hay instead of leaves. She and +Tiza made beautiful babes: they put their handkerchiefs over their +faces and lay as still as mice, till Olly had piled so much hay on +the top of them that there was not a bit of them to be seen +anywhere, while Bessie began to cry out as if she was suffocated +before they had put two good armfuls over her.</p> +<p>Presently, however, Milly got tired; and she and Tiza walked off +by themselves and sat down by the river to get cool. The water in +the river was quite low again now, and the children could watch the +tiny minnows darting and flashing about by the bank, and even amuse +themselves by fancying every now and then that they saw a trout +shooting across the clear brown water. Tiza had quite left off +being shy now with Milly, and the two chattered away, Milly telling +Tiza all about her school, and Jacky and Francis, and Spot and the +garden at home; and Tiza telling Milly about her father’s new +bull, how frightened she and Becky were of him, and how father +meant to make the fence stronger for fear he should get out and +toss people.</p> +<p>“What a happy little party,” said Aunt Emma to +mother looking round the field; “there’s nothing like +hay for children.”</p> +<p>By this time the hay-cart was quite full, and crack went John +Backhouse’s whip, as he took hold of the first horse’s +head and gave him a pull forward to start the cart on its way to +the farm.</p> +<p>“Gee-up,” shouted John in his loud cheery voice, and +the horse made a step forward, while the children round cried +“Hurrah!” and waved their hands. But suddenly there was +a loud piteous cry which made John give the horse a sudden push +back and drop his whip, and then, from where they sat, Milly and +Tiza heard a sound of crying and screaming, while everybody in the +field ran toward the hay-cart. They ran too; what could have +happened?</p> +<p>Just as they came up to the crowd of people round the cart, +Milly saw her father with something in his arms. And this something +was Becky—poor little Becky, with a great mark on her temple, +and her eyes quite shut, and such a white face!</p> +<p>“Oh, mother! mother!” cried Milly, rushing up to +her, “tell me, mother, what is the matter with +Becky?”</p> +<p>But Mrs. Norton had no time to attend to her. She was running to +meet Mrs. Backhouse, who had come hurrying up from another part of +the field with the baby in her arms.</p> +<p>“She was under the cart when it moved on,” said Mrs. +Norton, taking the baby from her. “We none of us know how it +happened. She must have been trying to hand up some hay at the last +moment and tumbled under. I don’t think her head is much +hurt.”</p> +<p>On ran Mrs. Backhouse, and Milly and her mother followed.</p> +<p>“Better let me carry her up now without moving her,” +said Mr. Norton, as Mrs. Backhouse tried to take the little bundle +from him. “She has fainted, I think. We must get some water +at the stream.” So on he went, with the pale frightened +mother, while the others followed. Aunt Emma had got Tiza and Milly +by the hand, and was trying to comfort them.</p> +<p>“We hope she is not much hurt, darlings; the wheel did not +go over her, thank God. It was just upon her when her father backed +the horse. But it must have crushed her I’m afraid, and there +was something hanging under the cart which gave her that knock on +the temple. Look, there is one of the men starting off for the +doctor.”</p> +<p>Whereupon Tiza, who had kept quiet till then, burst into a loud +fit of crying, and threw herself down on the grass.</p> +<p>“Nurse,” called Aunt Emma, “stay here with +these two poor little ones while I go and see if I can be of any +use.”</p> +<p>So nurse came and sat beside them, and Milly crept up to her for +comfort. But poor little Tiza lay with her face buried in the grass +and nothing they could say to her seemed to reach her little deaf +ears.</p> +<p>Meanwhile, Aunt Emma hurried after the others, and presently +caught them up at a stream where Mr. Norton had stopped to bathe +Becky’s head and face. The cold water had just revived her +when Aunt Emma came up, and for one moment she opened her heavy +blue eyes and looked at her mother, who was bending over her, and +then they shut again. But her little hand went feebly searching for +her mother, who caught it up and kissed it.</p> +<p>“Oh, Miss Emma, Miss Emma,” she said, pointing to +the child, “I’m afeard but she’s badly +hurt.”</p> +<p>“I hope not, with all my heart,” said Aunt Emma, +gently taking her arm. “But the doctor will soon be here; we +must get her home before he comes.”</p> +<p>So on they went again, Mr. Norton still carrying Becky, and Mr. +Backhouse helping his wife along. Mrs. Norton had got the baby safe +in her motherly arms, and so they all toiled up the hill to the +farmhouse. What a difference from the merry party that ran down the +hill only an hour before!</p> +<p>They laid Becky down on her mother’s bed, and then Aunt +Emma, finding that Mrs. Norton wished to stay till the doctor came, +went back to the children. She found a sad little group sitting in +the hay-field; Milly in nurse’s lap crying quietly every now +and then; Tiza still sobbing on the grass, and Olly who had just +crept down from the farmhouse, where he and Charlie had seen Becky +carried in, talking to nurse in eager whispers, as if he +daren’t talk out loud.</p> +<p>“Oh, Aunt Emma,” cried Milly, when she opened the +gate, “is she better?”</p> +<p>“A little, I think, Milly, but the doctor will soon be +here, and then we shall know all about it. Tiza, you poor little +woman, Mrs. Wheeler says you must sleep with them to-night. Your +mother will want the house very quiet, and to-morrow, you know, you +can go and see Becky if the doctor says you may.”</p> +<p>At this Tiza began to cry again more piteously than ever. It +seemed so dreary and terrible to her to be shut out from home +without Becky. But Aunt Emma sat down on the grass beside her, and +lifted her up and talked to her; with anybody else Tiza would have +kicked and struggled, for she was a curious, passionate child, and +her grief was always wild and angry, but nobody could struggle with +Aunt Emma, and at last she let herself be comforted a little by the +tender voice and soft caressing hand. She stopped crying, and then +they all took her up to the Wheelers’s cottage, where Mrs. +Wheeler, a kind motherly body, took her in, and promised that she +should know everything there was to be known about Becky.</p> +<p>“Aunt Emma,” said Milly, presently, when they were +all sitting in the conservatory which ran round the house, waiting +for Mr. Norton to bring them news from the farm, “how did +Becky tumble under the cart?”</p> +<p>“She was lifting up some hay, I think, which had fallen +off, and one of the men was stooping down to take it on his fork, +and then she must have slipped and fallen right under the cart, +just as John Backhouse told the horse to go on.”</p> +<p>“Oh, if the wheel <em>had</em> gone over!” said +Milly, shuddering. “Isn’t it a sad birthday, Aunt Emma, +and we were so happy a little while ago? And then I can’t +understand. I don’t know why it happens like this.”</p> +<p>“Like what, Milly?”</p> +<p>“Why, Aunt Emma, always in stories, you know, it’s +the bad people get hurt and die. And now it’s poor little +Becky that’s hurt. And she’s such a dear little girl, +and helps her mother so. I don’t think she ought to have been +hurt.”</p> +<p>“We don’t know anything about ‘oughts,’ +Milly, darling, you and I. God knows, we trust, and that helps many +people who love God to be patient when they are in trouble or pain. +But think if it had been poor mischievous little Tiza who had been +hurt, how she would have fretted. And now very likely Becky will +bear it beautifully, and so, without knowing it, she will be +teaching Tiza to be patient, and it will do Tiza good to have to +help Becky and take care of her for a bit, instead of letting Becky +always look after her and get her out of scrapes.”</p> +<p>“Oh, and Aunt Emma, can’t we all take care of Becky? +What can Olly and I do?” said Milly, imploringly.</p> +<p>“I can go and sing all my songs to Becky,” said +Olly, looking up brightly.</p> +<p>“By-and-by, perhaps,” said Aunt Emma, smiling and +patting his head. “But hark! isn’t that father’s +step?”</p> +<p>It had grown so dark that they could hardly see who it was +opening the gate.</p> +<p>“Oh yes, it is,” cried Milly. “It’s +father and mother.” Away they ran to meet them, and Mrs. +Norton took Milly’s little pale face in both her hands and +kissed it.</p> +<p>“She’s not <em>very</em> badly hurt, darling. The +doctor says she must lie quite quiet for two or three weeks, and +then he hopes she’ll be all right. The wheel gave her a +squeeze, which jarred her poor little back and head very much, but +it didn’t break anything, and if she lies very quite the +doctor thinks she’ll get quite well again.” “Oh +mother! and does Tiza know?”</p> +<p>“Yes, we have just been to tell her. Mrs. Wheeler had put +her to bed, but she went up to give her our message, and she said +poor little Tiza began to cry again, and wanted us to tell her +mother she would be <em>so</em> quiet if only they would let her +come back to Becky.”</p> +<p>“Will they, mother?”</p> +<p>“In a few days, perhaps. But she is not to see anybody but +Mrs. Backhouse for a little while.”</p> +<p>“Oh dear!” sighed Milly, while the tears came into +her eyes again. “We shall be going away so soon, and we +can’t say good-bye. Isn’t it sad, mother, just +happening last thing? and we’ve been so happy all the +time.”</p> +<p>“Yes, Milly,” said Mr. Norton, lifting her on to his +knee. “This is the first really sad thing that ever happened +to you in your little life I think. Mother, and I, and Aunt Emma, +tell you stories about sad things, but that’s very different, +isn’t it?”</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Milly, thinking. “Father, are +there as many sad things really as there are in stories?—you +know what I mean.”</p> +<p>“There are a great many sad things and sad people in the +world, Milly. We don’t have monsters plaguing us like King +Hrothgar, but every day there is trouble and grief going on +somewhere, and we happy and strong people must care for the sad +ones if we want to do our duty and help to straighten the world a +little.”</p> +<p>“Father,” whispered Milly, softly, “will you +tell us how—Olly and me? We would if we knew how.”</p> +<p>“Well, Milly, suppose you begin with Becky, and poor Tiza +too, indeed. I wonder whether a pair of little people could make a +scrap-book for Becky to look at when she is getting +better?”</p> +<p>“Oh yes, yes!” said Milly, joyfully, +“I’ve got ever so many pictures in mother’s +writing-book, she let me cut out of her ‘Graphics,’ and +Olly can help paste; can’t you, Olly?”</p> +<p>“Olly generally pastes his face more than anything +else,” said Mr. Norton, giving a sly pull at his brown curls. +“If I’m not very much mistaken, there is a little fairy +pasting up your eyes, old man.”</p> +<p>“I’m not sleepy, not a bit,” said Olly, +sitting bolt upright and blinking very fast.</p> +<p>“I think you’re not sleepy, but just asleep,” +said Mr. Norton, catching him up in his arms, and carrying him to +his mother to say good-night.</p> +<p>Milly went very soberly and quietly up to bed, and for some +little time she lay awake, her little heart feeling very sore and +heavy about the “sad things” in the world. Then with +her thoughts full of Becky she fell asleep.</p> +<p>So ended Milly’s birthday, a happy day and a sorrowful +day, all in one. When Milly grew older there was no birthday just +before or after it she remembered half so clearly as that on which +she was seven years old.</p> +<h2><a id="Chapter10" name="Chapter10">CHAPTER X</a></h2> +<h3>Last Days at Ravensnest</h3> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>On Friday morning the children and their father trudged up very +early to the farm to get news of Becky. She had had a bad night Mr. +Backhouse said, but she had taken some milk and beef-tea; she knew +her father and mother quite well, and she had asked twice for Tiza. +The doctor said they must just be patient. Quiet and rest would +make her well again, and nothing else, and Tiza was not to go home +for a day or two.</p> +<p>As for poor Tiza, a long sleep had cheered her up greatly, and +when Milly and Olly went to take her out with them after breakfast, +they found her almost as merry and chatty as usual. But she +didn’t like being kept at the Wheelers’s, though they +were very kind to her; and it was all Mrs. Wheeler could do to +prevent her from slipping up to the farm unknown to anybody.</p> +<p>“They don’t have porridge for breakfast,” said +Tiza, tossing her head, when she and Milly were out together. +“Mother always gives us porridge. And I won’t sit next +Charlie. He’s always dirtying hisself. He stickied hisself +just all over this morning with treacle. Mother would have given +him a clout.”</p> +<p>However, on the whole, she was as good as such a wild creature +could be, and the children and she had some capital times together. +Wheeler the gardener let them gather strawberries and currants for +making jam, a delightful piece of work, which helped to keep Tiza +out of mischief and make her contented with staying away from home +more than anything else. At last, after three days, the doctor said +she might come home if she would promise to be quiet in the house. +So one bright evening Tiza slipped into the farmhouse and squeezed +in after her mother to the little room where Becky was lying, a +white-faced feverish little creature, low down among the +pillows.</p> +<p>“Becky,” said Tiza, sitting down beside her sister, +as if nothing had happened, “here’s some strawberries. +Wheeler gave me some. You can have some if you want.”</p> +<p>“Just one,” said Becky, in her weak shaky voice, +smiling at her; and Tiza knelt on the bed and stuffed one softly +into her mouth.</p> +<p>“You’ll have to nurse baby now, Tiza,” said +Becky presently; “he’s been under mother’s feet +terrible. Mind you don’t let him eat nasty things. +He’ll get at the coals if you don’t mind +him.”</p> +<p>“I’ll not let him,” said Tiza shortly, setting +to work on her own strawberries.</p> +<p>All this didn’t sound very affectionate; but I think all +the same Tiza did love Becky, and I believe she tried to do her +best in her own funny way while Becky was ill. Baby screamed a good +deal certainly when she nursed him, and it was quite impossible of +course for Tiza to keep out of mischief altogether for two or three +weeks. Still, on the whole, she was a help to her mother; while as +for Becky she was never quite happy when Tiza was out of the house. +Becky, like Milly, had a way of loving everybody about her, and +next to her mother she loved Tiza best of anybody.</p> +<p>After all, the children were able to say good-bye to Becky. Just +the day before they were to go away Mr. Backhouse came down to say +that Becky would like to see them very much if they could come, and +the doctor said they might.</p> +<p>So up they went; Milly a good deal excited, and Olly very +curious to see what Becky would look like. Mr. Backhouse took them +in, and they found Becky lying comfortably on a little bed, with a +patchwork counterpane, and her shoulders and arms covered up in a +red flannel dressing-gown that Aunt Emma had sent her.</p> +<div class="figure"><a href="images/illus8.png"><img src= +"images/illus8.png" alt= +"“‘Haven’t you got a bump?’ asked Olly”" +id="illus8" name="illus8" width="100%" /></a> +<p>“‘Haven’t you got a bump?’ asked +Olly”</p> +</div> +<p>Milly kissed her, and Olly shook her hand, and they didn’t +all quite know what to say.</p> +<p>“Is your back better?” said Milly at last. +“I’m so glad the doctor let us come.”</p> +<p>“Haven’t you got a bump?” asked Olly, looking +at her with all his eyes. “We thought you’d have a +great black bump on your fore-head, you know—ever so +big.”</p> +<p>“No, it’s a cut,” said Becky; “there +now, you can see how it’s plastered up.”</p> +<p>“Did it hurt?” said Olly, “did you kick? I +should have kicked. And does the doctor give you nasty +medicine?”</p> +<p>“No,” said Becky, “I don’t have any now. +And it wasn’t nasty at all what I had first. And now I may +have strawberries and raspberries, and Mr. Wheeler sends mother a +plate everyday.”</p> +<p>“I don’t think it’s fair that little boys +shouldn’t never be ill,” said Olly, with his eyes +fastened on Becky’s plate of strawberries, which was on the +chest of drawers.</p> +<p>“Oh, you funny boy,” said Milly, “why, mother +gives you some every day though you aren’t ill; and I’m +sure you wouldn’t like staying in bed.”</p> +<p>“Yes, I should,” said Olly, just for the sake of +contradicting. “Do you know, Becky, we’ve got a secret, +and we’re not to tell it you, only Milly and I are going +to—”</p> +<p>“Don’t!” said Milly, putting her hand over, +his mouth. “You’ll tell in a minute. You’re +always telling secrets.”</p> +<p>“Well, just half, Milly, I won’t tell it all you +know. It’s just like something burning inside my mouth. +We’re going to make you something, Becky, when we get home. +Something be—ootiful, you know. And you can look at it in +bed, and we won’t make it big, so you can turn over the +pages, and—”</p> +<p>“Be quiet, Olly,” said Milly, “I should think +Becky’ll guess now. It’ll come by post, Becky. +Mother’s going to help us make it. You’ll like it I +know.”</p> +<p>“It’s—it’s—a picture-book!” +said Olly, in a loud whisper, putting his head down to Becky. +“You won’t tell, will you?”</p> +<p>“Oh, you unkind boy,” said Milly, pouting. +“I’ll never have a secret with you again.”</p> +<p>But Becky looked very pleased, and said she would like a +picture-book she thought very much, for it was dull sometimes when +mother was busy and Tiza was nursing baby. So perhaps, after all, +it didn’t matter having told her.</p> +<p>“I’m going to write to you, Becky,” said +Milly, when the time came to go away, “and at Christmas +I’ll send you a Christmas card, and perhaps some day +we’ll come here again you know.”</p> +<p>“And then we’ll milk the cows,” said Olly, +“won’t we, Becky? And I’ll ride on your big +horse. Mr. Backhouse says I may ride all alone some day when +I’m big; when I’m sixty—no, when I’m +ninety-five you know.”</p> +<p>And then Milly and Olly kissed Becky’s pale little face +and went away, while poor little Becky looked after them as if she +was <em>very</em> sorry to see the last of them; and outside there +were Tiza and baby and Mrs. Backhouse and even John Backhouse +himself, waiting to say good-bye to them. It made Milly cry a +little bit, and she ran away fast down the hill, while Tiza and +Olly were still trying which could squeeze hands hardest.</p> +<p>“Oh, you dear mountains,” said Milly, as she and +nurse walked along together. “Look Nana, aren’t they +lovely?”</p> +<p>They did look beautiful this last evening. The sun was shining +on them so brightly that everything on them, up to the very top, +was clear and plain, and high up, ever so far away, were little +white dots moving, which Milly knew were cows feeding.</p> +<p>“Good-bye river, good-bye stepping-stones, good-bye doves, +good-bye fly-catchers! Mind you don’t any of you go away till +we come back again.”</p> +<p>But I should find it very hard to tell you all the good-byes +that Milly and Olly said to the places and people at Ravensnest, to +the woods and the hay-fields, and the beck, to Aunt Emma’s +parrot, John Backhouse’s cows, to Windermere Lake and Rydal +Lake, above all to dear Aunt Emma herself.</p> +<p>“Mind you come at Christmas,” shouted both the +children, as the train moved away from Windermere station and left +Aunt Emma standing on the platform; and Aunt Emma nodded and smiled +and waved her handkerchief to them till they were quite out of +sight.</p> +<p>“Mother,” said Milly, when they could not see Aunt +Emma any more, and the last bit of Brownholme was slipping away, +away, quite out of sight, “I think Ravensnest is the nicest +place we ever stopped at. And I don’t think the rain matters +either. I’m going to tell your old gentleman so. He said it +rained in the mountains, and it does, mother—doesn’t +it? but he said the rain spoilt everything, and it +doesn’t—not a bit.”</p> +<p>“Why, there’s that curious old fairy been sprinkling +dust in your eyes too, Milly!”</p> +<p>But something or other had been sprinkling tears in +mother’s. For to the old people there is nothing sweeter than +to see the young ones opening their hearts to all that they +themselves have loved and rejoiced over. So the chain of life goes +on, and joy gives birth to joy and love to love.</p> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Milly and Olly, by Mrs. Humphry Ward + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MILLY AND OLLY *** + +***** This file should be named 13337-h.htm or 13337-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/3/3/13337/ + +Produced by Andrew Templeton, Juliet Sutherland, Barbara Tozier and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Milly and Olly + +Author: Mrs. Humphry Ward + +Release Date: August 31, 2004 [EBook #13337] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MILLY AND OLLY *** + + + + +Produced by Andrew Templeton, Juliet Sutherland, Barbara Tozier and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + +[Illustration: "Two funny fair-haired children with their fingers in +their mouths"] + + + + +MILLY AND OLLY + + +New Revised Edition + + +BY + +MRS. HUMPHRY WARD + + + +Illustrated by RUTH M. HALLOCK + + + +GARDEN CITY NEW YORK +DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY +1914 + + + + +DEDICATION + + +TO F.A., IN THE NAME OF THE CHILDREN OF FOX HOW, THIS REVIVAL OF A +CHILD'S STORY WRITTEN TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS AGO, UNDER THE SPELL OF ROTHA +AND FAIRFIELD, IS INSCRIBED BY THE WRITER. + + + + +PREFACE + + +After many years this little book is once more to see the light. The +children for whom it was written are long since grown up. But perhaps +the pleasure they once took in it may still be felt by some of the +Millys and Ollys of to-day. Up in the dear mountain country which it +describes, the becks are still sparkling; "Brownholme" still spreads its +green steeps and ferny hollows under rain and sun; the tiny trout still +leap in its tiny streams; and Fairfield, in its noble curve, still +girdles the deep valley where these children played: the valley of +Wordsworth and Arnold--the valley where Arnold's poet-son rambled as a +boy--where, for me, the shy and passionate ghost of Charlotte Bronte +still haunts the open door-way of Fox How--where poetry and generous +life and ranging thought still dwell, and bring their benediction to the +passers-by. "Aunt Emma" in her beautiful home, unchanged but for its +vacant chairs, is now as she ever was, the friend of old and young; and +the children of to-day still press to her side as their elders did +before them. The parrot alas! is gone where parrots may; but amid the +voices that breathe around Fox How--the voices of seventy years--his +mimic speech is still remembered by the children who teased and loved +him. For love, while love lasts, gives life to all things small and +great; and in those who have once felt it, the love of the Fairfield +valley, of the gray stone house that fronts the fells, and of them that +dwell therein, is "not Time's fool--" + + "Or bends with the remover to remove." + + +MARY A. WARD. + +September 18, 1907. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + I. Making Plans + + II. A Journey North + + III. Ravensnest + + IV. Out on the Hills + + V. Aunt Emma's Picnic + + VI. Wet Days at Ravensnest + + VII. A Story-telling Game + + VIII. The Story of Beowulf + + IX. Milly's Birthday + + X. Last Days at Ravensnest + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + "Two funny fair-haired children with their fingers in their mouths" + + "'I can't do without my toys, Nana'" + + "The flowers Milly gathered for her mother" + + "So they put Olly up on a tall piece of rock, and he sang" + + "He was quite sure that h-a-y spelt 'ham' and s-a-w spelt 'was'" + + "'Suppose we have a story-telling game'" + + "Haymaking" + + "'Haven't you got a bump?' asked Olly" + + + + +CHAPTER I + +MAKING PLANS + + +"Milly, come down! come down directly! Mother wants you. Do make haste!" + +"I'm just coming, Olly. Don't stamp so. Nurse is tying my sash." + +But Master Olly went on stamping, and jumping up and down stairs, as his +way was when he was very much excited, till Milly appeared. Presently +down she came, a sober fair-haired little maiden, with blue eyes and a +turn-up nose, and a mouth that was generally rather solemn-looking, +though it could laugh merrily enough when it tried. Milly was six years +old. She looked older than six. At any rate she looked a great deal +older than Olly, who was nearly five; and you will soon find out that +she was a good deal more than a year and a half wiser. + +"What's the matter, Olly? What made you shout so?" + +"Oh, come along, come along;" said the little boy, pulling at his +sister's hand to make her run. "Mother wants to tell us something, and +she says it's a nice something, and I kissed her like anyfing! but she +wouldn't tell me without you." + +Then the two children set off running, and they flew down a long passage +to the drawing-room, and were soon scrambling about a lady who was +sitting working by the window. + +"Well, monkeys, don't choke me before I tell you my nice something. Sit +on my knee Olly. Now, Milly, guess--what have father and I just been +talking about?" + +"Sending Olly to school, perhaps," said Milly. "I heard Uncle Richard +talking about it yesterday." + +"That wouldn't be such a nice something," said Olly, making a long face. +"I wouldn't like it--not a bit. Boys don't never like going to school. I +want to learn my lessons with mother." + +"I know a little boy that doesn't like learning lessons with mother very +much," said the lady, laughing. "But my nice something isn't sending +Olly to school, Milly. You're quite wrong--so try again." + +"Oh, mother! is it a strawberry tea?" cried Milly. "The strawberries are +just ripe, I know. Gardener told nurse so this morning. And we can have +tea on the lawn, and ask Jacky and Francis!" + +"Oh, jolly!" said Oliver, jumping off his mother's knee and beginning to +dance about. "And we'll gather them ourselves--won't you let us, +mother?" + +"But it isn't a strawberry tea even," said his mother. "Now, look here, +children, what have I got here?" + +"It's a map--a map of England," said Milly, looking very wise. Milly had +just begun to learn geography, and thought she knew all about maps. + +"Well, and what happens when father and I look at maps in the +summertime?" + +"Why," said Milly, slowly, "you and father pack up your things, and go +away over the sea, and we stay behind with nurse." + +"I don't call _that_ a nice something," said Olly, standing still again. + +"Oh, mother, _are_ you going away?" said Milly, hanging round her +mother's neck. + +"Yes, Milly, and so's father, and so's nurse"--and their mother began to +laugh. + +"So's nurse?" said Milly and Olly together, and then they stopped and +opened two pairs of round eyes very wide, and stared at their mother. +"Oh, mother, mother, take us too!" + +"Why, how should father and I get on, travelling about with a pair of +monkeys?" said their mother, catching hold of the two children and +lifting them on to her knee; "we should want a cage to keep them in." + +"Oh, mother, we'll be _ever_ so good! But where are we going? Oh, do +take us to the sea!" + +"Yes, the sea! the sea!" shouted Olly, careering round the room again; +"we'll have buckets and spades, and we'll paddle and catch crabbies, and +wet our clothes, and have funny shoes, just like Cromer. And father'll +teach me to swim--he said he would next time." + +"No," said Mrs. Norton, for that was the name of Milly's and Oliver's +mother. "No, we are not going to the sea this summer. We are going to a +place mother loves better than the sea, though perhaps you children +mayn't like it quite so well. We're going to the mountains. Uncle +Richard has lent father and mother his own nice house among the +mountains and we're all going there next week--such a long way in the +train, Milly." + +"What are mountains?" said Olly, who had scarcely ever seen a hill +higher than the church steeple. "They can't be so nice as the sea, +mother. Nothing can." + +"They're humps, Olly," answered Milly eagerly. "Great, big humps of +earth, you know; earth mixed with stone. And they reach up ever so high, +up into the sky. And it takes you a whole day to get up to the top of +them, and a whole day to get down again. Doesn't it, mother? Fraeulein +told me all about mountains in my geography. And some mountains have got +snow on their tops all year, even in summer, when it's so hot, and we're +having strawberries. Will the mountains we're going to, have snow on +them?" + +"Oh, no. The snow mountains are far away over the sea. But these are +English mountains, kind, easy mountains, not too high for you and me to +climb up, and covered all over with soft green grass and wild flowers, +and tiny sheep with black faces." + +"And, mother, is there a garden to Uncle Richard's house, and are there +any children there to play with?" + +"There's a delightful garden, full of roses, and strawberries and +grapes, and everything else that's nice. And it has a baby river all to +itself, that runs and jumps and chatters all through the middle of it, +so perhaps Olly may have a paddle sometimes, though we aren't going to +the sea. And the gardener has got two little children, just about your +age, Aunt Mary says: and there are two more at the farm, two dear little +girls, who aren't a bit shy, and will like playing with you very much. +But who else shall we see there, Milly? Who lives in the mountains too, +near Uncle Richard?" + +Olly looked puzzled, but Milly thought a minute, and then said quickly, +"Aunt Emma, isn't it, mother? Didn't she come here once? I think I +remember." + +"Yes, she came once, but long ago, when you were quite small. But now we +shall see a great deal of her I hope, for she lives just on the other +side of the mountain from Uncle Richard's house, in a dear old house, +where I spent many, many happy days when I was small. Great-grandpapa +and grandmamma were alive then. But now Aunt Emma lives there quite +alone. Except for one creature, at least, an old gray poll-parrot, that +chatters away, and behaves as if it were quite sensible, and knew all +about everything." + +"Hasn't she got any pussies, mother?" asked Olly. + +"Yes, two I believe; but they don't get on with Polly very well, so they +live in the kitchen out of the way--" + +"I like pussies better than pollies," said Olly gravely. + +"Why, what do you know about pollies, old man?" + +"Pollies bite, I know they do. There was a polly bited Francis once." + +"Well, and pussies scratch," said Milly. + +"No, they don't, not if you're nicey to them," said Olly; who was just +then very much in love with a white kitten, and thought there were no +creatures so delightful as pussies. + +"Well, suppose you don't make up your mind about Aunt Emma's Polly till +you've seen her," said Mrs. Norton. "Now sit down on the rug there and +let us have a talk." + +Down squatted the children on the floor opposite their mother, with +their little heads full of plans and their eyes as bright as sparks. + +"I'll take my cart and horse," began Olly; "and my big ball, and my +whistle, and my wheelbarrow, and my spade, and all my books, and the big +scrap-book, and--" + +"You can't, Olly," exclaimed Milly. "Nurse could never pack all those +up. There'd be no room for our clothes. You can take your whistle, and +the top, and the picture books, and I can take my dolls. That'll be +quite enough, won't it, mother?" + +"Quite enough," said Mrs. Norton. "If it's fine weather you'll see--you +won't want any toys. But now, look here, children," and she held up the +map. "Shall I show you how we are going to get to the mountains?" + +"Oh yes," said Milly, "that'll be like my geography lesson--come, Olly. +Now mother'll teach _you_ geography, like Fraeulein does me." + +"That's lessons," said Olly, with half a pout, "not fun a bit. It's only +girls like lessons--Boys never do--Jacky doesn't, and Francis doesn't, +and I don't." + +"Never mind about it's being lessons, Olly. Come and see if it isn't +interesting," said Mrs. Norton. "Now, Milly, find Willingham." + +Willingham was the name of the town where Milly and Oliver lived. It is +a little town in Oxfordshire, and if you look long enough on the map you +_may_ find it, though I won't promise you. + +"There it is," said Milly triumphantly, showing it to her mother and +Olly. + +"Quite right. Now look here," and Mrs. Norton took a pencil out of her +pocket and drew a little line along the map. "First of all we shall get +into the train and go to a place called--look, Milly." + +"Bletchley," said Milly, following where the pencil pointed. "What an +ugly name." + +"It's an ugly place," said Mrs. Norton, "so perhaps it doesn't deserve a +better name. And after Bletchley--look again, Milly." + +"Rugby," said Milly, reading the names as her mother pointed, "and then +Stafford, and then Crewe--what a funny name, mother!--and then Wigan, +and then Warrington, and then Lancaster. Ox-en-holme, Kendal, +Wind-er-mere. Oh, mother, what a long way! Why, we've got right to the +top of England." + +"Stop a bit, Milly, and let me tell you something about these places. +First of all we shall get out of the train at Bletchley, and get into +another train that will go faster than the first. And it will take us +past all kinds of places, some pretty and some ugly, and some big and +some small. At Stafford there is an old castle, Milly, where fierce +people lived in old days and fought their neighbours. And at Crewe we +shall get out and have our dinner. And at Wigan all the trees grow on +one side as if some one had come and given them a push in the night; and +at Lancaster there's another old castle, a very famous one, only now +they have turned it into a prison, and people are shut up inside it. +Then a little way after Lancaster you'll begin to see some mountains, +far, far away, but first you'll see something else--just a little bit of +blue sea, with mountains on the other side of it. And then will come +Windermere, where we shall get out and drive in a carriage. And we shall +drive right into the mountains, Olly, till they stand up all round us +with their dear kind old faces that mother has loved ever since she was +a baby." + +The children looked up wonderingly at their mother, and they saw her +face shining and her eyes as bright as theirs, as if she too was a child +going out for a holiday. + +"Oh! And, mother," said Olly, "you'll let us take Spot. She can go in my +box." + +Now Spot was the white kitten, so Milly and mother began to laugh. + +"Suppose you go and ask Spot first, whether she'd like it, Olly," said +Mrs. Norton, patting his sunburnt little face. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A JOURNEY NORTH + + +Milly and Oliver lived at Willingham, a little town in Oxfordshire, as I +have already told you. Their father was a doctor, and they lived in an +old-fashioned house, in a street, with a long shady garden stretching +away behind it. Milly and Oliver loved their father, and whenever he put +his brown face inside the nursery door, two pairs of little feet went +running to meet him, and two pairs of little hands pulled him eagerly +into the room. But they saw him very seldom; whereas their mother was +always with them, teaching them their lessons, playing with them in the +garden, telling them stories, mending their frocks, tucking them up in +their snug little beds at night, sometimes praising them, sometimes +scolding them; always loving and looking after them. Milly and Olly +honestly believed that theirs was the best mother in the whole world. +Nobody else could find out such nice plays, or tell them such wonderful +stories, or dress dolls half so well. Two little neighbours of theirs, +Jacky and Francis, had a poor sick mother who always lay on the sofa, +and could hardly bear to have her little boys in the room with her. +Milly and Oliver were never tired of wondering how Jacky and Francis got +on with a mother like that. "How funny, and how dreadful it must be. +Poor Jacky and Francis!" It never came into their, heads to say, "Poor +Jacky's mother" too, but then you see they were such little people, and +little people have only room in their heads for a very few thoughts at a +time. + +However, Milly had been away from her mother a good deal lately. About +six months before my story begins she had been sent to school, to a +kindergarten, as she was taught to call it. And there Milly had learnt +all kinds of wonderful things--she had learnt how to make mats out of +paper, blue mats, and pink mats, and yellow mats, and red mats; she had +learned how to make a bit of soft clay look like a box, or a stool, or a +bird's nest with three clay eggs inside it; she had begun to add up and +take away; and, above all, she had begun to learn geography, and +Fraeulein--for Milly's mistress was a German, and had a German name--was +just now teaching her about islands, and lakes, and capes, and +peninsulas, and many other things that all little girls have to learn +about some time or other, unless they wish to grow up dunces. + +As for Milly's looks, I have told you already that she had blue eyes and +a turn-up nose, and a dear sensible little face. And she had very thick +fair hair, that was always tumbling about her eyes, and making her look, +as nurse told her, like "a yellow owl in an ivy bush." Milly loved most +people, except perhaps John the gardener, who was rather cross to the +children, and was always calling to them not to walk "on them beds," and +to be sure not to touch any of his fruit or flowers. She loved her +father and her mother; she loved Olly with all her whole heart, though +he was a tease, she loved her nurse, whom she and Olly called Nana, and +who had been with them ever since Milly was born; and she loved +Fraeulein, and was always begging flowers from her mother that she might +take them to school for Fraeulein's table. So you see Milly was made up +of loving. And she was a thoughtful little girl too, tidy with her +dress, quick and quiet at her lessons, and always ready to sit still +with her fairy-book or her doll, when mother was busy or tired. But +there were two things in which Milly was not at all sensible in spite of +her sensible face. She was much too ready to cry when any little thing +went wrong, and she was dreadfully afraid of creatures of all sorts. She +was afraid of her father's big dog, she was afraid of the dear brown cow +that lived in the field beyond the garden, she was afraid of earwigs. I +am even ashamed to say she was afraid of spiders. Once she ran away as +if a lion were behind her from a white kitten that pulled her dress with +its frolicsome paws to make her play with it; but that, Milly would tell +you, was "when I was little," and she was quite sure she was a good deal +braver now. + +Now what am I to tell you about Olly? + +Olly was just a round ball of fun and mischief. He had brown hair, brown +eyes, a brown face, and brown hands. He was always touching and meddling +with everything, indoors and out, to see what was inside it, or what it +was made of. He liked teasing Milly, he liked his walks, he liked his +sleep in the morning, he liked his dinner, he liked his tea, he liked +everything in the world, except learning to read, and that he hated. He +could only do one thing besides mischief. He could sing all kinds of +tunes--quick tunes, slow tunes, and merry tunes. He had been able to +sing tunes ever since he was quite a tiny baby, and his father and +mother often talked together of how, in about a year, he should be +taught to play on the piano, or perhaps on the violin, if he liked it +better. You might hear his sharp, shrill little voice, singing about the +house and the garden all day long. John the gardener called it +"squealin'," and told Olly his songs were "capital good" for frightening +away the birds. + +Now, perhaps, you know a little more about Milly and Olly than you did +when I began to tell you about them, and it is time you should hear of +what happened to them on that wonderful journey of theirs up to the +mountains. + +First of all came the packing up. Milly could not make up her mind about +her dolls; she had three--Rose, Mattie, and Katie--but Rose's frocks +were very dirty, Mattie had a leg broken, and Katie's paint had been all +washed off one wet night, when Olly left her out on the lawn. Now which +of these was the tidiest and most respectable doll to take out on a +visit? Milly did not know how to settle it. + +[Illustration: "'I can't do without my toys, Nana'"] + +"I think, Nana," she said at last to her nurse, who was packing the +children's trunk, "I will take Katie. Mother always sends us away when +we get white faces to make us look nice and red again; so, perhaps, if I +take Katie her colour will come back too, you know." + +"Perhaps it will, Miss Milly," said nurse, laughing; "anyhow, you had +better give me the doll you want directly, for it is time I packed all +the toys now. Now, Master Olly, you know I can't let you take all those +things." + +For there was Olly dragging along his wheelbarrow heaped up with toys +with one hand, and his cart and horse with a box of bricks standing up +in it with the other. He would not listen to what Milly said about it, +and he would scarcely listen to nurse now. + +"I can't do without my toys, Nana. I _must_ do mischief if you won't let +me take all my toys; I can't help it." + +"I haven't got room for half those, Master Olly, and you'll have ever so +many new things to play with when we get to Ravensnest." + +"There'll be the new children, Olly," said Milly, "and the little rivers +and all the funny new flowers." + +"Those aren't toys," said Olly, looking ready to cry. "I don't know +nothing about them." + +"Now," said nurse, making a place in the box, "bring me your bricks and +your big ball, and your picture-books. There, that's all I can spare +you." + +"Wait one minute," said Olly, rushing off; and just then Mrs. Norton +called nurse away to speak to her in the drawing-room. When nurse came +back she saw nobody in the nursery. Milly had gone out in the garden, +Olly was nowhere to be seen. And who had shut down the trunk, which was +open when she left it? Me-ow, sounded very softly from somewhere close +by. + +"Why--Spot! Spot!" called nurse. + +Me-ow, Me-ow, came again; a sad choky little mew, right from the middle +of the children's trunk. "Master Olly and his tricks again," said nurse, +running to the box and opening it. There, on the top, lay a quantity of +frocks that nurse had left folded up on the floor, thrown in anyhow, +with some toys scattered among them, and the frocks and toys were all +dancing up and down as if they were bewitched. Nurse took out the +frocks, and there was the children's collar-box, a large round +cardboard-box with a lid, jumping from side to side like a box in a +fairy tale; and such dreadful pitiful little mews coming from the +inside! Nurse undid the lid, and out sprang Spot like a flash of +lightning, and ran as if she were running for her life out of the door +and down the stairs, and safe into the kitchen, where she cuddled +herself up in a corner of the fender, wishing with all her poor +trembling little heart that there were no such things in the world as +small boys. And then nurse heard a kind of kicking and scuffling in the +china cupboard, and when she opened it there sat Olly doubled up, his +brown eyes dancing like will-o'-the-wisps, and his little white teeth +grinning. + +"Oh! Nana, she _did_ make a funny me-ow! I just said to her, Now, +Spottie, _wouldn't_ you like to go in my box? and she said, Yes; and I +made her such a comfy bed, and then I stuck all those frocks on the top +of her to keep her warm. Why did you let her out, Nana?" + +"You little mischief," said Nana, "do you know you might have smothered +poor little Spot? And look at all these frocks; do you think I have got +nothing better to do than to tidy up after your tricks?" + +But nurse never knew how to be very hard upon Olly; so all she did was +to set him up on a high chair with a picture-book, where she could see +all he was doing. There was no saying what he might take a fancy to pack +up next if she didn't keep an eye on him. + +Well, presently all the packing was done, and Milly and Olly had gone to +say good-bye to Fraeulein, and to Jacky and Francis. Wednesday evening +came, and they were to start early on Thursday morning. Olly begged +nurse to put him to bed very early, that he might "wake up krick"--quick +was a word Olly never could say. So to bed he went at half-past six, and +his head had scarcely touched the pillow two minutes before he had gone +cantering away into dreamland, and was seeing all the sights and hearing +all the delicious stories that children do see and hear in dreamland, +though they don't always remember them when they wake up. Both Milly and +he woke up very early on Thursday morning; and directly his eyes were +open Olly jumped out of bed like an india-rubber ball, and began to put +on his stockings in a terrible hurry. The noise of his jump woke nurse, +and she called out in a sleepy voice: + +"Get into bed again, Master Olly, directly. It is only just six o'clock, +and I can't have you out of bed till seven. You'll only be under my +feet, and in everybody's way." + +"Nana, I won't be in _anybody's_ way," exclaimed Olly, running up to her +and scrambling on to her bed with his little bare toes half way into his +stockings. "I can't keep still in my bed all such a long time. There's +something inside of me, Nana, keeps jumping up and down, and won't let +me keep still. Now, if I get up, you know, Nana, I can help you." + +"Help me, indeed!" said nurse, kissing his little brown face, or as much +of it as could be seen through his curls. "A nice helping that would be. +Come back to bed, sir, and I'll give you some picture-books till I'm +ready to dress you." + +So back to bed Master Olly went, sorely against his will, and there he +had to stay till nurse and Milly were dressed, and the breakfast things +laid. Then nurse gave him his bath and dressed him, and put him up to +eat his bread and milk while she finished the packing. Olly was always +very quiet over his meals, and it was the only time in the day when he +was quiet. + +Presently up rattled the cab, and down ran the children with their +walking things on to see father and John lift the boxes on to the top; +and soon they were saying good-bye to Susan the cook, and Jenny the +housemaid, who were going to stay and take care of the house while they +were away; and then crack went the whip, and off they went to the +station. On the way they passed Jacky and Francis standing at their +gate, and all the children waved their hats and shouted "Hurrah! +hurrah!" At the station nurse kept tight hold of Olly till father had +got the tickets and put all the boxes into the train, and then he and +Milly were safely lifted up into the railway carriage, and nurse and +father and mother came next, with all the bags and shawls and umbrellas. + +Such a settling of legs and arms and packages there was; and in the +middle of it "whew" went the whistle, and off they went away to the +mountains. + +But they had a long way to go before they saw any mountains. First of +all they had to get to Bletchley, and it took about an hour doing that. +And oh! what a lovely morning it was, and how fresh and green the fields +looked as the train hurried along past them. Olly and Milly could see +hundreds and thousands of moon-daisies and buttercups growing among the +wet grass, and every now and then came great bushes of wild-roses, some +pink and some white, and long pools with yellow irises growing along the +side; and sometimes the train went rushing through a little village, and +they could see the little children trotting along to school, with their +books and slates tucked under their arms; and sometimes they went along +for miles together without seeing anything but the white-and-brown cows +in the fields, and the great mother-sheep with their fat white lambs +beside them. The sun shone so brightly, the buttercups were so yellow, +the roses so pink, and the sky so blue, it was like a fairy world. Olly +and Milly were always shouting and clapping their hands at something or +other, for Milly had grown almost as wild as Olly. + +Sh-sh-sh-sh went the train, getting slower and slower till at last it +stopped altogether. + +"Bletchley, Bletchley!" shouted Olly, jumping down off the seat. + +"No, my boy," said his father, catching hold of him, "we shall stop five +more times before we get to Bletchley; so don't be impatient." + +But at last came Bletchley, and the children were lifted out into the +middle of such a bustle, as it seemed to Milly. There were crowds of +people at the station, and they were all pushing backward and forward, +and shouting and talking. + +"Keep hold of me, Olly," said Milly, with an anxious little face. "Oh, +Nana, don't let him go!" + +But nurse held him fast; and very soon they were through the crowd, and +father had put them safe into their new train, into a carriage marked +"Windermere," which would take them all the way to their journey's end. + +"That was like lions and bears, wasn't it, mother?" said Olly, pointing +to the crowd in the station, as they went puffing away. Now, "lions and +bears" was a favourite game of the children's, a romping game, where +everybody ran about and pretended to be somebody else, and where the +more people played, and the more they ran and pushed and tumbled about, +the funnier, it was. And the running, scrambling people at the station +did look rather as if they were playing at lions and bears. + +And now the children had a long day before them. On rushed the train, +past towns and villages, and houses and trains. The sun got hotter and +hotter, and the children began to get a little tired of looking out of +window. Milly asked for a story-book, and was soon very happy reading +"Snow White and Rose Red." She had read it a hundred times before, but +that never mattered a bit. Olly came to sit on nurse's knee while she +showed him pictures, and so the time passed away. And now the train +stopped again, and father lifted Olly on his knee to see a great church +far away over the houses, and taught him to say "Lichfield Cathedral." +And then came Stafford; and Milly looked out for the castle, and +wondered whether the castles in her story-books looked like that, and +whether princesses and fairy godmothers and giants ever lived there in +old times. + +After they had left Stafford, Olly began to get tired and fidgety. First +he went to sit on his father's knee, then on mother's, then on +nurse's--none of them could keep him still, and nothing seemed to amuse +him for long together. + +"Come and have a sleep, Master Olly," said nurse. "You are just tired +and hot. This is a long way for little boys, and we've got ever so far +to go yet." + +"I'm not sleepy, Nana," said Olly, sitting straight up, with a little +flushed face and wide-open eyes. "I'm going to keep awake like father." + +"Father's going to sleep, then," said Mr. Norton, tucking himself up in +a shady corner; "so you go too, Olly, and see which of us can go +quickest." + +When Olly had seen his father's eyes tight shut, and heard him give just +one little snore--it was rather a make-believe snore--he did let nurse +draw him on to her knee; and very soon the little gipsy creature was +fast asleep, with all his brown curls lying like a soft mat over nurse's +arm. Milly, too, shut her eyes and sat very still; she did not mean to +go to sleep, but presently she began to think a great many sleepy +thoughts: Why did the hedges run so fast? and why did the telegraph +wires go up and down as if they were always making curtsies? and was +that really mother opposite, or was it Cinderella's fairy godmother? And +all of a sudden Milly came bump up against a tall blue mountain that had +a face like a man, and cried out when she bumped upon it! + +"Crewe, I declare," exclaimed father, jumping up with a start. "Why, +Olly and I have been asleep nearly an hour! Wake up, children, it's +dinner-time." + +Nurse had to shake Olly a great many times before he would open his +sleepy eyes, and then he stood up rubbing them as if he would rub them +quite away. Father lifted him out, and carried him into a big room, with +a big table in it, all ready for dinner, and hungry people sitting round +it. What fun it was having dinner at a station, with all the grown-up +people. Milly and Olly thought there never was such nice bread and such +nice apple-tart. Nothing at home ever tasted half so good. And after +dinner father took them a little walk up and down the platform, and at +last, just as it was time to get into the train again, he bought them a +paper full of pictures, called the _Graphic_, that amused Olly for a +long way. + +But it was a long long way to Windermere, and poor Milly and Olly began +to get very tired. The trees at Wigan did make them laugh a little bit, +but they were too tired to think them as funny as they would have +thought them in the morning. They are such comical trees! First of all, +the smoke from the smoky chimneys at Wigan has made them black, and +stopped the leaves from growing, and then the wind has blown them all +over on one side, so that they look like ugly little twisted dwarfs, as +if some cruel fairy had touched them with her wand. But Olly soon forgot +all about them; and he began to wander from one end to the other of the +carriage again, scrambling and jumping about, till he gave himself a +hard knock against the seat; and that made him begin to cry--poor tired +little Olly. Then mother lifted him on to her knee, and said to him, +very softly, "Are you very tired, Olly? Never mind, poor little man, we +shan't be very long now, and we're all tired, darling--father's tired, +and I'm tired; and look at Milly there, she looks like a little white +ghost. Suppose you be brave, and try a little extra hard to be good. +Then mother'll love you an extra bit. And what do you think we shall see +soon? such a lovely bit of blue sea with white ships on it. Just you +shut your eyes a little bit till it comes, I'll be sure to tell you." + +And sure enough, after Lancaster, mother gave a little cry, and Olly +jumped up, and Milly came running over, and there before them lay the +dancing windy blue sea, covered over with little white waves, running +and tumbling over each other. And on the other side of it, what did the +children see? + +"Mother, mother! what is it?" cried Olly, pointing with his little brown +hand far away; "is it a fairy palace, mother?" + +"Perhaps it is, Olly; anyway, the hill-fairies live there. For those are +the mountains, the beautiful mountains we are going to see." + +"But how shall we get across the sea to them?" asked Milly, with a +puzzled face. + +"This is only a corner of the sea, Milly--a bay. Don't you remember bays +in your geography? We can't go across it, but we can go round it, and we +shall find the mountains on the other side." + +Oh! how fast the train seemed to go now that there was something to look +at. Everywhere mountains were beginning to spring up. And when they had +said good-bye to the sea, the mountains began to grow taller and taller. +What had happened to the houses too? They had all turned white or gray; +there was no red one left. And the fields had stone walls instead of +hedges; and inside the walls there were small sheep, about as big as the +lambs they had seen near Oxford in the morning. + +Oxenholme, Kendal, Windermere. How glad the tired children were when the +train ran slowly down into Windermere station, and they could jump out +and say good-bye to it for a long, long time! They had to wait a little, +till father had found all the boxes and put them in the carriage that +was waiting for them, and then in they tumbled, nurse having first +wrapped them up in big shawls, for it was evening now, and the wind had +grown cold. That was a nice drive home among the mountains. How tall and +dark and quiet they were. And what was this shining on their left hand, +like a white face running beside them, and peeping from behind the +trees? Why, it was a lake; a great wide lake, with tiny boats upon it, +some with white sails and some without. + +"Mother! mother! may we go in those boats some day?" shouted Olly, in a +little sharp tired voice, and his mother smiled at him, and said--"Yes, +very likely." + +How happy mother looked. She knew all the mountains like old friends, +she could tell all their names; and every now and then, when they came +to a house, she and father would begin to talk about the people who +lived in it, just as if they were talking about people they knew quite +well. And now came a little town, the town of Wanwick mother called it, +right among the mountains, with a river running round it, and a tall +church spire. It began to get darker and darker, and the trees hung down +over the road, so that the children could hardly see. On they went, and +Olly was very nearly asleep again, when the carriage began to crunch +over gravel, and then it stopped, and father called out--"Here we are, +children, here we are at Ravensnest." + +And out they all jumped. What were those bright lights shining? Olly and +Milly hardly knew where they were going as nurse took them in, and one +of Uncle Richard's servants showed them the way upstairs to the nursery. +Such a nice nursery, with candles lit, and a little fire burning, two +bowls of hot bread and milk on the table, and in the corner two little +white beds, as soft and fresh as nests! In twenty minutes Olly was in +one of these little white beds, and Milly in the other. And you may +guess whether they were long about going to sleep. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +RAVENSNEST + + +"Poor little souls! How late they are sleeping. They must have been +tired last night." + +So said nurse at eight o'clock, when she came back into the nursery from +a journey to the kitchen after the breakfast things, and found the +children still fast asleep; so fast that it looked as if they meant to +go on sleeping till dinner-time. + +"Milly!" she called softly, shaking her very gently, "Milly, it's +breakfast-time, wake up!" + +Milly began to move about, and muttered something about "whistles" and +"hedges" in her sleep. + +Then nurse gave her another little shake, and at last Milly's eyes did +try very hard to open--"What is it? What do you want, Nana? Where are +we?--Oh, I know!" + +And up sprang Milly in a second and ran to the window, her sleepy eyes +wide open at last. "Yes, there they are! Come and look, Nana! There, +past those trees--don't you see the mountains? And there is father +walking about; and oh! do look at those roses over there. Dress me +quick, dress me quick, please, dear Nana." + +Thump! bump! and there was Olly out of bed, sitting on the floor rubbing +his eyes. Olly used always to jump out of bed half asleep, and then sit +a long time on the floor waking up. Nurse and Milly always left him +alone till he was quite woke up. It made him cross if you began to talk +to him too soon. + +"Milly," said Olly presently, in a sleepy voice, "I'm going right up the +mountains after breakfast. Aren't you?" + +"Wait till you see them, Master Olly," said nurse, taking him up and +kissing him, "perhaps your little legs won't find it quite so easy to +climb up the mountains as you think." + +"I can climb up three, four, six, seven mountains," said Olly stoutly; +"mountains aren't a bit hard. Mother says they're meant to climb up." + +"Well, I suppose it's like going up stairs a long way," said Milly, +thoughtfully, pulling on her stockings. "You didn't like going up the +stairs in Auntie Margaret's house, Olly." + +Auntie Margaret's house was a tall London house, with ever so many +stairs. The children when they were staying there were put to sleep at +the top, and Olly used to sit down on the stairs and pout and grumble +every time they had to go up. + +But Olly shook his obstinate little head. + +"I don't believe it's a bit like going up stairs." + +However, as they couldn't know what it was like before they tried, nurse +told them it was no good talking about it. So they hurried on with their +dressing, and presently there stood as fresh a pair of morning children +as anyone could wish to see, with rosy cheeks, and smooth hair, and +clean print frocks--for Olly was still in frocks--though when the winter +came mother said she was going to put him into knickerbockers. + +And then nurse took them each by the hand and led them through some long +passages, down a pretty staircase, and through a swing door, into what +looked like a great nagged kitchen, only there was no fireplace in it. +The real kitchen opened out of it at one side, and through the door came +a smell of coffee and toast that made the children feel as hungry as +little hunters. But their own room was straight in front, across the +kitchen without a fireplace, a tiny room with one large window hung +round with roses, and looking out on to a green lawn. + +"Nana, isn't it pretty? Nana, I think it's lovely!" said Milly, looking +out and clapping her hands. And it _was_ a pretty garden they could see +from the window. An up-and-down garden, with beds full of bright +flowers, and grass which was nearly all moss, and so soft that no +cushion could be softer. In the distance they could hear a little +splish-splash among the trees, which came, Milly supposed, from the +river mother had told them about; while, reaching up all round the +house, so that they could not see the top of it from the window, was the +green wild mountain itself, the mountain of Brownholme, under which +Uncle Richard's house was built. + +The children hurried through their breakfast, and then nurse covered +them up with garden pinafores, and took them to the dining-room to find +father and mother. Mr. and Mrs. Norton were reading letters when the +children's curly heads appeared at the open door, and Mrs. Norton was +just saying to her husband: + +"Aunt Emma sends a few lines just to welcome us, and to say that she +can't come over to us to-day, but will we all come over to her to-morrow +and have early dinner, and perhaps a row afterward--" + +"Oh, a row, mother, a row!" shouted Olly, clambering on to his mother's +knee and half-strangling her with his strong little arms; "I can row, +father said I might. Are we going to-day?" + +"No, to-morrow, Olly, when we've seen a little bit of Ravensnest first. +Which of you remembers Aunt Emma, I wonder?" + +"I remember her," said Milly, nodding her head wisely, "she had a big +white cap, and she told me stories. But I don't quite remember her face, +mother--not _quite_." + +"I don't remember her, not one bit," said Olly. "Mother, does she keep +saying, 'Don't do that;' 'Go up stairs, naughty boys,' like Jacky's aunt +does?" + +For the children's playfellows, Jacky and Francis, had an aunt living +with them whom Milly and Olly couldn't bear. They believed that she +couldn't say anything else except "Don't!" and "Go up stairs!" and they +were always in dread lest they should come across an aunt like her. + +"She's the dearest aunt in the whole world," said mother, "and she never +says, 'Don't,' except when she's obliged, but when she does say it +little boys have to mind. When I was a little girl I thought there was +nobody like Aunt Emma, nobody who could make such plans or tell such +splendid stories." + +"And, mother, can't she cut out card dolls? asked Milly. Don't you know +those beautiful card dolls you have in your drawer at home--didn't Aunt +Emma make them?" + +"Yes, of course she did. She made me a whole family once for my +birthday, a father and a mother, and two little girls and two little +boys. And each of the children had two paper dresses and two hats, one +for best and one for every day--and the mother had a white evening dress +trimmed with red, and a hat and a bonnet." + +"I know, mother! they're all in your drawer at home, only one of the +little boys has his head broken off. Do you think Aunt Emma would make +me a set if I asked her?" + +"I can't say, Milly. But I believe Aunt Emma's fingers are just as quick +as ever they were. Now, children, father says he will take you out while +I go and speak to cook. Olly, how do you think we're going to get any +meat for you and Milly here? There are no shops on the mountains." + +"Then we'll eat fisses, little fisses like those!" cried Olly, pointing +to a plate of tiny red-spotted fish that father and mother had been +having for breakfast. + +"Thank you, Olly," said Mr. Norton, laughing; "it would cost a good deal +to keep you in trout, sir. I think we'll try for some plain mutton for +you, even if we have to catch the sheep on the mountains ourselves. But +now come along till mother is ready, and I'll show you the river where +those little fishes lived." + +Out ran the children, ready to go anywhere and see anything in this +beautiful new place, which seemed to them a palace of wonders. And +presently they were skipping over the soft green grass, each holding one +of father's hands, and chattering away to him as if their little tongues +would never stop. What a hot day it was going to be! The sky overhead +was deep blue, with scarcely a cloud, they could hear nothing in the +still air but the sleepy cooing of the doves in the trees by the gate, +and the trees and flowers all looked as if they were going to sleep in +the heat. + +"Father, why did that old gentleman at Willingham last week tell mother +that it always rained in the mountains?" asked Milly, looking up at the +blue sky. + +"Well, Milly, I'm afraid you'll find out before you go home that it does +know how to rain here. Sometimes it rains and rains as if the sky were +coming down and all the world were going to turn into water. But never +mind about that now--it isn't going to rain to-day." + +Down they went through the garden, across the road, and into a field on +the other side of it, a beautiful hay-field full of flowers, with just a +narrow little path through it where the children and Mr. Norton could +walk one behind another. And at the end of the path what do you think +they found? Why, a chattering sparkling river, running along over +hundreds and thousands of brown and green pebbles, so fast that it +seemed to be trying to catch the birds as they skimmed across it. The +children had never seen a river like this before, where you could see +right to the very bottom, and count the stones there if you liked, and +which behaved like a river at play, scrambling and dancing and rushing +along as if it were out for a holiday, like the children themselves. + +"What do you think of that for a river, children?" said Mr. Norton. +"Very early this morning, when you little sleepyheads were in bed, I got +up and came down here, and had my bath over there, look--in that nice +brown pool under the tree." + +"Oh, father!" cried both children, dancing round him. "Let us have our +baths in the river too. Do ask Nana--do, father! We can have our bathing +things on that we had at the sea, and you can come too and teach us to +swim." + +"Well, just once perhaps, if mother says yes, and it's very warm +weather, and you get up very _very_ early. But you won't like it quite +as much as you think. Rivers are very cold to bathe in, and those pretty +stones at the bottom won't feel at all nice to your little toes." + +"Oh, but, father," interrupted Milly, "we could put on our sand shoes." + +"And wouldn't we splash!" said Olly. "Nurse won't let us splash in our +bath, father, she says it makes a mess. I'm sure it doesn't make a +_great_ mess." + +"What do you know about it, shrimp?" said Mr. Norton, "you don't have to +tidy up. Hush, isn't that mother calling? Let's go and fetch her, and +then we'll go and see Uncle Richard's farm, where the milk you had for +breakfast came from. There are three children there, Milly, besides cows +and pigs, and ducks and chickens." + +Back ran Milly and Olly, and there was mother watching for them with a +basket on her arm which had already got some roses lying in it. + +"Oh, mother! where did you get those roses?" cried Milly. + +"Wheeler, the gardener, gave them to me. And now suppose we go first of +all to see Mrs. Wheeler, and gardener's two little children. They live +in that cottage over there, across the brook, and the two little ones +have just been peeping over the wall to try and get a look at you." + +Up clambered Milly and Olly along a steep path that seemed to take them +up into the mountain, when suddenly they turned, and there was another +river, but such a tiny river, Milly could almost jump across it, and it +was tumbling and leaping down the rocks on its way to the big river +which they had just seen, as if it were a little child hurrying to its +mother. + +"Why, mother, what a lot of rivers," said Olly, running on to a little +bridge that had been built across the little stream, and looking over. + +"Just to begin with," said Mrs. Norton. "You'll see plenty more before +you've done. But I can't have you calling this a river, Olly. These baby +rivers are called becks in Westmoreland--some of the big ones, too, +indeed." + +On the other side of the little bridge was the gardener's cottage, and +in front of the door stood two funny fair-haired little children with +their fingers in their mouths, staring at Milly and Olly. One was a +little girl who was really about Milly's age, though she looked much +younger, and the other was a very shy small boy, with blue eyes and +straggling yellow hair, and a face that might have been pretty if you +could have seen it properly. But Charlie seemed to have made up his mind +that nobody ever should see it properly. However often his mother might +wash him, and she was a tidy woman, who liked to see her children look +clean and nice, Charlie was always black. His face was black, his hands +were black, his pinafore was sure to be covered with black marks ten +minutes after he had put it on. Do what you would to him, it was no use, +Charlie always looked as if he had just come out of the coal-hole. + +"Well, Bessie," said Mrs. Norton to the little girl, "is your mother +in?" + +"Naw," said Bessie, without taking her fingers out of her mouth. + +"Oh, I'm sorry for that. Do you know when she's likely to be in?" + +"Naw," said Bessie again, beginning to eat her pinafore as well as her +fingers. Meanwhile Charlie had been creeping behind Bessie to get out of +Olly's way; for Olly, who always wanted to make friends, was trying to +shake hands with him, and Charlie was dreadfully afraid that he wanted +to kiss him too. + +"What a pity," said Mrs. Norton, "I wanted to ask her a question. Come +away, Olly, and don't tease Charlie if he doesn't want to shake hands. +Can you remember, Bessie, to tell your mother that I came to see her?" + +"Yis," said Bessie. + +"And can you remember, too, to ask her if she will let you and Charlie +come down to tea with Miss Milly and Master Olly, this afternoon, at +five o'clock?" + +"Yis," said Bessie, getting shyer and shyer, and eating up her pinafore +faster than ever. + +"Good-bye, then," said Mrs. Norton. + +"Good-bye, Bessie," said Milly, softly, taking her hand. + +Bessie stared at her, but didn't say anything. + +Olly, having quite failed in shaking hands, was now trying to kiss +Charlie; but Charlie wouldn't have it at all, and every time Olly came +near, Charlie pushed him away with his little fists. This made Olly +rather cross, and he began to try with all his strength to make Charlie +kiss him, when suddenly Charlie got away from him, and running to a pile +of logs of wood which was lying in the yard he climbed up the logs like +a little squirrel, and was soon at the top of the heap, looking down on +Olly, who was very much astonished. + +"Mother, _do_ let me climb up too!" entreated Olly, as Mrs. Norton took +his hand to lead him away. "I want to climb up krick like that! Oh, do +let me try!" + +"No, no, Olly! come along. We shall never get to the farm if you stay +climbing here. And you wouldn't find it as easy as Charlie does, I can +tell you." + +"Why, I'm bigger than Charlie," said Olly, pouting, as they walked away. + +"But you haven't got such stout legs; and, besides, Charlie is always +out of doors all day long, climbing and poking about. I daresay he can +do outdoor things better than you can. You're a little town boy, you +know." + +"Charlie's got a black face," said Olly, who was not at all pleased that +Charlie, who was smaller than he was, and dirty besides, could do +anything better than he could. + +"Well, you see, he hasn't got a Nana always looking after him as you +have." + +"Hasn't he got _any_ Nana?" asked Olly, looking as if he didn't +understand how there could be little children without Nanas. + +"He hasn't got any nurse but his mother, and Mrs. Wheeler has a great +deal else to do than looking after him. What would you be like, do you +think, Olly, if I had to do all the housework, and cook the dinner, and +mind the baby, and there was no nurse to wash your face and hands for +you?" + +"I should get just like shock-headed Peter," said Olly, shaking his head +gravely at the idea. Shock-headed Peter was a dirty little boy in one of +Olly's picture-books; but I am sure you must have heard about him +already, and must have seen the picture of him with his bushy hair, and +his terrible long nails like birds' claws. Olly was never tired of +hearing about him, and about all the other children in that +picture-book. + +"What a funny little girl Bessie is, mother!" said Milly. "Do they +always say _Naw_ and _Yis_ in this country, instead of saying No and +Yes, like we do?" + +"Well, most of the people that live here do," said Mrs. Norton. "Their +way of talking sounds odd and queer at first, Milly, but when you get +used to it you will like it as I do, because it seems like a part of the +mountains." + +All this time they had been climbing up a steep path behind the +gardener's house, and now Mr. Norton opened a door in a high wall, and +let the children into a beautiful kitchen-garden made on the mountain +side, so that when they looked down from the gate they could see the +chimneys of Ravensnest just below them. Inside there were all kinds of +fruit and vegetables, but gooseberry bushes and the strawberries had +nothing but green gooseberries and white strawberries to show, to Olly's +great disappointment. + +"Why aren't the strawberries red, mother?" he asked in a discontented +voice, as if it must be somebody's fault that they weren't red. "Ours at +home were ripe." + +"Well, Olly, I suppose the strawberries know best. All I can tell you +is, that things always get ripe here later than at Willingham. Their +summer begins a little later than ours does, and so everything gets +pushed on a little. But there will be plenty by-and-by. And suppose just +now, instead of looking at the strawberries, you give just one look at +the mountains. Count how many you can see all round." + +"One, two, three, five," counted Olly. "What great big humps! Should we +be able to touch the sky if we got up to the top of that one, mother?" +and he pointed to a great blue mountain where the clouds seemed to be +resting on the top. + +"Well, if you were up there just now, you would be all among the clouds, +and it would seem like a white fog all round you. So you would be +touching the clouds at any rate." + +Olly opened his eyes very wide at the idea of touching the clouds. + +"Why, mother, we can't touch the clouds at home!" + +"That comes of living in a country as flat as a pancake," said Mr. +Norton. "Just you wait till we can buy a tame mountain, and carry it to +Willingham with us. Then we'll put it down in the middle of the garden, +and the clouds will come down to sit on the top of it just as they do +here. But now, who can scramble over that gate?" + +For the gate at the other end of the garden was locked, and as the +gardener couldn't be found, everybody had to scramble over, mother +included. However, Mr. Norton helped them all over, and then they found +themselves on a path running along the green mountain side. On they +went, through pretty bits of steep hay-fields, where the grass seemed +all clover and moon-daisies, till presently they came upon a small +hunched-up house, with a number of sheds on one side of it and a +kitchen-garden in front. This was Uncle Richard's farm; a very tiny +farm, where a man called John Backhouse lived, with his wife and two +little girls and a baby-boy. Except just in the hay-time, John Backhouse +had no men to help him, and he and his wife had to do all the work, to +look after the sheep, and the cows, the pigs, the horse, and the +chickens, to manage the garden and the hayfield, and to take the butter +and milk to the people who wanted to buy it. When their children grew up +and were able to help, Backhouse and his wife would be able to do it all +very well; but just now, when they were still quite small, it was very +hard work; it was all the farmer and his wife could do to make enough to +keep themselves and their children fed and clothed. + +Milly and Olly were very anxious to see the farmer's children and looked +out for them in the garden as they walked up to the house, but there +were no signs of them. The door was opened by Mrs. Backhouse, the +farmer's wife, who held a fair-haired baby in her arms sucking a great +crust of brown bread, and when Mr. and Mrs. Norton had shaken hands with +her--"I'm sure, ma'am, I'm very pleased to see you here," said Mrs. +Backhouse. "John told me you were come (only Mrs. Backhouse said +'coom'), and Becky and Tiza went down with their father when he took the +milk this morning, hoping they would catch a sight of your children. +They have been just wild to see them, but I told them they weren't +likely to be up at that time in the morning." + +"Where are they now?" asked Mrs. Norton. "Mine have been looking out for +them as we came along." + +"Well, ma'am, I can't say, unless they're in the cherry-tree. Becky! +Tiza!" + +A faint "Yis" came from the other end of the garden, but still Milly and +Olly could see nothing but a big cherry-tree growing where the voice +seemed to come from. + +"You go along that path, missy, and call again. You'll be sure to find +them," said Mrs. Backhouse, pointing to the tree. "And won't you come +in, ma'am, and rest a bit? You'll be maybe tired with walking this hot +day." + +So Mr. and Mrs. Norton went into the farmhouse, and the children went +hand-in-hand down the garden, looking for Becky and Tiza. + +Suddenly, as they came close to the cherry-tree, they heard a laugh and +a little scuffling, and looking up, what should they see but two little +girls perched up on one of the cherry-tree branches, one of them sewing, +the other nursing a baby kitten. Both of them had coloured print +bonnets, but the smaller had taken hers off and was rolling the kitten +up in it. The little girl sewing had a sensible, sober face; as for the +other, she could not have looked sober if she had tried for a week of +Sundays. It made you laugh only to look at Tiza. From the top of her +curly head to the soles of her skipping little feet, she was the +sauciest, merriest, noisiest creature. It was she who was always playing +tricks on the cows and the horse, and the big sheep-dogs; who liked +nothing so well as teasing Becky and dressing up the kittens, and who +was always tumbling into the milkpail, or rolling downstairs, or losing +herself in the woods, without somehow ever coming to any harm. If she +and Olly had been left alone in the world together they _must_ have come +to a bad end, but luckily each of them had wiser people to take care of +them. + +"Becky," said Milly, shyly, looking up into the tree, "will you come +down and say how do you do to us?" + +Becky stuck her needle in her work and scrambled down with a red shy +face to shake hands; but Tiza, instead of coming down, only climbed a +little higher, and peeped at the others between the branches. + +"We came down to the house when fayther took the milk this morning," +said Becky. "We thought maybe we'd see you in the garden. Only Tiza said +she'd run away if she did see you." + +"Why doesn't Tiza come down?" asked Olly, looking hard up into the tree. +"I want to see her." + +Thump! What was that rattling down on Olly's head? He looked down at his +feet very much astonished, and saw a bunch of green cherries which Tiza +had just thrown at him. + +"Throw some more! Throw some more!" he cried out, and Tiza began to pelt +him fast, while Olly ran here and there picking them up, and every now +and then trying to throw them back at Tiza; but she was too high up for +him to reach, and they only came rattling about his head again. + +"She won't come down," said Becky, looking up at her sister. "Maybe she +won't speak to you for two or three days. And if you run after her she +hides in such queer places you can never find her." + +"But mother wants you and her to come to tea with us this afternoon," +said Milly; "won't Tiza come?" + +"I suppose mother'll make her," said Becky, "but she doesn't like it. +Have you been on the fell?" + +Milly looked puzzled. "Do you mean on the mountain? No, not yet. We're +going to-morrow when we go to Aunt Emma's. But we've been to the river +with father." + +"Did you go over the stepping-stones?" + +"No," said Milly, "I don't know what they are. Can we go this evening +after tea?" + +"Oh yes," said Becky, "they're just close by your house. Does your +mother let you go in the water?" + +Now Becky said a great many of these words very funnily, so that Milly +could hardly understand her. She said "doos" and "oop," and "knaw," and +"jist," and "la-ike," but it sounded quite pretty from her soft little +mouth, and Milly thought she had a very nice way of talking. + +"No, mother doesn't let us go in the water here, at least, not unless +it's very warm. We paddle when we go to the sea, and some day father +says we may have our bath in the river if it's very fine." + +"We never have a bath in the river," said Becky, looking very much +astonished at the idea. + +"Do you have your bath in the nursery like we do?" asked Milly. + +"We haven't got a nursery," said Becky, staring at her, "mother puts us +in the toob on Saturday nights. I don't mind it but Tiza doesn't like it +a bit. Sometimes she hides when it's Saturday night, so that mother +can't find her till it's too late." + +"Don't you have a bath except on Saturday?" said Milly. "Olly and I have +one every morning. Mother says we should get like shock-headed Peter if +we didn't." + +"I don't know about him," said Becky, shaking her head. + +"He's a little boy in a picture-book. I'll show him you when you come to +tea. But there's mother calling. Come along, Olly. Tiza won't come down +Becky says." + +"She's a very rude girl," said Olly, who was rather hot and tired with +his game, and didn't think it was all fun that Tiza should always hit +him and he should never be able to hit Tiza. "I won't sit next her when +she comes to tea with us." + +"Tiza's only in fun," said Becky, "she's always like that. Tiza, are you +coming down? I am going to get baby out, I heard him crying just now." + +"May you take baby out all by yourself?" asked Milly. + +"Why, I always take him out, and I put him to sleep at nights; and +mother says he won't go to sleep for anybody as quick as for me," said +Becky proudly. + +Milly felt a good deal puzzled. It _must_ be funny to have no Nana. + +"Will you and he," said Becky, pointing to Olly, "come up this afternoon +and help us call the cows?" + +"If we may," said Milly; "who calls them?" + +"Tiza and I," answered Becky; "when I'm a big girl I shall learn how to +milk, but fayther says I'm too little yet." + +"I wish I lived at a farm," said Milly disconsolately. + +Becky didn't quite know what to say to this, so she began to call Tiza +again. + +"Swish!" went something past them as quick as lightning. It was Tiza +running to the house. Olly set out to run after her as fast as he could +run, but he came bang up against his mother standing at the farmhouse +door, just as Tiza got safely in and was seen no more. + +"Ah, you won't catch Tiza, master," said Mrs. Backhouse, patting his +head; "she's a rough girl, always at some tricks or other--we think she +ought to have been a boy, really." + +"Mother, isn't Becky very nice?" said Milly, as they walked away. "Her +mother lets her do such a lot of things--nurse the baby, and call the +cows, and make pinafores. Oh, I wish father was a farmer." + +"Well, it's not a bad kind of life when the sun shines, and everything +is going right," said Mrs. Norton; "but I think you had better wait a +little bit till the rain comes before you quite make up your mind about +it, Milly." + +But Milly was quite sure she knew enough about it already to make up her +mind, and all the way home she kept saying to herself, "If I could only +turn into a little farmer's girl! Why don't people have fairy godmothers +now like Cinderella?" + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +OUT ON THE HILLS + + +Milly and Olly, and the four little Westmoreland children, had a very +pleasant tea together in the afternoon of the Nortons's first day at +Ravensnest. Bessie and Charlie certainly didn't talk much; but Tiza, +when once her mother had made her come, thought proper to get rid of a +great deal of her shyness, and to chatter and romp so much that they +quite fell in love with her, and could not be persuaded to go anywhere +or do anything without her. Nurse would not let Milly and Olly go to +call the cows, though she promised they should some other day; but she +took the whole party down to the stepping-stones after tea, and great +fun it was to see Becky and Tiza running over the stepping-stones, and +jumping from one stone to another like little fawns. Milly and Olly +wanted sorely to go too, but there was no persuading Nana to let them go +without their father to fish them out if they tumbled in, so they had to +content themselves with dangling their legs over the first +stepping-stone and watching the others. But perhaps you don't quite +known what stepping-stones are? They are large high stones, with flat +tops, which people put in, a little way apart from each other, right +across a river, so that by stepping from one to the other you can cross +to the opposite side. Of course they only do for little rivers, where +the water isn't very deep. And they don't always do even there. +Sometimes in the river Thora, where Milly and Olly's stepping-stones +were, when it rained very much, the water rose so high that it dashed +right over the stepping-stones and nobody could go across. Milly and +Olly saw the stepping-stones covered with water once or twice while they +were at Ravensnest; but the first evening they saw them the river was +very low, and the stones stood up high and dry out of the water. Milly +thought that stepping-stones were much nicer than bridges, and that it +was the most amusing and interesting way of getting across a river that +she knew. But then Milly was inclined to think everything wonderful and +interesting at Ravensnest--from the tall mountains that seemed to shut +them in all around like a wall, down to the tiny gleaming wild +strawberries, that were just beginning to show their little scarlet +balls on the banks in the Ravensnest woods. Both she and Olly went to +bed after their first day at Ravensnest with their little hearts full of +happiness, and their little heads full of plans. To-morrow they were to +go to Aunt Emma's, and perhaps the day after that father would take them +to bathe in the river, and nurse would let them go and help Becky and +Tiza call the cows. Holidays _were_ nice; still geography lessons were +nice too sometimes, thought Milly sleepily, just as she was slipping, +slipping away into dreamland, and in her dreams her faithful little +thoughts went back lovingly to Fraeulein's kind old face, and to the +capes and islands and seas she had been learning about a week ago. + +[Illustration: "The flowers Milly gathered for her mother"] + +The next morning Mr. and Mrs. Norton were busy indoors till about twelve +o'clock; and the children wandered about the garden with nurse, finding +out many new nooks and corners, especially a delightful steep path which +led up and up into the woods, till at last it took the children to a +little brown summer-house at the top, where they could sit and look over +the trees below, away to the river and the hay-fields and the mountains. +And between the stones and this path grew the prettiest wild +strawberries, only, as Milly said, it was not much good looking for them +yet, for there were so few red ones you could scarcely get enough to +taste what they were like. But in a week or two, she and Olly planned +that they would take up a basket with some green leaves in it, and +gather a lot for father and mother--enough for regular dessert--and some +wild raspberries too, for these also grew in the wood, to the great +delight of the children, who had never seen any before. They began to +feel presently as if it would be nothing very extraordinary to find +trees covered with barley sugar or jam tarts in this wonderful wood. And +as for the flowers Milly gathered for her mother, they were a sight to +see--moon-daisies and meadow-sweet, wild roses and ragged-robins, and +bright bits of rhododendrons. For both the woods and the garden at +Ravensnest were full of rhododendrons of all colours, pink and red, and +white and flame colour; and Milly and Olly amused themselves with making +up bunches of different coloured flowers with as many different colours +in them as they could find. There were no rhododendrons at Willingham; +and the children thought them the loveliest, gayest things they had ever +seen. + +But at last twelve o'clock came. Nurse tidied the children, gave them +some biscuits and milk, and then sent them to the drawing-room to find +father and mother. Only Mrs. Norton was there, but she said there was no +need to wait for father, as he was out already and would meet them on +the way. They were to go straight over the mountain instead of walking +round by the road, which would have taken much longer. So off they +set--Olly skipping, and chattering as he always did; while Milly stuck +close to her mother, telling her every now and then, when Olly left off +talking, about their morning in the wood, the flowers they had gathered +and the strawberries they had found. At the top of the garden was a +little gate, and beside the gate stood Bessie and Charlie, who had +really been watching for the children all the morning, though they +didn't dare to come into the garden without leave. + +"Bessie, we are going to Aunt Emma's," said Milly, running up to them. +"Where are you and Charlie going to?" + +"Nawhere," said Bessie, who, as usual, had her pinafore in her mouth, +and never said more than one word at a time if she could help it. + +"Nowhere! what do you do all the morning, Bessie?" + +"I doan't know," said Bessie, gravely looking up at her; "sometimes I +mind the baby." + +"Do you mind the baby, too? Dear, dear! And what does Charlie do?" + +"Nawthing," said Bessie again. "He only makes himself dirty." + +"Don't you go to school ever?" + +"No, but mother's going to send us," said Bessie, whose big eyes grew +round and frightened at the idea, as if it was a dreadful prospect. "Are +you going to be away for all day?" + +"Yes; we shan't be back till quite evening, mother says. Here she is. +Good-bye, Bessie; good-bye, Charlie. Will you come and play with us +to-morrow morning?" + +Bessie nodded, but Charlie ran off without answering; for he saw Olly +coming, and was afraid he might want to kiss him. On the other side of +the gate they had to begin to climb up a steep bit of soft green grass; +and very hard work it was. After quite a little way the children began +to puff and pant like two little steam engines. + +"It _is_ a little bit like going upstairs, don't you think, Olly?" said +Milly, sitting down by her mother on a flat bit of gray stone. + +"No, it isn't a bit like going upstairs," said Olly, shaking his head; +for Olly always liked contradicting Milly if he could. "It's like--it's +like--walking up a house!" + +Suddenly they heard far above them a shout of "Hullo!" Both the children +started up and looked about them. It was like father's voice, but they +couldn't see him anywhere. + +"Where are you, father?" + +"Hullo!" again. And this time it sounded much nearer to them. Where +could it be? The children began to run about and look behind the bushes +and the rocks, till all of a sudden, just as Milly got near a big rock, +out jumped Mr. Norton from behind it with a great shout, and began to +run after her. Away ran Milly and Olly as fast as their small feet could +carry them, up and down, up and down, till at last there came a steep +place--one of Milly's feet tripped up, down she went, rolling over and +over--down came Olly on the top of her, and the two of them rolled away +together till they stopped at the bottom of the steep place, all mixed +up in a heap of legs and arms and hats and pinafores. + +"Here's a boy and girl tied up in a knot," said Mr. Norton, scrambling +down after them and lifting them up. "There's no harm done, is there?" + +"I've got a bump on my arm," said Milly, turning up her sleeve. + +"And I've got a scratch on my nose," said Olly, rubbing it. + +"That's not much for a nice tumble like that," said Mr. Norton, "you +wouldn't mind another, would you, Milly?" + +"Not a bit," said Milly, merrily skipping along beside him. "Hide again, +father." + +"Another day, not now, for we want to get to Aunt Emma's. But tomorrow, +if you like, we'll come up here and have a capital game. Only we must +choose a nice dry place where there are no bogs." + +"What are bogs?" asked Olly. + +"Wet places, where your feet go sinking deeper and deeper into the mud, +and you can't find any stiff firm bit to stand on. Sometimes people sink +down and down into a bog till the mud comes right over their head and +face and chokes them; but we haven't got any bogs as bad as that here. +Now, children, step along in front. Very soon we shall get to the top of +the mountain, and then we shall see wonderful things on the other side." + +So Milly and Olly ran on, pushing their way through the great tall fern, +or scampering over the short green grass where the little mountain sheep +were nibbling, and where a beautiful creeping moss grew all over the +ground, which, mother told Milly, was called "Stags' horn moss," because +its little green branches were so like stags' horns. + +"Now look, children," shouted their father to them from behind. "Here we +are at the top." + +And then, all of a sudden, instead of only the green mountain and the +sheep, they could see far away on the other side of the mountain. There, +all round them, were numbers of other mountains; and below, at their +feet, were houses and trees and fields, while straight in front lay a +great big blue lake stretching away ever so far, till it seemed to be +lost in the sky. + +"Look, look, mother!" cried Milly, clapping her hands, "there's +Windermere lake, the lake we saw when we were coming from the station. +Look at that steamer, with all the people on board! What funny little +black people. And oh, mother, look at that little boat over there! How +can people go out in such a weeny boat as that?" + +"It isn't such a weeny boat, Milly. It only looks so small because it's +such a long way off. When father and I take you and Olly on the lake, we +shall go in a boat just like that. And now, instead of looking so far +away, look just down here below you, and tell me what you see." + +"Some chimneys, and some trees, and some smoke, ever so far down," +shouted the children. "Is it a house, mother?" + +"That's Aunt Emma's house, the old house where I used to come and stay +when I was a little girl, and when your dear great-grandfather and +great-grandmother were alive. I used to think it the nicest place in the +world." + +"Were you a very little girl, mother, and were you ever naughty?" asked +Milly, slipping her little hand into her mother's and beginning to feel +rather tired with her long walk. + +"I'm afraid I was very often naughty, Milly. I used to get into great +rages and scream, till everybody was quite tired out. But Aunt Emma was +very good to me, and took a great deal of pains to cure me of going into +rages. Besides, it always did naughty children good to live in the same +house with great-grandmamma, and so after a while I got better. Take +care how you go, children, it's very steep just here, and you might soon +tumble over on your noses. Olly, take care! take care! where _are_ you +going?" + +Where, indeed, was Olly going? Just the moment before the little man had +spied a lovely flower growing a little way off the path, in the middle +of some bright yellow-green moss. And without thinking of anything but +getting it, off he rushed. But oh! splish, splash, splish, down went +Olly's feet, up splashed the muddy water, and there was Olly stuck in a +bog. + +"Father, pull me out, pull me out!" cried the little boy in terror, as +he felt his feet stuck fast. But almost before he could speak there was +father close beside him, standing on a round little hump of dry grass +which was sticking up out of the bog, and with one grip he got hold of +Olly under his arm, and then jump! on to another little hump of grass, +jump! on to another, and there they were safe on the path again. + +"Oh, you black boy!" cried father and mother and Milly all together. Was +there ever such a little object! All his nice clean holland frock was +splashed with black mud; and what had happened to his stockings? + +"I've got mud-stockings on," shouted Olly, capering about, and pointing +to his legs which were caked with mud up to his knees. + +"You're a nice respectable boy to take out to dinner," said Mrs. Norton. +"I think we'll leave you on the mountain to have dinner with the sheep." + +"Oh no, father," pleaded Milly, taking Olly fast by the hand. "We can +wash him at Aunt Emma's, you know." + +"Don't go too close to him, Milly!" exclaimed Mrs. Norton, "or you'll +get as black as he is. We shall have to put him under the pump at Aunt +Emma's, that's quite certain. But there's nothing to wash him with here, +so he must just go as he is for a bit. Now, Olly, run along and your +feet will soon dry. Father's going first, you go next, just where he +goes, I'm coming after you, and Milly shall go last. Perhaps in that way +we shall get you down safe." + +"Oh, but, mother, look at my flower," said Olly, holding it up +triumphantly. "Isn't it a beauty?" + +"Shall I tell you what it's called, Olly? It's called a butterwort, and +it always grows in boggy places; I wouldn't advise you to go after one +again without asking father first." + +It was a very different thing going down the mountain from climbing up +it. It seemed only a few minutes before they had got almost to the +bottom, and there was a gate leading into a road, and a little village +of white houses in front of them. They walked up the road a little way, +and then father opened a big gate and let them into a beautiful garden +full of rhododendrons like the Ravensnest garden. And who was this +walking down the drive to meet them? Such a pretty little elderly lady, +with gray hair and a white cap. + +"Dear Aunt Emma!" said Mrs. Norton, running up to her and taking both +her hands and kissing her. + +"Well, Lucy," said the little lady, holding her hands and looking at her +(Lucy was Mrs. Norton's Christian name), "it _is_ nice to see you all +here. And there's dear little Milly, I remember her. But where's Olly? +I've never seen that small creature, you know. Come, Olly, don't be shy. +Little boys are never shy with Aunt Emma." + +"Except when they tumble into bogs," said Mr. Norton, laughing and +pulling Olly forward, who was trying to hide his mud-stockings behind +his mother. "There's a clean tidy boy to bring to dinner, isn't he, Aunt +Emma? I think I'll take him to the yard and pump on him a little before +we bring him in." + +Aunt Emma put up her spectacles to look at Olly. + +"Why, Olly, I think Mother Quiverquake has been catching hold of you. +Don't you know about old Mother Quiverquake, who lives in the bogs? Oh, +I can tell you splendid stories about her some day. But now catch hold +of my hand, and keep your little legs away from my dress, and we'll soon +make a proper boy of you again." + +And then Aunt Emma took one of Milly's hands and one of Olly's, and up +they went to the house. But I must start another chapter before I begin +to tell you what the children saw in Aunt Emma's house, and of the happy +time they spent there. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +AUNT EMMA'S PICNIC + + +Instead of taking them straight into the house, however, Aunt Emma took +the children up a little shady path which very soon brought them to a +white cottage covered with honeysuckle and climbing roses. + +"This is where my coachman's wife lives," said Aunt Emma, "and she owns +a small boy who might perhaps find you a pair of stockings, Olly, to put +on while your own are washed." + +Olly opened his brown eyes very wide at the idea of wearing some other +little boy's stockings, but he said nothing. + +Aunt Emma tapped at the door, and out came a stout kind-looking woman. + +"Mrs. Tyson, do you think your Johnny could lend my little nephew a pair +of his stockings while we get his own washed? Master Olly has been +tumbling into a bog by way of making friends with the mountains, and I +don't quite know how I am to let those legs into my dining-room." + +"Dear me, ma'am, but Johnny'll be proud if he's got any clean, but I'll +not answer for it. Won't ye come in?" + +In they walked, and there was a nice tidy kitchen, with a wooden cradle +in the corner, and a little fair-haired boy sitting by it and rocking +the baby. This was Johnny, and Olly looked at him with great curiosity. +"I've got bigger legs than Johnny," he whispered solemnly at last to +Aunt Emma, while they were waiting for Mrs. Tyson, who had gone upstairs +to fetch the stockings. + +"Perhaps you eat more bread and milk than Johnny does," said Aunt Emma, +very solemnly too, "However, most likely Johnny's stockings will +stretch. How's the baby, Johnny?" + +"She's a great deal better, ma'am," said the little boy, smiling at her. +Milly and Olly made him feel shy, but he loved Aunt Emma. + +"Have you been taking care of her all the morning for mother?" + +"Yes, ma'am, and she's never cried but once," said Johnny proudly. + +"Well done! Ah! there comes Mrs. Tyson. Now, Olly, sit up on that chair, +and we'll see to you." + +Off came the dirty stockings, and Mrs. Tyson slipped on a pair of woolen +socks that tickled Olly very much. They were very thick, and not a bit +like his own stockings; and when he got up again he kept turning round +and round to look at his legs, as if he couldn't make them out. + +"Do they feel funny to you?" said Mrs. Tyson, patting his shoulder. +"Never you mind, little master; I know they're nice and warm, for I +knitted them myself." + +"Mother buys our stockings in the shop," said Olly, when they got +outside again; "why doesn't Mrs. Tyson?" + +"Perhaps we haven't so many shops, or such nice ones here, Olly, as you +have at Willingham; and the people here have always been used to do a +great many things for themselves. Some of them live in such lonely +places among the mountains that it is very difficult for them to get to +any shops. Not very long ago the mothers used to make all the stuffs for +their own dresses and their children's. What would you say, Milly, if +mother had to weave the stuff for it every time you had a new dress?" + +"Mother wouldn't give me a great many new dresses," said Milly, gravely, +shaking her head. "I like shops best, Aunt Emma." + +"Well, I suppose it's best to like what we've got," said Aunt Emma, +laughing. + +Indoors, Olly's muddy stockings were given to Aunt Emma's maid, who +promised to have them washed and dried by the time they had to go home, +and then, when Mrs. Norton had covered up the black spots on his frock +with a clean pinafore she had brought with her, Olly looked quite +respectable again. + +The children thought they had never seen quite such a nice house as Aunt +Emma's. First of all it had a large hall, with all kinds of corners in +it, just made for playing hide-and-seek in; and the drawing-room was +full of the most delightful things. There were stuffed birds in cases, +and little ivory chessmen riding upon ivory elephants. There were +picture-books, and there were mysterious drawers full of cards and +puzzles, and glass marbles and old-fashioned toys, that the children's +mother and aunts and uncles, and their great-aunts and uncles before +that, had loved and played with years and years ago. On the wall hung a +great many pictures, some of them of funny little stiff boys in blue +coats with brass buttons, and some of them of little girls with mob-caps +and mittens, and these little boys and girls were all either dead now, +or elderly men and women, for they were the great-aunts and uncles; and +over the mantelpiece hung a picture of a lovely old lady, with bright, +soft brown hair and smiling eyes and lips, that looked as if they were +just going to speak to the two strange little children who had come for +their first visit to their mother's old home. Milly knew quite well that +it was a picture of great-grandmamma. She had seen others like it +before, only not so large as this one, and she looked at it quietly, +with her grave blue eyes, while Olly was eagerly wandering round the +room, spying into everything, and longing to touch this, that, and the +other, if only mother would let go his hand. + +"You know who that is, don't you, little woman?" said Aunt Emma, taking +her up on her knee. + +"Yes," said Milly, nodding, "it's great-grandmamma. I wish we could have +seen her." + +"I wish you could, Milly. She would have smiled at you as she is smiling +in the picture and you would have been sure to have loved her; all +little children did. I can remember seeing your mother, Milly, when she +was about as old as you, cuddled up in a corner of that sofa over there, +in 'grandmamma's pocket,' as she used to call it, listening with all her +ears to great-grandmamma's stories. There was one story called 'Leonora' +that went on for years and years, till all the little children in +it--and the little children who listened to it--were almost grown up; +and then great-grandmamma always carried about with her a wonderful +blue-silk bag full of treasures, which we used to be allowed to turn out +whenever any of us had been quite good at our lessons for a whole week." + +"Mother has a bag like that," said Milly; "it has lots of little toys in +it that father had when he was a little boy. She lets us look at it on +our birthdays. Can you tell stories, Aunt Emma?" + +"Tell us about old Mother Quiverquake," cried Olly, running up and +climbing on his aunt's knee. + +"Oh dear, no!" said Aunt Emma; "it's much too fine to-day for +stories--indoors, at any rate. Wait till we get a real wet day, and then +we'll see. After dinner to-day, what do you think we're going to do? +Suppose we have a row on the lake to get water-lilies, and suppose we +take a kettle and make ourselves some tea on the other side of the lake. +What would you say to that, Master Olly?" + +The children began to dance about with delight at the idea of a row and +a picnic both together, when suddenly there was a knock at the door, and +when Aunt Emma said, "Come in!" what do you think appeared? Why, a great +green cage, carried by a servant, and in it a gray parrot, swinging +about from side to side, and cocking his head wickedly, first over one +shoulder and then over the other. + +"Now, children," said Aunt Emma, while the children stood quite still +with surprise, "let me introduce you to my old friend, Mr. Poll Parrot. +Perhaps you thought I lived all alone in this big house. Not at all. +Here is somebody who talks to me when I talk to him, who sings and +chatters and whistles and cheers me up wonderfully in the winter +evenings, when the rains come and make me feel dull. Put him down here, +Margaret," said Aunt Emma to the maid, clearing a small table for the +cage. "Now, Olly, what do you think of my parrot?" + +"Can it talk?" asked Olly, looking at it with very wide open eyes. + +"It _can_ talk; whether it _will_ talk is quite another thing. Parrots +are contradictious birds. I feel very often as if I should like to beat +Polly, he's so provoking. Now, Polly, how are you to-day?" + +"Polly's got a bad cold; fetch the doc--" said the bird at once, in such +a funny cracked voice, that it made Olly jump as if he had heard one of +the witches in Grimm's "Fairy Tales" talking. + +"Come, Polly, that's very well behaved of you; but you mustn't leave off +in the middle, begin again. Olly, if you don't keep your fingers out of +the way Polly will snap them up for his dinner. Parrots like fingers +very much." Olly put his hands behind his back in a great hurry, and +mother came to stand behind him to keep him quiet. By this time, +however, Polly had begun to find out that there were some new people in +the room he didn't know, and for a long time Aunt Emma could not make +him talk at all. He would do nothing but put his head first on one side +and then on the other and make angry clicks with his beak. + +"Come, Polly," said Aunt Emma, "what a cross parrot you are. +One--two--three--four. Now, Polly, count." + +"Polly's got a bad cold, fetch the doc--" said Polly again while Aunt +Emma was speaking. "One--two--six--seven--eight--nine--two--_Quick_ +march!" + +And then Polly began to lift first one claw and then the other as if he +were marching, while the children shouted with laughter at his +ridiculous ways and his gruff cracked voice. + +Then Aunt Emma went behind him and rapped gently on the table. The +parrot stopped marching, stuck his head on one side and listened. Aunt +Emma rapped again. + +"Come in!" said the parrot suddenly, quite softly, as if he had turned +into quite another person. "Hush--sh--sh, cat's got a mouse!" + +"Well, Polly," said Aunt Emma, "I suppose she may have a mouse if she +likes. Is that all you've got to tell us? Polly, where's gardener?" + +"Get away! get away!" screamed Polly, while all his feathers began to +stand up straight, and his eyes looked fierce and red like two little +live coals. + +"That always makes him cross," said Aunt Emma; "he can't bear gardener. +Come, Polly, don't get in such a temper." + +"Oh, isn't he like the witches on the broom-sticks in our fairy-book, +Olly?" cried Milly. "Don't you think, Aunt Emma, he must have been +changed into something? Perhaps he was a wicked witch once, or a +magician, you know, and the fairies changed him into a parrot." + +"Well, Milly, I can't say. He was a parrot when I had him first, twelve +years ago. That's all I know about it. But I believe he's very old. Some +people say he's older than I am--think of that! So you see he's had time +to be a good many things. Well, Polly, good-night. You're not a nice +bird to-night at all. Take him away, Margaret." + +"Jane! Jane!" screamed Polly, as the maid lifted up the cage again. +"Make haste, Jane! cat's in the larder!" + +"Oh, you bad Polly," said Aunt Emma, "you're always telling tales. +Jane's my cook, Milly, and Polly doesn't like cats, so you see he tries +to make Jane believe that our old cat steals the meat out of the larder. +Good-bye, Polly, good-bye. You're an ill-natured old bird, but I'm very +fond of you all the same." + +"Do get us a parrot, mother!" said Olly, jumping about round his mother, +when Polly was gone. + +"How many more things will you want before you get home, Olly, do you +think?" asked his mother, kissing him. "Perhaps you'll want to take home +a few mountains, and two or three little rivers, and a bog or two, and a +few sheep--eh, young man?" + +By this time dinner was ready, and there was the dinner-bell ringing. Up +ran the children to Aunt Emma's room to get their hands washed and their +hair brushed, and presently there were two tidy little folks sitting on +either side of Aunt Emma's chair, and thinking to themselves that they +had never felt quite so hungry before. But hungry as Milly was she +didn't forget to look out of the window before she began her dinner, and +it was worth while looking out of the window in Aunt Emma's dining-room. + +Before the windows was a green lawn, like the lawn at Ravensnest, only +this lawn went sloping away, away till there was just a little rim of +white beach, and then beyond came the wide, dancing blue lake, that the +children had seen from the top of the mountain. Here it was close to +them, so close that Milly could hear the little waves plashing, through +the open window. + +"Milly," whispered Aunt Emma when they were all waiting for pudding, "do +you see that little house down there by the water's edge? That's where +the boat lives--we call it a boathouse. Do you think you'll be +frightened of the water, little woman?" + +"No, I don't think so," said Milly, shaking her little wise head +gravely. "I am frightened sometimes, very. Mother calls me a little +goose because I run away from Jenny sometimes--that's our cow at home, +Aunt Emma, but then she's got such long horns, and I can't help feeling +afraid." + +"Well, the lake hasn't got horns, Milly," said Aunt Emma, laughing, "so +perhaps you will manage not to be afraid of it." + +How kind and nice Aunt Emma looked as she sat between the children, with +her pretty soft gray hair, and her white cap and large white collar. +Mrs. Norton could not help thinking of the times when she was a little +girl, and used always to insist on sitting by Aunt Emma at dinner-time. +That was before Aunt Emma's hair had turned gray. And now here were her +own little children sitting where she used to sit at their age, and +stealing their small hands into Aunt Emma's lap as she used to do so +long ago. + +After dinner the children had to sit quiet in the drawing-room for a +time, while Aunt Emma and father and mother talked; but they had +picture-books to look at, and Aunt Emma gave them leave to turn out +everything in one of the toy-drawers, and that kept them busy and happy +for a long time. But at last, just when Olly was beginning to get tired +of the drawer, Aunt Emma called to them from the other end of the room +to come with her into the kitchen for a minute. Up jumped the children +and ran after their aunt across the hall into the kitchen. + +"Now, children," said Aunt Emma, pointing to a big basket on the kitchen +table, "suppose you help me to pack up our tea-things. Olly, you go and +fetch the spoons, and, Milly, bring the plates one by one." + +The tea things were all piled up on the kitchen table, and the children +brought them one after another to Aunt Emma to pack them carefully into +the big basket. + +"Ain't I a useful boy, Aunt Emma?" asked Olly proudly, coming up laden +with a big table-cloth which he could scarcely carry. + +"Very useful, Olly, though our table-cloth won't look over tidy at tea +if you crumple it up like that. Now, Milly, bring me that tray of bread +and the little bundle of salt; and, Olly, bring me that bit of butter +over there, done up in the green leaves, but mind you carry it +carefully. Now for some knives too; and there are the cups and saucers, +Milly, look, in that corner; and there is the cake all ready cut up, and +there is the bread and butter. Now have we got everything? Everything, I +think, but the kettle, and some wood and some matches, and these must go +in another basket." + +"Aunt Emma," said Milly, creeping up close to her, "were you ever a +fairy godmother?" + +"Not that I know of, Milly. Would you like me better if I had a wand and +a pair of pet dragons, like old Fairy Blackstick?" + +"No," said Milly, stroking her aunt's hand, "but you do such nice +things, just like fairy godmothers do." + +"Do I, little woman? Aunt Emma likes doing nice things for good +children. But now come along, it's quite time we were off. Let us go +and fetch father and mother. Gardener will bring the baskets." + +Such a merry party they were, trooping down to the boathouse. There lay +the boat; a pretty new boat, painted dark blue, with a little red flag +floating at her bows, and her name, "Ariel," written in large white +letters on the stern. And all around the boathouse stretched the +beautiful blue water, so clear and sunny and sparkling that it dazzled +Milly's eyes to look at it. She and Olly were lifted into the boat +beside Aunt Emma and mother, father sat in the middle and took the oars, +while gardener put the baskets into the stern, and then, untying the +rope which kept the boat tied into the boathouse, he gave it a good push +with one hand and off she went out into the blue lake, rising up and +down on the water like a swan. + +"Oh! mother, mother, look up there," shouted Olly, "there's the +mountain. Isn't that where we climbed up this morning?" + +Yes, there it was, the beautiful green rocky mountain, rising up above +Aunt Emma's house. They could see it all so clearly as they got farther +out into the lake; first the blue sky, then the mountain with the little +white dots on it, which Milly knew were sheep; then some trees, and in +front, Aunt Emma's house with the lawn and the boathouse. And as they +looked all round them they could see far bigger and grander mountains +than Brownholme, some near and green like Brownholme, and some far away +and blue like the sky, while down by the edge of the lake were hayfields +full of flowers, or bits of rock with trees growing on the top of them. +The children hardly knew what it was made them so quiet; but I think it +was because everything was so beautiful. They were really in the +hill-fairies' palace now. + +"Aren't there any water-fairies in this lake, mother?" whispered Milly, +presently, looking down into the clear blue water, and trying to see the +bottom. + +"I can't tell, Milly, I never saw any. But there used to be +water-fairies in old days. After tea suppose we ask Aunt Emma to tell us +a story about a king in olden times whom the water-fairies loved; she +used to tell it to me when I was small, and I liked it best of all +stories. But, Olly, you must sit still, or the boat will go tipping over +to one side, and father won't be able to row." + +"Do let me row, father," begged Olly. + +"Not yet, old man--I must get used to the boat first, and find out how +to manage her, but presently you shall come and try, and so shall Milly +if she likes." + +On they rowed, farther and farther from the shore, till Aunt Emma's +house began to look quite small, and they could hardly see the gardener +working on the lawn. + +"Father, what a long way we've come," cried Milly, looking all round. +"Where are we going to?" + +"Well, presently, Milly, I am going to turn the boat a little bit, so as +to make her go over to that side of the lake over there. Do you see a +big rock with some trees on it, far away, sticking out into the lake?" + +"Yes," said the children, looking very hard. + +"Well, that's where we're going to have tea. It's called Birdsnest +Point, because the rocks come out in a point into the lake. But first I +thought I would bring you right out into the middle of the lake, that +you might see how big it is, and look at the mountains all round." +"Father," said Olly, "if a big stone fell down out of the sky and made +ever such a big hole in the boat, and the water came into the hole, +should we all be dead?" + +"I daresay we should, Olly, for I don't think I could carry mother, and +Aunt Emma, and Milly, and you on my back, safe home again, and you see +none of you can swim but me." + +"Then I hope a big stone won't come," said Milly, feeling just a little +bit frightened at Olly's suggestion. + +"Well, big stones don't grow in the sky generally, Milly, if that's any +comfort to you. But do you know, one day long ago, when I was out rowing +on this lake, I thought all of a sudden I heard some one shouting and +screaming, and for a long time I looked and waited, but could see +nothing; till at last I fancied I could see, a long distance off, what +looked like a pole, with something white tied to it. And I rowed, and +rowed, and rowed, as fast as I could, and all the time the shouting and +screaming went on, and at last what do you think I saw? I saw a boat, +which looked as if something was dragging it down into the water. Part +of it had already sunk down into the lake, and in the part which was +still above the water there were three people sitting, a gentleman, and +two little girls who looked about ten years old. And they were shouting +'Help! help!' at the top of their voices, and waving an oar with a +handkerchief tied to it. And the boat in which they sat was sinking +farther and farther into the water, and if I had'n't come up just when I +did, the gentleman and the two little girls would have been drowned." + +"Oh, father!" cried Milly, "what made their boat do like that? And did +they get into yours?" + +"There was a great hole in the bottom of their boat, Milly, and the +water was coming through it, and making the boat so heavy that it was +sinking down and down into the lake, just as a stone would sink if you +threw it in. How the hole came there we never quite knew: I thought they +must have knocked their boat against a sharp rock--in some parts of the +lake there are rocks under the water which you can't see--and the rock +had made the hole; but other people thought it had happened in some +other way. However, there they were, and when I took them all into my +boat you never saw such miserable little creatures as the two little +girls were. They were wet through, they were as white as little ghosts, +and when they were safe in my boat they began to cry and shake so, poor +little souls, though their father and I wrapped them up in our coats, +that I did want their mother to come and comfort them." + +"Oh, but, father, you took them safe home to their mother, didn't you? +And do tell me what she said." + +"They had no mother, Milly, they had only their father, who was with +them. But he was very good to them, and I think on the whole they were +happy little girls. The Christmas after that I got a little parcel one +morning, and what do you think was in it? Why, two photographs of the +same little girls, looking so neat and tidy and happy, I could hardly +believe they were really the same as the little drowned rats I had +pulled out of the water. Ask mother to show you the pictures when we get +home; she has them somewhere. Now, Olly, would you like to row?" + +"Oh, father, don't bump against any rocks," said Milly, whose thoughts +were very full of the little girls. + +"Don't you trouble your head about rocks, old woman. I know a good deal +more about this lake than those little girls' father did, and I won't +take you into any harm. Come along, Olly." + +Olly was helped along the boat by mother and Aunt Emma till his father +caught hold of him and pulled him on to his seat, where he let him put +his two small paws on one of the oars, and try what he could do with it. +Mr. Norton pulled too; but Olly thought it was all his doing, and that +it was really he who was making the boat go. + +"Don't we go fast, father?" he cried out presently, his little face +flushed with pleasure and excitement. "You couldn't row so fast without +me, could you, father?" + +"You little fly-on-the-wheel," said his father, smiling at him. + +"What does that mean, father?" + +"Never mind, you'll know when you're bigger. But now look, children, how +close we are coming to the shore. And quick, Milly, quick! What do you +see over there?" + +Mr. Norton pointed over the water to a place where some green rushes +were standing up out of the water, not very far from the edge. What were +those great white and gold things shining among the rushes; and what +were those large round green leaves lying on the water all about them? + +"Water-lilies! water-lilies!" cried Milly, stamping her little feet with +delight. "Oh, mother, look! it was on one of those leaves that the old +toad put little Tiny in my fairy-book, don't you remember? Only the +little fishes came and bit off the stalk and set her free. Oh, I wish we +could see little Tiny sitting on one of those leaves!" + +"Well," said Aunt Emma, "there's no saying what you may find in these +parts if you look long enough. This is a very strange country. But now, +Milly, look out for the lilies. Father's going to take us in among them, +and I'll hold you, while you gather them." + +And presently, swish went the boat up against the rushes, and there were +the lovely white lilies lying spread out on the water all round them, +some quite open and showing their golden middles, and some still buds, +with their wet green cases just falling off, and their white petals +beginning to unclose. But what slippery stalks they had. Aunt Emma held +Milly, and father held Olly, while they dived their hands under the +water and pulled hard. And some of the lilies came out with such short +bits of stalk you could scarcely hold them, and sometimes, flop! out +came a long green stalk, like a long green snake curling and twisting +about in the boat. The children dabbled, and splashed, and pulled, to +their hearts' content, till at last Mr. Norton told them they had got +enough and now they must sit quite still while he rowed them in to the +land. + +"Oh, father, just those two over there!" pleaded Milly, who could not +bear leaving so many beauties behind. + +"No, Milly, no more. Look where the sun is now. If we don't make haste +and have our tea, we shall never get back to Ravensnest to-night." + +Milly's face looked as if it would like to cry, as the boat began to +move away from the rushes, and the beautiful lilies were left behind. I +told you, to begin with, that Milly was ready to cry oftener than a +sensible little girl should. But Aunt Emma was not going to have any +crying at her picnic. + +"Who's going to gather me sticks to make my fire?" she said suddenly, in +a solemn voice. + +"I am! I am!" shouted both the children at once, and out came Milly's +smiles again, like the sun from behind a cloud. + +"And who's going to lay the table-cloth?" + +"We are! we are!" + +"And who's going to hand the bread and butter?" + +"I am!" exclaimed Milly, "and Olly shall hand the cake." + +"And who's going to _eat_ the bread and butter?" + +"All of us!" shouted the children, and Milly added, "Father will want a +_big_ plate of bread and butter, I daresay." + +"I should think he would, after all this rowing," said Mr. Norton. "Now +then, look out for a bump!" + +[Illustration: "So they put Olly up on a tall piece of rock, and he +sang."] + +Bump! Splash! there was the boat scraping along the pebbles near the +shore; out sprang Mr. Norton, first on to a big stone, then on to the +shore, and with one great pull he brought the boat in till it was close +enough for Aunt Emma and Mrs. Norton to step on to the rocks, and for +the children to be lifted out. + +"Oh! what a nice place!" cried Milly, looking about her, and clapping +her hands, as she always did when she was pleased. It was a point of +rock running out into the lake, a "peninsula" Milly called it, when she +had been all round it, and it was covered with brown heather spread all +over the ground, and was delightfully soft and springy to sit upon. In +the middle of the bit of rock there were two or three trees standing up +together, birch trees with silvery stems, and on every side but one +there was shallow brown water, so clear that they could see every stone +at the bottom. And when they looked away across the lake, there were the +grand old mountains pushing their heads into the clouds on the other +side, and far away near the edge of the lake they saw a white dot which +they knew was Aunt Emma's house. How the sun shone on everything! How it +made the water of the lake sparkle and glitter as if it were alive! And +yet the air was not hot, for a little wind was coming to them across the +water, and moving the trees gently up and down. + +And what was this under the trees? Why, a kind of fireplace made of +stones, and in front of it a round green bit of grass, with tufts of +heather all round it, just like a table with seats. + +"Who put these stones here, Aunt Emma?" asked Olly, as she and mother +and Mr. Norton brought up the baskets, and put them in the green place +by the stones. + +"Well, Olly, long ago, when all your uncles and aunts were little, and +they used to come here for picnics, they thought it would be very nice +to have a stone fireplace, built up properly, so that they needn't make +one every time. It was Uncle Richard's idea, and we had such fun +building it up. The little ones brought the stones; and the big ones +piled them together till you see we made quite a nice fireplace. And it +has lasted ever since. Whenever I come here I mend it up if any of the +stones have tumbled down. Numbers of little children come to picnic here +every summer, and they always use our fireplace. But now, come along +into the woods, children, and gather sticks." + +Off they ran after Aunt Emma, and soon they were scrambling about the +wood which grew along the shore, picking up the dry sticks and dry fern +under the trees. Milly filled her cotton frock full, and gathered it up +with both her hands; while Olly of course went straight at the biggest +branch he could see, and staggered along with it, puffing and panting. + +"You grasshopper, you!" said Mr. Norton, catching hold of him, "don't +you think you'd better try a whole tree next time? There, let me break +it for you." Father broke it up into short lengths, and then off ran +Olly with his little skirts full to Aunt Emma, who was laden too with an +armful of sticks. "That'll do to begin with, old man. Come along, and +you and I'll light the fire." + +What fun it was, heaping up the sticks on the stones, and how they did +blaze and crackle away when Aunt Emma put a match to them. Puff! puff! +out came the smoke; fizz--crack--sputter--went the dry fir branches, as +if they were Christmas fireworks. + +"Haven't we made a blazey fire, Aunt Emma?" said Olly, out of breath +with dragging up sticks, and standing still to look. + +"Splendid," said Mr. Norton, who had just come out of the wood with his +bundle. "Now, Olly, let me just put you on the top of it to finish it +off. How you would fizz!" + +Off ran Olly, with his father after him, and they had a romp among the +heather till Mr. Norton caught him, and carried him kicking and laughing +under his arm to Aunt Emma. + +"Now, Aunt Emma, shall I put him on?" + +"Oh dear, no!" said Aunt Emma, "my kettle wouldn't sit straight on him, +and it's just boiling beautifully. We'll put him on presently when the +fire gets low." + +"Olly, do come and help mother and me with the tea-things," cried Milly, +who was laying the cloth as busily and gravely as a little housemaid. + +"Run along, shrimp," said his father, setting him down. + +And off ran Olly, while Mr. Norton and Aunt Emma heaped the wood on the +fire, and kept the kettle straight, so that it shouldn't tip over and +spill. + +Laying the cloth was delightful, Milly thought. First of all, they put a +heavy stone on each corner of the cloth to keep it down, and prevent the +wind from blowing it up, and then they put the little plates all round, +and in the middle two piles of bread and butter and cake. + +"But we haven't got any flowers," said Milly, looking at it presently, +with a dissatisfied face, "you always have flowers on the table at home, +mother." + +"Why, Milly, have you forgotten your water-lilies; where did you leave +them?" + +"Down by the water," said Milly. "Father told me just to put their +stalks in the water, and he put a stone to keep them safe. Oh! that'll +be splendid, mother. Do give me a cup, and we'll get some water for +them." + +Mother found a cup, and the children scrambled down to the edge of the +lake. There lay the lilies with their stalks in the water, close to the +boat. + +"They look rather sad, mother, don't they?" said Milly, gathering them +up. "Perhaps they don't like being taken away from their home." + +"They never look so beautiful out of the water," said mother; "but when +we get home we'll put them into a soup-plate, and let them swim about in +it. They'll look very nice then. Now, Olly, fill the cup with water, and +we'll put five or six of the biggest in, and gather some leaves." + +"There, look! look! Aunt Emma," shouted Milly, when they had put the +lilies and some fern leaves in the middle of the table. "Haven't we made +it beautiful?" + +"That you have," said Aunt Emma, coming up with the kettle which had +just boiled. "Now for the tea, and then we're ready." + +"We never had such a nice tea as this before," said Olly, presently +looking up from a piece of bread and butter which had kept him quiet for +some time. "It's nicer than having dinner at the railway station even." + +Aunt Emma and mother laughed; for it doesn't seem so delightful to +grown-up people to have dinner at the railway station. + +"Well, Olly," said mother, "I hope we shall often have tea out of doors +while we are at Ravensnest." + +Milly shook her head. "It'll rain, mother. That old gentleman said it +would be sure to rain." + +"That old gentleman is about right, Milly," said Mr. Norton. "I think it +rains dreadfully here, but mother doesn't seem to mind it a bit. Once +upon a time when mother was a little girl, there came a funny old fairy +and threw some golden dust in her eyes, and ever since then she can't +see straight when she comes to the mountains. It's all right everywhere +else, but as soon as she comes here, the dust begins to fly about in her +eyes, and makes the mountains look quite different to her from what they +look to anybody else." + +"Let me look, mother," said Olly, pulling her down to him. + +Mrs. Norton opened her eyes at him, smiling. + +"I can't see any dust, father." + +"Ah, that's because it's fairy dust," said Mr. Norton, gravely. "Now, +Olly, don't you eat too much cake, else you won't be able to row." + +"It'll be my turn first, father," said Milly, "you know I haven't rowed +at all yet." + +"Well, don't you catch any crabs, Milly," said Aunt Emma. + +"Catch crabs, Aunt Emma!" said Milly, very much puzzled. "Crabs are only +in the sea, aren't they?" + +"There's a very big kind just about here," said Mr. Norton, "and they're +always looking out for little children, particularly little girls." + +"I don't understand, father," said Milly, opening her eyes very wide. + +"Have some more tea, then," said Mr. Norton, "that always makes people +feel wiser." + +"Father, aren't you talking nonsense?" said Olly, stopping in the middle +of a piece of cake to think about what his father was saying. + +"Very likely, Olly. People always do at picnics. Aunt Emma, when are you +going to tell us your story?" + +"When we've washed the things and put them away," said Aunt Emma, "then +Olly shall sing us two songs, and I'll tell you my story." + +But the children were so hungry that it was a long time before they gave +up eating bread and butter, and then, when at last tea was over, what +fun it was washing the cups and plates in the lake! Aunt Emma and Olly +washed, and mother and Milly dried the things on a towel, and then +everything was packed away into the baskets, and mother and Aunt Emma +folded up the table-cloth, and put it tidily on the top of everything. + +"I did like that," said Milly, sighing as the last basket was fastened +down. "I wish you'd let me help Sarah wash up the tea-things at home, +mother." + +"If Sarah liked to let you, I shouldn't say no, Milly," said Mrs. +Norton. "How soon would you get tired of it, old woman, I wonder? But +come along, let's put Olly up on a rock, and make him sing, and then +we'll have Aunt Emma's story." + +So they put Olly up on a tall piece of rock, and he sang "The Minstrel +Boy," and "Bonnie Dundee," and "Hot Cross Buns," just as if he were a +little musical box, and you had nothing to do but to wind him up. He had +a sweet, clear, little voice, and he looked a delightful brown gipsy, as +he sat perched up on the rock with his long legs dangling, and his curls +blowing about his face. + +"There!" said Olly, when he had shouted out the last note of "Hot Cross +Buns." "I have singed three whole songs; and now, Aunt Emma, tell us +about the king and the fairies. Krick, please." + +"It must be 'krick' indeed," said Aunt Emma, "if we want to get home +to-night." + +For the sun had almost sunk behind the mountains at their back, and the +wind blowing across the lake was beginning to get a little cold, while +over their heads the rooks went flying, singing "caw, caw," on their way +to bed. And how the sun was turning the water to gold! It seemed to be +making a great golden pathway across the lake, and the mountains were +turning a deep blue, and plash, plash, went the little waves on the +rocks, so softly they seemed to be saying "Good-night! good-night!" + +"Well," said Aunt Emma, settling herself on a soft piece of heather, and +putting her arms round Milly and Olly, "Once upon a time there was a +great king. He was a good king and a wise man, and he tried to make all +the people round about him wiser and better than they were before he +came to rule over them; and for a long time he was very powerful and +happy, and he and the brave men who helped him and were his friends did +a great deal of good, and kept the savage people who lived all about him +in order, and taught them a great many things. But at last some of the +savage people got tired of obeying the king, and they said they would +not have him to reign over them any more; so they made an army, and they +came together against the king to try and kill him and his friends. And +the king made an army too, and there was a great battle; and the savage +people were the strongest, and they killed nearly all the king's brave +men, and the king himself was terribly hurt in the fight. And at last, +when night came on, there were left only the king and one of his +friends--his knights, as they were called. The king was hurt so much +that he could not move, and his friend thought he was dying. They were +left alone in a rocky desert place, and close by there was a great lake +with mountains round it--like this, Olly. It was very cold, and the moon +was shining, and the king lay so still that once or twice his friend +almost thought that he was dead. But at last, about the middle of the +night, he began to speak, and he told his friend to take his sword that +was by his side and to go down to the side of the lake and throw it as +far as he could into the water. Now, this sword was a magic sword. Long +before, the king was once walking beside this lake, when he suddenly saw +an arm in a long white sleeve rising out of the lake, and in the hand at +the end of it was a splendid sword with a glistening handle. And the +king got into a boat and rowed as fast as he could till he got near +enough to take hold of the sword, and then the arm sank down under the +water and was seen no more. And with the sword the king won a great many +battles, and he loved it, and never would part with it; but now that he +was dying, he told his friend to take the sword and throw it back into +the lake where he had found it, and see what would happen. And his +friend took it, and went away over the rocks till he came to the edge of +the lake, and then he took the sword out of its case and swung it above +his head that he might throw it far into the water; but as he lifted it +up the precious stones in the handle shone so splendidly in the +moonlight that he could not make up his mind to throw it into the water, +it seemed such a pity. So he hid it away among the rushes by the water +side, and went back to the king. And the king said, 'What did you see by +the lake?' + +"And the knight said, 'I saw nothing except the water, and the +mountains, and the rushes.' + +"And the king said, 'Oh, unkind friend! Why will you not do as I ask +you, now that I am dying and can do nothing for myself? Go back and +throw the sword into the lake, as I told you.' + +"And the knight went back, and once more he lifted the sword to throw it +into the water but it looked so beautiful that he _could_ not throw it +away. There would be nothing left, he thought, to remember the king by +when he was dead if he threw away the sword; so again he hid it among +the rushes, and then he went back to the king. And again the king asked, +'What did you see by the lake?' and again the knight answered, 'I saw +nothing except the water and the mountains.' + +"'Oh, unkind, false friend!' cried the king, 'you are crueller to me +than those who gave me this wound. Go back and throw the sword into the +water, or, weak as I am, I will rise up and kill you.' + +"Back went the knight, and this time he seized the sword without looking +at it, so that he should not see how beautiful it was, and then he swung +it once, twice, thrice, round his head, and away it went into the lake. +And as it fell, up rose a hand and arm in a long white sleeve out of the +water, and the hand caught the sword and drew it down under the water. +And then for a moment, all round the lake, the knight fancied he heard a +sound of sobbing and weeping, and he thought in his heart that it must +be the water-fairies weeping for the king's death. + +"'What did you see by the lake?' asked the king again, when he came +back, and the knight told him. Then the king told him to lift him up and +carry him on his back down to the edge of the lake, and when they got +there, what do you think they saw?" + +But the children could not guess, and Milly pressed Aunt Emma's hand +hard to make her go on. + +"They saw a great black ship coming slowly over the water, and on the +ship were numbers of people in black, sobbing and crying, so that the +air was full of a sound of weeping, and in front sat three queens in +long black dresses, and with gold crowns on their heads, and they, too, +were weeping and wringing their hands. + +"'Lift me up,' said the king, when the ship came close beside them, 'and +put me into the ship.' And the knight lifted him up, while the three +queens stretched out their hands and drew him into the ship. + +"'Oh, king! take me with you,' said the knight, 'take me too. What shall +I do all alone without you?' But the ship began to move away, and the +knight was left standing on the shore. Only he fancied he heard the +king's voice saying, 'Wait for me, I shall come again. Farewell!' + +"And the ship went faster and faster away into the darkness, for it was +a fairy ship, till at last the knight could see it no more. So then he +knew that the king had been carried away by the fairies of the lake--the +same fairies who had given him the sword in old days, and who had loved +him and watched over him all his life. But what did the king mean by +saying, 'I shall come again'?" + +Then Aunt Emma stopped and looked at the children. + +"What did he mean, auntie?" asked Milly, who had been listening with all +her ears, and whose little eyes were wet, "and did he ever come back +again?" + +"Not while the knight lived, Milly. He grew to be quite an old man, and +was always hoping that the fairies would bring the king again. But the +king never came, and his friend died without seeing him." + +"But did he _ever_ come again?" asked Olly. + +"I don't know, Olly. Some people think that he is still hidden away +somewhere by the kind water-fairies, and that some day, when the world +wants him very much, he will come back again." + +"Do you think he is here in this lake?" whispered Milly, looking at the +water. + +"How can we tell what's at the bottom of the lake?" said Aunt Emma, +smiling. "But no, I don't think the king is hidden in this lake. He +didn't live near here." + +"What was his name?" asked Milly. + +"His name was King Arthur. But now, children, hurry; there is father +putting all the baskets into the boat. We must get home as quick as we +can." + +They rowed home very quickly, except just for a little time when Milly +rowed, and they did not go quite so fast as if father were rowing alone. +It was quite evening now on the lake, and there were great shadows from +the mountains lying across the water. Somehow the children felt much +quieter now than when they started in the afternoon. Milly had curled +herself up inside mother's arm, and was thinking a great deal about King +Arthur and the fairy ship, while Olly was quite taken up with watching +the oars as they dipped in and out of the water, and occasionally asking +his father when he should be big enough to row quite by himself. It +seemed a very little time after all before they were stepping out of the +boat at Aunt Emma's boathouse, and the picnic and the row were both +over. + +"Good-bye, dear lake," said Milly, turning with her hands full of +water-lilies to look back before they went up to the house. "Good-night, +mountains; good-night, Birdsnest Point. I shall soon come and see you +again." + +A few minutes more, and they were safely packed into a carriage which +drove them back to Ravensnest, and Aunt Emma was saying good-bye to +them. + +"Next time, I shall come and see you, Milly," she said, as she kissed +Milly's little sleepy face. "Don't forget me till then." + +"Then you'll tell us about old Mother Quiverquake," said Olly, hugging +her with his small arms. "Aunt Emma, I haven't given Johnny back his +stockings. They did tickle me so in the boat." + +"We'll get them some time," said Aunt Emma. "Good-night, good-night." + +It was a sleepy pair of children that nurse lifted out of the carriage +at Ravensnest. And though they tried to tell her something about it, she +had to wait till next morning before she could really understand +anything about their wonderful day at Aunt Emma's house. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +WET DAYS AT RAVENSNEST + + +For about a week after the row on the lake the weather was lovely, and +Milly wondered more than ever what the old gentleman who warned them of +the rain in the mountains could have been thinking about. She and Olly +were out all day, and nearly every afternoon nurse lifted the tea-table +through the low nursery window on to the lawn, and let them have their +tea out of doors among the flowers and trees and twittering birds. They +had found out a fly-catcher's nest in the ivy above the front door, and +every evening the two children used to fetch out their father to watch +the parent birds catching flies and carrying them to the hungry little +ones, whom they could just hear chirping up above the ivy. Olly was wild +to get the gardener's ladder that he might climb up and look into the +nest, but Mr. Norton would not have it lest it should frighten away the +old birds. + +One delicious warm morning, too, the children had their long-promised +bathe, and what fun it was. Nurse woke them up at five o'clock in the +morning--fancy waking up as early as that!--and they slipped on their +little blue bathing gowns, and their sand shoes that mother had bought +them in Cromer the year before, and then nurse wrapped them up in +shawls, and she and they and father went down and opened the front door +while everybody else in the house was asleep, and slipped out. What a +quiet strange world it seemed, the grass and the flowers dripping with +dew, and overhead such a blue sky with white clouds sailing slowly about +in it. + +"Why don't we always get up at five o'clock, father?" asked Olly, as he +and Milly skipped along--such an odd little pair of figures--beside Mr. +Norton. "Isn't it nice and funny?" + +"Very," said Mr. Norton. "Still, I imagine Olly, if you had to get up +every day at five o'clock, you might think it funny, but I'm sure you +wouldn't always think it nice." + +"Oh! I'm sure we should," said Milly, seriously. "Why, father, it's just +as if everything was ours and nobody else's, the garden and the river I +mean. Is there _anybody_ up yet do you think--in those houses?" And +Milly pointed to the few houses they could see from the Ravensnest +garden. + +"I can't tell, Milly. But I'll tell you who's sure to be up now, and +that's John Backhouse. I should think he's just beginning to milk the +cows." + +"Oh then, Becky and Tiza'll be up too," cried Milly, dancing about. "I +wish we could see them. Somehow it would be quite different seeing them +now, father. I feel so queer, as if I was somebody else." + +If you have ever been up _very_ early on a summer morning, you will know +what Milly meant, but if not I can hardly explain it. Such a pretty +quiet little walk they had down to the river. Nobody on the road, nobody +in the fields, but the birds chattering and the sun shining, as if they +were having a good time all to themselves, before anybody woke up to +interrupt them. Mr. Norton took the children down to the +stepping-stones, and then, while Milly and nurse stayed on the bank he +lifted Olly up, and carried him to the middle of the stepping-stones, +where the water would about come up to his chest. Mr. Norton had already +taken off his own shoes and stockings, and when they came to the middle +stone, he put Olly down on the stone, and stepped into the water +himself. "Now, Olly, give me your hands and jump in. Mind, it'll feel +very cold." + +Olly shut his eyes, and opened his mouth, as he always did when he felt +just a little frightened, and then in he went; splash! ugh! it was so +cold--much colder than the sea used to feel--but after a few splashes +Olly began to get used to it, and to think it fine fun. + +"Oh, father, fetch Milly, and then we'll all dance about," entreated +Olly. + +"Come, Milly," called Mr. Norton. "Try whether you can manage the +stepping-stones by yourself." So Milly came, holding up her bathing +dress, and stepping from one big stone to another with a very grave +face, as if she felt that there would be an end of her altogether if she +tumbled in. And then, splash! In she jumped by the side of Olly, and +after a little shiver or two she also began to think that the river was +a delightful bathing place, almost as nice as the sea, perhaps in some +ways nicer, because it was such a strange and funny one. They danced and +splashed about in the brown sparkling water till they were tired, and at +last Olly stopped to take breath. + +"I should think the fishes must be frightened of us," he said, peering +down into the river. "I can't see any, father." + +"Well, they wouldn't choose to swim about just where little children are +shouting and capering. The fishes are hidden safe away under the banks +and the big stones. Besides, it's going to be a very hot day, and they +like the shady bits of the river. Just here there's no shade." + +Suddenly there was a great commotion in the river, and when Mr. Norton +looked round for a second he could see nothing of Milly, till up came a +dripping head and a pair of hands, and there was Milly kneeling on the +stones at the bottom of the river, with just her head above water, +looking very much astonished and rather frightened. + +"Why, what happened, old woman?" said Mr. Norton, holding out his hand +to help her up. + +"I--I--don't quite know, father; I was standing on a big stone, and all +of a sudden it tipped up, and I tumbled right in." + +"First of all I thought you was a big fish, and then I thought you was +going to be drowned," said Olly, cheerfully. "I'm glad you wasn't +drowned." + +"Miss Milly! Miss Milly!" shouted nurse from the bank, "it's quite time +you came out now. If you stay in so long you'll get cold, and you, too, +Master Olly." + +Olly was not inclined to come. He would have liked to go on dabbling and +splashing till breakfast-time, but Mr. Norton hurried him out, and the +two dripping little creatures were well wrapped up in large shawls which +nurse had brought with her. Then nurse took up Olly in her arms, and +father took up Milly, who was small and light for her age, and they set +off up the bit of road to the house. By this time it was past six +o'clock, and whom should they meet at the Ravensnest gate but John +Backhouse, with Becky and Tiza, and his two dogs. He was just bringing +the milk, and both he and his children looked as brisk and wide awake as +if they had been up and about for hours. + +Milly and Olly were very much excited at the sight of them, and Olly +struggled hard to get down, but nurse held him tight. + +"Oh, Becky! we've had such a nice bathe," cried Milly, as she passed +them muffled up in her shawl, her little wet feet dangling out. + +Becky and Tiza looked longingly after them as they disappeared into the +house. They wished they could have had a bathe too, but they knew very +well that their hard-worked father and mother had something else to do +on a fine summer's morning than to take them to bathe, and in a few +minutes they had forgotten all about it, and were busy playing with the +dogs, or chattering to their father about the hay-making, which was soon +to begin now. + +That evening there were strange clouds at sunset time, and Mr. Norton +shook his head as he heard Mrs. Norton arrange to take the children next +day to a small mountain village near Ravensnest, to call on some old +friends of hers. + +"I wouldn't make much of a plan for to-morrow if I were you," he said to +his wife, "the weather doesn't look promising." + +"Oh, father!" said Milly, protesting. "There are some red clouds over +there--look! and Nana always says it's going to be fine when there are +red clouds." + +"Well, Milly, your red clouds may be right and I may be wrong. We shall +see." + +But, alas! father was quite right. When Milly woke up next morning there +was no nice sunshine creeping on to her bed as it had done almost ever +since they came to Ravensnest; but instead there was rain beating +steadily against the window, coming down out of a heavy gray sky, and +looking as if it meant to go on for ever. + +"Oh dear!" sighed Milly, as she began to dress, "we can't go out, and +the wild strawberries will get so wet. I meant to have gathered some for +mother to-day. There would have been such nice ones in the wood." + +But it was no use thinking about woods or strawberries, and when Mrs. +Norton came into the children's room just as they were finishing +breakfast, she found a pair of dull little faces staring out at the +rain, as if looking at it would make it stop. + +"Nasty rain," said Olly, climbing up on his mother's knee. "Go to Spain. +I don't want you to come and spoil my nicey time." + +"I am afraid scolding the rain won't make it go away," said his mother, +smiling into his brown face as he knelt on her lap, with his arms round +her neck. "Now what are we going to do to-day?" + +"I don't know," said Milly, sitting down opposite her mother, and +resting her face gravely on her hands. "Well, we brought _some_ toys, +you know, mother. Olly's got his top; I can help him spin it, and I can +play with Katie a bit." + +"That won't take very long," said Mrs. Norton. "Suppose we do some +lessons first of all." + +"Oh, mother, lessons!" said Milly, in a very doubtful voice. + +"It's holidays, mother, it's holidays," cried Olly. "I don't like +lessons--not a bit." + +"Well, but, Olly, think a bit; you can't spin your top and look at +picture-books all day, and I'm afraid it's going to rain all day--it +looks very like it. If you come and do some reading and counting with me +this morning, I can give you some spills to make, or some letters to +tear up for me afterwards. That will save the toys for this afternoon; +and some time this afternoon, if it doesn't stop raining, we'll all +have a romp. And as for you, Milly, don't you think it's quite time +Katie had a new frock? I believe I can find a beautiful bit of blue silk +in my bag, and I'm sure nurse will show you how to make it." + +Milly's face brightened up very much at this, and the two children went +skipping upstairs to the drawing-room after their mother, in very fair +spirits again. Olly did some reading, while Milly wrote in her copybook, +and then Olly had his counting-slate and tried to find out what 6 and 4 +made, and 5 and 3, and other little sums of the same kind. He yawned a +good deal over his reading, and was quite sure several times that h-a-y +spelt "ham," and s-a-w spelt "was," but still, on the whole, he got +through very well. Milly wrote her copy, then she learnt some verses of +a poem called "Lucy Gray," and last of all mother found her a big map of +Westmoreland, the county in which the mountains are, and they had a most +delightful geography lesson. Mother pretended to take Milly a drive all +about the mountains, and made her find out their names, and the names of +the towns and the lakes, beginning with Lake Windermere. Olly was +interested too, for Mrs. Norton told them a great many things about the +places, and made quite a story out of it. + +[Illustration: "He was quite sure that h-a-y spelt 'ham' and s-a-w spelt +'was.'"] + +"Why, mother, I never could go all that long way all at once--_really_, +could I?" asked Milly, when they had been all round the mountains, in +and out and round about. + +"No, Milly, not quite," said Mrs. Norton, laughing, "but it's very easy +to go a long way in a pretendy drive. It would only take us about ten +minutes that way to get to the other side of the world." + +"How long would it take really?" asked Olly. + +"About three months." + +"If we could fly up, and up, ever so far," said Olly, standing on +tiptoe, and stretching out his little arms as high as they would reach, +"it wouldn't take us long. Mother, don't you wish you was a bird?" + +"No, I don't think so, Olly; why do you?" + +"Because I should like to go so _krick_. Mother, the fly-catchers do fly +so krick; I can't see them sometimes when they're flying, they go so +fast. Oh, I do wish father would let me get up a ladder to look at +them." + +"No Olly, you'll frighten them," said Milly, putting on her wise face. +"Besides, father says you're too little, and you'd tumble down." + +Olly looked as if he didn't believe a word of it, as he generally did +when Milly talked wisely to him; but just then he found that mother had +put into his lap a whole basketful of letters to tear up, and that +interested him so much that he forgot the fly-catchers. Nurse cut out a +most fashionable blue dress for Katie, and Milly was quite happy all the +rest of the morning in running up the seams and hemming the bottom. So +the morning passed away. After dinner there were the toys to play with, +and Katie's frock to try on, for nurse had taken a turn at the body +while Milly had been making the skirt. It fitted very well, and Milly +had only the band to put on and the sleeves to make before it would be +quite finished. Then nurse promised to put a little white lace round the +neck, and cut out a blue sash, that Katie might be quite turned into an +elegant young lady. Tea came very soon, and when it was cleared away +father and mother came into the big kitchen without a fireplace, next to +the children's room, and they all had a splendid romp. Mr. Norton made +himself into a tiger, with a tiger-skin in the hall, that Uncle Richard +had brought home from India, and Olly shot him all over with a +walking-stick from the tip of his nose to the tip of his tail. When they +were tired of this, mother set them to play hide-and-seek, and Milly hid +herself in such out-of-the-way cupboards, and squeezed herself into such +small corners, that mother said she was like a needle in a bundle of +hay--there was no finding her. + +Seven o'clock came before they had time to think about it, and the +children went chattering and skipping up to bed, though on fine evenings +they had been staying up much later. How the rain did rattle on the +window while they were undressing. + +"Oh, you tiresome rain," said Milly, standing by the window in her +nightdress, and gazing up into the sky. "Where does it all come from, I +wonder? Won't it be wet to-morrow, Nana? and oh, what is that roaring +over there?" + +"That's the beck," said nurse, who was brushing Olly's hair, and trying +hard to make him stand still for two minutes. + +"The beck! why, what's the matter with it?" + +"It's the rain has made it so full I suppose," said nurse. "To-morrow, +gardener says, it'll be over the lawn if the rain goes on." + +"Oh, but it mustn't go on," said Milly. "Now, rain, dear rain, good +rain, do go away to-night, right away up into the mountains. There's +plenty of room for you up there, and down here we don't want you a bit. +So do be polite and go away." + +But the rain didn't see any good reason for going away, in spite of +Milly's pretty speeches, and next morning there was the same patter on +the window, the same gray sky and dripping garden. After breakfast there +was just a hope of its clearing up. For about an hour the rain seemed to +get less and the clouds a little brighter. But it soon came on again as +fast as ever, and the poor children were very much disappointed. + +"Mother," said Milly, when they had settled down to their lessons again +in the drawing-room, "when we get back to Willingham, do you know what I +shall do?" + +"No, Milly." + +"I shall ask you to take me to see that old gentleman--you know who I +mean--who told you about the rain. And I shall say to him, 'please, Mr. +Old Gentleman, at first I thought you were quite wrong about the rain, +but afterwards I thought you were quite right, and it does rain +dreadfully much in the mountains.'" + +"Very well, Milly. But you have only just had a taste of what the rain +can do in the lakes you know, so far. Father and I have been here +sometimes when it has rained two or three weeks without stopping." + +"Oh dear!" said Milly, looking extremely melancholy. "I like the +mountains very much, mother; but _do_ you think we'd better come to +Ravensnest again after this year?" + +"Oh you ungrateful little woman!" said Mrs. Norton, whose love for the +place was so real that Milly's speech gave her quite a pang. "Have you +forgotten all your happy sunshiny days here, just because it has rained +for two? Why, when I was a little girl, and used to come here, the rainy +days never made me love the place a bit the less. I always used to think +the fine days made up." + +"But then, mother, you were a nice little girl," said Milly, throwing +her arms round her mother's neck and kissing her. "Now, I don't feel a +bit nice this morning. It makes me so cross not to be able to go out and +get flowers and wild strawberries. And you know at home it hardly ever +rains all day." + +"Gardener says sometimes it rains all over the road," interrupted Olly, +"and people can't walk along, and they have to go right up on the +mountains to get past the water place. And sometimes they have to get a +boat to take people across. Do you think we shall have to go in a boat +to church on Sunday, mother?" + +"Well, we're a long way off that yet, Olly. It will take a good many +days' rain to flood the roads so deep that we can't get along them, and +this is only the second rainy day. Come, I don't think we've got much +to complain of. Now suppose, instead of doing all your lessons this +morning, you were presently to write to Jacky and Francis--you write to +Jacky, Milly, and Olly to Francis. Don't you think that would be a good +thing?" + +"Oh yes, yes!" cried Milly, shutting up her copybook in a great hurry. +"They'll be so much astonished, mother, for we didn't _promise_ to write +to them. I don't believe they ever get any letters." + +The children had a great deal of affection and some secret pity for +these playfellows of theirs, who had a sick mother, and who did not get +half the pleasures and amusements that they did. And, as I have already +told you, they could not bear Miss Chesterton, the little boys' aunt, +who lived with them. They felt sure that Jacky and Francis must be +unhappy, only because they had to live with Miss Chesterton. + +This was Milly's letter when it was done. Milly could only write very +slowly, in rather big hand, so that her letters were never very long: + + MY DEAR JACKY--Don't you think it very odd getting a letter from + me? It is nearly a fortnight since we came here. At first it was + _very_ nice. We went up the mountains, and Aunt Emma took us in + a boat on the lake. And we gathered some wild strawberries, only + some of them were quite white--not red a bit. But now it has + begun to rain, and we don't like it at all. Perhaps we sha'n't + be able to get home because the rain will cover up the roads. It + is _very_ dull staying in, only mother makes us such nice plays. + Good-bye, Jacky. I send my love to Francis. Mind you don't + forget us. + + Your loving little friend, + MILLY. + +Olly wrote a much longer letter, that is to say, mother wrote for him, +and he told her what to say, and as this was a much easier way of +writing than Milly's way, he got on very fast, and Mrs. Norton had to +write as quickly as she could, to keep up with him. And this was what +Olly had to say: + + MY DEAR FRANCIS--I wonder what you'll say to-morrow morning + when the postman brings you this letter. I hope you'll write + back, because it won't be fair if you don't. It isn't such fun + here now because it does rain so. Milly and I are always telling + the rain to go away, but it won't--though it did at home. Last + week we went out in a boat, and I rowed. I rowed a great way, + much farther than Milly. We went very slow when Milly rowed. It + was very jolly at the picnic. Aunt Emma gave me some cake, and + mother gave me some bread and jam. Nana won't let us have cake + and jam both, when we have tea at home. Aunt Emma told us a + story about King Arthur. I don't believe you ever heard it. The + water-fairies took him away, and his friend wanted to go too, + but the king said 'No! you must stop behind.' Milly cried + because she felt sad about the king. I didn't cry, because I'm a + little boy. Mother says you won't understand about the story, + and she says we must tell it you when we get home. So we will, + only perhaps we sha'n't remember. Do you do lessons now? We + don't do any--only when it rains. Milly's writing a letter to + Jacky--mine's much longer than hers. + + Your little friend, + OLLY. + +Then came the putting up the letters, addressing them, and stamping +them, all of which the children enjoyed very much, and by the time they +were laid on the hall table ready to go to the post it was nearly +dinner-time. + +How the beck did roar that afternoon. And when the children looked out +from the drawing-room window they could see a little flood on the lawn, +where the water had come over the side of the stream. While they were +having their tea, with mother sitting by, working and chattering to +them, they heard a knock at the door, and when they opened it there was +father standing in the unused kitchen, with the water running off his +waterproof coat, making little streams all over the stone floor. + +"I have been down to look at the river," he said to Mrs. Norton. "Keep +off, children! I'm much too wet to touch. Such rain! It does know how +to come down here! The water's over the road just by the +stepping-stones. John Backhouse says if it goes on another twenty-four +hours like this, there'll be no getting to Wanwick by the road, on +foot." + +"Father," said Milly, looking at him with a very solemn face, "wouldn't +it be dreadful if it went on raining and raining, and if the river came +up and up, right up to the drive and into the hall, and we all had to +sit upstairs, and the butcher couldn't bring us any meat, and John +Backhouse couldn't bring us any milk, and we all _died_ of hunger." + +"Then they would put us into some black boxes," said Olly, cheerfully, +with his mouth full of bread and butter, "and they would put the black +boxes into some boats, and take us right away and bury us +krick--wouldn't they, mother?" + +"Well, but--" said Mr. Norton, who had by this time got rid of his wet +coat, and was seated by Milly, helping himself to some tea, "suppose we +got into the boats before we were dead, and rowed away to Windermere +station?" + +"Oh no! father," said Milly, who always liked her stories to be as +gloomy as possible, "they wouldn't know anything about us till we were +dead you know, and then they'd come and find us, and be _very_ sorry for +us, and say, 'Oh dear! oh dear! what a pity!'" + +Olly began to look so dismal as Milly's fancies grew more and more +melancholy, that Mrs. Norton took to laughing at them all. What did they +know about Westmoreland rain indeed. This was nothing--just nothing at +all; she _could_ remember some floods in the wintertime, when she was a +little girl, and used to stay with Aunt Emma and great-grandmamma; but +as for this, why, it was a good summer wetting, and that was all. + +A romp sent the children to bed in excellent spirits again. This time +both Milly and Olly stood at the window together, and told the rain to +be sure to go to Spain that night, and never come back again while they +were at Ravensnest. + +"Or you might go to Willingham, you know, dear Mr. Rain," said Milly; "I +daresay mother's flowers want a good watering. And there's Spot--you +might give her a good washing--she _can_ wash herself, but she won't. +Only we don't want you here, Mr. Rain." + +But what an obstinate disagreeable Mr. Rain it was! All that night it +went on pouring, till the little beck in the garden was so full it was +almost choked, and could only get along by sputtering and foaming as if +some wicked water-fairies were driving it along and tormenting it. And +all the little pools on the mountain, the "tarns," as Becky and Tiza +called them, filled up, and the rain made the mountain itself so wet +that it was like one big bog all over. + +When the children woke up the flood on the lawn was growing bigger, and +it seemed to them as if the house and garden were all wrapped up in a +wet white cloud-blanket. They could not see the mountain at all from the +window, it was all covered with a thick white mist, and the dark fir +trees in the garden looked sad and drooping, as if the weight of +raindrops was too much for them to carry. + +The children had made up their minds so completely the night before that +it _couldn't_ rain more than two days running, that they felt as if they +could hardly be expected to bear this third wet morning cheerfully. +Nurse found them cross and out of spirits at breakfast. Even a prospect +of asking Becky and Tiza to tea did not bring any smiles to their +forlorn little faces. It would be no fun having anybody to tea. They +couldn't go out, and there was nothing amusing indoors. + +After breakfast, Olly set to work to get into mischief, as he generally +did when he felt dull. Nurse discovered him smearing Katie's cheeks with +raspberry jam "to make them get red kricker" as he said, and alas! some +of the jam had stuck to the new silk frock, and spoilt all its smart +fresh look. + +When Milly found it out she began to cry, and when Mrs. Norton came in +she saw a heap on the floor, which was Milly, sobbing, while Olly sat +beside her with his mouth wide open, as if he was a good deal astonished +at the result of his first attempt at doctoring. + +"Pick up the pieces, old woman," said Mrs. Norton, taking hold of the +heap and lifting it up. "What's the matter with you both?" + +"Olly's spoilt my doll," sobbed Milly, "and it _will_ go on raining--and +I feel so--so--dull." + +"I didn't spoil her doll, mother," cried Olly, eagerly. "I only rubbed +some jam on its cheeks to make them a nicey pink--only some of it +_would_ sticky her dress--I didn't mean to." + +"How would you like some jam rubbed on your cheeks, sir?" said Mrs. +Norton, who could scarcely help laughing at poor Katie's appearance when +nurse handed the doll to her. "Suppose you leave Milly's dolls alone for +the future; but cheer up, Milly! I think I can make Katie very nearly +right again. Come upstairs to my room and we'll try." + +After a good deal of sponging and rubbing, and careful drying by the +kitchen fire, Katie came very nearly right again, and then Mrs. Norton +tried whether some lessons would drive the rain out of the children's +heads. But the lessons did not go well. It was all Milly could do to +help crying every time she got a figure wrong in her sum, and Olly took +about ten minutes to read two lines of his reading-book. Olly had just +begun his sums, and Milly was standing up to say some poetry to her +mother, looking a woebegone little figure, with pale cheeks and heavy +eyes, when suddenly there was a noise of wheels outside, and both the +children turned to look out of the window. + +"A carriage! a carriage!" shouted Olly, jumping down, and running to the +window. + +There, indeed, was one of the shut-up "cars," as the Westmoreland people +call them, coming up the Ravensnest drive. + +"It's Aunt Emma," said Mrs. Norton, starting up, "how good of her to +come over on such a day. Run, children, and open the front door." + +Down flew Milly and Olly, tumbling over one another in their hurry; but +father had already thrown the door open, and who should they see +stepping down the carriage-steps but Aunt Emma herself, with her soft +gray hair shining under her veil, and her dear kind face as gentle and +cheery as ever. + +"Aunt Emma! Aunt Emma!" shouted Olly, dancing up to her, and throwing +his arms round her, "_are_ you come to tell us about old Mother +Quiverquake?" + +"You gipsy, don't strangle me! Well, Lucy dear, here I am. Will you have +me to dinner? I thought we'd all be company for each other this bad day. +Why, Milly, what have you been doing to your cheeks?" + +"She's been crying," said Olly, in spite of Milly's pulling him by the +sleeve to be quiet, "because I stickened her doll." + +"Well, and quite right too. Dolls weren't made to be stickied. But now, +who's going to carry my bag upstairs? Take it gently, Milly, it's got my +cap inside, and if you crumple my cap I shall have to sit with my head +in a bandbox at dinner. Old ladies are _never_ seen without their caps +you know. The most dreadful things would happen if they were! Olly, you +may put my umbrella away. There now, I'll go to mother's room and take +off my things." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +A STORY-TELLING GAME + + +When Aunt Emma was safely settled, cap and all, in one of the +drawing-room arm-chairs, it seemed to the children as if the rain and +the gray sky did not matter nearly so much as they had done half an hour +before. In the first place, her coming made something new and +interesting to think about; and in the second place, they felt quite +sure that Aunt Emma hadn't brought her little black bag into the +drawing-room with her for nothing. If only her cap had been in it, why +of course she would have left it in mother's bedroom. But here it was in +her lap, with her two hands folded tight over it, as if it contained +something precious! How very puzzling and interesting! + +However, for a long time it seemed as if Aunt Emma had nothing at all to +say about her bag. She began to tell them about her drive--how in two +places the horse had to go splashing through the water, and how once, +when they were crossing a little river that ran across the road, the +water came so far up the wheels that "I put my head out of the window," +said Aunt Emma, "and said to my old coachman, 'Now, John, if it's going +to get any deeper than this, you'd better turn him round and go home, +for I'm an old woman, not a fish, and I can't swim. Of course, if the +horse can swim with the carriage behind him it's all right, but I have +my doubts.' Now John, my dears, has been with me a great many years, and +he knows very well that I'm rather a nervous old woman. It's very sad, +but it is so. Don't you be nervous when you're old people. So all he +said was 'All right, ma'am. Bless you, he can swim like a trout.' And +crack went the whip, splash went the water! It seemed to me it was just +going to come in under the door, when, lo and behold! there we were safe +and sound on dry ground again. But whether my old horse swam through or +walked through I can't tell you. I like to believe he swam, because I'm +so fond of him, and one likes to believe the creatures one loves can do +clever things." + +"I'll ask John when he comes to take you away, Aunt Emma," said Olly. "I +don't believe horses can swim when they're in a carriage." + +"You're a matter-of-fact monkey," said Aunt Emma. "Dear me, what's +that?" + +For a loud squeak had suddenly startled the children, who were now +looking about them everywhere in vain, to find out where it came from. +Squeak! again. This time the voice certainly came from near Aunt Emma's +chair, but there was nothing to be seen. + +"What a strange house you live in," said Aunt Emma, with a perfectly +grave face. "You must have caught a magician somehow. That's a +magician's squeak." + +Again came the noise! + +"I know, I know!" shouted Olly. "It's Aunt Emma's bag! I'm sure it came +out of the bag." + +"My bag!"--holding it up and looking at it. "Now does it look like a bag +that squeaks? It's a perfectly well-behaved bag, and never did such a +thing in its life." + +"I know, Aunt Emma," said Olly, dancing round her in great excitement. +"You've got the parrot in there!" + +"Well now," said Aunt Emma. "This is really serious. If you think I am +such a cruel old woman as to shut up a poor poll-parrot in a bag, +there's no help for it, we must open the bag. But it's a very curious +bag--I wouldn't stand too near it if I were you." + +Click! went the fastening of the bag, and out jumped--what do you think? +Why, the very biggest frog that was ever seen, in this part of the world +at any rate, a green speckled frog, that hopped on to Aunt Emma's knee, +and then on to the floor, where it went hopping and squeaking along the +carpet, till all of a sudden, when it got to the door, it turned over on +its back, and lay there quite quiet with its legs in the air. + +The children followed it with looks half of horror, half of amazement. + +"What is it, Aunt Emma? Is it alive?" asked Milly, jumping on to a chair +as the frog came near her, and drawing her little skirts tight round her +legs, while Olly went cautiously after it, with his hands on his knees, +one step at a time. + +"You'd better ask it," said Aunt Emma, who had at last begun to laugh a +little, as if it was impossible to keep grave any longer. "I'm sure it +looks very peaceable just now, poor thing." + +So the children crept up to it, and examined it closely. Yes, it was a +green speckled frog, but what it was made of, and whether it was alive, +and if it was not alive how it managed to hop and squeak--these were the +puzzles. + +"Take hold of it, Milly," said Mr. Norton, who had just come up from his +work, and was standing laughing near the door. "Turn it over on its legs +again." + +"No, I'll turn it," cried Olly, making a dash, and turning it over in a +great hurry, keeping his legs and feet well out of the way. Hop! squeak! +there it was off again, right down the room with the children after it, +till it suddenly came up against a table leg, and once more turned over +on its back and lay quite still. + +"Oh, Aunt Emma, is it a toy?" asked Milly, who now felt brave enough to +take it up and look at it. + +"Well, Milly, I believe so--a very lively one. Bring it here, and I'll +tell you something about it." + +So the children brought it very cautiously, as if they were not quite +sure what it would do next, and then Aunt Emma explained to them that +she had once paid a visit to a shop in London where Japanese toys--toys +made in the country of Japan--far away on the other side of the +world--were sold, and that there she found master froggy. + +"And there never was such a toy as froggy for a wet day," said Aunt +Emma. "I have tried him on all sorts of boys and girls, and he never +fails. He's as good a cure for a cross face as a poultice is for a sore +finger. But, Milly, listen! I declare there's something else going on in +my bag. I really think, my dear bag, you might be quiet now that you +have got rid of froggy! What can all this chattering be about? Sh! sh!" +and Aunt Emma held up her finger at the children, while she held the bag +up to her ear, and listened carefully. Olly was almost beside himself +with excitement, but Milly had got his little brown hands tight in hers +for fear he should make a jump at the bag. "Yes," said Aunt Emma. "It's +just as I thought. The bag declares it's not his fault at all, but that +if I will give him such noisy creatures to carry I must take the +consequences. He says there's a whole family now inside him, making such +a noise he can hardly hear himself speak. It's enough, he says, to drive +a respectable bag mad, and he must blow up if it goes on. Dear me! I +must look into this. Milly, come here!" + +Milly came near, and Aunt Emma opened the bag solemnly. + +"Now, Milly, I'll hold it for fear it should take it into its poor head +to blow up, and you put your hand in and see what you can find." + +So Milly put her hand in, feeling a good deal excited as to what might +happen--and what do you think she brought out? A whole handful of the +most delicious dolls:--cardboard dolls of all sorts and kinds, like +those in mother's drawer at home; paper dolls, mamma dolls, little boy +dolls and little girl dolls, baby dolls and nurse dolls; dolls in suits +and dolls in frocks; dolls in hats and dolls in nightgowns; a papa in +trousers and a mamma in a magnificent blue dress with flounces and a +train; a nurse in white cap and apron and the most bewitching baby doll +you ever saw, with a frilled paper cap that slipped on and off, and a +white frock with pink ribbons. And the best of these dolls was, that +each of them had a piece of cardboard fastened on behind and a little +bit of cardboard to stand on, so that when you spread out the piece +behind they stood up as naturally as possible, and looked as if they +were going to talk to you. + +"Oh, Aunt Emma, dear Aunt Emma!" cried Milly, beside herself with +delight as she spread them all out in her lap. "They're just like +mother's at home, mother's that you made for her when she was a little +girl--only ever so many more." + +"Well, Milly, I made mother's for her long ago, when it rained for days +and days without stopping, and she had grown tired of pretty nearly +everything and everybody indoors; and now I have been spending part of +these rainy days in making a new set for mother's little girl. There, +dear little woman, I think you must have given me a kiss for each of +them by this time. Suppose you try and make them stand up." + +"But, Aunt Emma," said Olly, who was busy examining the mysterious +bag--how could the dolls talk? they're only paper." + +"I know nothing about it," answered Aunt Emma, rescuing the bag, and +putting it safely under her chair. "You _might_ ask the bag--but it +wouldn't answer you. Magical bags never do talk except to their masters +or mistresses." + +So Olly had to puzzle it out for himself while he played with the +Japanese frog. That was an extraordinary frog! You should have seen +nurse's start when Olly hid himself in the passage and sent the frog +hopping and squeaking through the open door of the night nursery, where +nurse was sitting sewing; and as for cook, when the creature came +flopping over her kitchen floor she very nearly spoilt the hash she was +making for dinner by dropping a whole pepper-box into the middle of it! +There was no end to the fun to be got out of froggy, and Olly amused +himself with it the whole of the morning, while Milly went through long +stories with her dolls upstairs, helped every now and then by Aunt Emma, +who sat knitting and talking to mother. + +At dinner the children had to sit quiet while Mr. and Mrs. Norton and +Aunt Emma talked. Father and mother had been almost as much cheered up +by Aunt Emma's coming as the children themselves, and now the +dinner-table was lively with pleasant talk; talk about books, and talk +about pictures, and talk about foreign places, and talk about the +mountains and the people living near Ravensnest, many of whom mother had +known when she was a little girl. Milly, who was old enough to listen, +could only understand a little bit here and there; but there was always +Aunt Emma's friendly gentle face to look at, and her soft old hand in +its black mitten, to slip her own little fingers into; while Olly was so +taken up with the prospects of the black-currant pudding which he had +seen cook making in the morning, and the delight of it when it came, +that it seemed no trouble to him to sit still. + +As for the rain, there was not much difference. Perhaps there were a few +breaks in the clouds, and it might be beating a little less heavily on +the glass conservatory outside the dining-room, still, on the whole, the +weather was much the same as it had been. It was wonderful to see how +little notice the children had taken of it since Aunt Emma came, and +when they escorted her upstairs after dinner, they quite forgot to rush +to the window and look out, as they had been doing the last three days +at every possible opportunity. + +The children got her safe into a chair, and then Olly brought a stool to +one side of her, and Milly brought a stool to the other. + +"_Now,_ can you remember about old Mother Quiverquake?" said Olly, +resting his little sunburnt chin on Aunt Emma's knee, and looking up to +her with eager eyes. + +[Illustration: "'Suppose we have a story-telling game'"] + +"Well, I daresay I shall begin to remember about her presently; but +suppose, children, we have a _story-telling game_. We'll tell +stories--you and Olly, father, mother, and everybody. That's much fairer +than that one person should do all the telling." + +"We couldn't," said Milly, shaking her head gravely, "we are only little +children. Little children can't make up stories." + +"Suppose little children try," said mother. "I think Aunt Emma's is an +excellent plan. Now, father, you'll have to tell one too." + +"Father's lazy," said Mr. Norton, coming out from behind his newspaper. +"But, perhaps, if you all of you tell very exciting stories you may stir +him up." + +"Oh, father!" cried Olly, who had a vivid remembrance of his father's +stories, though they only came very seldom, "tell us about the rat with +three tails, and the dog that walked on its nose." + +"Oh dear, no!" said Mr. Norton, "those won't do for such a grand +story-telling as this. I must think of some story which is all long +words and good children." + +"_Don't_ father," said Milly, imploringly, "it's ever so much nicer when +they get into scrapes, you know, and tumble down, and all that." + +"Who's to begin?" said Aunt Emma. "I think mother had better begin. +Afterwards it will be your turn, Olly; then father, then Milly, and then +me." + +"I don't believe I've got a scrap of a story in my head," said Mrs. +Norton. "It's weeks since I caught one last." + +"Then look here, Olly," said Aunt Emma, "I'll tell you what to do. Go up +gently behind mother, and kiss her three times on the top of the head. +That's the way to send the stories in. Mother will soon begin to feel +one fidgeting inside her head after that." + +So Olly went gently up behind his mother, climbed on a stool at the back +of her chair, and kissed her softly three times at the back of her head. +Mrs. Norton lay still for a few moments after the kisses, with closed +eyes. + +"Ah!" she said at last. "Now I think I've caught one. But it's a very +little one, poor little thing. And yet, strange to say, though it's very +little, it's very old. Now, children, you must be kind to my story. I +caught him first a great many years ago in an old book, but I am afraid +you will hardly care for him as much as I did. Well, once upon a time +there was a great king." + +"Was it King Arthur, mother?" interrupted Olly, eagerly. + +"Oh no! this king lived in a different country altogether. He lived in a +beautiful hot country over the sea, called Spain." + +"Oh, mother! a _hot_ country!" protested Milly, "that's where the rain +goes to." + +"Well, Milly, I don't think you know any more about it, except that you +_tell_ the rain to go there. Don't you know by this time that the rain +never does what it's told? Really, very little rain goes to Spain, and +in some parts of the country the people would be very glad indeed if we +could send them some of the rain we don't want at Ravensnest. But now, +you mustn't interrupt me, or I shall forget my story--Well there was +once a king who lived in a _very_ hot part of Spain, where they don't +have much rain, and where it hardly ever snows or freezes. And this king +had a beautiful wife, whom he loved very much. But, unluckily, this +beautiful wife had one great fault. She was always wishing for the most +unreasonable and impossible things, and though the king was always +trying to get her what she wanted she was never satisfied, and every day +she seemed to grow more and more discontented and exacting. At last, one +day in the winter, a most extraordinary thing happened. A shower of snow +fell in Cordova, which was the name of the town where the king and queen +lived, and it whitened the hills all around the town, so that they +looked as if somebody had been dusting white sugar over them. Now snow +was hardly ever seen in Cordova, and the people in the town wondered at +it, and talked about it a great deal. But after she had looked at it a +little-while the queen began to cry bitterly. None of her ladies could +comfort her, nor would she tell any of them what was the matter. There +she sat at her window, weeping, till the king came to see her. When he +came he could not imagine what she was crying about, and begged her to +tell him why. 'I am weeping,' she said, sobbing all the time, 'because +the hills--are not always--covered with snow. See how pretty they look! +And yet--I have never, till now, seen them look like that. If you really +loved me, you would manage some way or other that it should snow once a +year at any rate.' + +"'But how can I make it snow?' cried the king in great trouble, because +she would go on weeping and weeping, and spoiling her pretty eyes. + +"'I'm sure I don't know,' said the queen, crossly, 'but you can't love +me a bit, or you'd certainly try.' + +"Well, the king thought and thought, and at last he hit upon a beautiful +plan. He sent into all parts of Spain to buy almond trees, and planted +them on the hills all round the town. Now the almond tree, as you know, +has a lovely pinky-white blossom, so when the next spring arrived all +these thousands of almond trees came out into bloom all over the hills +round Cordova, so that they looked at a distance as if they were covered +with white snow. And for once the queen was delighted, and could not +help saying a nice 'Thank you' to the king for all the trouble he had +taken to please her. But it was not very long before she grew +discontented again, and began once more to wish for all kinds of +ridiculous things. One day she was sitting at her window, and she saw +some ragged little children playing by the river that ran round the +palace. They were dabbling in the mud at the side, sticking their little +bare feet into it, or scooping up pieces which they rolled into balls +and threw at one another. The queen watched them for some time, and at +last she began to weep bitterly. One of her maidens ran and told the +king that the queen was weeping, and he came in a great hurry to see +what was the matter. + +"'Just look at those children down there!' said the queen, sobbing and +pointing to them. 'Did you ever see anybody so happy? Why can't I have +mud to dabble in too, and why can't I take off my shoes and stockings, +and amuse myself like the children do, instead of being so dull and +stuck-up all day long?' + +"'Because it isn't proper for queens to dabble in the mud,' said the +poor king in great perplexity, for he didn't at all like the idea of +his beautiful queen dabbling in the mud with the little ragged children. + +"'That's just like you,' said the queen, beginning to cry faster than +ever,' you never do anything to please me. What's the good of being +proper? What's the good of being a queen at all?' + +"This made the king very unhappy, and again he thought and thought, till +at last he hit upon a plan. He ordered a very large shallow bath of +white marble to be made in the palace-garden. Then he poured into it all +kinds of precious stones, and chips of sweet-smelling wood, besides a +thousand cartloads of rose-leaves and a thousand cartloads of orange +flowers. All these he ordered to be stirred up together with a great +ivory spoon, till they made a kind of wonderful mud, and then he had the +bath filled up with scented water. + +"'Now then,' he said to the queen, when he had brought her down to look +at it, 'you may take off your shoes and stockings and paddle about in +this mud as much as you like.' You may imagine that this was a very +pleasant kind of mud to dabble in, and the queen and her ladies amused +themselves with it immensely for some time. But nothing could keep this +tiresome queen amused for long together, and in about a fortnight she +had grown quite tired of her wonderful bath. It seemed as if the king's +pains had been all thrown away. She grew cross and discontented again, +and her ladies began to say to each other, 'What will she wish for next, +I wonder? The king might as well try to drink up the sea as try to get +her all she wants.' At last, one day, when she and her ladies were +walking near the palace, they met a shepherdess driving a flock of sheep +up into the hills. The shepherdess looked so pretty and bright in her +red petticoat and tall yellow cap, that the queen stopped to speak to +her. + +"'Where are you going, pretty maiden, with your woolly white sheep?' she +asked. + +"'I am going up to the hills,' said the shepherdess. 'Now the sun has +scorched up the fields down below we must take our sheep up to the cool +hills, where the grass is still fresh and green. Good-day, good-day, the +sheep are going so fast I cannot wait.' So on she tripped, singing and +calling to her sheep, who came every now and then to rub their soft +coats against her, as if they loved her. The queen looked after her, and +her face began to pucker up. + +"'Why am I not a shepherdess?' she exclaimed, bursting into tears. 'I +_hate_ being a queen! I never sang as merrily as that little maiden in +all my life. I must and will be a shepherdess, and drive sheep up into +the mountain, or I shall die!" + +"And all that night the foolish queen sat at her window crying, and when +the morning came she had made herself look quite old and ugly. When the +king came to see her he was dreadfully troubled, and begged her to tell +him what was the matter now. + +"'I want to be a shepherdess, and drive sheep up into the mountains,' +sobbed the queen. 'Why should the little shepherdess girls look always +so happy and merry, while I am dying of dulness?' + +"The king thought it was very unkind of her to say she was dying of +dulness when he had taken so much trouble to get her all she wanted; but +he knew it was no good talking to her while she was in such a temper. So +all he said was: + +"'How can I turn you into a shepherdess? These shepherdesses stay out +all night with their sheep on the hills, and live on water and a crust +of bread. How would you like that?' + +"'Of course I-should like it,' said the queen, 'anything for a change. +Besides, nothing could be nicer than staying out of doors these lovely +nights. And as for food, you know very well that I am never hungry here, +and that it doesn't matter in the least to me what I eat!' + +"'Well,' said the king, 'you shall go up to the hills, if you promise to +take your ladies with you, and if you will let me send a tent to shelter +you at night, and some servants to look after you.' + +"'As if that would give me any pleasure!' said the queen, 'to be +followed about and waited upon is just what I detest. I will go alone; +just like that pretty little shepherdess, if I go at all.' + +"But the king declared that nothing would induce him to let her go +alone. So the queen set to work to cry, and she cried for two days and +two nights without stopping, and at the end of that time the poor king +was ready to let her go anywhere or do anything for the sake of a little +peace. + +"So she had her own way. They found her a flock of the loveliest white +sheep, all with blue ribbons round their necks, and blue rosettes on +their little white tails; and the queen dressed herself up in a red silk +petticoat and a cap embroidered in gold and silver, and then she set out +by herself. + +"At first it was all delightful. She drove the sheep up the soft green +hillsides, and laughed with delight to see them nibbling the fresh +grass, and running hither and thither after her, and after each other. +The evening sun shone brightly, and she sat herself down on a rock and +sang all the tunes she knew, that she might be just like the little +shepherdess. But while she was singing the sheep strayed away, and she +had to run after them as fast as she could, to catch them up. This made +her hot and tired, so she tried to make them lie down under a chestnut +tree, that she might rest beside them. But the sheep were not a bit +tired, and had no mind to rest at all. While she was calling one set of +them together the other set ran scampering off, and the queen found out +that she must just give up her way for once and follow theirs. On went +the sheep, up hill and down dale, nibbling and frisking and trotting to +their hearts' content, till the queen was worn out. + +"At last, by the time the sun was setting, the poor queen was so tired +that she could walk no longer. Down she sat, and the ungrateful sheep +kicked up their little hind legs and trotted away out of sight as fast +as they could trot. There she was left on the hillside all alone. It +began to get dark, and the sky, instead of being blue and clear as it +had been, filled with black clouds. + +"'Oh dear! oh dear!' sighed the queen, 'here is a storm coming. If I +could only find my way down the hill, if I could only see the town!' + +"But there were trees all about her, which hid the view, and soon it was +so dark there was nothing to be seen, not even the stars. And presently, +crash came the thunder, and after the thunder the rain--such rain! It +soaked the queen's golden cap till it was so heavy with water she was +obliged to throw it away, and her silk petticoat was as wet as if she +had been taking a bath in it. In vain she ran hither and thither, trying +to find a way through the trees, while the rain blinded her, and the +thunder deafened her, till at last she was forced to sink down on the +ground, feeling more wretched and frightened and cold than any queen +ever felt before. Oh, if she were only safe back in her beautiful +palace! If only she had the tent the king wanted to send with her! But +there all night she had to stay, and all night the storm went on, till +the queen was lying in a flood, and the owls and bats, startled out of +their holes, went flying past her in the dark, and frightening her out +of her senses. When the morning came there was such a shivering, +crumpled up queen sitting on the grass, that even her own ladies would +scarcely have known her. + +"'Oh, husband! husband!' she cried, getting up and wringing her cold +little hands. 'You will never find me, and your poor wicked wife will +die of cold and hunger.' + +"Tirra-lirra! tirra-lirra! What was that sounding in the forest? +Surely--surely--it was a hunting horn. But who could be blowing it so +early in the cold gray morning, when it was scarcely light? On ran the +queen toward where the sound came from. Over rocks and grass she ran, +till, all of a sudden, stepping out from behind a tree, came the king +himself, who had been looking for her for hours. And then what do you +think the discontented queen did? She folded her hands, and hung her +head, and said, quite sadly and simply: + +"'Oh, my lord king, make me a shepherdess really. I don't deserve to be +a queen. Send me away, and let me knit and spin for my living. I have +plagued you long enough.' + +"And suddenly it seemed to the king as if there had been a black speck +in the queen's heart, which had been all washed away by the rain; and he +took her hands, and led her home to the palace in joy and gladness. And +so they lived happy ever afterward." + +"Thank you _very_ much, mother," said Milly, stretching up her arms and +drawing down Mrs. Norton's face to kiss her. "Do you really think the +queen was never discontented any more?" + +"I can't tell you any more than the story does," said Mrs. Norton. "You +see there would always be that dreadful night to think about, if she +ever felt inclined to be; but I daresay the queen didn't find it very +easy at first." + +"I would have made her be a shepherdess," said Olly, shaking his head +gravely. "She wasn't nice, not a bit." + +"Little Mr. Severity!" said Aunt Emma, pulling his brown curls. "It's +your turn next, Olly." + +"Then Milly must kiss me first," said Olly, looking rather scared, as if +something he didn't quite understand was going to happen to him. + +So Milly went through the operation of kissing him three times on the +back of the head, and then Olly's eyes, finding it did no good to stare +at Aunt Emma or mother, went wandering all round the room in search of +something else to help him. Suddenly they came to the window, where a +brown speck was dancing up and down, and then Olly's face brightened, +and he began in a great hurry: + +"Once upon a time there was a daddy-long-legs--" + +"Well," said Milly, when they had waited a little while, and nothing +more came. + +"I don't know any more," said Olly. + +"Oh, that _is_ silly," said Milly, "why, that isn't a story at all. Shut +your eyes tight, that's much the best way of making a story." + +So Olly shut his eyes, and pressed his two hands tightly over them, and +then he began again: + +"Once upon a time there was a daddy-long-legs--" + +Another stop. + +"Was it a _good_ daddy-long-legs?" asked Milly, anxious to help him on. + +"Yes," said Olly, "that's it, Milly. Once upon a time there was a good +daddy-long-legs--" + +"Well, what did he do?" asked Milly, impatiently. + +"He--he--flewed on to father's nose!" said Olly, keeping his hands tight +over his eyes, while his little white teeth appeared below in a broad +grin. + +"And father said, 'Who's that on my nose?' and the daddy-long-legs said, +'It's me, don't you know?' And father said, 'Get away off my nose, I +don't like you a bit.' And the daddy-long-legs said, 'I shan't go away. +It's hot on the window, the sun gets in my eyes. I like sitting up here +best.' So father took a big sofa-cushion and gave his nose _ever_ such a +bang! And the daddy-long-legs tumbled down dead. And the cushion tumbled +down dead. And father tumbled down dead. And that's all," said Olly +opening his eyes, and looking extremely proud of himself. + +"Oh, you silly boy!" cried Milly, "that isn't a bit like a real story." + +But Aunt Emma and father and mother laughed a good deal at Olly's story, +and Aunt Emma said it would do very well for such a small boy. + +Whose turn was it next? + +"Father's turn! father's turn!" cried the children, in great glee, +looking round for him; but while Olly's story had been going on, Mr. +Norton, who was sitting behind them in a big arm-chair, had been +covering himself up with sofa cushions and newspapers, till there was +only the tip of one of his boots to be seen, coming out from under the +heap. The children were a long time dragging him out, for he pelted them +with cushions, and crumpled the newspapers over their heads, till they +were so tired with laughing and struggling they had no strength left. + +"Father, it isn't fair, I don't think," said Milly at last, sitting a +breathless heap on the floor. "Of course little people can't _make_ big +people do things, so the big people ought to do them without making." + +"That's not at all good reasoning, Milly," said Mr. Norton, who could +not resist the temptation of throwing one more sofa cushion at her +laughing face. "You can't _make_ nurse stand on her head, but that's no +reason why nurse should stand on her head." + +Just then Olly, moving up a stool behind his father's chair, brought his +little mouth suddenly down on his father's head, and gave him three +kisses in a great hurry, with a shout of triumph at the end. + +"Dear me!" said Mr. Norton, shutting his eyes and falling back as if +something had happened to him. "This is very serious. Aunt Emma, that +spell of yours is really _too_ strong. My poor head! It will certainly +burst if I don't get this story out directly! Come, jump up, +children--quick!" + +Up jumped the children, one on each knee, and Mr. Norton began at once. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE STORY OF BEOWULF + + +Once upon a time there was a great--" + +"Father," interrupted Milly, "I shall soon be getting tired of 'Once +upon a time there was a great king.'" + +"Don't cry till you're hurt, Milly; which means, wait till I get to the +end of my sentence. Well, once upon a time there was a great--hero." + +"What is a hero?" asked Olly. + +"I know," said Milly, eagerly, "it's a brave man that's always fighting +and killing giants and dragons and cruel people." + +"That'll do to begin with," said Mr. Norton, "though, when you grow +older, you will find that people can be heroes without fighting or +killing. However, the man I am going to tell you about was just the kind +of hero you're thinking of, Milly. He loved fighting with giants and +dragons and wild people, and my story is going to be about two of his +fights--the greatest he ever fought. The name of this hero was Beowulf, +and he lived in a country called Sweden (Milly knows all about Sweden, +Olly, and you must get her to show it you on the map), with a number of +other brave men who were his friends, and helped him in his battles. And +one day a messenger came over the sea from another country close by, +called Denmark, and the messenger said, 'Which of all you brave men will +come over and help my master, King Hrothgar, who is in sore trouble?' +And the messenger told them how Hrothgar, for many years past, had been +plagued by a monster--the hateful monster Grendel--half a man and half a +beast, who lived at the bottom of a great bog near the king's palace. +Every night, he said, Grendel the monster came out of the bog with his +horrible mother beside him--a wolf-like creature, fearful to look +upon--and he and she would roam about the country, killing and slaying +all whom they met. Sometimes they would come stalking to the king's +palace, where his brave men were sleeping round the fire in the big +hall, and before anyone could withstand him Grendel would fall upon the +king's warriors, kill them by tens and twenties, and carry off their +dead bodies to his bog. Many a brave man had tried to slay the monster, +but none had been able so much as to wound him. + +"When Beowulf and his friends had heard this story they thought a while, +and then each said to the other, 'Let us go across the sea and rid King +Hrothgar of this monster.' So they took ship and went across the sea to +Hrothgar's country, and Hrothgar welcomed them royally, and made a great +feast in their honour. And after the feast Hrothgar said to Beowulf, +'Now, I give over to you the hall of my palace, that you may guard it +against the monster.' So Beowulf and the brave men who had come over +with him made a great fire in the hall, and they all lay down to sleep +beside it. You may imagine that they did not find it very easy to get to +sleep, and some of them thought as they lay there that very likely they +should never see their homes in Sweden again. But they were tired with +journeying and feasting, and one after another they all fell asleep. +Then in the dead of the night, when all was still, Grendel rose up out +of the bog, and came stalking over the moor to the palace. His eyes +flamed with a kind of horrible light in the darkness, and his steps +seemed to shake the earth; but those inside the palace were sleeping so +heavily that they heard nothing, not even when Grendel burst open the +door of the hall and came in among them. Before anyone had wakened, the +monster had seized one of the sleeping men and torn him to pieces. Then +he came to Beowulf; but Beowulf sprang up out of his sleep and laid hold +upon him boldly. He used no sword to strike him, for there was no sword +which men could make was strong enough to hurt Grendel; but he seized +him with his strong hands, and the two struggled together in the palace. +And they fought till the benches were torn from the walls, and +everything in the hall was smashed and broken. The brave men, springing +up all round, seized their swords and would gladly have helped their +lord, but there was no one but Beowulf could harm Grendel. + +"So they fought, till at last Beowulf tore away Grendel's hand and arm, +and the monster fled away howling into the darkness. Over the moor he +rushed till he came to his bog, and there he sank down into the middle +of the bog, wailing and shrieking like one whose last hour was come. +Then there was great rejoicing at Heorot, the palace, and King Hrothgar, +when he saw Grendel's hand which Beowulf had torn away, embraced him and +blessed him, and he and all his friends were laden with splendid gifts. + +"But all was not over yet. When the next night came, and Hrothgar's men +and Beowulf's men were asleep together in the great hall, Grendel's +horrible mother, half a woman and half a wolf, came rushing to the +palace and while they were all asleep she carried off one of Hrothgar's +dearest friends--a young noble whom he loved best of all his nobles. And +she killed him, and carried his body back to the bog. Then the next +morning there was grief and weeping in Heorot; but Beowulf said to the +king, 'Grieve not, O king! till we have found out Grendel's mother and +punished her for her evil deeds. I promise you she shall give an account +for this. She shall not be able to hide herself in the water, nor under +the earth, nor in the forest, nor at the bottom of the sea; let her go +where she will, I will find a way after her.' + +"So Beowulf and his friends put on their armour and mounted their +horses, and set out to look for her. And when they had ridden a long and +weary way over steep lonely paths and past caves where dragons and +serpents lived, they came at last to Grendel's bog--a fearful place +indeed. There in the middle of it lay a pool of black water, and over +the water hung withered trees, which seemed as if they had been poisoned +by the air rising from the water beneath them. No bird or beast would +ever come near Grendel's pool. If the hounds were hunting a stag, and +they drove him down to the edge, he would sooner let them tear him to +pieces than hide himself in the water. And every night the black water +seemed to burn and flame, and it hissed and bubbled and groaned as if +there were evil creatures tossing underneath. And now when Beowulf and +his men came near it, they saw fierce water dragons lying near the edge +or swimming about the pool. There also, beside the water, they found the +dead body of Hrothgar's friend, who had been killed by Grendel's mother, +and they took it up, and mourned over him afresh. + +"But Beowulf took an old and splendid sword that Hrothgar had given him, +and he put on his golden helmet and his iron war shirt that no sword +could cut through, and when he had bade his friends farewell he leapt +straight into the middle of the bog. Down he sank, deeper and deeper +into the water, among strange water beasts that struck at him with their +tusks as he passed them, till at last Grendel's mother, the water-wolf, +looked up from the bottom and saw him coming. Then she sprang upon him, +and seized him, and dragged him down, and he found himself in a sort of +hall under the water, with a pale strange light in it. And then he +turned from the horrible water-wolf and raised his sword and struck her +on the head; but his blow did her no harm. No sword made by mortal men +could harm Grendel or his mother; and as he struck her Beowulf stumbled +and fell. Then the water-wolf rushed forward and sat upon him as he lay +there, and raised aloft her own sharp dagger to drive it into his +breast; but Beowulf shook her off, and sprang up, and there, on the +wall, he saw hanging a strange old sword that had been made in the old +times, long, long ago, when the world was full of giants. So he threw +his own sword aside and took down the old sword, and once more he smote +the water-wolf. And this time his sword did him good service, and +Grendel's fierce mother sank down dead upon the ground. + +"Then Beowulf looked round him, and he saw lying in a corner the body of +Grendel himself. He cut off the monster's head, and lo and behold! when +he had cut it off the blade of the old sword melted away, and there was +nothing left in his hands but the hilt, with strange letters on it, +telling how it was made in old days by the giants for a great king. So +with that, and Hrothgar's sword and Grendel's head, Beowulf rose up +again through the bog, and just as his brave men had begun to think they +should never see their dear lord more he came swimming to land, bearing +the great head with him. + +"Then Hrothgar and all his people rejoiced greatly, for they knew that +the land would never more be troubled by these hateful monsters, but +that the ploughers might plough, and the shepherds might lead their +sheep, and brave men might sleep at night, without fear any more of +Grendel and his mother." + +"Oh, father!" said Milly, breathlessly, when he stopped. "Is that all?" + +But Olly sat quite still, without speaking, gazing at his father with +wide open brown eyes, and a face as grave and terrified as if Grendel +were actually beside him. + +"That's all for this time," said Mr. Norton. "Why, Olly, where are your +little wits gone to? Did it frighten you, old man?" + +"Oh!" said Olly, drawing a long breath. "I did think he would never have +comed up out of that bog!" + +"It was splendid," said Milly. "But, father, I don't understand about +that pool. Why didn't Beowulf get drowned when he went down under the +water?" + +"The story doesn't tell us anything about that," said Mr. Norton. "But +heroes in those days, Milly, must have had something magical about them +so that they were able to do things that men and women can't do now. Do +you know, children, that this story that you have been listening to is +more than a thousand years old? Can you fancy that?" + +"No," said Milly, shaking her head. "I can't fancy it a bit, father. +It's too long. It makes me puzzled to think of so many years." + +"Years and years and years and _years_!" said Olly. "When father's +grandfather was a little boy." + +Mr. Norton laughed. "Can't you think of anything farther back than that, +Olly? It would take a great many grandfathers, and grandfathers' +grandfathers, to get back to the time when the story of Beowulf was +made. And here am I telling it to you just in the same way as fathers +used to tell it to their children a thousand years ago." + +"I suppose the children liked it so, they wouldn't let their fathers +forget it," said Milly. "And then when they grew up they told it to +their children. I shall tell it to my children when I grow up. I think I +shall tell it to Katie to-morrow." + +"Father," said Olly, "did Beowulf die--ever?" + +"Yes. When he was quite an old man he had another great fight with a +dragon, who was guarding a cave full of golden treasure on the +sea-shore; and though he killed the dragon, the dragon gave him a +terrible wound, so that when his friends came to look for him they found +him lying all but dead in the cave. He was just able to tell them to +make a great mound of earth over him when he was dead, on a high rock +close by, that sailors might see it from their ships and think of him +when they saw it, and then he died. And when he was dead they carried +him up to the rock, and there they burned his body, and then they built +up a great high mound of earth, and they put Beowulf's bones inside, and +all the treasure from the dragon's cave. They were ten days building up +the mound. Then when it was all done they rode around it weeping and +chanting sorrowful songs, and at last they left him there, saying as +they went away that never should they see so good a king or so true a +master any more. And for hundreds of years afterwards, when the sailors +out at sea saw the high mound rising on its point of rock, they said one +to another, 'There is Beowulf's Mount,' and they began to tell each +other of Beowulf's brave deeds--how he lived and how he died, and how he +fought with Grendel and the wild sea dragons. There, now, I have told +you all I know about Beowulf," said Mr. Norton, getting up and turning +the children off his knee, "and if it isn't somebody else's turn now it +ought to be." + +"Aunt Emma! Aunt Emma!" shouted Olly, who was so greedy for stories that +he could almost listen all day long without being tired. + +But Aunt Emma only smiled through her spectacles and pointed to the +window. The children ran to look out, and they could hardly believe +their eyes when they saw that it had actually stopped raining, and that +over the tree-tops was a narrow strip of blue sky, the first they had +seen for three whole days. + +"Oh you nice blue sky!" exclaimed Milly, dancing up and down before the +window with a beaming face. "Mind you stay there and get bigger. We'll +get on our hats presently and come out to look at you. Oh! there's John +Backhouse coming down the hill with the dogs. Mother, may we go up +ourselves and ask Becky and Tiza to come to tea?" + +"But Aunt Emma must tell us her story first," persisted Olly, who hated +being cheated out of a story by anything or anybody. "She promised." + +"You silly boy!" said Aunt Emma, "as if I was going to keep you indoors +listening to stories just now, when the sun's shining for the first time +for three whole days. I promised you my story on a wet day, and you +shall have it--never fear. There'll be plenty more wet days before you +go away from Ravensnest, I'm afraid. There goes my knitting, and +mother's putting away her work, and father's stretching himself--which +means we're all going for a walk." + +"To fetch Becky and Tiza, mother?" asked Milly; and when mother said +"Yes, if you like," the two children raced off down the long passage to +the nursery in the highest possible spirits. + +Soon they were all walking along the dripping drive past high banks of +wet fern, and under trees which threw down showers of rain-drops at +every puff of wind. And when they got into the road beside the river the +children shouted with glee to see their brown shallow little river +turned into a raging flood of water, which went sweeping and hurrying +through the fields, and every now and then spreading itself over them +and making great pools among the poor drowned hay. They ran on to look +for the stepping-stones, but to their amazement there was not a stone to +be seen. The water was rushing over them with a great roar and swirl, +and Milly shivered a little bit when she remembered their bathe there a +week before. + +"Well, old woman," said Mr. Norton, coming up to them, "I don't suppose +you'd like, a bathe to-day--quite." + +"If we were in there now," said Olly, watching the river with great +excitement, "the water would push us down krick! and the fishes would +come and etten us all up." + +"They'd be a long time gobbling you up, Master Fatty," said his father. +"Come, run along; it's too cold to stand about." + +But how brilliant and beautiful it was after the rain! Little tiny +trickling rivers were running down all the roads, and sparkling in the +sun; the wet leaves and grass were glittering, and the great mountains +all around stood up green and fresh against the blue sky, as if the rain +had washed the dust off them from top to toe, and left them clean and +bright. Two things only seemed the worse for the rain--the hay and the +wild strawberries. Milly peered into all the banks along the road where +she generally found her favourite little red berries, but most of them +were washed away, and the few miserable things that were left tasted of +nothing but rain water. And as for the hay-fields, they looked so wet +and drenched that it was hard to believe any sunshine could ever dry +them. + +"Poor John Backhouse!" said Aunt Emma; "I'm afraid his hay is a good +deal spoilt. Aren't you glad father's not a farmer, Milly?" + +"Why, Aunt Emma," said Milly, "I'm always wishing father _was_ a farmer. +I want to be like Becky, and call the cows, and mind the baby all by +myself. It must be nice feeding the chickens, and making the hay, and +taking the milk around." + +"Yes, all that's very nice, but how would you like your hay washed away, +and your corn beaten down, and your fruit all spoilt? Those are things +that are constantly happening to John Backhouse, I expect, in the rainy +country." + +"Yes, and it won't always be summer," said Milly, considering. "I don't +think I should like to stay in that little weeny house all the winter. +Is it very cold here in the winter, Aunt Emma?" + +"Not very, generally. But last winter was very cold here, and the snow +lay on the ground for weeks and weeks. On Christmas eve, do you know, +Milly, I wanted to have a children's party in my kitchen, and what do +you think I did? The snow was lying deep on the roads, so I sent out two +sledges." + +"What are sledges?" asked Olly. + +"Carriages with the wheels taken off and two long pieces of wood +fastened on instead, so that they slip along smoothly over the snow. And +my old coachman drove one and my gardener the other, and they went round +all the farmhouses near by, and gathered up the children, little and +big, into the sledges, till the coachman had got eight in his sledge, +and the gardener had got nine in his, and then they came trotting back +with the bells round the horses' necks jingling and clattering, and two +such merry loads of rosy-faced children. I wish you had been there; I +gave them tea in the kitchen, and afterward we had a Christmas tree in +the drawing-room." + +"Oh what fun," said Milly. "Why didn't you ask us too, Aunt Emma? We +could have come quite well in the train, you know. But how did the +children get home?" + +"We covered them up warm with rugs and blankets, and sent them back in +the sledges. And they looked so happy with their toys and buns cuddled +up in their arms, that it did one's heart good to see them." + +"Mind you ask us next time, Aunt Emma," said Milly, hanging round her +neck coaxingly. + +"Mind you get two pairs of wings by that time, then," said Aunt Emma, +"for mother's not likely to let you come to my Christmas tree unless you +promise to fly there and back. But suppose, instead of your coming to +me, I come to you next Christmas?" + +"Oh yes! yes!" cried Olly, who had just joined Aunt Emma and Milly, +"come to our Christmas tree, Aunt Emma. We'll give you ever such nice +things--a ball and a top, and a train--perhaps--and--" + +"As if Aunt Emma would care for those kind of things!" said Milly. "No, +you shall give her some muffetees, you know, to keep her hands warm, and +I'll make her a needlebook. But, Aunt Emma, do listen! What can be the +matter?" + +They were just climbing the little bit of steep road which led to the +farm, and suddenly they heard somebody roaring and screaming, and then +an angry voice scolding, and then a great clatter, and then louder +roaring than ever. + +"What _is_ the matter?" cried Milly, running on to the farm door, which +was open. But just as she got there, out rushed a tattered little figure +with a tear-stained face, and hair flying behind. + +"Tiza!" cried Milly, trying to stop her. But Tiza ran past her as quick +as lightning down the garden path towards the cherry tree, and in +another minute, in spite of the shower of wet she shook down on herself +as she climbed up, she was sitting high and safe among the branches, +where there was no catching her nor even seeing her. + +"Ay, that's the best place for ye," said Mrs. Backhouse, appearing at +the door with an angry face, "you'll not get into so much mischief there +perhaps as you will indoors. Oh, is that you, Miss Elliot (that was Aunt +Emma's surname)? Walk in please, ma'am, though you'll find me sadly +untidy this afternoon. Tiza's been at her tricks again; she keeps me +sweeping up after her all day. Just look here, if you please, ma'am." + +Aunt Emma went in, and the children pressed in after her, full of +curiosity to see what crime Tiza had been committing. Poor Mrs. +Backhouse! all over her clean kitchen floor there were streams of water +running about, with little pieces of cabbage and carrot sticking up in +them here and there, while on the kitchen table lay a heap of meat and +vegetables, which Mrs. Backhouse had evidently just picked up out of the +grate before Aunt Emma and the children arrived. + +"Yes," said Mrs. Backhouse, pointing to the floor, "there's the supper +just spoilt. Tiza's never easy but when she's in mischief. I'm sure +these wet days I have'nt known what to do with her indoors all day. And +what must she do this afternoon but tie her tin mug to the cat's tail, +till the poor creature was nearly beside herself with fright, and went +rushing about upstairs like a mad thing. And then, just when I happened +to be out a minute looking after something, she lets the cat in here, +and the poor thing jumps into the saucepan I had just put on with the +broth for our supper, and in her fright and all turns it right over. And +now look at my grate, and the fender, and the floor, and the meat there +all messed! I expect her father'll give Tiza a good beating when he +comes in, and I'm sure I shan't stand in the way." + +"Oh no, please, Mrs. Backhouse!" said Milly, running up to her with a +grave imploring little face. "Don't let Mr. Backhouse beat her; she +didn't mean it, she was only in fun, I'm sure." + +"Well, missy, it's very troiblesome fun I'm sure," said Mrs. Backhouse, +patting Milly kindly on the shoulder, for she was a good-natured woman, +and it wasn't her way to be angry long. "I don't know what I'm to give +John for his supper, that I don't. I had nothing in the house but just +those little odds and ends of meat, that I thought would make a nice bit +of broth for supper. And now he'll come in wet and hungry, and there'll +be nothing for him. Well, we must do with something else, I suppose, but +I expect her father'll beat her." + +Milly and Olly looked rather awestruck at the idea of a beating from +John Backhouse, that great strong brawny farmer; and Milly, whispering +something quickly to Aunt Emma, slipped out into the garden again. By +this time father and mother had come up, and Becky appeared from the +farmyard, wheeling the baby in a little wooden cart, and radiant with +pleasure at the sight of Aunt Emma, whose godchild she was, so that +Milly's disappearance was not noticed. + +She ran down the garden path to the cherry tree, and as, in the various +times they had been together, Becky and Tiza had taught her a good deal +of climbing, she too clambered up into the wet branches, and was soon +sitting close by Tiza, who had turned her cotton pinafore over her head +and wouldn't look at Milly. + +"Tiza," said Milly softly, putting her hand on Tiza's lap, "do you feel +very bad?" + +No answer. + +"We came to take you down to have tea with us," said Milly, "do you +think your mother will let you come?" + +"Naw," said Tiza shortly, without moving from behind her pinafore. + +It certainly wasn't very easy talking to Tiza. Milly thought she'd +better try something else. + +"Tiza," she began timidly, "do your father and mother tell you stories +when it rains?" + +"Naw," said Tiza, in a very astonished voice, throwing down her pinafore +to stare at Milly. + +"Then what do you do, Tiza, when it rains?" + +"Nothing," said Tiza. "We has our dinners and tea, and sometimes Becky +minds the baby and sometimes I do, and father mostly goes to sleep." + +"Tiza," said Milly hurriedly, "did you _mean_ pussy to jump into the +saucepan?" + +Up went Tiza's pinafore again, and Milly was in dismay because she +thought she had made Tiza cry; but to her great surprise Tiza suddenly +burst into such fits of laughter, that she nearly tumbled off the cherry +tree. "Oh, she did jump so, and the mug made such a rattling! And when +she comed out there was just a little bit of carrot sticking to her +nose, and her tail was all over cabbage leaf. Oh, she did look funny!" + +Milly couldn't help laughing too, till she remembered all that Mrs. +Backhouse had been saying. + +"Oh, but, Tiza, Mrs. Backhouse says your father won't have anything for +his supper. Aren't you sorry you spoilt his supper?" + +"Yis," said Tiza, quickly. "I know father'll beat me, he said he would +next time I vexed mother." + +And this time the pinafore went up in earnest, and Tiza began to cry +piteously. + +"Don't cry, Tiza," said Milly, her own little cheeks getting wet, too. +"I'll beg him not. Can't you make up anyway? Mother says we must always +make up if we can when we've done any harm. I wish I had anything to +give you to make up." + +Tiza suddenly dried her eyes and looked at Milly, with a bright +expression which was very puzzling. + +"You come with me," she said suddenly, swinging herself down from the +tree. "Come here by the hedge, don't let mother see us." + +So they ran along the far side of the hedge till they got into the +farmyard, and then Tiza led Milly past the hen-house, up to the corner +where the hayricks were. In and out of the hayricks they went, till in +the very farthest corner of all, where hardly anybody ever came, and +which nobody could see into from the yard, Tiza suddenly knelt down and +put her hand under the hay at the bottom of the rick. + +"You come," she whispered eagerly to Milly, pulling her by the skirt, +"you come and look here." + +Milly stooped down, and there in a soft little place, just between the +hayrick and the ground, what do you think she saw? Three large brownish +eggs lying in a sort of rough nest in the hay, and looking so round and +fresh and tempting, that Milly gave a little cry of delight. + +"Oh, Tiza, how be--utiful! How did they get there?" + +"It's old Sally, our white hen you know, laid them. I found them just +after dinner. Mother doesn't know nothing about them. I never told +Becky, nor nobody. Aren't they beauties?" + +And Tiza took one up lovingly in her rough, little brown hands, and laid +it against her cheek, to feel how soft and satiny it was. + +"Oh, and Tiza, I know," exclaimed Milly eagerly, "you meant these would +do for supper. That would be a lovely make up. There's three. One for +Mr. Backhouse, one for Mrs. Backhouse, and one for Becky.--There's none +for you, Tiza." + +"Nor none for Becky neither," answered Tiza shortly. "Father'll want +two. Becky and me'll get bread and dripping." + +"Well, come along, Tiza, let's take them in." + +"No, you take them," said Tiza. "Mother won't want to see me no more, +and father'll perhaps be coming in." + +"Oh, but, Tiza, you'll come to tea with us?" + +"I don't know," said Tiza. "You ask." + +And off she ran as quick as lightning, off to her hiding-place in the +cherry tree, while Milly was left with the three brown eggs, feeling +rather puzzled and anxious. However, she put them gently in the skirt of +her frock, and holding it up in both hands she picked her way through +the wet yard back to the house. + +When she appeared at the kitchen door, Aunt Emma and Mrs. Backhouse were +chatting quietly. Mr. and Mrs. Norton, and Olly, had gone on for a +little stroll along the Wanwick road, and Becky was sitting on the +window-sill with the baby, who seemed very sleepy, but quite determined +not to go to sleep in spite of all Becky's rocking and patting. + +"Oh, Mrs. Backhouse," began Milly, coming in with a bright flushed face, +"just look here, what I've brought. Tiza found them just after dinner +to-day. They were under the hayrick right away in the corner, and she +wanted to make up, so she showed me where they were, so I brought them +in, and there's two for Mr. Backhouse, and one for you, you know. And, +please, won't you let Tiza come to tea with us?" + +Mrs. Backhouse looked in astonishment at the three eggs lying in Milly's +print skirt, and at Milly's pleading little face. + +"Ay, that's Sally, I suppose. She's always hiding her eggs is Sally, +where I can't find them. So it was Tiza found them, was it, Missy? Well, +they will come, in very handy for supper as it happens. Thank you kindly +for bringing them in." + +And Mrs. Backhouse took the eggs and put them safely away in a pie-dish, +while Becky secretly pulled Milly by the sleeve, and smiled up at her as +much as to say, + +"Thank you for helping Tiza out of her scrape." + +"And you'll let Becky and Tiza come to tea?" asked Milly again. + +"Well, I'm sure, Miss, I don't know," said Mrs. Backhouse, looking +puzzled; "Becky may come and welcome, but perhaps it would do Tiza good +to stay at home." + +"Don't you think she'd better have a little change?" said Aunt Emma in +her kind voice, which made Milly want to hug her. "I daresay staying +indoors so long made her restless. If you will let me carry them both +off, I daresay between us, Mrs. Backhouse, we can give Tiza a talking +to, and perhaps she'll come back in a more sensible mood." + +"Well, Miss Elliot, she shall go if you wish it. Come Becky, give me the +baby, and go and put your things on." And then going to the door, Mrs. +Backhouse shouted "Tiza!" After a second or two a little figure dropped +down out of the cherry tree and came slowly up the walk. Tiza had shaken +her hair about her face so that it could hardly be seen, and she never +looked once at Aunt Emma and Milly as she came up to her mother. + +"There, go along, Tiza, and get your things on," said Mrs. Backhouse, +taking her by the arm. "I wouldn't have let you go out to tea, you know, +if Miss Elliot and Missy hadn't asked particular. Mind you don't get +into no more mischief. And very like those eggs'll do for father's +supper; so, I daresay, I'll not say anything to him this time--just for +once. Now go up." + +Tiza didn't want to be told twice, and presently, just as Mr. and Mrs. +Norton and Olly were coming back from their walk, they met Aunt Emma +coming back from the farm holding Becky's hand, while Milly and Tiza +walked in front. + +"Well, Tiza," said Mr. Norton, patting her curly head, I declare I think +you beat Olly for mischief. Olly never spoilt my dinner yet, that I +remember. What should I do to him do you think, if he did?" + +"Beat him," said Tiza, looking up at Mr. Norton with her quick birdlike +eyes. + +"Oh dear, no!" said Mr. Norton, "that wouldn't do my dinner any good. I +should eat him up instead." + +"I don't believe little boys taste good a bit," said Olly, who always +believed firmly in his father's various threats. "If you ettened me, +father, you'd be ill." + +"Oh no," said Mr. Norton, "not if I eat you with plenty of bread-sauce. +That's the best way to cook little boys. Now, Milly, which of you three +girls can get to that gate first?" + +Off ran the three little girls full tilt down the hill leading to +Ravensnest, with Olly puffing and panting after them. Milly led the way +at first, for she was light and quick, and a very fair runner for her +age; but Tiza soon got up to her and passed her, and it was Tiza's +little stout legs that arrived first at Ravensnest gate. + +"Oh, Becky!" said Milly, putting her arm round Becky's neck as they went +into the house together, "I hope you may stay a good long time. What +time do you go to bed?" + +"Oh, I don't know," said Becky. "We go when fayther goes." + +"When fayther goes!" exclaimed Milly. "Why, we go ever so long before +father. Why do you stay up so late?" + +"Why, it isn't late," said Becky. "Fayther goes to bed, now it's +summertime, about half-past eight; but in winter, of course, he goes +earlier. And we all goes together, except baby. Mother puts him out of +the way before supper." + +"Well, but how funny," said Milly, "I can't think why you should be so +different from us." + +And Milly went on puzzling over Becky and her going to bed, till nurse +drove it all out of her head by fetching them to tea. Such a merry tea +they had, and after tea a romp in the big kitchen with father, which +delighted the little farm children beyond measure. Some time in the +evening, I believe, Aunt Emma managed to give Tiza a little talking to, +but none of the other children knew anything about it, except perhaps +Becky, who generally knew what was happening to Tiza. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +MILLY'S BIRTHDAY + + +Now we have come to a chapter which is going to be half merry and half +sad. I have not told you any sad things about Milly and Olly up till +now, I think. They were such happy little people, that there was nothing +sad to tell you. They cried sometimes, of course--you remember Milly +cried when Olly stickied her doll--but generally, by the time they had +dried up their tears they had quite forgotten what they were crying +about; and as for any real trouble, why they didn't know what it could +possibly be like. But now, just as they were going away from Ravensnest, +came a real sad thing, and you'll hear very soon how it happened. + +After those three wet days it was sometimes fine and sometimes rainy at +Ravensnest, but never so rainy as to keep the Nortons in all day. And +every now and then there were splendid days, when the children and their +father and mother were out all day long, wandering over the mountains, +or walking over to Aunt Emma's or tramping along the well-known roads to +Wanwick on one side, and the little village of Rydal and Rydal Lake on +the other. They had another row on Windermere; and one fine evening Mr. +Norton borrowed a friend's boat, and they went out fishing for perch on +Rydal Lake, the loveliest little lake in the world, lying softly in a +green mountain cup, and dotted with islands, which seemed to the +children when they landed on them like little bits of fairyland dropped +into the blue water. + +[Illustration: "Haymaking"] + +And then! crown of delights! came the haymaking. There were long fine +days, when the six small creatures--Milly, Olly, Becky, Tiza, Bessie, +and Charlie--followed John Backhouse and his men about in the hayfields +from early morning till evening, helping to make the hay, or simply +rolling about like a parcel of kittens in the flowery fragrant heaps. + +Aunt Emma was often at Ravensnest, and the children learned to love her +better and better, so that even wild little Olly would remember to bring +her stool, and carry her shawl, and change her plate at dinner; and +Milly, who was always clinging to somebody, was constantly puzzled to +know whose pocket to sit in, mother's or Aunt Emma's. + +Then there was the farmyard, the cows, and the milking, and the +chickens. Everything about them seemed delightful to Milly and Olly, and +the top of everything was reached when one evening John Backhouse +mounted both the children on his big carthorse Dobbin, and they and +Dobbin together dragged the hay home in triumph. + +And now they had only one week more to stay at Ravensnest. But that week +was a most important week, for it was to contain no less a day than +Milly's birthday. Milly would be seven years old on the 15th of July, +and for about a week before the 15th, Milly's little head could think of +nothing else. Olly too was very much excited about it, for though Milly +of course was the queen of the day, and all the presents were for her, +not for him, still it was good times for everybody on Milly's birthday; +besides which, he had his own little secret with mother about his +present to Milly, a secret which made him very happy, but which he was +on the point of telling at least a hundred times a day. + +"Father," said Milly, about four days before the birthday, when they +were all wandering about after tea one evening in the high garden which +was now a paradise of ripe red strawberries and fruit of every kind, +"does everybody have birthdays? Do policemen have birthdays?" + +"I expect so, Milly," said Mr. Norton, laughing, "but they haven't any +time to remember them." + +"But, father, what's the good of having birthdays if you don't keep +them, and have presents and all that? And do cats and dogs have +birthdays? I should like to find out Spot's birthday. We'd give her +cream instead of milk, you know, and I'd tie a blue ribbon round her +neck, and one round her tail like the queen's sheep in mother's story." + +"I don't suppose Spot would thank you at all," said Mr. Norton. "The +cream would make her ill, and the ribbon would fidget her dreadfully +till she pulled it off." + +"Oh dear!" sighed Milly. "Well, I suppose Spot had better not have any +birthday then. But, father, what do you think? Becky and Tiza don't care +about their birthdays a bit. Becky could hardly remember when hers was, +and they never have any presents unless Aunt Emma gives them one, or +people to tea, or anything.' + +"Well, you see, Milly, when people have only just pennies and shillings +enough to buy bread and meat to eat, and clothes to put on, they can't +go spending money on presents; and when they're very anxious and busy +all the year round they can't be remembering birthdays and taking pains +about them like richer people can, who have less to trouble them, and +whose work does not take up quite so much time." + +"Well, but why don't the rich people remember the poor people's +birthdays for them, father? Then they could give them presents, and ask +them to tea and all, you know." + +"Yes, that would be a very good arrangement," said Mr. Norton, smiling +at her eager little face. "Only, somehow, Milly, things don't come right +like that in this world." + +"Well, I'm going to try and remember Becky's and Tiza's birthdays," said +Milly. "I'll tell mother to put them down in her pocket-book--won't you, +mother? Oh, what fun! I'll send them birthday cards, and they'll be so +surprised, and wonder why; and then they'll say, 'Oh, why, of course +it's our birthday!'--No, not _our_ birthday--but you know what I mean, +father." + +"Well, but, Milly," asked Mrs. Norton, "have you made up your mind what +you want to do this birthday?" + +Milly stopped suddenly, with her hands behind her, opposite her mother, +with her lips tightly pressed together, her eyes smiling, as if there +was a tremendous secret hidden somewhere. + +"Well, monkey, out with it. What have you got hidden away in your little +head?" + +"Well, mother," said Milly, slowly, "I don't want to _have_ anybody to +tea. I want to go out to tea with somebody. Now can you guess?" + +"With Aunt Emma?" + +"Oh no, Aunt Emma's coming over here all day. She promised she would." + +"With Becky and Tiza?" + +Milly nodded, and screwed up her little lips tighter than ever. + +"But I don't expect Mrs. Backhouse will want the trouble of having you +two to tea. + +"Oh mother, she won't mind a bit. I know she won't; because Becky told +me one day her mother would like us very much to come some time if you'd +let us. And Nana could come and help Mrs. Backhouse, and we could all +wash up the tea-things afterwards, like we did at the picnic." + +"Then Tiza mustn't sit next me," said Olly, who had been listening in +silence to all the arrangements. "She takes away my bread and butter +when I'm not looking, and I don't like it, not a bit." + +"No, Olly dear, she shan't," said Milly, taking his hand and fondling +it, as if she were at least twenty years older. "I'll sit on one side of +you and Becky on the other," a prospect with which Olly was apparently +satisfied, for he made no more objections. + +"Well, you must ask Mrs. Backhouse yourselves," said Mrs. Norton. "And +if it is her washing-day, or inconvenient to her at all, you mustn't +think of going, you know." + +So early next morning, Milly and Nana and Olly went up to the farm, and +came back with the answer that Mrs. Backhouse would be very pleased to +see them at tea on Thursday, the 15th, and that John Backhouse would +have cut the hay-field by the river by then, and they could have a romp +in the hay afterwards. + +Wednesday was a deeply interesting day to Olly. He and his mother went +over by themselves to Wanwick, and they bought something which the +shopwoman at the toy-shop wrapped up in a neat little parcel, and which +Olly carried home, looking as important as a little king. + +"Milly," he began at dinner, "_wouldn't_ you like to know about your +presents? But of course I shan't tell you about mine. Perhaps I'm not +going to give you one at all. Oh, mother," in a loud whisper to Mrs. +Norton, "did you put it away safe where she can't see?" + +"Oh, you silly boy," said Milly, "you'll tell me if you don't take +care." + +"No, I shan't. I wouldn't tell you if you were to go on asking me all +day. It isn't very big, you know, Milly, and--and--it isn't pretty +outside--only--" + +"Be quiet, chatterbox," said Mr. Norton putting his hand over Olly's +mouth, "you'll tell in another minute, and then there'll be no fun +to-morrow." + +So Olly with great difficulty kept quiet, and began eating up his +pudding very fast, as if that was the only way of keeping his little +tongue out of mischief. + +"Father," he said after dinner, "do take Milly out for a walk, and +mother shall take me. Then I can't tell, you know." + +So the two went out different ways, and Olly kept away from Milly all +day, in great fear lest somehow or other his secret should fly out of +him in spite of all his efforts to keep it in. At night the children +made nurse hurry them to bed, so that when mother came to tuck them up, +as she generally did, she found the pair fast asleep, and nothing left +to kiss but two curly heads buried in the pillows. + +"Bless their hearts," said nurse to Mrs. Norton, "they can think of +nothing but to-morrow. They'll be sadly disappointed if it rains." + +But the stars came out, and the new moon shone softly all night on the +great fir trees and the rosebuds and the little dancing beck in the +Ravensnest garden; and when Milly awoke next morning the sun was +shining, and Brownholme was towering up clear and high into the breezy +blue sky, and the trees were throwing cool shadows on the dewy lawn +around the house. + +"Oh dear!" said Milly, jumping up, her face flushing with joy "it's my +birthday, and it's fine. Nana, bring me my things, please.--But where's +Olly?" + +Where indeed was Olly? There was his little bed, but there was a +nightdress rolled up in it, and not a wisp of his brown curls was to be +seen anywhere. + +"Why, Miss Milly, are you woke up at last? I hardly thought you'd have +slept so late this morning. Many happy returns of the day to you," said +nurse, giving her a hearty hug. + +"Thank you, _dear_ nurse. Oh, it is so nice having birthdays. But where +can Olly be?" + +"Don't you trouble your head about him," said nurse mysteriously, and +not another word could Milly get out of her. She had just slipped on her +white cotton frock when mother opened the door. + +"Well, birthday-girl! The top of the morning to you, and many, many +happy returns of the day." + +Whereupon Milly and mother went through a great deal of kissing which +need not be described, and then mother helped her brush her hair, and +put on her ribbon and tie her sash, so that in another minute or two she +was quite ready to go down. + +"Now, Milly, wait one minute till you hear the bell ring, and then you +may come down as fast as you like." + +So Milly waited, her little feet dancing with impatience, till the bell +began to ring as if it had gone quite mad. + +"Oh, that's Olly ringing," cried Milly, rushing off. And sure enough +when she got to the hall there was Olly ringing as if he meant to bring +the house down. He dropped the bell when he saw Milly, and dragged her +breathlessly into the dining-room. + +And what did Milly see there I wonder? Why, a heap of red and white +roses lying on the breakfast table, a big heap, with odd corners and +points sticking up all over it, and under the roses a white napkin, and +under the napkin treasures of all sorts--a book from father, a little +work-box from mother, with a picture of Windermere on the outside, and +inside the most delightful cottons and needles and bits of +bright-coloured stuffs; a china doll's dinner-service from Aunt Emma, a +mug from nurse, a little dish full of big red strawberries from +gardener, and last, but not least, Olly's present--a black paint-box, +with colours and brushes and all complete, and tied up with a little +drawing-book which mother had added to make it really useful. At the top +of the heap, too, lay two letters addressed in very big round hand to +"Miss Milly Norton," and one was signed Jacky and the other signed +Francis. Each of these presents had neat little labels fastened on to +them, and they were smothered in roses--deep red and pale pink roses, +with the morning dew sprinkled over them. + +"We got all those roses, mother and me, this morning, when you was fast +asleep, Milly," shouted Olly, who was capering about like a mad +creature. "Mother pulled me out of bed ever so early, and I putted on my +goloshes, and didn't we get wet just! Milly, _isn't_ my paint-box a +beauty?" + +But it's no good trying to describe what Milly felt. She felt as every +happy little girl feels on a happy birthday, just a little bit +bewitched, as if she had got into another kind of world altogether. + +"Now," said father, after breakfast, "I'm yours, Milly, for all this +morning. What are you going to do with me?" + +"Make you into a tiger, father, and shoot you," said Olly, who would +have liked to play at hunting and shooting games all day long. + +"I didn't ask you, sir," said Mr. Norton, "I'm not yours, I'm Milly's. +Now, Milly, what shall we do?" + +"Will you take us right to the top of Brownholme, father? You know we +haven't been to the very top yet." + +"Very well, we'll go if your legs will carry you. But you must ask them +very particularly first how they feel, for it'll be stiff work for +them." + +Not very long after breakfast, and before they started for their walk, +Aunt Emma's pony carriage came rattling up the drive, and she, too, +brought flowers for Milly, above all a bunch of water-lilies all wet +from the lake; and then she and mother settled under the trees with +their books and work while the children started on their walk. + +But first Milly had drawn mother into a corner where no one could see, +and there, with a couple of tears in her two blue eyes, she had +whispered in a great hurry, so that Mrs. Norton could scarcely hear, "I +don't want to have everything just as _I_ like, to-day, mother. Can't I +do what somebody else likes? I'd rather." + +Which means that Milly was a good deal excited, and her heart very full, +and that she was thinking of how, a year before, her birthday had been +rather spoilt toward the end of it by a little bit of crossness and +self-will, that she remembered afterward with a pang for many a long +day. Since then, Milly had learnt a good deal more of that long, long +lesson, which we go on learning, big people and little people, all our +lives--the lesson of self-forgetting--of how love brings joy, and to be +selfish is to be sad; and her birthday seemed to bring back to her all +that she had been learning. + +"Dear little woman," said Mrs. Norton, putting back her tangled hair +from her anxious little face, "go and be happy. That's what we all like +to-day. Besides, you'll find plenty of ways of doing what other people +like before the end of the day without my inventing any. Run along now, +and climb away. Mind you don't let Olly tumble into bogs, and mind you +bring me a bunch of ferns for the dinner-table--and there'll be two +things done at any rate." + +So away ran Milly; and all the morning she and Olly and father scrambled +and climbed, and raced and chatted, on the green back of old Brownholme. +They went to say good-morning to John Backhouse's cows in the "intake," +as he called his top field, and they just peeped over the wall at the +fierce young bull he had bought at Penrith fair a few days before, and +which looked as if, birthdays or no birthdays, he could have eaten Milly +at two mouthfuls, and swallowed Olly down afterwards without knowing it. + +Then they climbed and climbed after father, till, just as Olly was +beginning to feel his legs to make sure they weren't falling off, they +were so tired and shaky--there they were standing on the great pile of +stones which marks the top of the mountain--the very tip-top of all its +green points and rocks and grassy stretches. By this time the children +knew the names of most of the mountains around, and of all the lakes. +They went through them now like a lesson with their father; and even +Olly remembered a great many, and could chatter about Helvellyn, and +Fairfield, and Langdale Pikes, as if he had trudged to the top of them +all himself. + +Then came the getting down again. Father and Milly and Olly +hand-in-hand, racing over the short fine grass, startling the little +black-faced sheep, and racing down the steep bits, where Milly and Olly +generally tumbled over in some sort of a heap at the bottom. As for the +flowers they gathered, there were so many I have no time to tell you +about them--wood-flowers and bog-flowers and grass-flowers, and ferns of +all sizes to mix with them, from the great Osmunda, which grew along the +Ravensnest Beck, down to the tiny little parsley fern. It was all +delightful--the sights and the sounds, and the fresh mountain wind that +blew them about on the top so that long afterward Milly used to look +back to that walk on Brownholme when she was seven years old as one of +the merriest times she ever spent. + +Dinner was very welcome after all this scrambling; and after dinner came +a quiet time in the garden, when father read aloud to mother and Aunt +Emma, and the children kept still and listened to as much as they could +understand, at least until they went to sleep, which they both did lying +on a rug at Aunt Emma's feet. Milly couldn't understand how this had +happened at all, when she found herself waking up and rubbing her eyes, +but I think it was natural enough after their long walk in the sun and +wind. + +At four o'clock nurse came for them, and when they had been put into +clean frocks and pinafores, she took them up to the farm. Milly and Olly +felt that this was a very solemn occasion, and they walked up to the +farmhouse door hand-in-hand, feeling as shy as if they had never been +there before. But at the door were Becky and Tiza waiting for them, as +smart as new pins, with shining hair, and red ribbons under their little +white collars; and the children no sooner caught sight of one another +than all their shyness flew away, and they began to chatter as usual. + +In the farmhouse kitchen were Bessie and Charlie, and such a comfortable +tea spread out on a long table, covered with a red and black woollen +table-cloth instead of a white one. Becky and Tiza had filled two +tumblers with meadow-sweet and blue campanula, which stood up grandly in +the middle, and there were two home-made cakes at each end, and some of +Sally's brown eggs, and piles of tempting bread and butter. + +Each of the children had their gift for Milly too: Becky had plaited her +a basket of rushes, a thing she had often tried to teach Milly how to +make for herself, and Tiza pushed a bunch of wild raspberries into her +hand, and ran away before Milly could say thank you; Bessie shyly +produced a Christmas card that somebody had once sent to her; and even +Charlie had managed to provide himself with a bunch of the wild yellow +poppies which grew on the wall of the Ravensnest garden, and were a joy +to all beholders. + +Then Mrs. Backhouse put Milly at one end of the table, while she began +to pour out tea at the other, and the feast began. Certainly, Milly +thought, it was much more exciting going out to tea at a farmhouse than +having children to tea with you at home, just as you might anywhere, on +any day in the year. There were the big hens coming up to the door and +poking in their long necks to take a look at them; there were the +pigeons circling round and round in the yard; there was the sound of +milking going on in the shed close by, and many other sights and sounds +which were new and strange and delightful. + +As for Olly, he was very much taken up for a time with the red and black +table-cloth, and could not be kept from peering underneath it from time +to time, as if he suspected that the white table-cloth he was generally +accustomed to had been hidden away underneath for a joke. But when the +time for cake came, Olly forgot the table-cloth altogether. He had never +seen a cake quite like the bun-loaf, which kind Mrs. Backhouse had made +herself for the occasion, and of which she had given him a hunch, so in +his usual inquisitive way he began to turn it over and over, as if by +looking at it long enough he could find out how it was made and all +about it. Presently, when the others were all quietly enjoying their +bun-loaf, Olly's shrill little voice was heard saying--while he put two +separate fingers on two out of the few currants in his piece: + +"_This_ currant says to _that_ currant, 'I'm here, where are you? You're +so far off I can't see you nowhere.'" + +"Olly, be quiet," said Milly. + +"Well, but, Milly, I can't help it; it's so funny. There's only three +currants in my bit, and cookie puts such a lot in at home. I'm +pretending they're little children wanting to play, only they can't, +they're so far off. There, I've etten one up. Now there's only two. +That's you and me, Milly. I'll eat you up first--krick!" + +"Never mind about the currants, little master," said Mrs. Backhouse, +laughing at him. "It's nice and sweet any way, and you can eat as much +of it as you like, which is more than you can of rich cakes." + +Olly thought there was something in this, and by the time he had got +through his second bit of bun-loaf he had quite made up his mind that he +would get Susan to make bun-loaves at home too. + +They were just finishing tea when there was a great clatter outside, and +by came the hay-cart with John Backhouse leading the horse, and two men +walking beside it. + +"We're going to carry all the hay in yon lower field presently," he +shouted to his wife as he passed. "Send the young 'uns down to see." + +Up they all started, and presently the whole party were racing down the +hill to the riverfield, with Mrs. Backhouse and her baby walking soberly +with nurse behind them. Yes, there lay the hay piled up in large cocks +on the fresh clean-swept carpet of bright green grass, and in the middle +of the field stood the hay-cart with two horses harnessed, one man +standing in it to press down and settle the hay as John Backhouse and +two other men handed it up to him on pitchforks. Olly went head over +heels into the middle of one of the cocks, followed by Charlie, and +would have liked to go head over heels into all the rest, but Mr. +Norton, who had come into the field with mother and Aunt Emma, told him +he must be content to play with two cocks in one of the far corners of +the field without disturbing the others, which were all ready for +carrying, and that if he and Charlie strewed the hay about they must +tidy it up before John Backhouse wanted to put it on the cart. So Olly +and Charlie went off to their corner, and for a little while all the +other children played there too. Milly had invented a game called the +"Babes in the Wood," in which two children were the babes and pretended +to die on the grass, and all the rest were the robins, and covered them +up with hay instead of leaves. She and Tiza made beautiful babes: they +put their handkerchiefs over their faces and lay as still as mice, till +Olly had piled so much hay on the top of them that there was not a bit +of them to be seen anywhere, while Bessie began to cry out as if she was +suffocated before they had put two good armfuls over her. + +Presently, however, Milly got tired; and she and Tiza walked off by +themselves and sat down by the river to get cool. The water in the river +was quite low again now, and the children could watch the tiny minnows +darting and flashing about by the bank, and even amuse themselves by +fancying every now and then that they saw a trout shooting across the +clear brown water. Tiza had quite left off being shy now with Milly, and +the two chattered away, Milly telling Tiza all about her school, and +Jacky and Francis, and Spot and the garden at home; and Tiza telling +Milly about her father's new bull, how frightened she and Becky were of +him, and how father meant to make the fence stronger for fear he should +get out and toss people. + +"What a happy little party," said Aunt Emma to mother looking round the +field; "there's nothing like hay for children." + +By this time the hay-cart was quite full, and crack went John +Backhouse's whip, as he took hold of the first horse's head and gave him +a pull forward to start the cart on its way to the farm. + +"Gee-up," shouted John in his loud cheery voice, and the horse made a +step forward, while the children round cried "Hurrah!" and waved their +hands. But suddenly there was a loud piteous cry which made John give +the horse a sudden push back and drop his whip, and then, from where +they sat, Milly and Tiza heard a sound of crying and screaming, while +everybody in the field ran toward the hay-cart. They ran too; what could +have happened? + +Just as they came up to the crowd of people round the cart, Milly saw +her father with something in his arms. And this something was +Becky--poor little Becky, with a great mark on her temple, and her eyes +quite shut, and such a white face! + +"Oh, mother! mother!" cried Milly, rushing up to her, "tell me, mother, +what is the matter with Becky?" + +But Mrs. Norton had no time to attend to her. She was running to meet +Mrs. Backhouse, who had come hurrying up from another part of the field +with the baby in her arms. + +"She was under the cart when it moved on," said Mrs. Norton, taking the +baby from her. "We none of us know how it happened. She must have been +trying to hand up some hay at the last moment and tumbled under. I don't +think her head is much hurt." + +On ran Mrs. Backhouse, and Milly and her mother followed. + +"Better let me carry her up now without moving her," said Mr. Norton, as +Mrs. Backhouse tried to take the little bundle from him. "She has +fainted, I think. We must get some water at the stream." So on he went, +with the pale frightened mother, while the others followed. Aunt Emma +had got Tiza and Milly by the hand, and was trying to comfort them. + +"We hope she is not much hurt, darlings; the wheel did not go over her, +thank God. It was just upon her when her father backed the horse. But it +must have crushed her I'm afraid, and there was something hanging under +the cart which gave her that knock on the temple. Look, there is one of +the men starting off for the doctor." + +Whereupon Tiza, who had kept quiet till then, burst into a loud fit of +crying, and threw herself down on the grass. + +"Nurse," called Aunt Emma, "stay here with these two poor little ones +while I go and see if I can be of any use." + +So nurse came and sat beside them, and Milly crept up to her for +comfort. But poor little Tiza lay with her face buried in the grass and +nothing they could say to her seemed to reach her little deaf ears. + +Meanwhile, Aunt Emma hurried after the others, and presently caught them +up at a stream where Mr. Norton had stopped to bathe Becky's head and +face. The cold water had just revived her when Aunt Emma came up, and +for one moment she opened her heavy blue eyes and looked at her mother, +who was bending over her, and then they shut again. But her little hand +went feebly searching for her mother, who caught it up and kissed it. + +"Oh, Miss Emma, Miss Emma," she said, pointing to the child, "I'm afeard +but she's badly hurt." + +"I hope not, with all my heart," said Aunt Emma, gently taking her arm. +"But the doctor will soon be here; we must get her home before he +comes." + +So on they went again, Mr. Norton still carrying Becky, and Mr. +Backhouse helping his wife along. Mrs. Norton had got the baby safe in +her motherly arms, and so they all toiled up the hill to the farmhouse. +What a difference from the merry party that ran down the hill only an +hour before! + +They laid Becky down on her mother's bed, and then Aunt Emma, finding +that Mrs. Norton wished to stay till the doctor came, went back to the +children. She found a sad little group sitting in the hay-field; Milly +in nurse's lap crying quietly every now and then; Tiza still sobbing on +the grass, and Olly who had just crept down from the farmhouse, where he +and Charlie had seen Becky carried in, talking to nurse in eager +whispers, as if he daren't talk out loud. + +"Oh, Aunt Emma," cried Milly, when she opened the gate, "is she better?" + +"A little, I think, Milly, but the doctor will soon be here, and then we +shall know all about it. Tiza, you poor little woman, Mrs. Wheeler says +you must sleep with them to-night. Your mother will want the house very +quiet, and to-morrow, you know, you can go and see Becky if the doctor +says you may." + +At this Tiza began to cry again more piteously than ever. It seemed so +dreary and terrible to her to be shut out from home without Becky. But +Aunt Emma sat down on the grass beside her, and lifted her up and talked +to her; with anybody else Tiza would have kicked and struggled, for she +was a curious, passionate child, and her grief was always wild and +angry, but nobody could struggle with Aunt Emma, and at last she let +herself be comforted a little by the tender voice and soft caressing +hand. She stopped crying, and then they all took her up to the +Wheelers's cottage, where Mrs. Wheeler, a kind motherly body, took her +in, and promised that she should know everything there was to be known +about Becky. + +"Aunt Emma," said Milly, presently, when they were all sitting in the +conservatory which ran round the house, waiting for Mr. Norton to bring +them news from the farm, "how did Becky tumble under the cart?" + +"She was lifting up some hay, I think, which had fallen off, and one of +the men was stooping down to take it on his fork, and then she must have +slipped and fallen right under the cart, just as John Backhouse told the +horse to go on." + +"Oh, if the wheel _had_ gone over!" said Milly, shuddering. "Isn't it a +sad birthday, Aunt Emma, and we were so happy a little while ago? And +then I can't understand. I don't know why it happens like this." + +"Like what, Milly?" + +"Why, Aunt Emma, always in stories, you know, it's the bad people get +hurt and die. And now it's poor little Becky that's hurt. And she's such +a dear little girl, and helps her mother so. I don't think she ought to +have been hurt." + +"We don't know anything about 'oughts,' Milly, darling, you and I. God +knows, we trust, and that helps many people who love God to be patient +when they are in trouble or pain. But think if it had been poor +mischievous little Tiza who had been hurt, how she would have fretted. +And now very likely Becky will bear it beautifully, and so, without +knowing it, she will be teaching Tiza to be patient, and it will do Tiza +good to have to help Becky and take care of her for a bit, instead of +letting Becky always look after her and get her out of scrapes." + +"Oh, and Aunt Emma, can't we all take care of Becky? What can Olly and I +do?" said Milly, imploringly. + +"I can go and sing all my songs to Becky," said Olly, looking up +brightly. + +"By-and-by, perhaps," said Aunt Emma, smiling and patting his head. "But +hark! isn't that father's step?" + +It had grown so dark that they could hardly see who it was opening the +gate. + +"Oh yes, it is," cried Milly. "It's father and mother." Away they ran to +meet them, and Mrs. Norton took Milly's little pale face in both her +hands and kissed it. + +"She's not _very_ badly hurt, darling. The doctor says she must lie +quite quiet for two or three weeks, and then he hopes she'll be all +right. The wheel gave her a squeeze, which jarred her poor little back +and head very much, but it didn't break anything, and if she lies very +quite the doctor thinks she'll get quite well again." "Oh mother! and +does Tiza know?" + +"Yes, we have just been to tell her. Mrs. Wheeler had put her to bed, +but she went up to give her our message, and she said poor little Tiza +began to cry again, and wanted us to tell her mother she would be _so_ +quiet if only they would let her come back to Becky." + +"Will they, mother?" + +"In a few days, perhaps. But she is not to see anybody but Mrs. +Backhouse for a little while." + +"Oh dear!" sighed Milly, while the tears came into her eyes again. "We +shall be going away so soon, and we can't say good-bye. Isn't it sad, +mother, just happening last thing? and we've been so happy all the +time." + +"Yes, Milly," said Mr. Norton, lifting her on to his knee. "This is the +first really sad thing that ever happened to you in your little life I +think. Mother, and I, and Aunt Emma, tell you stories about sad things, +but that's very different, isn't it?" + +"Yes," said Milly, thinking. "Father, are there as many sad things +really as there are in stories?--you know what I mean." + +"There are a great many sad things and sad people in the world, Milly. +We don't have monsters plaguing us like King Hrothgar, but every day +there is trouble and grief going on somewhere, and we happy and strong +people must care for the sad ones if we want to do our duty and help to +straighten the world a little." + +"Father," whispered Milly, softly, "will you tell us how--Olly and me? +We would if we knew how." + +"Well, Milly, suppose you begin with Becky, and poor Tiza too, indeed. I +wonder whether a pair of little people could make a scrap-book for Becky +to look at when she is getting better?" + +"Oh yes, yes!" said Milly, joyfully, "I've got ever so many pictures in +mother's writing-book, she let me cut out of her 'Graphics,' and Olly +can help paste; can't you, Olly?" + +"Olly generally pastes his face more than anything else," said Mr. +Norton, giving a sly pull at his brown curls. "If I'm not very much +mistaken, there is a little fairy pasting up your eyes, old man." + +"I'm not sleepy, not a bit," said Olly, sitting bolt upright and +blinking very fast. + +"I think you're not sleepy, but just asleep," said Mr. Norton, catching +him up in his arms, and carrying him to his mother to say good-night. + +Milly went very soberly and quietly up to bed, and for some little time +she lay awake, her little heart feeling very sore and heavy about the +"sad things" in the world. Then with her thoughts full of Becky she fell +asleep. + +So ended Milly's birthday, a happy day and a sorrowful day, all in one. +When Milly grew older there was no birthday just before or after it she +remembered half so clearly as that on which she was seven years old. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +LAST DAYS AT RAVENSNEST + + +On Friday morning the children and their father trudged up very early to +the farm to get news of Becky. She had had a bad night Mr. Backhouse +said, but she had taken some milk and beef-tea; she knew her father and +mother quite well, and she had asked twice for Tiza. The doctor said +they must just be patient. Quiet and rest would make her well again, and +nothing else, and Tiza was not to go home for a day or two. + +As for poor Tiza, a long sleep had cheered her up greatly, and when +Milly and Olly went to take her out with them after breakfast, they +found her almost as merry and chatty as usual. But she didn't like being +kept at the Wheelers's, though they were very kind to her; and it was +all Mrs. Wheeler could do to prevent her from slipping up to the farm +unknown to anybody. + +"They don't have porridge for breakfast," said Tiza, tossing her head, +when she and Milly were out together. "Mother always gives us porridge. +And I won't sit next Charlie. He's always dirtying hisself. He stickied +hisself just all over this morning with treacle. Mother would have given +him a clout." + +However, on the whole, she was as good as such a wild creature could be, +and the children and she had some capital times together. Wheeler the +gardener let them gather strawberries and currants for making jam, a +delightful piece of work, which helped to keep Tiza out of mischief and +make her contented with staying away from home more than anything else. +At last, after three days, the doctor said she might come home if she +would promise to be quiet in the house. So one bright evening Tiza +slipped into the farmhouse and squeezed in after her mother to the +little room where Becky was lying, a white-faced feverish little +creature, low down among the pillows. + +"Becky," said Tiza, sitting down beside her sister, as if nothing had +happened, "here's some strawberries. Wheeler gave me some. You can have +some if you want." + +"Just one," said Becky, in her weak shaky voice, smiling at her; and +Tiza knelt on the bed and stuffed one softly into her mouth. + +"You'll have to nurse baby now, Tiza," said Becky presently; "he's been +under mother's feet terrible. Mind you don't let him eat nasty things. +He'll get at the coals if you don't mind him." + +"I'll not let him," said Tiza shortly, setting to work on her own +strawberries. + +All this didn't sound very affectionate; but I think all the same Tiza +did love Becky, and I believe she tried to do her best in her own funny +way while Becky was ill. Baby screamed a good deal certainly when she +nursed him, and it was quite impossible of course for Tiza to keep out +of mischief altogether for two or three weeks. Still, on the whole, she +was a help to her mother; while as for Becky she was never quite happy +when Tiza was out of the house. Becky, like Milly, had a way of loving +everybody about her, and next to her mother she loved Tiza best of +anybody. + +After all, the children were able to say good-bye to Becky. Just the day +before they were to go away Mr. Backhouse came down to say that Becky +would like to see them very much if they could come, and the doctor said +they might. + +So up they went; Milly a good deal excited, and Olly very curious to see +what Becky would look like. Mr. Backhouse took them in, and they found +Becky lying comfortably on a little bed, with a patchwork counterpane, +and her shoulders and arms covered up in a red flannel dressing-gown +that Aunt Emma had sent her. + +[Illustration: "'Haven't you got a bump?' asked Olly"] + +Milly kissed her, and Olly shook her hand, and they didn't all quite +know what to say. + +"Is your back better?" said Milly at last. "I'm so glad the doctor let +us come." + +"Haven't you got a bump?" asked Olly, looking at her with all his eyes. +"We thought you'd have a great black bump on your fore-head, you +know--ever so big." + +"No, it's a cut," said Becky; "there now, you can see how it's plastered +up." + +"Did it hurt?" said Olly, "did you kick? I should have kicked. And does +the doctor give you nasty medicine?" + +"No," said Becky, "I don't have any now. And it wasn't nasty at all what +I had first. And now I may have strawberries and raspberries, and Mr. +Wheeler sends mother a plate everyday." + +"I don't think it's fair that little boys shouldn't never be ill," said +Olly, with his eyes fastened on Becky's plate of strawberries, which was +on the chest of drawers. + +"Oh, you funny boy," said Milly, "why, mother gives you some every day +though you aren't ill; and I'm sure you wouldn't like staying in bed." + +"Yes, I should," said Olly, just for the sake of contradicting. "Do you +know, Becky, we've got a secret, and we're not to tell it you, only +Milly and I are going to--" + +"Don't!" said Milly, putting her hand over, his mouth. "You'll tell in a +minute. You're always telling secrets." + +"Well, just half, Milly, I won't tell it all you know. It's just like +something burning inside my mouth. We're going to make you something, +Becky, when we get home. Something be--ootiful, you know. And you can +look at it in bed, and we won't make it big, so you can turn over the +pages, and--" + +"Be quiet, Olly," said Milly, "I should think Becky'll guess now. It'll +come by post, Becky. Mother's going to help us make it. You'll like it +I know." + +"It's--it's--a picture-book!" said Olly, in a loud whisper, putting his +head down to Becky. "You won't tell, will you?" + +"Oh, you unkind boy," said Milly, pouting. "I'll never have a secret +with you again." + +But Becky looked very pleased, and said she would like a picture-book +she thought very much, for it was dull sometimes when mother was busy +and Tiza was nursing baby. So perhaps, after all, it didn't matter +having told her. + +"I'm going to write to you, Becky," said Milly, when the time came to go +away, "and at Christmas I'll send you a Christmas card, and perhaps +some day we'll come here again you know." + +"And then we'll milk the cows," said Olly, "won't we, Becky? And I'll +ride on your big horse. Mr. Backhouse says I may ride all alone some day +when I'm big; when I'm sixty--no, when I'm ninety-five you know." + +And then Milly and Olly kissed Becky's pale little face and went away, +while poor little Becky looked after them as if she was _very_ sorry to +see the last of them; and outside there were Tiza and baby and Mrs. +Backhouse and even John Backhouse himself, waiting to say good-bye to +them. It made Milly cry a little bit, and she ran away fast down the +hill, while Tiza and Olly were still trying which could squeeze hands +hardest. + +"Oh, you dear mountains," said Milly, as she and nurse walked along +together. "Look Nana, aren't they lovely?" + +They did look beautiful this last evening. The sun was shining on them +so brightly that everything on them, up to the very top, was clear and +plain, and high up, ever so far away, were little white dots moving, +which Milly knew were cows feeding. + +"Good-bye river, good-bye stepping-stones, good-bye doves, good-bye +fly-catchers! Mind you don't any of you go away till we come back +again." + +But I should find it very hard to tell you all the good-byes that Milly +and Olly said to the places and people at Ravensnest, to the woods and +the hay-fields, and the beck, to Aunt Emma's parrot, John Backhouse's +cows, to Windermere Lake and Rydal Lake, above all to dear Aunt Emma +herself. + +"Mind you come at Christmas," shouted both the children, as the train +moved away from Windermere station and left Aunt Emma standing on the +platform; and Aunt Emma nodded and smiled and waved her handkerchief to +them till they were quite out of sight. + +"Mother," said Milly, when they could not see Aunt Emma any more, and +the last bit of Brownholme was slipping away, away, quite out of sight, +"I think Ravensnest is the nicest place we ever stopped at. And I don't +think the rain matters either. I'm going to tell your old gentleman so. +He said it rained in the mountains, and it does, mother--doesn't it? but +he said the rain spoilt everything, and it doesn't--not a bit." + +"Why, there's that curious old fairy been sprinkling dust in your eyes +too, Milly!" + +But something or other had been sprinkling tears in mother's. For to the +old people there is nothing sweeter than to see the young ones opening +their hearts to all that they themselves have loved and rejoiced over. +So the chain of life goes on, and joy gives birth to joy and love to +love. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Milly and Olly, by Mrs. Humphry Ward + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MILLY AND OLLY *** + +***** This file should be named 13337.txt or 13337.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/3/3/13337/ + +Produced by Andrew Templeton, Juliet Sutherland, Barbara Tozier and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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