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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Troublesome Comforts, by Geraldine Glasgow
+
+
+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: Troublesome Comforts
+       A Story for Children
+
+
+Author: Geraldine Glasgow
+
+
+
+Release Date: May 23, 2006  [eBook #18437]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TROUBLESOME COMFORTS***
+
+
+E-text prepared by David Clarke, Mary Meehan, and the Project Gutenberg
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
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+
+
+
+
+
+TROUBLESOME COMFORTS
+
+A Story for Children
+
+by
+
+GERALDINE ROBERTSON GLASGOW
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: At the Seaside (frontispiece)]
+
+
+
+
+Thomas Nelson and Sons
+London, Edinburgh
+Dublin, And
+New York
+
+
+
+
+
+TROUBLESOME COMFORTS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+Mrs. Beauchamp sat in a stuffy third-class carriage at Liverpool Street
+Station, and looked wistfully out of the window at her husband. Behind
+her the carriage seemed full to overflowing with children and paper
+parcels, and miscellaneous packages held together by straps. Even the
+ticket collector failed in his mental arithmetic when nurse confronted
+him with the tickets.
+
+"There's five halfs and two wholes," she said, "and a dog and a bicycle."
+
+"All right, madam," he said politely, "but I don't see the halfs."
+
+"There's Miss Susie, and Master Dick, and Miss Amy," began nurse
+distractedly, "and the child in my arms; and now there's Master Tommy
+disappeared."
+
+"He's under the seat," said Dick solemnly.
+
+"Come out, Tom," said his father, "and don't be such an ass."
+
+Tom crawled out, a mass of dust and grime, not in the least disconcerted.
+
+"I thought I could travel under the seat if I liked," he said.
+
+"Oh, if you _like_!" said his father; but nurse, with a look of despair,
+caught at his knickerbockers just as he was plunging into the dust again.
+"Not whilst I have power to hold you back, Master Dick," she said.--"No,
+sir, you haven't got the washing of him, and wild horses won't be equal
+to it if he gets his way."
+
+"Well, keep still, Tommy," said his father.
+
+Tommy squirmed and wriggled, but nurse's hand was muscular, and the
+strength of despair was in her grip. Mrs. Beauchamp realized that in a
+few minutes the keeping in order of the turbulent crew would fall to her,
+but for the present she tried to shut her ears to Susie's domineering
+tones and Tommy's scornful answers. Susie always chose the most
+unsuitable moments for displays of temper, and Mrs. Beauchamp sighed as
+she looked at the firm little mouth and eager blue eyes. She felt so
+very, very sorry to be leaving Dick the elder in London--so intolerably
+selfish. Her voice was full of tender regret.
+
+"It seems so horrid of me, Dick. It is _you_ who ought to be having the
+holiday, not me."
+
+"Oh, I shall manage quite well," said Mr. Beauchamp cheerfully. "It is
+rather a bore being kept in London, of course, away from you and the
+chicks"--this came as an afterthought--"but I hope you will find it plane
+sailing. I want it to be a _real_ rest to you, old woman."
+
+His eyes wandered past her sweet, tired face to the fair and dark heads
+beyond, of which she was the proud possessor, and his sigh was not
+altogether a sigh of disappointment. Mrs. Beauchamp glanced at them too,
+and the anxious line deepened between her eyes. She pushed back with a
+cool hand the loose hair on her forehead. "It is an ideal place for
+children," she said--"sand and shells; and they can bathe from the
+lodgings."
+
+"You will be good to your mother, boys," said Mr. Beauchamp. He was
+directly appealing to Tommy, but he included the whole family in his
+sweeping glance. "Don't overpower her.--And, Susie, you are the eldest;
+you must be an example."
+
+Susie flounced out her ridiculously short skirts with a triumphant look
+round. "I _am_ a help, aren't I, mother?" she said.
+
+"Sometimes, dear," said her mother, with rather a tired smile.
+
+"And you won't bother about me, Christina?" he said.
+
+"How can I help it, darling?"
+
+She leant farther out of the window, but one hand held firmly to Amy's
+slim black legs--Amy had scrambled up on to the seat, and was pushing the
+packages in the rack here and there, searching for something.
+
+"There is the guard; we are just off, I suppose. O Dick, how I wish you
+were coming too! But I will write as often as I can.--Susie, be quiet. I
+cannot hear myself speak."
+
+"Well, mother," said Susie, shaking back her hair, and poking the point
+of her parasol between the laces of Dick's boots, "look at the way he has
+laced himself up; you said yourself he was to do it tidily. And his face
+is smutty already; look at him."
+
+"Good-bye, Dick," said Mrs. Beauchamp. The train was moving smoothly out
+of the station, and she leant out as far as she dared, to get a last look
+at the erect figure.--"There, Susie, father is out of sight. Leave the
+boys alone."
+
+Susie frowned.
+
+"She'd better," said Tommy, in a choked voice.
+
+"Now you're going to be naughty," said Susie.--"I know they are,
+mother--they always begin like that; they're clawing at me with their
+sticky fingers. Mother, tell them not to; I didn't say anything."
+
+"You are a beastly blab," said Tommy defiantly.
+
+"Tom, what a word! Sit down by nurse and look out of the window.--Susie,
+it is really your fault--you are so interfering."
+
+"I'm not interfering," said Susie, aggrieved. "I'm helping you to keep
+them in order."
+
+"Well, _don't_. I would rather manage them alone.--Don't squabble, boys;
+there's plenty of room for every one."
+
+"O mother--" said Amy.
+
+Mrs. Beauchamp still held unconsciously on to the slim black leg, but the
+sudden movement of the train had jerked Amy off the seat. She clung for a
+moment to the rack, but her hand slipped, and she fell headlong on to the
+opposite seat, and there was a dull thud as her head crashed on to a
+little wooden box.
+
+"It's all right, darling," her mother said, and she held her close in her
+comforting arms.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+Amy was a good little girl, and she tried very hard not to cry; but she
+sat pressed very close to her mother's side, with her large blue eyes
+full and overflowing with tears. Dick, who was very tender-hearted,
+begged her to eat his toffee, which would have been comforting; but nurse
+would not allow it at any price.
+
+"No, Miss Amy," she said, "I won't hear of it--not in your pretty blue
+dress. And don't lean upon your mamma; you'll wear the life out of her."
+
+Amy pressed her soft cheek against her mother's arm, and looked up in her
+face with her tearful blue eyes. She was relieved to see just the shadow
+of a smile.
+
+"Give me Master Alick, nurse," said Mrs. Beauchamp; "I am afraid he has
+toothache.--There! see, Alick, all the pretty green fields going past
+outside."
+
+"It's _us_ that is going past," said Dick.
+
+"Hold me too, mother," said Amy suddenly; "take me in your arms like you
+do Alick."
+
+"But Alick will cry if I put him down. See, I can manage like that; there
+is room for both of you."
+
+She made a large lap, and Amy scrambled on to it. It was like a nest with
+two birds in it--not very restful, perhaps, to the nest, but quite
+delightful for the birds. They were very good little birds, too, and they
+did not quarrel; and presently Amy nudged mother's arm, and spoke in the
+tiniest whisper. "One of the birds has gone to sleep," she said.
+
+Alick's eyes were shut, and his round, flushed face was lying on mother's
+hand. When she tried to take it gently away he stirred, and squeaked
+restlessly.
+
+"Let's pretend he's a cuckoo and push him out," suggested Tom.
+
+"Tommy!" said his mother.
+
+"Oh, I didn't mean him to fall far," said Tommy--"just a kind of roll."
+
+"Not the kind you eat," said his mother.
+
+"No, dear, I couldn't let you; he would be startled even if he wasn't
+hurt."
+
+"A train's so stupid," said Tommy, yawning.
+
+Susie was on the alert in an instant.
+
+"There! I knew he was going to be naughty," she said delightedly. "Soon
+he'll be pulling the cord, or trying to break the glass, or doing
+something else he oughtn't to. When he begins like that he's generally
+very tiresome."
+
+"Hush, Susie," said her mother; "see how good Dick is."
+
+"And me!" cried Tommy.
+
+"Yes, you are good too."
+
+"When you're sleeping," added nurse.
+
+"There, Miss Prig!" said Tom.
+
+"There, mother!" cried Susie, in the same breath.
+
+"Well, Susie, it is your own fault."
+
+Susie flounced away to the farther end of the carriage, and sat looking
+at the reflection of herself in the glass. She saw a little girl with
+short blue skirts and a shady hat. When she took off the hat she could
+see very large, brown eyes and a cross mouth, and the more she looked the
+crosser it got. There was a fascination about that cross little mouth.
+It seemed to Susie that she sat there a long while, whilst nobody took
+any notice of her. In the reflection she could see baby asleep on
+mother's lap, with mother's hand tucked under his cheek. He looked a
+darling; but Susie frowned and looked away. Amy was sitting "in mother's
+pocket"--that was what nurse called it--and Susie felt unreasonably
+vexed. Dick and Tommy were leaning out of the window buying buns--Tommy
+was paying. They were at a station, and there were heaps of buns. Susie
+saw the cross mouth in the reflection quiver and close tightly; the brown
+eyes blinked--she almost thought the Susie in the reflection was going to
+cry.
+
+"Nobody cares," she said to herself miserably. "Mother doesn't care; she
+loves Amy and Alick more than me. The boys hate me; they will eat all the
+buns, and I shall die of hunger. I wish--"
+
+"Susie," said mother's voice, "the children are stifling me. Come and
+have tea; we have bought such a lot of buns. Will you help me put baby
+down in your corner? and you might give him your jacket for a pillow."
+
+Susie could see nothing, but she kept her eyes on the reflection in the
+window, with a fascinated stare.
+
+"Susie, I _want_ you," said her mother gently.
+
+In a minute Susie had swept the tears away with her sleeve, and had
+launched herself across the rocking carriage, and flung her arms round
+her mother's neck.
+
+"Gently, gently, darling," said mother, smiling. "I haven't got a
+hand--Alick is holding it so fast--but I missed you, Susie. There is
+something there, outside, that I wanted to be the first to show you."
+
+Susie, still rather subdued, leant as far out of the window as the bars
+allowed, and let the wind from the engine blow the curls about her face.
+Away, far on the horizon, was a silver line, as straight as if it had
+been ruled with a ruler, and a shining white speck showed against the
+yellow evening sky.
+
+"What is it?" said Susie, breathlessly.
+
+"It is the _sea_," her mother told her, "and the white sails of the ships
+are going out with the tide."
+
+"Mother, I mean never to be naughty again," said Susie suddenly; "only I
+know that to-morrow I shall forget, and be as horrid as I was to-day."
+
+Susie was tired, and more tears seemed imminent. The train was slowing
+down, and the screeching of the engine almost drowned her voice.
+
+"Pick up the parcels, and be quite ready to jump out," said Mrs.
+Beauchamp hastily. "Susie, you must not grow perfect _too_ suddenly;
+I shouldn't know you!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+The next day was radiantly beautiful, and Susie started well. Directly
+after breakfast the four elder ones trooped down to the sands with spades
+and buckets, whilst Alick, left alone with nurse, waved his good-byes
+from the balcony. Mrs. Beauchamp looked after them a little anxiously;
+but Susie in her best mood was so very trustworthy that she smoothed the
+anxious line out of her forehead, and turned back with a restful sigh to
+the empty room and the silence.
+
+And out on the beach things went swimmingly. They made sand castles and
+moats, and the rising tide flowed in just as they wished it to. Like
+another Canute, Tom flung defiance to the waves, and shouted himself
+hoarse; and then, to his immense surprise, the little ripples swept
+smoothly back, and left a crumbled castle, and white foamy ridges that
+looked like soap.
+
+"Come on, Susie," he said; "it's no fun when there's no water in it.
+Let's go over to the rocks and look for insects."
+
+"No; let's stay here," said Susie. "I like watching the ships and the
+steamers."
+
+"Fudge," said Tom.
+
+"The rocks are awfully jolly, Sue," said Dickie.
+
+But Susie shook her shoulders, and gazed straight before her. "I'm not
+going," she said.
+
+"Very well; we jolly well prefer your room to your company," said
+Tom.--"Come on, Dick."
+
+Susie was sitting on the ruins of the castle, with her knees drawn up and
+her elbows planted on them. She really was not listening to Tom a bit,
+for her fascinated eyes were fixed on the line of silver sea, on which
+the passing steamers rose and fell. Far away at the back of her mind was
+the consciousness that Tom was going to be naughty, and that she might
+prevent it; but she pushed her fingers into her ears, and gazed straight
+before her.
+
+It was Amy tugging at her dress that made her turn reluctantly at last.
+
+"Tom is calling you, Susie," she said.
+
+"Oh, bother!" said Susie. "You can go and see what he wants."
+
+Amy obediently struggled over the heavy sand to the fine strip of pebbles
+on which the boys were disporting themselves. Their boots were wet
+through; their shrill voices pierced Susie's poor defences.
+
+"Susie--Susie--Susie!"
+
+But Susie did not move.
+
+All the same, she knew perfectly well that Amy was struggling back over
+the shingle and the sand, and had dropped panting at her feet, quite
+unable to speak for want of breath. Her little delicate face was pink
+with heat and excitement, and her thin legs trembled.
+
+"They want to get a box and send Dickie out in it, like a boat," she
+explained.
+
+"They haven't got a box," said Susie.
+
+"But they say they can get one easily. It's father's; and they can tie a
+string on to it and drag it."
+
+"They can ask mother," said Susie impatiently.
+
+"Yes, I suppose so." Amy had crept nearer, and put a small, unsteady hand
+on her knee. "Please don't let them do it, Susie," she said; "don't let
+them be naughty."
+
+"Don't bother," said Susie. "I can't help it."
+
+She shook off Amy's hand impatiently; but she was sorry a moment
+afterwards. Susie often said things like that, and it was rather
+a comfort that Amy was always quite ready to be forgiven.
+
+"It is so beautiful here, Amy; and I dare say they are not being naughty
+really. They only hope we are looking; but I'm not going to."
+
+She resolutely turned her back upon the boys and the strip of pebbles.
+But Amy could not keep still; her eyes kept turning nervously to the
+sturdy jersey-clad figures, and presently she nudged Susie again.
+
+"They've got the box, Susie. You can't think how deep the water is, and
+it looks so horrid; and Dick has a cold."
+
+"Oh, don't bother," said Susie.
+
+"Mother said you were to look after them, because you are the eldest,"
+urged Amy.
+
+"Why weren't one of you the eldest?" said Susie crossly. "I've been the
+eldest all my life, and I'm tired of it. Mother knows I can't manage
+them."
+
+Without turning her head she knew that Amy was creeping again across the
+strip of pebbles. She heard her foot slipping, and the shouts of the boys
+when she reached them; then Amy's soft little frightened voice--and
+then silence.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+An hour later Mrs. Beauchamp was sitting on the little balcony outside
+the drawing-room window. The sky was divinely blue, and the sun was
+dazzling. Close to her feet was a basket of stockings that needed
+darning, but she felt as if she must lay her needle down every now and
+then, to look at the gray, glittering sea, and the shifting crowd upon
+the beach. Her feet ached with perpetual running up and down stairs; but
+she was glad to think that the children were happy and good. In the room
+across the passage she could hear nurse singing Alick to sleep, and down
+in the street below a funny little procession was winding up from the
+sea. She rose and looked over the balcony on to the tops of two sailor
+hats, and what looked like two soaking mushrooms. She stared at them
+stupidly, wondering why the box they dragged behind them was so familiar,
+and why they left such a long wet trail behind them.
+
+After them sauntered a few idle fishermen; but just for a minute she
+could not grasp what had happened. Then she pushed the basket on one side
+and ran to the drawing-room door.
+
+Up the stairs came the hurried rush of feet, with the box bumping from
+stair to stair. Then the dripping family clung about her with soaked
+garments, and hair that looked like seaweed.
+
+"Mother, change us, please, before nurse sees us."
+
+"But what is it?" she cried. "How did it happen?"
+
+"It was Tom's fault," said Susie, whimpering. "He sent Dick out to sea in
+the uniform case, and it has a hole in it, and it went down."
+
+"Oh, run upstairs and change; Dick has a cough."
+
+"He didn't drown," said Tom, "because we had tied a rope to it, and a
+fisherman pulled it up."
+
+"And where is Dickie?"
+
+"I told him to go up on the roof and dry--he's on the leads by now. It's
+awfully nice there; we went this morning."
+
+"_On the roof!_--Susie, tell him to come down, whilst I get their
+clothes.--Tom, how can you do such things?"
+
+"Why, you never told us not to," said Tom, with innocent eyes.
+
+Susie crept upstairs, very white and quiet. She had been really
+frightened, and she had an uncomfortable feeling at the back of her mind
+that somehow it was her fault. She found Dick scrambling on to the roof,
+and hauled him in with unnecessary vigour. When she got downstairs she
+was sulky because her mother had not time to listen to her eager excuses,
+but put her hastily on one side.
+
+"Never mind now, Susie. The first thing is to slip off your wet clothes
+and get dry, and then help me with the others. Give me the big towel, and
+untie Amy's frock."
+
+"But, mother," argued Susie, "I couldn't guess he was going to be so
+naughty, could I?"
+
+"You didn't try to guess," said Tom resentfully; "and now you are trying
+to make mother think you are better than me. You wouldn't hem our sails
+or dig with us. We had to do something."
+
+"And now you want me to quarrel," said Susie.--"Mother, I want to
+explain."
+
+"Hush, Susie! there is no time to explain now; you must tell me
+by-and-by."
+
+Susie flung the towel on to the floor, and felt a great lump in her
+throat. Dick had to be dried and warmed, in order to stop that horrid
+little croaking cough; and no one cared for her excuses or explanations.
+
+With angry tears blinding her she ran across to the nursery, and stood
+looking out at the silver line of sea and the bobbing ships. Alick was
+stretching in his cradle, and it creaked under his weight. She could see
+his curly head and his outstretched fat legs. He was so accustomed to
+having his legs admired that he always pulled up his petticoats solemnly
+to exhibit them, as though pathetically hoping to get it over and have
+done with it.
+
+Susie's ill-temper evaporated like smoke. She flung herself beside the
+cradle, and hugged Alick in her arms, leaning so closely over him that
+nurse, in hurrying to and fro, paused to expostulate.
+
+"Not so close, Miss Susie, please--the child can't breathe; and I don't
+want you putting any of your naughtiness into his head."
+
+"How can I, when he can't walk?" said Susie indignantly.
+
+"Well, I wouldn't put it beyond you," said nurse. "I know you've been up
+to something, or you wouldn't be here now, looking as if butter wouldn't
+melt in your mouth."
+
+"I'm trying to be good," said Susie, still indignant.
+
+"Well, we shan't see the result yet awhile," said nurse, "for the way
+you've devil-oped these holidays is past imagining."
+
+She always pronounced it in that way, and the word held a dreary
+significance for Susie.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+That horrid, teasing cough of Dick's got worse and worse, and by evening
+he was lying patiently in his crib, with a steaming kettle singing into
+the little tent of blankets that enveloped it, and a very large and very
+hot linseed poultice on his chest. Susie, sitting down below, could hear
+the hasty footsteps and the hoarse, croaking sound that always filled her
+with panic. Their tea was brought to them by the overworked maid, and she
+and Tom ate it in a depressed silence, and then sat again on the
+window-sill looking silently and miserably out to sea. By-and-by nurse
+came in hurriedly, with the news that baby was crying and had to be
+attended to, and that she and Tom must manage to put themselves to bed.
+
+"I haven't time to brush your hair," nurse said regretfully; and Susie's
+face lightened.
+
+"Nurse, is Dick better?" she asked breathlessly.
+
+"He's about as bad as I've ever seen him," nurse said shortly, and turned
+to leave the room; but Susie clung desperately to her skirt.
+
+"Don't go, nurse. Let me do something--let me hold baby."
+
+"No, indeed, Miss Susie," said nurse; "you've done mischief enough
+already. Go to bed quietly, and try to get up right foot foremost
+to-morrow."
+
+Susie went back to the window-sill, and huddled up close to Tom. With
+blank eyes she looked at the stars and the moon bursting from behind
+hurrying clouds. Even when she put her fingers into her ears that rasping
+cough pursued her. Tom's heavy head fell against her, and she knew he
+ought to be in bed; but it wanted really desperate courage to shake him
+into consciousness and get him up somehow to his room.
+
+And upstairs, next to Tom's little bed, was an empty space, from which a
+crib had been hastily wheeled into the next room. On the floor beside it
+lay a vest and knickerbockers, still heavy with sea water, and a red tin
+pail and spade. It made Susie sick to look at them. But she got Tom at
+last into his bed, and covered him up. He tried to say his prayers, but
+he was too sleepy; and Susie hushed him at last, and crept away to her
+own little room in the dark.
+
+Amy was so soundly asleep that she did not even turn; but Susie could not
+rest. All through the miserable hours she sat straight up in bed, looking
+before her with staring eyes, and listening to the uneasy movements next
+door.
+
+It was almost morning when Amy woke at last and turned her startled gaze
+on Susie's face, but what she read there drove her out of her own bed and
+on to Susie's. Then she stretched out two comforting little arms and held
+her close.
+
+"Don't, Susie, don't," she said breathlessly; "it wasn't your fault."
+
+"Yes, it was," said Susie harshly.
+
+Amy rubbed her rosy cheek against Susie's sleeve, and at the touch
+Susie's frozen heart melted. Tears came and sobs, till the sheet was wet,
+and she could only speak in gasps.
+
+"Mother _trusted_ me! I am going to mother, Amy. I can't bear it any
+more. If Dick dies, it is me that did it. I was the only one who knew."
+
+"Let me get your shoes," said Amy.
+
+But Susie would not wait. She slipped out of bed on to the cold boards--a
+small, miserable figure, disfigured with crying--whilst Amy watched her
+breathlessly. She opened the door and listened. Every one seemed to be
+asleep, except that in the room next door she heard hushed voices and the
+tread of careful feet, then the rattle of a cup and Dick's cough. She
+opened the door as gently as she could and looked in. The blind was up
+and a fire burning. The tent of blankets had been pulled down, and Dick,
+with the poultice still on his chest, was sitting up in bed, wrapped in
+a soft red shawl. By the table stood nurse, making tea; and his mother,
+looking pale and tired, was sitting by the crib. She looked up when the
+door opened, and without a word held out her arms.
+
+Susie fairly tumbled into them.
+
+"O mother," she kept repeating, as if nothing more would come.
+
+"_Susie!_" said mother.
+
+"Oh, I have been awake all night!" Susie panted out the words. "If he had
+died it would have been my fault. Mother, is he getting well?"
+
+"My darling Susie," said mother, "I had not time to come to you. I never
+dreamt you were awake. Dick is _much_ better; but he has been very bad,
+and he must go to sleep."
+
+"Mother, let me tell you! I am so _wicked_. _I felt sure_ they would not
+be really naughty; I_ felt certain--_"
+
+"Susie," said mother faintly, "_I_ must go to sleep too. Some other time
+we will talk it over, but not now."
+
+"But I can't sleep," said Susie, "unless I tell you first."
+
+"Come, Susie, try. I am sure it would be a great comfort to make excuses;
+but, just for once, choose the harder part, and say nothing. You and I,
+Susie, must get our beauty-sleep."
+
+She stroked the flaxen pigtail and gently unloosed Susie's clinging
+hands.
+
+"Come, let me tuck you in," she said.
+
+"Nurse is going to stay with Dick. Susie, I am very, very tired."
+
+Susie's sobs ceased suddenly, and she stood up straight. It was the
+hardest battle she had ever fought, but she was never one for half
+measures. In perfect silence she allowed her mother to lead her away and
+tuck her comfortably into the little bed, where Amy patiently waited for
+her, and then, still silently, she put her two arms round her mother and
+hugged her.
+
+"Oh, thank you, Susie," mother said gratefully.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+Dick took many days to get well, and all the time his crib remained in
+the corner of his mother's room. The red pail and spade were tidied away,
+and his knickerbocker suit was put out of sight; and in the afternoon,
+when the house was empty, and nurse, and Susie, and Amy, and Tom, and
+baby were all out on the sands, his mother used to read delightful
+stories to him, whilst he lay and watched her with round, wondering eyes.
+His cough was troublesome at night, but however often he twisted, and
+turned, and choked, there was the familiar face bending over him, her arm
+beneath his head.
+
+Dick was a very kind little boy, and he tried always to cough under the
+bed-clothes, so as not to wake her, but it was no use. However carefully
+he coughed, her eyes always opened at once.
+
+"I am taking away your peace-time," he said, over and over again. And she
+always answered, "Never mind, darling; I _could_ not sleep if you wanted
+me."
+
+"You look so funny," he said once.
+
+"Perhaps I am tired, Dickie."
+
+But she smiled as she spoke, and he felt relieved. It was when she was
+too tired to smile that her face was strange.
+
+And Susie's behaviour was quite angelic. She was happy and busy, and
+brimful of good resolutions. She gave up many and many a morning on the
+sands to play with Dick, and to let her mother go out to walk or shop.
+Her astonishing meekness was a constant surprise to Tom, and he was
+relieved by occasional flashes of temper, which showed him that the old
+Susie was only sleeping, not dead!
+
+But at last Dick was able to be wheeled down to the sands in Alick's
+perambulator, and perhaps it was the joy of his recovery that turned
+Susie's head, or perhaps she was tired of her long spell of goodness, but
+whatever the reason, she was particularly teasing and tiresome. She did
+not like to see her mother sitting close to Dick, ready to wheel him home
+if he was tired; and she would not allow her to read in peace, but kept
+breaking in with silly questions and remarks.
+
+"You never let _me_ sit in your pocket," she said at last crossly.
+
+"My dear Susie"--mother shut her book with a very faint sigh--"there is
+not room for all of you on my lap. I should have to nurse an arm or a leg
+at a time."
+
+"You could _make_ room," said Susie.
+
+"She would be like the donkey that wanted to be a lap-dog, wouldn't she,
+mother?" said Tom. "It sat upon its master's lap."
+
+Every one laughed, except Susie.
+
+"Well, I'm not a donkey," she said, "and I'm not a lap-dog; and, besides,
+you want to yourself."
+
+"No, I don't," said Tom stoutly. "I hate to sit on any one's lap; if you
+are so anxious you can sit on nurse's."
+
+Susie's eyes threatened to overflow.
+
+"Oh, don't cry, Susie," said her mother, in alarm, "or I shall have to
+put up my umbrella. Go and build a castle with Tom, and take Amy. I trust
+her to you. Nurse and I must get the babies home."
+
+Susie always rose to any demand made upon her, and was proud of being
+trusted. She gathered Dick's shells and seaweed and glittering stones
+skilfully into his pail, and was really helpful in rolling up the rugs
+and cushions. She was so pleased to see his rather thin, unsteady legs
+gathering strength as they wobbled slowly over the sand. When she put her
+arm round him, she was proud to feel that he really needed support. At
+the foot of the wooden steps leading up the cliff his mother took him
+in her arms. She was looking tired and pale, but she smiled very sweetly
+at Susie.
+
+"My kind little daughter," she said; and Susie beamed.
+
+When she got back to Tom and Amy she found that they were not alone: two
+other children, a boy and a girl, with bare feet and tucked-up skirts,
+were standing talking to them.
+
+The boy had black eyes and black hair, and the girl was the image of him;
+her long, thin legs were like pipe stems, and she spoke in a loud,
+domineering voice.
+
+"We have watched you all the week," she said, "and we made up our minds
+to know you. We thought we had better wait until your mother and nurse
+were out of sight, in case they forbid us to come. Us two are twins."
+
+"Oh, they wouldn't forbid you," said Amy, with hasty politeness.
+
+The boy smiled in a superior way. "They _might_" he said. "Nurses
+generally do. We are not particularly good, and nurses are so
+narrow-minded."
+
+"We are reckless," said the girl. "Our names are Dot and Dash."
+
+"They're pretty good names," said Tom.
+
+"They fit us," said the twins in a breath.
+
+"Both of we were taken out of church last Sunday," said Dot, in an
+explanatory way and with an air of pride. "When the clergyman came from
+inside the railings, Dash forgot he was in church, and he jumped up and
+said quite loud, 'Shut the gate.'"
+
+"Whatever for?" said Tom.
+
+"You see," said Dash, with his air of modest pride, "I always spend the
+time thinking how many sheep I could pen into the pews, and how many cows
+I could get behind the railings. I think it could be seventeen _with a
+squash_, but of course, if you left the gate open, the cows would get
+into the sheep pens; so, when I saw him go out and leave the bar up, I
+felt I must run and shut it, and I spoke out loud. I didn't really mean
+to, but father marched us out of church, and he wouldn't let me explain."
+
+"I suppose you oughtn't to have been thinking of cows and sheep in
+church," said Amy, in her surprised little voice.
+
+"Shut up, Miss Prig," said Dash; and Amy was obediently silent.
+
+"Shall we play together?" said the twins, with one voice.
+
+"It would be jolly," said Tom.--"Wouldn't it, Susie?"
+
+"Well, you mustn't tell your people," they said, "but every morning after
+your babies go in we might have a jolly game."
+
+"Mother wouldn't mind, would she, Susie?" said Amy.
+
+"We don't want your opinion," said Tom loftily.
+
+Amy blushed till the tears came. "Would she?" she repeated desperately.
+
+"There's no harm in playing," said Susie.
+
+All her good resolutions were slipping away, and her voice grew excited.
+Susie was always so carried away by the spirit of adventure, and she
+forgot so easily. These sands, and the silver sea full of monsters! The
+black rocks and seaweed--no nurse to bother about wet stockings--no
+babies who needed a good example! Susie's spirits rose.
+
+"There wouldn't be any harm," she cried eagerly, "and we might have some
+jolly games. We only wouldn't tell mother, because it might worry her."
+
+"Mother can walk on the rocks," cried Amy eagerly.
+
+"I don't believe it," said Dash. "I don't believe an old woman like that
+can walk a bit--not like we can."
+
+"Not as fast as us," said Susie.--"Don't be tiresome, Amy; it isn't
+mother who is tiresome--it's nurse."
+
+"Well, we'll meet to-morrow," said the twins, speaking together, as they
+generally did, at the top of rather squeaky voices.
+
+They pulled Susie to one side.
+
+"Don't tell the other one," they said, in hoarse whispers; "she'd go and
+tell."
+
+"She's very young," said Susie, in quick apology, as she ran off.
+
+"Both of we has pails," shouted the twins after her, "and we can bring
+cake."
+
+"We are not allowed curranty cake," said Susie reluctantly.
+
+"Bosh," said the twins. "Who's to know? We come of a very gouty family,
+and _we_ may eat curranty cake."
+
+"I dare say a little piece wouldn't matter," said Susie.
+
+"O Susie," said Amy, as she plodded breathlessly over the sand to the
+steps, "she called mother an old woman!"
+
+"Well?" said Susie.
+
+"She is the most young and the most beautiful lady I have ever seen,"
+said Amy, with flushed cheeks.
+
+"Yes, of course," said Susie.
+
+"They seemed rather rude," said Amy.
+
+"It isn't being rude, it's being _reckless_. Didn't you hear them say
+so?"
+
+"Aren't they the same, Susie?"
+
+"Not at all," said Susie, with her nose in the air. "It's _older_ to be
+reckless; it's much easier to be rude. But you mustn't tell, Amy."
+
+"O Susie, I'll try not," said Amy; "but when mother asks me I don't know
+what to do."
+
+"Well, you can hold your tongue," said Susie sharply.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+Susie felt a little excited next morning when she remembered the twins,
+and all the time she was digging moats and piling up sand castles she had
+one eye fixed on the active figures of her new friends, who, with bare
+legs and shrill voices, attracted a good deal of attention. Once she
+tried timidly to "draw" nurse on the subject, but nurse was not
+responsive.
+
+"Those are rather splendid children," she said wistfully.
+
+"Where?" said nurse, lifting a calculating eye from the heel of the
+stocking she was knitting, and looking vaguely round the horizon.
+
+"There--on the rock," said Susie eagerly. "Tom and I want to go on the
+rocks so much, and those children could help us; they are so very--so
+very _reckless_."
+
+"So very rude," said nurse dispassionately.
+
+The very words Amy had used. The angry blood flew into Susie's face.
+
+"I don't know what you mean by rude," she said obstinately. "It's very
+dull sitting here and making castles with babies; and Tom and I want to
+go on the rocks."
+
+"Well, your mamma will take you some day, when she feels better," said
+nurse. "She's had a wearing time since she came. No doubt it's a trial to
+see other children, with no decent nurse to look after them, running wild
+and shouting like wild Indians; but I have my duty to you and your mamma,
+and you must just bear it as best you can. You should take example by
+Miss Amy and be contented, and be glad to think you have Master Dick back
+with you again."
+
+"Mother always makes a fuss about Dick," said Susie.
+
+"Well," said nurse, rising with difficulty and shaking the sand from her
+dress, "I'm going to take the little ones in, Miss Amy and all. She can
+play with Master Dick whilst I get baby to sleep. Perhaps you will help
+me, Miss Susie?"
+
+Of course Susie would help; her face lightened at the thought! All the
+jealous lines disappeared as if by magic. Alick's little hands felt like
+rose leaves on her face. She forgot the twins, forgot to be cross, as she
+folded her arms tightly round him. She had half a mind to go in with them
+and have a nice nursery game; but when she hesitated and looked back, she
+saw Tom waving impatiently, and it was difficult to say no.
+
+She handed Alick to nurse, and stood staring after him as he leant his
+round red face over her shoulder and waved his chubby hands. When they
+all disappeared on to the parade at the top of the cliff she turned and
+flew over the sands.
+
+"Take off your shoes and stockings," shouted the twins; "us both always
+do." And Susie, without a thought, unlaced her boots, and flung them
+hither and thither, never stopping to look behind her or to be sure that
+they were safe. The water was quite warm and the sea was sapphire blue.
+It was a very low tide, and the rocks stretched away to a long, low
+island, crowned with grass, where a few nimble goats perched on unlikely
+crags. From rock to rock flew Susie's active feet, but Dot was always
+ahead; and so, slipping, splashing, torn by the rocks, drenched with the
+warm spray, Susie revelled in a long hour of liberty. She was wild with
+excitement, eager to come again, full of reckless promises.
+
+"We'll go as far as the island another day," said Dot, "but we have to
+choose a low tide. Aren't you glad now that you didn't go home and play
+like a baby?"
+
+Susie was hastily rubbing the sand out of her toes and hunting for her
+stockings. Her feet were very cold, and her fingers seemed thumbs. She
+did not answer Dot. She did not feel quite sure what to say; things
+always looked so different before and after, and what nurse had said
+about a _wearing time_ stuck in her mind.
+
+"Well, aren't you?" said Dot impatiently.
+
+"No," said Susie bluntly.
+
+She stopped to lace Tom's boots, and then looked up with a face that had
+grown suddenly red.
+
+"I can't help it," she said desperately, "but I never _am_ glad
+afterwards."
+
+She went on lacing laboriously, whilst Tom lay on his face kicking and
+plunging about. Dot looked at her curiously.
+
+"But you wanted to come on the rocks?" she said.
+
+"Oh yes," said Susie. "I shall always want to come, but I shall be sorry
+afterwards. I think I ought to warn you because I am like that. I can't
+help it. It is silly of nurse," she went on, as she tied the lace in a
+draggled knot. "Why shouldn't we play with you? I feel _perfectly
+certain_--" She seemed to remember using those words before on an
+unfortunate occasion, so she hastily changed them. "I am _quite sure_
+that you are a very good companion. Me and Tom couldn't learn any
+harm from you."
+
+She was persuading herself, not the twins, but it was a twin who
+answered.
+
+"We can have lots of fun," said Dot, "and no one will know. The first
+chance we will cut over the rocks to the town and buy some sweets."
+
+"Generally I have to look after the little ones," said Susie.
+
+"Well, no one would eat them if they stayed here alone till you came
+back, would they, stupid?"
+
+"No," said Susie, rather shortly.
+
+She was not quite sure that she liked being called "stupid."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"I can't think how all this sand has got into your stockings," said
+nurse. "I should hope you didn't paddle after I left you, against my
+orders!"
+
+There was silence, and in another moment Susie would have told the truth,
+but before the words came faltering out nurse spoke again.
+
+"But there! I can trust you, with all your troublesome ways," she said.
+
+And this time Susie _could not_ speak.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+As time went on it grew so perilously easy to be deceitful! No one
+thought of doubting them--no one thought of asking what they did when
+they were left alone.
+
+Day after day, as nurse's toiling figure disappeared up the wooden steps
+on to the cliff, Dash and Dot burst round the corner of the rocks, and
+almost without a word spoken, Susie's shoes and stockings were flung to
+the winds, and she was scampering at headlong speed from pool to pool,
+with Tom at her heels--like a wild creature, and in a condition that
+would have fairly horrified poor nurse, who held that all well-conducted
+young ladies, like the Queen of Spain, should have no visible legs!
+
+Really, in her heart, Susie did not like the twins so very much. They
+were wild and unkempt, and very boisterous; their twinkling black eyes
+radiated mischief, but it was the sort of mischief that bewildered Susie
+and rather frightened her. Nurse puzzled over her mangled stockings and
+the hideous rents in her skirts, and Mrs. Beauchamp's patient fingers
+grew stiff with darning; but whilst Susie flew about the rocks, careless
+and dishevelled, she always forgot how sorry she was going to be
+afterwards, and how uncomfortable her conscience was at night.
+
+"I really won't go again," she said to herself time after time; and yet
+the first sight of the twins splashing round the rocks scattered all her
+good resolutions to the winds.
+
+"I am glad I can trust you," her mother often said. "You are a comfort to
+me."
+
+"Troublesome comforts I should call them," nurse said; and, like many of
+nurse's wise sayings, it was remembered by Susie, and left a little sting
+in her memory.
+
+This afternoon she came to the beach quite resolved to withstand
+temptation, and to play demurely with the little ones. It had rained all
+morning, and now Tom had gone to the town with his mother to buy some new
+sand-shoes. For some time Susie was perfectly happy building castles of
+sand and letting the rising tide flow into her moat. Nurse was indulgent
+enough to waste a few of her valuable minutes in making a scarlet flag
+and mounting it on a wooden knitting-pin, whilst Dick and Amy busily
+ornamented its base with fan shells. Dick was the king, with Alick for
+his knight--rather a top-heavy knight, with wayward legs--and Susie and
+Amy were the besieging army, fighting with desperate courage as long as
+they had breath.
+
+Susie flung herself panting on the sand. "Isn't it funny, nurse," she
+said, "that all the bad men were good kings, and all the good men had to
+be beheaded?"
+
+"I don't know much about any king, Miss Susie," said nurse, "except King
+Henry the Eighth, and _his_ beheading was on the other side. He was a bad
+man if you like, and I never had any patience with him."
+
+"Oh, I forgot him," said Susie; "and I wouldn't say that King Edward was
+a bad man exactly, though he is a good king; but he isn't what you would
+call _prime_, is he?"
+
+"Oh no, my dear, not prime," said nurse.
+
+"And Charles the Second wasn't prime either," said Susie.
+
+"I don't know about him, my dear," said nurse. "But to go back to King
+Henry. I always felt very much for poor Annie Bullen. A monster of
+iniquity I call him, dressed up in his ermine and fallals, and not a
+policeman or a judge daring to say him nay."
+
+"How nice it is that common gentlemen don't behave like kings!" said Amy.
+"If I was a queen, I would throw my crown away when it was time for my
+beheadal."
+
+"No, you'd cry," said Dick solemnly.
+
+"_I_ wouldn't," said Susie. "I'd march proudly out with my lovely hair
+floating in the wind, and my swannish neck rising out of a black velvet
+dress, and I'd stand on the block and say, 'I _will_ my limbs--that means
+my legs and arms--to the four quarters of the country, and my heart to
+the tyrant who broke it.'"
+
+"Much he'd want it," said Tom disdainfully.
+
+But Susie stood declaiming on the sand-hill, inspired by her own
+eloquence, and gazed at with admiration by Amy for a courage she could
+not match.
+
+"O Susie, how brave you are!" she said. "They'd have to kill you to get
+at it; you couldn't get at your heart till you were dead. I don't believe
+I could ever be as brave as that. I know I should cry."
+
+"It's called _weep_, my dear," said nurse, "when it's done by kings and
+queens."
+
+"Well, I should weep," said Amy. "And I make my wills quite differently
+to Susie. I made a will this morning when it rained. You know you said
+you were going to give me a paint-box on my birthday, nursie! Well, if I
+live till my birthday, I'm going to leave it back to you in my will."
+
+"You needn't trouble, Miss Amy," said nurse, "because if you don't live
+till your birthday I can keep it."
+
+"But that wouldn't be my _will_," said Amy, puzzled.
+
+"But it would be your wish, my dear, which comes to the same thing."
+
+"Well, mine would be my will, but it wouldn't be my wish," said Susie.
+"It would be history, and things in history are never so bad as things
+that happen to yourself."
+
+"But it _would_ happen to yourself if it was _your_ legs and arms you
+gave away," said Amy.
+
+"And I dare say it was just as bad to have your head cut off a hundred
+years ago as it would be to-day," said nurse--"I mean for the people
+themselves."
+
+"Do you think," said Susie, "that the Jews and people who had their teeth
+pulled out by the king for fun felt it just as much as we do when we go
+to the dentist?"
+
+"_For fun!_" said Dick, in a horrified voice.
+
+"Did they have gas?" said Amy.
+
+"Gas!" said Susie, with a superior smile. "How silly you are, Amy! They
+had no gas then--only candles, or perhaps lamps. And I don't see how they
+could pull out teeth with lamps; do you?"
+
+"No," said Amy, in a small, mortified voice.
+
+"I daresay," nurse went on, as if there had been no interruption, "that
+it would have been easier for Miss Susie to have been brave in a history
+book than if the trial came to her here."
+
+"I don't see why," argued Susie.
+
+"Well, we are made so," said nurse. "Other people's trials are a deal
+easier to bear than our own. Now you've been good children to-day, and
+I'll make a surprise for tea as a reward. I'm going to leave you Master
+Dick for an hour, Miss Susie; and you'll look after him well, and when I
+wave you'll bring him in. Don't sit down any longer, but have a bit of
+play on the sand; it's getting chilly, and it looks like more rain."
+
+"All right," said Susie.
+
+She was filled with light-hearted joy, and nurse's praise warmed her
+heart; nurse so seldom praised her. She helped Alick's wilful legs to the
+foot of the steps and watched him out of sight.
+
+"I am so very glad I have made up my mind to be good," she said to
+herself; "it is _perfectly easy_ if you make up your mind. I wish the
+twins would come and want me to leave Dick, or go on the rocks, or do
+something naughty. I would just stand here and look at them with my large
+innocent eyes and my gentle smile, and I would say, '_Never_, twins!
+Nurse has trusted him to me, and I have turned over a new leaf. I would
+not touch the rocks with my bare feet, not for a king's ransom.'"
+
+"Susie," cried Dick.
+
+"Yes," said Susie impatiently.
+
+"Come here, Susie," he said again--"quick, I'm so wet!"
+
+"Oh, bother," said Susie.
+
+She turned slowly, still inspired by her own eloquence; and there,
+straight before her, as if they had walked out of the sunset, stood the
+twins, with black hair waving, and bare, wet legs.
+
+"Come on!" they shouted breathlessly. "It's a perfectly heavenly
+afternoon for the rocks, but it's awfully late; you've kept us waiting an
+hour whilst your nurse simply _clacked_."
+
+"All right," said Susie.
+
+It was really all wrong, but she had forgotten her promises, her
+resolutions, her boasted courage. At the first demand of the enemy she
+laid down her weapons and surrendered the fort, and in another moment
+she too was flying bare-footed over the rocks, with Dick stumbling
+laboriously after her.
+
+"Susie"--his shrill, faint voice pursued her--"Susie, my shoes is wet;
+come back!"
+
+"Come on," cried Susie.
+
+"My feet is tired. Susie, _it's Dick_."
+
+But Susie was far ahead.
+
+"Susie!" he called again.
+
+Wet and miserable, he sat stolidly down upon a rock.
+
+"If Susie leaves me I shall _weep_," he said out loud.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+It was growing dusk, and the line of gold upon the sea had merged into
+the gray twilight around. A drizzling rain fell like a veil between Susie
+and the shore, and suddenly she remembered that for some time she had not
+heard Dick's pleading voice. Instantly all the excitement and pleasure of
+the stolen hour fell away from her, and with a frightened pang at her
+heart she began a frantic search over the slippery rocks, flying in
+heedless haste and shouting as she ran.
+
+Her terror and tears impressed even the twins, though they were a little
+inclined to mock. They too rushed and splashed from rock to rock, making
+difficult and dangerous leaps that only bare toes made possible. The
+pools between the rocks were full of water, and there was no yellow
+reflection now from the wind-tossed sky. Susie felt despairing; but
+suddenly, almost at her feet, she heard Dick's uncomplaining little
+voice, "It's _me_, Susie. I knew you would come back; I am so glad. My
+toe has got hurt, and I have sitted here till all my clothes has got
+wet."
+
+"How tiresome he is!" said Dot impatiently. "What a tiresome, silly
+little boy! That's always the way with babies; they spoil all your fun."
+
+"I'm not a baby," said Dick defiantly.
+
+"Well, you're very like one. Every one will know now, and a jolly row
+you've got us into."
+
+"I'll tell you what," said Dash, in a hissing whisper into Susie's ear.
+"Let's run back to the shore, and then they'll think he went alone."
+
+"Come on, Susie, or we shall be drenched," said Dot. "When once we've got
+on our shoes and stockings we can easily rush out and rescue him. Look at
+the white horses, and the waves against the island. We are really a good
+way out, but we could rescue him in two minutes, and your mother would be
+_grateful_ to us."
+
+But Susie was not listening. The twins' suggestions beat on her brain,
+and found no entrance. All the best of Susie--the real, comfortable
+Susie--brimming over with a love that was almost motherly, was in the
+kind, quivering face she bent over Dick as he held out his tired arms.
+
+In a minute she was down beside him, stroking and folding him close, till
+his sobbing breaths were stifled on her shoulder.
+
+"Oh, do come on, Susie!" said the twins; "we can't stay another minute.
+If you won't leave him you'll be caught, and you will never be allowed to
+play with us again."
+
+Susie looked up, bewildered, into the twins' anxious faces. What did it
+matter if she were caught, or blamed, or punished? The idea of leaving
+Dick, even to make a sensational rescue, never entered her head for a
+minute. _Leave him_, frightened and alone, out on the dark rocks! As she
+had herself said, such a little while ago, "not for a king's ransom." She
+only wanted the twins to go and leave her in peace, and so she told them
+with that plainness of speech which to Susie seemed to suit the occasion.
+"Please, please go," she said. "I can carry him quite well after he has
+rested a little bit."
+
+"You will be found out," said the twins warningly.
+
+"Oh, it doesn't matter," said Susie.
+
+"It seemed to matter a good deal a little while ago," said Dot
+resentfully.
+
+"Nothing matters now," said Susie, "except to get Dick home."
+
+"Well, you can't rest long," said Dash, "because the tide's coming in."
+
+Susie looked vaguely at the island behind her, with the waves splashing
+against its sides, and then at the glistening rocks that made rough
+stepping-stones to land. She had no idea about the tides; she only knew
+that on some days the rocks showed more above the water than on others,
+but there were always rocks. She shook her head impatiently.
+
+"I know all about the tide," she said. "I am perfectly certain I can get
+home all right."
+
+"Oh, you're always perfectly certain," said Dot.
+
+"So I am," said Susie.
+
+"Well, good-night," said Dash. "Don't fiddle about too long with Dick,
+that's all."
+
+"Good-night," said Susie cheerfully.
+
+She saw the two active figures leaping away into the twilight, splashing
+from rock to rock, till they became gray and indistinct like moving
+shadows. She felt suddenly chilled and lonely, and the silence and gloom
+enveloped them--a forlorn little group in the midst of the growing dark.
+
+"Dickie," said Susie presently, "we must start back before it gets any
+darker. I think it's going to pour. If I put my arm round you, do you
+think you can walk?"
+
+"Why, the water would go over my head," said Dick.
+
+He pushed out a fat leg and let it dangle against the rock; already the
+white spray was splashing over it. Susie stared at it incredulously. When
+the twins left, it had been a shallow pool, and they had waded through
+it.
+
+"Oh, hurry up, Dick!" she said, in a sudden panic. "Mother will be
+frightened."
+
+"It's fun, though," said Dick.
+
+Fun! The word did not seem at all the right word to Susie, but she said
+nothing. She knew now in a flash what the twins meant by the rising tide,
+but all she saw was her mother's face with the fear on it.
+
+But Susie had not been the eldest of the little family for so many
+years for nothing. She knew that, whatever happened, Dick must not get
+bronchitis, and she put her own fear bravely on one side to think of him.
+
+First she slipped over the rock, and found that it reached her waist, and
+that every wave made it more difficult to stand. With Dick on her back it
+would be impossible; and the long links of the chain of rocks stretched
+such a weary way with those shining pools between. The wind roared
+against the island, and the spray dashed up it; but Susie remembered the
+grass and the goats, and a gleam of hope sprang up within her.
+
+"O Dick, we are close to the island," she said. "I had quite forgotten.
+We must clamber over the rocks and get there; and, Dickie darling, even
+if your foot hurts, you will be brave."
+
+"I will be brave, Susie," said Dick.
+
+The rocks were slippery, and the seaweed popped under their feet like
+little guns; but jumping, slipping, clinging together, they reached the
+foot of the island, and then began the difficult scramble upwards. Dick
+hung heavily on to Susie's skirt, and his little feet were torn and
+bruised. But Susie's courage was the courage of hope, not of despair. She
+lifted him over difficult places, and clung to edges of the cliff where
+it seemed as if even the seagulls had not room to stand. Once she found a
+narrow track, but she lost it again in the darkness, and still she felt
+the splash of the waves and heard the startled birds crying overhead.
+Never, never had Susie been so tired; but those pursuing waves chased her
+up, and by-and-by she felt dry crags under her feet, and then welcome
+grass--wet with rain, not sea.
+
+Drawing long, sobbing breaths, Susie sank down and drew Dickie into her
+arms. In the far, far distance little lights were twinkling in the town,
+and Susie's heart gave a passionate leap; it wanted to annihilate time
+and space, and carry her home.
+
+"Mother, mother, mother!" she cried under her breath.
+
+Dick was wet and tired, but he was too excited to lie still. He lay in
+the hollow of Susie's lap, with his wet feet curled up into her skirt,
+and his round eyes shining.
+
+"We can't be drowned now, Susie," he said, smiling.
+
+Susie had to make quite an effort before her stiff lips would speak.
+
+"No, Dickie, we are quite safe," she said; "but the ledge is so narrow
+you must not fidget about. I am going to make you a dear little bed like
+a bird's nest."
+
+"I don't want to stay here all night," he said.
+
+"But there are goats here."
+
+"I don't want there to be goats," he said again.
+
+"I only mean," said Susie, "that if God can take care of the goats, He
+can take care of us too."
+
+"I would rather," said Dickie, after a pause, "that He would put us back
+into our cribs."
+
+"Perhaps He will," said Susie; "but you must sit quite still, and let me
+creep down and try if there is any other way to get to shore."
+
+"No, Susie, you mustn't go," said Dick, whimpering. "I won't cry if you
+are here, but if you go I shall--I shall _weep_," he said.
+
+"O darling Dick, don't," said Susie imploringly. "Perhaps mother will
+come to the shore and see us, or perhaps the twins will tell her, or
+perhaps the fishermen will bring a boat."
+
+"I shall _weep_," repeated Dick firmly. After that he did not speak
+again, but he put his two chubby arms so tightly round her neck that he
+nearly choked her. "I won't _let_ you go," he said sleepily.
+
+Susie felt in despair. "I must go, Dick. I don't see what else I can do."
+
+"You said yourself"--Dick's voice was sleepier, and he nestled
+closer--"you said yourself that God would take care of us and the goats."
+
+Dick was so determined that Susie was afraid to try to get away. She was
+sure that he would insist on coming too, and that she would never be able
+to do that terrible scramble again. Susie's active brain flashed from
+point to point in a moment of time, and it seemed to her that there was,
+after all, nothing particular to be gained by going down on to the rocks.
+No one could see her through the mist and darkness, and her feeble voice
+would never be heard through the wind. Dick was almost asleep, and the
+ledge was sheltered. _If_ she could get him to sleep! She rolled him out
+of her arms, keeping her arm as a pillow under his head. Then with her
+free hand she unfastened her serge skirt and tucked it round him. When
+he coughed, she slipped off her flannel petticoat and wrapped it round
+his head and throat, and almost before he had shut his eyes she heard
+his even breathing.
+
+"O darling Dick!" said Susie, under her breath.
+
+She crept as near to him as she could, sheltering him in the crevice of
+the cliff. Her one flimsy petticoat was soaked, and her legs felt like
+ice; but those little choking snores filled her with a joy almost too
+great for words.
+
+The rain beat in her face and flicked her wet hair against it like the
+lash of a whip; but Susie felt nothing except the warm comfort of the
+little body behind her, saw nothing but the gleaming row of lights that
+marked the Parade. All her heart moved in one passionate cry, "If mother
+will only forgive me!" And then she realized, with a glow of happiness,
+that she had never really doubted it; that she had known quite well all
+the time that there would be no need for tears or protestations--mother
+would understand.
+
+The stars came out and the leaping waves seemed to fall asleep, whilst
+Susie, with wide-awake eyes, settled herself for the interminable night.
+But nature is very kind to the remorseful sinner as well as to the happy
+and the innocent, and presently her head fell back against Dick's
+comfortable, cosy shoulder, and she too fell into a dreamless sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+Meanwhile Tom and Mrs. Beauchamp had bought the sand-shoes and various
+other little necessaries, had had tea in an Oriental coffee shop, and, as
+the climax of a delightful afternoon, were coming home on the top of a
+tram--a leisurely proceeding that gave plenty of time for enjoyment. The
+weather had clouded over early in the afternoon, but they were halfway
+home before a fine rain began to fall and to blot out the shimmering sea.
+Just at sunset it cleared up for a little while, and a long path of gold
+stretched straight away to the horizon, showing the rocks and the island
+silhouetted very clear and black against a pale yellow sky.
+
+"Mother," said Tom suddenly, "do the goats ever come down to drink?"
+
+"What goats?"
+
+"The goats on the island?"
+
+"And do they drink what?"
+
+"The sea."
+
+"Oh dear no, Tom; they would not drink the sea-water--it is much too
+salt. I expect they stay on the island all the summer and come home in
+winter. I know their masters go and look after them at low tide."
+
+"Well, is it low tide now?" persisted Tom.
+
+Mrs. Beauchamp peered into the dusk.
+
+"No; it is nearly high, I think. There is very little of the rocks to be
+seen."
+
+"Well, there is something scrambling about on the island, quite low down,
+and it looks just like goats."
+
+"Sea-birds, Tom?"
+
+"They don't _scramble_," said Tom.
+
+"Well, fishermen perhaps. Show me where you see them."
+
+But the black dots had disappeared. The fine drizzling rain had come on
+again, and the island was misty; heavy clouds were banked on the horizon,
+and it had grown suddenly cold and dark.
+
+"Come inside, Tom," said Mrs. Beauchamp; "hold on to the rail and don't
+tumble off. Isn't it pleasant to think of the warm, cosy nursery and
+supper?"
+
+"Is it supper-time?" asked Tom, amazed.
+
+"Well, it is past six, and we are a good way from home yet. I hope all
+the family were safe under shelter before the rain came on. Do you see
+the white horses dashing up the sides of the island? It looks very cold,
+doesn't it?"
+
+"I'm glad I'm not a goat," said Tom.
+
+"So am I! See, there are the Parade lights. Get all the parcels together,
+and be ready to jump off when we stop."
+
+A shopping expedition alone with mother was always a great treat. There
+was so much to tell afterwards--so many parcels to open and examine. Tom
+scampered up the Parade in advance of Mrs. Beauchamp's soberer footsteps,
+so it was he who first caught sight of nurse's face when the door was
+opened to his clamorous knock.
+
+"Go up to the nursery, Master Tom," she said.
+
+Tom dashed on merrily, and a minute later he heard his mother's voice in
+the hall, with a quick note of anxiety in it.
+
+"What is it, nurse?"
+
+"It's Miss Susie," said nurse, "and Master Dick."
+
+Tom hung over the banisters to hear more.
+
+"I left them out on the beach for a bit, whilst I came in to make the
+tea; and they had my orders to come when I signalled, but they never took
+no notice. So I ran down to the beach, and there wasn't a sign of them;
+and there was nothing more that I could do till you came home."
+
+"How long ago?" asked Mrs. Beauchamp.
+
+All of a sudden the tired look had come back to her face. She was
+anxious, but she was not frightened.
+
+"It was about five I called to them, and it's past six now."
+
+"Have you any idea where they are?"
+
+"Well, I've heard Miss Susie speak of the town and buying sweets; and
+she's that audacious by times she might have dragged the poor child off
+without stopping to think--and it's a long three miles, and a regular
+downpour coming on."
+
+Simultaneously both mother and nurse turned back to the pavement and
+looked critically at the sky and the sea. There was very little to be
+seen but scurrying clouds and one or two misty stars, but the boom of the
+waves on the shore was loud and importunate. Without a word they came in
+and shut the door.
+
+"I don't think they _can_ be on the beach," said their mother, as
+cheerfully as she could, "but it is like looking for a needle in a
+haystack. I will go and speak to the policeman and the fishermen."
+
+She spoke wearily, and the anxious line deepened between her eyes, as she
+stood irresolutely on the steps, looking into the darkness and feeling
+the lashing of the fine rain against her face. A sickening wave of fear
+rolled over her, but nurse could not tell it by her voice.
+
+"No doubt they started for the town--Susie is thoughtless. Open my
+umbrella, please, nurse, and keep their supper hot."
+
+"I _do_ hope Master Dick don't get his nasty cough back," said nurse.
+
+"Oh, I don't think he will," said Mrs. Beauchamp.
+
+She ran down the steps, holding her umbrella firmly, and battling with
+the gusts of wind that swept the Parade. The insistent thunder of the
+waves sounded very dreary.
+
+She ran over to the sea wall and down the wooden steps on to the beach.
+Two or three fishermen were sheltering close under the cliff; the wind
+was so loud that she had to shout at them to be heard.
+
+"Have you been here long?" she said.
+
+"Yes, most of the day." A short black pipe was removed to allow of the
+remark.
+
+"Have you seen some children playing about--a little girl in a red
+jersey, a boy in a sailor suit?"
+
+The answer was very deliberate. A great many boys and girls had been
+playing on the sands--there always were a "rack" of them--the rain came
+and swamped them. He hadn't noticed no red jersey in particular.
+
+"Did you see any of them on the rocks?"
+
+No; but then they might have been, for he hadn't been looking that way.
+
+"But _some_ of you would have seen them," Mrs. Beauchamp urged. "If two
+children had been scrambling on the rocks at sunset, some of you would
+have noticed them?"
+
+"Maybe, maybe not."
+
+"Is it high tide?" she asked.
+
+"In another hour." And some one added out of the darkness, "Don't you be
+feared, ma'am; children and chickens come home to roost."
+
+Mrs. Beauchamp thanked him gratefully and felt comforted.
+
+Again she wearily climbed the steps, and flew rather than walked down the
+long Parade. The flickering gas lamps showed between patches of darkness,
+the rain drizzled on, and she felt helpless and bewildered, not knowing
+where to turn next. Wherever Dickie was, bronchitis must be dogging his
+footsteps, and all the time she seemed to hear Susie's voice appealing to
+her. Poor Susie! who always came back to her best friend--who was always
+so sorry afterwards!
+
+She spoke to the policeman at the corner of the Parade, and he was very
+determined. He would go to the police station and give notice, he said;
+but there wasn't the least use in her wearing herself out by running on
+into the town. He knew the young lady from No. 17 quite well by sight--a
+very sensible young lady!--and he was as certain as that he stood there
+that she had not passed him since five o'clock. She was on the beach then
+with the little boy and some other young ladies and gentlemen; he had
+seen them himself. They were playing and shouting, and having a fine
+time. No, he was quite certain he wasn't making a mistake; he knew her by
+her face, and her brown plaits, and her scarlet jersey. She certainly was
+playing with other children.
+
+Mrs. Beauchamp tried to push aside the urgent fear that was knocking at
+her heart. If even the policeman had confidence in Susie, should her
+mother be behindhand? She told the policeman, for his information and her
+own comfort, that she was only frightened because the little boy had been
+ill, and it was such a cold, wet night, but at the same time she thought
+she would walk round to the town by the beach. "And you will go to the
+police station? Some one may have seen them. I cannot feel satisfied
+doing nothing."
+
+"If you take my advice, lady," said the policeman, "you should go home
+first. Perhaps they'll have got back, or perhaps the other young lady
+could give you an idea. Children know a good deal of each other's ways."
+
+The advice was sensible and practical, and Mrs. Beauchamp was relieved at
+any definite suggestion. Amy might possibly know something about the
+others which she had not confided to nurse. She caught at the hope, and
+fought her way back before the wind, up the long, wet Parade, until she
+stood, drenched and breathless, at the door.
+
+Nurse opened it almost on her knock, and peered anxiously behind her into
+the dark, but Mrs. Beauchamp shook her head.
+
+"No, I have done nothing," she said, in a strained voice. "I can't think
+what to do--no one has seen them, nurse."
+
+Her voice trembled a little, but she tried to smile. She would not break
+down.
+
+"I want to speak to Amy, nurse, and Master Tom; but Amy is less
+excitable. Send them to me on the stairs here; we must not wake baby."
+
+"I've questioned them," said nurse, "but they don't seem to know
+anything. They'll be ready enough to tell if they do; they are very
+upset."
+
+Mrs. Beauchamp sat upon the lowest stair, with her anxious eyes fixed on
+the nursery door. They were curiously like Susie's eyes, but with a
+sweeter expression. They were smiling still, but it was such a sad smile
+that after one look Amy flew helter-skelter downstairs and flung herself
+into the welcoming arms.
+
+"Amy," said her mother gently, "don't cry now; I haven't time. I am
+anxious about Dickie's bronchitis"--it was curious how she clung to the
+belief that it was only the bronchitis that troubled her--"it is so rainy
+and cold! Do you know where Susie has gone?"
+
+"No, mother," said Amy. She knelt upon the stair with her pale little
+face pressed against her mother's cheek.
+
+"Think, Amy," Mrs. Beauchamp urged.
+
+"I have thoughted and thoughted," said Amy, "and I can only remember that
+once, a long time ago, the twins said--"
+
+"What twins?"
+
+"Oh, I forgot you didn't know. They are twins, and they are friends of
+Susie's. They are very reckless on the rocks, and sometimes Susie went
+too."
+
+"But when, Amy?"
+
+"I don't know," said Amy, with literal truthfulness. "They didn't tell
+me; they said I was a baby." Amy's eyes filled. "I wish Susie could be
+found," she said.
+
+"But you are helping me to find her," said her mother. "Now I have
+something to go on.--Did you know, Tom? Have you ever been on the rocks
+with the twins?"
+
+"They told me not to tell," said Tom sturdily.
+
+"But, Tom, that does not matter; it is right to break such a promise."
+
+"If you break your promise you go to hell," said Tom.
+
+"No, no, Tom--not when it is a matter--a matter of life and death. Do you
+think they went on the rocks to-night?"
+
+"I will tell you if you want me to," said Tom, "but Susie will be angry.
+I don't know if she went to-day; so there!"
+
+"Did you ever go?"
+
+"Heaps and heaps of times," said Tom.
+
+"And who are the twins?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"But their _name_, Tom?" she urged.
+
+"I truly don't know, mummy."
+
+"O Tom!"
+
+Tom too had broken down, and his arms were round her neck.
+
+"O mother, Susie didn't mean to go. She often and often didn't want to.
+Don't be angry with Susie. Nurse often said, 'I can't think where you get
+your stockings in such a mess.' But the twins asked Susie, and she went;
+often and often she didn't want to--"
+
+"Poor Susie," said Mrs. Beauchamp.
+
+"And you needn't think she's drowned," said Tom, "because Susie knows
+quite well how to walk on seaweed. She wouldn't be such a silly as to be
+drowned."
+
+Tom's testimony and the policeman's! She alone--Susie's mother--had been
+faithless and unbelieving. She began to regain her confidence in Susie.
+She got up a minute later with a more hopeful smile. As she shook out her
+wet umbrella she stooped to kiss Amy's eager face.
+
+"It is so much easier to find four people than two," she said,
+"particularly when two of them are twins, and one wears a scarlet jersey.
+Some one must have seen such a noisy crew, and there is less chance of
+their having disappeared."
+
+"Susie isn't such a silly as all that," said Tom, with serene confidence.
+
+Mrs. Beauchamp's eyes shone, and when Tom opened the door she looked out,
+over his head, into the deepening night. A few stars had struggled
+through the clouds, and the moon shone fitfully above the island. It
+looked very big and black and peaceful, and Mrs. Beauchamp paused for a
+moment and looked back at it.
+
+"_If_," she said to herself, and then again "_if_" out loud.
+
+But whatever the disturbing thought might be, she would not give it
+entrance. She fixed her mind resolutely on the twins and the red jersey,
+and pinned her hopes on the police inspector.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+But it was extraordinarily difficult to find any clue to the missing
+family, and the long, miserable hours passed, and brought Mrs. Beauchamp
+no nearer to the twins. She trudged up and down the Parade, to the police
+station, and down the steps to the beach, over and over again, with feet
+so tired that they almost refused to carry her.
+
+The wet pavement reflected the flickering gas-lamps. One by one the
+lights in the windows were put out, and late visitors hurried home. She
+clung to the policeman's solid tramp with a lingering hope, but she was
+growing desperate; and over everything was the fine rain, coming in gusts
+from a cloudy sky, wetting her hair, her face, and soaking her skirts. It
+was a miserable night, and the police inspector deeply sympathized with
+her. He went along the town road and cross-examined the policeman. He
+made inquiries and issued orders, and took upon himself to beg the pale,
+tired lady to go home and wait and see what turned up. But Mrs. Beauchamp
+felt that to sit at home doing nothing would be intolerable. She shook
+her head and turned again on to the Parade, and with her went Susie's
+light feet, so real, so active, that she almost saw the red jersey on a
+level with her shoulder, and those brown, defiant eyes. For it was of
+Susie that her mind was full--poor Susie, who had "often and often not
+wanted to go," but who had gone.
+
+It was easier for little Dickie; all his life it would be easier for Dick
+than for this eager, forgetful, repentant daughter, whose passionate
+sorrow always came too late.
+
+Mrs. Beauchamp leaned over the railing at the top, and looked down on to
+the sands, debating whether it was worth another effort. The group of
+fishermen still stood close under the shelter of the cliff; their gruff
+voices floated up to her, and gave her a feeling of companionship. She
+ran down on to the beach, but when she stood in front of them she felt it
+impossible to speak. One by one they rose awkwardly, and gazed at her in
+an embarrassing silence, but making no suggestion, so that it was she
+who spoke first.
+
+"I have not found them; I cannot trace them anyhow. Can none of you help
+me?"
+
+Her sweet, impatient voice appealed to them rather hopelessly, and there
+was no response.
+
+"I'm willing to do what I can," one of them said at last. "At daylight
+I'll bring round my boat and go over the rocks. It's an ebb tide."
+
+"Oh no," she said, and shuddered. "I can't sit still till
+daylight--indeed I cannot. It is only ten o'clock now."
+
+"It's a fair offer, lady," said the man.
+
+"But it is going to be a fine night," she pleaded. "The rain is over. If
+I could find the twins of whom my children speak! Can you not help me?
+You are at least men."
+
+"Why, ma'am"--it was a new voice that answered her--"if it's children you
+want, I'll find them fast enough if they are on shore; it's only the sea
+that keeps her own. A set of lubberly men that can't help a lady in
+distress! That's not how the Royal Navy acts. And don't you cry, lady.
+Lads and lasses don't get mislaid as easy as that; bad halfpennies come
+back to their moorings. We'll knock at every door in the town before we
+give up."
+
+He was an old man, but there was a very different note in his voice from
+the flabby sympathy of the other men. He put out his pipe with a horny
+thumb, and gave a rather contemptuous look round the lounging group of
+longshoremen. "Royal Navy" was written all over him--in his keen eyes,
+his upright carriage, and his kindly, respectful manner. At the
+confidence in his voice Mrs. Beauchamp's wavering hope steadied, but she
+suddenly felt the strain of the anxiety and fatigue. As she turned she
+stumbled over something small and black that the ebb-tide had left in the
+ridge of damp seaweed on the beach. She slipped and recovered herself,
+for the old man's hand was on her arm.
+
+"Steady, ma'am," he said cheerfully; "it's only a bit of an old boot."
+
+"A bit of a boot!" The object swam before Mrs. Beauchamp's eyes, her
+hands trembled. "It is a child's," she said, and there was anguish in her
+voice.
+
+"Oh, well"--he picked it up and flung it on one side--"the sea don't give
+up boots without the feet they held. Wherever the little girl is, ma'am,
+she's gone without her boots. Carry on."
+
+The Royal Navy, as the senior service, went first, and Mrs. Beauchamp
+stumbled after him; but there was new hope springing in her heart. His
+sturdy common-sense had infected her. Was it she only who doubted
+Susie--who had no confidence in her common-sense? The sea gives back
+only what it takes, and it had given back only Susie's empty boot.
+
+Stumbling, dizzy, tired out, she still felt a divine peace at her heart
+as she heard the comfortable, steady steps beside her, and saw the fine,
+weather-beaten face, with its clear, keen eyes.
+
+"You see, ma'am," he said, "longshoremen are good lads enough for
+sunshine and fair weather, but it's the Royal Navy you look to when it
+comes to foul weather and storm. That's where I got my training, and it
+stands by you. Maybe you'd like to rest a bit and let me go on? I'll
+knock at every door in the place before I give in, and I'll bring them
+children with me."
+
+"No, oh no," she said. Her voice was hoarse with fatigue, but was
+undaunted. "I shall sail humbly in the wake of the Royal Navy. Only,
+tell me what you mean to do."
+
+He stood for a moment under a lamp, and his keen eyes seemed to see
+through her. "I propose to begin with the first street out of the
+Parade," he said, "and so on, by sections. I'll go first where I'm known.
+There can't be such a rack of twins in the town that they can't be
+traced. Trust me, lady."
+
+"I _do_! I _do_!" she said; "but I feel frightened."
+
+"Where's your faith, ma'am?" he said, rather sternly.
+
+"I am sure I don't know," she said, with a faint smile. "It may be the
+will--the will of--Providence--that the children should not come home."
+
+The old man stood still again, and raised his cap from a silvery head.
+
+"There's One above as won't let him go too far," he said. "We have our
+orders, which is enough for me. Carry on."
+
+And really faith or fortune did seem to befriend Mrs. Beauchamp at last.
+It was just after they had knocked at the second closed door, and had
+received a very short negative to their inquiry, which the maidservant
+evidently considered to be an ill-timed joke, that a door on the opposite
+side of the road opened suddenly, and a great stream of light flashed
+out.
+
+There were some confused farewells, a gathering up of skirts, and
+laughter; and in a minute the Royal Navy was standing at the salute
+before the master of the house.
+
+"The lady and I are looking for some twins, sir."
+
+Instead of the ready "No" they half expected, the man paused, and smiled
+whimsically.
+
+"Well, what have the little beggars been doing now?" he said.
+
+Never had any words sounded quite so sweet to Mrs. Beauchamp. She too
+came into the circle of light, and lifted her sweet, tired, beseeching
+face.
+
+"My children were playing with the twins this evening," she said, "and
+they have never come home. Of course they may not be _your_ twins; but we
+hope--"
+
+"Come in, come in," he interrupted, holding the door hospitably open
+until it had swallowed them all up. "Of course it is my twins. No one
+else's twins are ever half so troublesome."
+
+And then he sent a great, jovial shout up the stairs,--
+
+"Dot and Dash, you are wanted!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+Instantly there were a scuffle in the upper passage and a rush of bare
+feet to the top of the stairs. Mrs. Beauchamp, looking up, saw two slim
+figures in white, and in another minute she was confronted by two pairs
+of the very brightest and most daring black eyes she had ever seen.
+
+Without a moment's hesitation Dot hurled herself against the slight
+figure in the hall, and began a confused, breathless, incoherent
+statement. "I could not sleep. Neither of we have slept all night. Susie
+said she knew about the tides; she said she was quite certain"--most
+familiar words in Mrs. Beauchamp's ears--"that she would get home all
+right. But Dick had hurt his foot, and we left her on the rocks, sitting
+quite in a pool. And it has rained so ever since; and perhaps she is on
+the rocks still, and it is pitchy dark, and both of we feel as if we
+couldn't bear it."
+
+She paused for breath, but Mrs. Beauchamp's arms tightened round
+her--always so ready to hold and comfort.
+
+"Thank you," she said, very quietly; "you are giving me great comfort.
+They would not _stay_ on the rocks, would they?"
+
+"No, of course not." Dot spoke with comforting certainty. "They would
+clamber on to the island if the tide was high; but it is so terrifying in
+the dark. And it was our fault--Susie didn't want to come."
+
+"It was a pity," said Mrs. Beauchamp.
+
+Her eyes, over Dot's dishevelled head, flew to the doorway, and met those
+other alert eyes that understood and answered their question. When did a
+woman in distress ever appeal in vain to the Royal Navy?
+
+"I'll get my boat out, and be ready in a quarter of an hour," he said.
+"You can meet me by the steps, lady, and you'd best bide in shelter as
+long as you can."
+
+"Thank you. Can you?--is it possible? Those men said I must wait till
+daylight."
+
+"Lubberly loafers," said the Royal Navy. "In the Service things are
+ordered different."
+
+He opened the door and went out. Through the opening Mrs. Beauchamp
+caught a glimpse of sailing clouds and starlight.
+
+Dot was pressing on her again.
+
+"Please forgive us if Susie gets home; it has been so miserable. I knew
+Dash wasn't asleep because of his breathing. It has been dreadful for you
+and for Susie, but it is worse for us."
+
+Her voice fell to a husky whisper; her great black eyes were full of
+passionate entreaty; she shivered in her thin nightdress.
+
+"My poor, poor children"--there was nothing but the sweetest sympathy in
+Mrs. Beauchamp's comforting touch--"I forgive you _now_--now while Susie
+is out there and I am still waiting for her. I will let you know directly
+we are back and they are safe. You must let me go now."
+
+Their father had disappeared, and Dash came hurrying downstairs in a
+shamefaced, sidelong fashion to be comforted. He did not like being left
+beyond the reach of consolation. But Mrs. Beauchamp disengaged the
+clinging arms.
+
+"We will sit up till we know about them," Dot said, with tears.
+
+"No; you must go to bed and wait there," Mrs. Beauchamp said firmly. "I
+know," she went on hurriedly, as there were signs of another storm, "that
+it is far harder; but duties like that _are_ hard, and it is the only
+thing you can do to help."
+
+"Very well," said Dot, with commendable meekness.
+
+"Very well," echoed Dash.
+
+"Here, get back to bed." The master of the house, booted and
+mackintoshed, had come back into the hall, and the twins scampered up the
+stairs at the unaccustomed sternness of his voice. He had a glass of wine
+and some biscuits in his hand, and he spoke almost as severely to Mrs.
+Beauchamp as he had done to the twins. "Of course I am going with you. I
+have rugs and mackintoshes and some brandy. Can you suggest anything
+else? No," as she returned the half-emptied glass; "drink _all_ the wine.
+I _insist_ on it."
+
+Mrs. Beauchamp obeyed mechanically. She seemed to feel new life, a sense
+of protection, an atmosphere of help; there was some one else to command
+and to decide.
+
+The last sight she saw as she went out into the night was Dot's fuzzy
+head leaning over the banisters at a dangerous angle.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+Outside the rain had lessened, and the stars shone more securely. Without
+a word she hurried down the cross street and on to the Parade by her
+companion's side, but her feet no longer lagged. Hope had sprung anew in
+her heart, and as they turned the corner she looked up at him smiling.
+
+"I only know you as 'the father of the twins,'" she said, "and it is a
+long address."
+
+"My name is Amherst." Then a moment later, as they picked their way
+across the muddy road to the top of the steps, "I have been trying all
+this time to find a reason, and I can only frame an excuse--_they have no
+mother_!"
+
+"Oh, poor twins!" she said.
+
+The tide was distinctly lower, and the wind had died down. The long waves
+rolled in with almost oily smoothness, and showed no ridge of foam when
+they broke upon the beach. Patches of seaweed caught and reflected the
+moonlight.
+
+The old sailor was baling out the boat, and half a dozen hands held her
+to the shore. An air of excitement pervaded every one, and one or two men
+offered their services rather sheepishly; but the Royal Navy did not need
+assistance.
+
+He settled Mrs. Beauchamp in the bow, with the rugs for a cushion; then
+he pushed off with his oar, and in another minute they were gliding out
+from under the shadow of the cliff, making straight for the island in
+front of them.
+
+Mr. Amherst had taken the other oar, and was rowing bow. On their left
+little crests of half-submerged rocks showed black against the sea, and
+on the far horizon the false dawn made a silver line between sky and sea.
+
+Mrs. Beauchamp held the lines mechanically and leant forward, straining
+her eyes to steer for a possible landing-place; but the beating of her
+heart had quieted down, and she had a curious feeling that she was
+drifting, drifting, in this solemn silence, out of a region of torturing
+fear into the peaceful harbour of a dream.
+
+The twist of the oars in the rowlocks, the rhythmical dip, and the ripple
+of water against the boat were restful in their monotony. She felt her
+eyes closing as something slipped through her fingers--Susie's boot, with
+its long damp laces! She looked at her lap in horror, and tried to push
+the dreadful object away; but there was nothing there, excepting the wet
+lines that had fallen from her fingers. Some one put out a rough, kind
+hand to steady her, and she straightened herself with a start, meeting
+the old sailor's keen eyes.
+
+"Carry on, ma'am, carry on." Then, a moment later, "Way enough!"
+
+In a minute Mr. Amherst had caught at the crags and drawn the boat
+alongside, and Ben had sent his voice pealing up against the cliff in a
+volume of sound that was absolutely terrifying.
+
+"Hulloo! Hulloo--oo!"
+
+A few frightened sea-birds flew out of the crevices in the cliff and
+wheeled about their heads, but there was no other sound. Mrs. Beauchamp's
+eyes filled with agonized tears, but the sailor's cheeriness was
+infectious.
+
+"I'll wake them," he said.
+
+Again his voice went up into the night, as if he defied the poor defences
+of the dark.
+
+"Hulloo! Hulloo--oo!"
+
+"Susie!" cried Mrs. Beauchamp, in her thinner treble.
+
+And this time there _was_ an answer--a cry small and faint; not at all
+like Susie's boisterous everyday voice, but human. Ben was out of the
+boat in a minute, scrambling from peak to peak, and shouting as he went.
+
+Mrs. Beauchamp sat down with an uncertain movement, and covered her face
+with her hands; whilst Mr. Amherst, clinging to the rock for fear the
+ebbing tide should carry them out to sea, spoke to her with whimsical
+entreaty. "Mrs. Beauchamp, please don't faint until Nelson comes back!
+Pull yourself together--he _expects_ us to do our duty; and, besides, you
+will frighten the children."
+
+The last suggestion had an instantaneous effect. From that calm region
+where love and despair were alike forgotten she came back with a
+conscious effort to the unsteady boat, and Mr. Amherst's alarmed eyes,
+and the lapping water against the bow.
+
+"That's right," said Mr. Amherst, with great relief in his voice. "I
+really didn't know how to get to you. Listen!"
+
+"Safe!" The great voice came pealing down the cliff, waking the echoes on
+the shore, and with a sort of incredulous joy Mrs. Beauchamp listened to
+the sturdy steps coming slowly, surely, carefully down, with a little
+ripple of shale following them.
+
+She clutched at the gunwale of the boat until she hurt her hands, and
+strained her eyes for the sight she longed to see. First there came the
+stalwart figure of the sailor with a bundle in his arms, and behind him a
+slim, bare-footed, bareheaded, stumbling little creature, who almost fell
+into the expectant arms waiting for her.
+
+"He's quite warm, mother." It was Susie's voice, faint, eager, appealing,
+caught by deep sobs. "He has never coughed once--he has never _moved_. He
+is quite warm; feel him."
+
+"O Susie! And you?"
+
+"Me! Oh, I'm all right," said Susie, wondering. "I did take care of him;
+I tried my very best."
+
+"But where are your clothes, Susie? And it rained so."
+
+"They are round Dick," said Susie. "Mother, they kept him beautifully
+warm."
+
+The men jumped into the boat and pushed off. The little bundle of flannel
+and serge that held Dickie rolled quite comfortably to the bottom of the
+boat; but Susie's mother held two frozen feet in her warm hands and said
+nothing. Words did not come easily.
+
+Presently Susie spoke again in that strained whisper. "Mother, when I
+went to sleep I dreamt a ferryman came for us, and his boat was close to
+the shore, and we were stepping in when you called me back. I knew your
+voice, and you said 'Susie' quite plainly. I wouldn't go, and I wouldn't
+let him take Dick! I screamed and held him tight, and the ferryman said
+we must pay him, all the same; and then you gave him two pennies, and he
+went away."
+
+"Susie, I _did_ call. In my heart I have called all night."
+
+"Yes, I know," said Susie. "When I woke and saw the sailor, I thought it
+was the ferryman."
+
+"I _had_ paid," said Mrs. Beauchamp.
+
+"Oh, I knew you would," said Susie.
+
+Mrs. Beauchamp took the rug that Mr. Amherst threw to her, and folded it
+close and warm about Susie's wet locks and damp body; and presently the
+difficult, sobbing breaths grew quieter, but her mother knew that she was
+not asleep by the fierce pressure of her fingers.
+
+The day was breaking as the boat was beached, and a dozen willing hands
+pulled her high and dry. The sea-birds were awake, fluttering about the
+head of the island; the ebbing tide had left the rocks very black and
+bare.
+
+When they set Susie on her feet she was too stiff to stand alone, and
+never for one moment did she loose her hold of her mother's dress. It was
+the Royal Navy that finally took her into wonderfully tender keeping, and
+carried her up the steps and along the Parade, and laid her, still
+wrapped in the rug, on her own white bed, that nurse had made comfortably
+ready.
+
+Dickie woke flushed and warm from his rosy sleep when they brought him
+in, and looked at the old sailor with round, bewildered eyes.
+
+"Is it Father Neptune?" he asked.
+
+"No, darling, no."
+
+"Oh, I see he hasn't got his three-pronged fork. Is it Nelson then?"
+
+"I am sure I don't know," said Mrs. Beauchamp, and her laugh was very
+near tears.--"You will tell the twins at once, please," she said to Mr.
+Amherst as she said good-bye. "I cannot bear to feel that they may be
+awake and waiting."
+
+But Dot and Dash had not passed a sleepless night of misery. Long ago,
+tired out with sorrow, they had fallen asleep on the nursery window-sill,
+and dreamt that they were sailing on unknown seas in fairy boats!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+And the wonderful part of it all was that Susie was not even ill! She
+slept "into the middle of next week," as nurse expressed it; but it was
+a deep, steady, peaceful sleep, quite undisturbed by any commotion around
+her. Amy sat most of the morning crouched up on the floor, just inside
+the room, and waited for the opening of those brown eyes; whilst nurse
+had even got Dick and baby safely dressed and out on the sands before
+Susie's eyelids quivered, and she stretched her stiff limbs, and started
+up with a cry, "Mother!"
+
+"My darling Susie!"
+
+"O mother! I was so afraid you were a dream."
+
+"Then what are you?"
+
+"A _troublesome comfort_. Nurse said so, and it is true."
+
+She sat straight up in bed, with her knees drawn up and her hands clasped
+round them. Her hair was rough, and there were no little stiff pigtails
+telling of nurse's energetic brushing. On her hands there were bruises
+and scratches that hurt her; but nothing mattered now that she was within
+reach of the comfortable arms, and could lay her head on the blue serge
+knee.
+
+"Mummy, is Dick well?"
+
+"Quite well, darling."
+
+"Mother"--she pressed closer and hid her face--"I am sorry, but I don't
+know how to say it. I didn't like the twins to think me a baby, and I
+felt quite certain that I could get back."
+
+"Perhaps you are too certain, darling."
+
+"You mean," said Susie, "that there is too much talk and too little
+_do_."
+
+"Perhaps that _is_ what I mean, Susie; but when I try to think about it
+clearly I only see a poor little cold, frightened child, and Dick as warm
+as toast."
+
+"I never thought about it, mother. I only prayed and prayed that he might
+not get bronchitis."
+
+"It is because you did not think about it that I love you, Susie."
+
+"I will try and be better," said Susie humbly.
+
+Straight across the room she caught sight of a reflection in the glass,
+and she sat suddenly more upright and gazed at it. It reminded her of
+that reflection in the train; but this mouth was smiling, not set into
+sulky lines--these eyes were not full of angry tears!
+
+"Oh, I am perfectly certain I can be good," cried Susie eagerly.
+
+The reflection in the glass seemed to hesitate; the sparkling eyes fell,
+and Susie's face went down upon her knees.
+
+She groaned in despair.
+
+"It seems as if I couldn't help it," she said. "I am always perfectly
+certain."
+
+"And I am perfectly certain that I hear your breakfast on the stairs,"
+said Mrs. Beauchamp, "and that is the important thing."
+
+She raised Susie's crimson face, and smoothed the rebellious hair, and
+patted the pillow into a comfortable shape. Every good nurse knows that
+tears and protestations must wait their time, and that little patients
+cannot be allowed the luxury of repentance!
+
+Susie would have liked to pour out volumes of self-reproach and ease her
+burdened heart, so it was perhaps one little step in the right direction
+when she resolutely closed her lips and welcomed Amy and the breakfast
+with a smile.
+
+She came downstairs in the afternoon and lay on the horsehair sofa in the
+sitting-room, and held a sort of levee of her visitors. Tom was subdued,
+and the twins were envious--nothing uncommon ever happened to them!
+They knew too much or were too cautious, but they sat on two stools by
+the window and followed Mrs. Beauchamp's movements with their uncanny
+eyes, until the concentrated gaze made her nervous.
+
+"Both of we would like to be your children," said Dash suddenly.
+
+Mrs. Beauchamp tried to feel grateful for the compliment, and to hide the
+dismay it inspired.
+
+"It seems rather hard," Dot added, "that Susie should have
+everything--_and_ a mother too--and we haven't."
+
+"Perhaps you may share me," she suggested.
+
+But the twins viewed the position gloomily. "Us two like things of our
+own," they said.
+
+"Well, you can't have mother," said Dick doggedly. "You can have our
+buckets when we leave, and my boat, and Amy's shells."
+
+"Oh, not my shells," cried Amy, aggrieved.
+
+"That's selfish of you," said Tom; "but I have a proper collection, and
+you haven't. You can have nurse," he generously added.
+
+"Oh no, not nurse," said Dick.
+
+"And that's greedy," said Tom: "you want every one."
+
+"Yes, I do," said Dick sturdily.
+
+"Us two," said Dot suddenly, "have adopted you for our mother. It is the
+only way we can have you for our own."
+
+"You can't have her," cried Tom indignantly; "she's ours."
+
+"That doesn't matter," said Dot; "us two have settled it. She can't help
+us adopting her. We are her kind of children now.--Aren't we, father?"
+
+Mr. Amherst removed the twins before it came to blows, and left the
+excited family sitting silently in the dusky room.
+
+Mrs. Beauchamp, very tired and peaceful, was drawing a dispirited darning
+needle through very worn stockings, and by Susie's sofa sat an upright
+figure with keen eyes and silver hair.
+
+"The little lady will be sleeping soon," he said. He rose and held out a
+horny hand.
+
+"In a softer bed than she had last night," said Mrs. Beauchamp gently.
+
+"Well, as we make our bed so we lie in it," he said.
+
+"Yes," said Susie, in a subdued voice.
+
+He paused and smiled at her.
+
+"But so much we didn't know of went to the making of the bed," he said,
+"that perhaps little missy lay softly enough after all."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"It is a pity about Miss Susie's boot," nurse said regretfully. "Of
+course it's a mercy the poor child was brought back safe; and never
+shall I forget what we suffered unknowing. But talking of beds brings
+back that boot to me, and it's no use telling me it doesn't matter, for
+it's sheer waste of the pair."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Life in London seemed rather tame to the little Beauchamps after that
+summer holiday, with the paddling and the boats, the rocks and the
+island! They took as much of it all home as they could convey in biscuit
+tins, and buckets, and cardboard boxes. But, after all, one cannot shut
+the ocean into a glass aquarium or hold the sunset on a palette, and
+there were many things that only memory could bring back to them--the
+sea-birds wheeling against the blue sky, for instance, the ebbing and
+flowing tide, the miles of seaweed on the beach, and one night the memory
+of which will only die with Susie.
+
+Dick has long forgotten it, for he lay "very softly" in the bed that
+Susie made for him; but at any moment Susie can shut her eyes and hear
+the trampling of the surf and the beating of the rain, and see the misty
+stars!
+
+The twins have taken their adopted mother very seriously, and have
+established her in the citadel of their hearts. Like the pirates that
+they are, they have stolen her love, and love her passionately in return.
+Their undivided affection does not give her a very peaceful life, but it
+is certainly never dull, and the bold black eyes have grown very dear to
+her.
+
+The traditions of the Royal Navy are always the mainspring of life in the
+Beauchamps' nursery; they "carry on" under the auspices of Nelson, and in
+obedience to his signal they do what England expects! Duty is their
+watchword, and Ben is their model. Nurse often stands amazed at an
+obedience that is almost alarming; but when she begins to think that Miss
+Susie or Master Tom is growing too good to live, she is generally
+reassured by some quite unlooked-for crime, and, to her relief, the
+"troublesome comforts" remain troublesome.
+
+
+
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