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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Big Temptation, by
+L. T. Meade and M. B. Manwell and Maggie Brown
+
+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: A Big Temptation
+
+Author: L. T. Meade
+        M. B. Manwell
+        Maggie Brown
+
+Illustrator: Arthur A. Dixon
+
+Release Date: May 14, 2008 [EBook #25467]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BIG TEMPTATION ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Josephine Paolucci and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+A Big Temptation.
+
+[Illustration: "_What are you doing with that baby?_"]
+
+
+
+
+A Big Temptation
+
+By
+
+L. T. Meade,
+
+And Other Stories
+
+by
+
+M. B. Manwell and Maggie Browne
+
+Illustrated by
+
+Arthur A. Dixon
+
+
+    LONDON:              _Printed in Bavaria._              _NEW YORK:_
+   ERNEST NISTER.                640.                   E. P. DUTTON & CO.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+A Big Temptation
+
+By
+
+L. T. Meade.
+
+
+Netty stood on the doorstep of a rickety old house and nursed the baby.
+She was ten years old and had the perfectly white face of a child who
+had never felt any fresher air than that which blows in a London court.
+
+It is true that the year before she had gone with her brother Ben into
+the country. The Ladies' Committee of the Holiday Fund had arranged the
+matter, and Netty and Ben had gone away. They had spent a whole
+delicious fortnight in a place where trees waved, and the air blew
+fresh, and there were lots of wildflowers to pick; and she had run about
+under the trees, and slept at night in the tiniest little room in the
+world, and in the cleanest bed, and had awakened each morning to hear
+the doves cooing and the birds singing, and she had thought then that no
+happiness could be greater than hers.
+
+This had happened a year ago, and since then a new baby had arrived,
+and the baby was rather sickly, and whenever Netty was not at school she
+was lugging the baby about or trying to rock him to sleep. She was
+baby's nurse, and she was not at all sorry, for she loved the baby and
+the occupation gave her time to dream.
+
+Netty had big dark-blue eyes, which showed bigger and darker than ever
+in the midst of her white little face. She could talk to the baby about
+the country. How often she had told him the story of that brief
+fortnight!
+
+"And you know, baby, there were real flowers growing; we picked them,
+Ben and I, and we rolled about in the grass; yes, we did. You needn't
+believe it unless you like, baby, but we did. Oh! it was fine. I had no
+headaches there, and I could eat almost anything, and if you never heard
+doves cooing, why, you never heard what's really pretty. But never mind:
+your time will come--not yet awhile, but some day."
+
+On this particular July afternoon the sun was so hot and the air so
+close that even Netty could not find it in her heart to be cheerful.
+
+"Oh, dear!" she said, with a deep sigh, "I do wish it were my turn for
+the country this year. I would take you with me--yes, I would, baby. I
+wouldn't mind a bit lugging you about, though you are getting heavy. I
+wish it were my luck to be going this year, but there isn't a chance."
+
+She had scarcely uttered the last words before Ben's face was seen
+peeping at her from behind a corner.
+
+Ben was a year older than his sister; he had long trousers very much
+patched about the knees, and a shock head of rough red hair. Next to
+baby, Netty loved him best in the world. He beckoned to her now, looking
+very knowing.
+
+"I say, come here--here's a lark," he said; "come round the corner and
+I'll show you something."
+
+Netty jumped up and, staggering under the weight of the heavy baby,
+approached the spot where Ben was waiting for her.
+
+"Such a lark!" he continued; "you never heard tell anything like it. I
+say, Netty, what do you say to the seaside for a whole day, you and me
+together? We can go, yes, we can. To-morrow's the day; I have the
+tickets. What do you say?"
+
+"Say?" cried Netty; "why, of course I say go; but it isn't true--it
+can't be true."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Yes, it is," answered Ben. "I was standing by the scholars at the
+school-house as they was coming out, and they were all getting their
+tickets for the seaside treat, and I dashed in behind another boy, and a
+teacher came round giving out the tickets and I grabbed two. He said to
+me: 'Are you a Sunday scholar?' and I said: 'Yes, I am,' and there was a
+big crowd and no one listened. I got two tickets, one for you and one
+for me, and we'll go to-morrow. It's to a place called Southend. There's
+a special train for us, and we'll take our chance. Oh, isn't it fun?
+We'll see the waves and we'll feel the breezes and we'll bathe. My word!
+I don't know whether I'm standing on my head or my heels."
+
+"Do show me the tickets, Ben," said Netty.
+
+Ben thrust his hand into his trousers pocket and presently brought out
+two little pieces of cardboard on which the magical words were written
+which would take him and his sister to the school feast.
+
+"There," he said; "it's all right--as right as can be."
+
+"But that isn't your name, Ben; it's Tom Minchin, Tom Minchin and a
+number."
+
+"Well, and I'll be Tom Minchin for to-morrow," said Ben; "and you'll be
+his sister Susy Minchin. We'll drop our own names for the day."
+
+"But what about the real Tom and Susy Minchin? Won't they come and find
+out everything, and won't they be disappointed?" said Netty, who had a
+strong sense of justice in her little nature.
+
+"Let them be: it's our turn for a bit of fun. Perhaps they won't come,
+as they weren't there to-day. Anyhow, we'll risk it. I'm going, but you
+needn't be Susy Minchin unless you like."
+
+"Oh, I'll be Susy," answered Netty, after a moment's anxious reflection;
+"but we must take baby. What's to be done with baby? Mother said I was
+to take charge of him all to-morrow, as she's going out charing. I can't
+leave baby--that I can't, Ben."
+
+"If you take the baby we'll be found out," said Ben.
+
+"Well, I must risk it," said Netty; "I can't help it. You can go as Tom
+Minchin, Ben, and if they turn me back on account of the baby--why, they
+must, that's all."
+
+"They won't let baby come, so you had best leave him at home. There's
+old Mrs. Court can look after him," said Ben, indicating an old woman
+who sometimes took care of babies for twopence a day.
+
+"I never thought of Mrs. Court," said Netty, in a reflective voice; "but
+where's the use? I haven't the twopence."
+
+"I believe I could manage that," said Ben; "it's worth a good try, isn't
+it?"
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Well, let us run and ask her," said Netty; "it would be a great pity if
+I didn't get off with the rest of you. Do let me look at the tickets
+once more, Ben."
+
+Ben condescended to give Netty one more peep.
+
+"Don't you forget when they're calling out our names that you are Susy
+Minchin," he said; "and now if I can get twopence Mrs. Court will look
+after baby."
+
+Netty kissed the baby on its little mouth.
+
+"I'd take you if I could, baby," she said; "but oh, the sea! the sea! I
+just do pine for it. I'll bring you back lots of shells, baby, that I
+will, and you won't mind old Mrs. Court for once, and I'll have such
+tales to tell you when I come back."
+
+So Netty went to find old Mrs. Court, and between them they arranged for
+the baby's comfort on the following day and Mrs. Court was to have her
+twopence in the evening.
+
+But the best-made plans do not always come to pass, for Netty that
+evening received a lecture from her Mother on the subject of Mrs. Court.
+
+"What is this I hear?" cried the good woman; "that you mean to give baby
+to the care of that old woman! Not a bit of it! I wouldn't allow the
+baby to be seen in her rooms for all you could give me. What do you want
+to get rid of the baby for? And what are you trying to hide from me,
+Netty?"
+
+"It's nothing really, Mother; it's just that Ben and I are going to walk
+to Battersea Park, and we've a penny apiece to buy buns. You won't stop
+us going, Mother?"
+
+"Now aren't you an unnatural girl!" cried Mrs. Floss. "Why shouldn't you
+take the poor baby with you? Wouldn't he like a sight of the park and
+the green trees as well as you? If you take the baby with you, I'll give
+you each another penny, and an extra one for the baby, and you can all
+have a good time; now what do you say?"
+
+"I suppose I must do it, Mother," answered Netty; "and you're very
+kind," she hastened to add.
+
+Mrs. Floss was far too busy to spend any more time talking to Netty. She
+regarded the affair as absolutely settled, and went downstairs to tell
+Mrs. Court that she was not to have the pleasure of looking after the
+baby the following day.
+
+The next morning broke gloriously fine. Even as early as six o'clock it
+was intensely hot in the attic where Netty slept. She had laid out all
+her best things the night before--her blue cotton frock, carefully
+washed and mangled, her cape to match, her sailor hat, somewhat ragged
+round the brim, but not very dirty; even her cotton gloves. These last
+she regarded as great treasures, and imagined that they would give a
+distinctly genteel air to her appearance.
+
+As there was no possible way out of it, she must take the baby, too, and
+she must just trust to luck to pulling the thing through. She knew
+enough about tramways and omnibuses and railway carriages to be aware
+that a baby in arms costs nothing, and she did not mind little Dan's
+weight--she was accustomed to it; and she would like very much, as far
+as she herself was concerned, to take him to the seaside.
+
+Accordingly, the baby was also got early out of his wooden cot, and
+dressed in his very best clothes. The baby's best frock was made of
+Turkey-red cotton, very faded, and he had a small worn-out fifth-hand
+sun-bonnet tied under his chin, and his little legs were bare, but that
+did not matter--it was, indeed, rather an advantage this hot weather.
+
+Ben frowned very much when he saw the baby.
+
+"Now, what do you mean by this?" he cried; "how can you be Susy Minchin
+dragging that big baby about with you? You give it to Mrs. Court."
+
+"No, no," pleaded poor Netty; "Mother said I wasn't to leave baby with
+Mrs. Court; we must bring Dan with us. There, Ben, you won't say no."
+
+Ben looked decidedly cross, but Netty had a very coaxing way with her.
+
+"Come along then," he said roughly; but there was a tenderness in that
+rough tone, and Netty knew that her cause was won. It never occurred to
+Ben to offer to carry the baby for Netty, but he made up his mind that
+he must smuggle it through somehow.
+
+The pair reached the great station in good time, and were joined by a
+lot of other children, and several teachers and Sunday-school
+superintendents of all sorts, and also several clergymen.
+
+Ben and Netty soon mingled with the crowd and were marched in orderly
+array past a gentleman who looked at each ticket and took down each name
+as they went by. When it came to Ben's turn he called out manfully: "Tom
+Minchin," nudging Netty at the same time.
+
+"Susy Minchin," she said. But here the little party were called to halt.
+
+"Susy Minchin, what are you doing with that baby?" said Mr. Stokes, the
+curate.
+
+Poor little Netty, _alias_ Susy, found herself turning red and then
+pale.
+
+"Please, sir," she said, dropping a curtsey that she was accustomed to
+make to her Board-school teacher, "please, I couldn't come without Dan."
+
+"But I didn't know that Mrs. Minchin had a young baby," said the curate,
+who was very young and fair-haired himself, and looked much puzzled what
+to do.
+
+"It would kill me to go back now, sir," said Netty, and there was such a
+passion of entreaty in her soft eyes and such a tremble round her pale
+lips that the young curate looked at a pretty girl who was standing
+near, and the pretty girl said:
+
+"Oh! poor little dear, she shan't be disappointed. I would rather take
+the baby myself."
+
+"But it's against the rules," said the curate, "and others may take
+advantage of it."
+
+"You shan't be prevented from going, little Susy Minchin," said the
+girl, now coming forward. "Give me the baby until you are all well
+started; then you shall have it back again."
+
+No sooner said than done--little Daniel was quickly transferred to the
+arms of the fair-haired and very beautiful young lady, and Netty,
+_alias_ Susy, marched on in triumph.
+
+"That was well done; I call that young lady a brick," whispered Netty to
+Ben, but Ben replied:
+
+"Be quiet, and come along."
+
+They reached the great train and were huddled into their compartments,
+and then slowly but surely it got up steam and moved out of the station,
+and then, gathering speed, flew past the ugly houses, past the rows of
+hot and dingy streets, into the pure, fresh lovely country.
+
+Netty caught her breath in her rapture, her eyes shone with pure
+happiness, but in the midst of all her rejoicings a sudden memory of
+little Dan came to distress her.
+
+"I have brought his bottle with me," she said, tapping her pocket, "and
+he'll be hungry by now. I wish the lady would give him back."
+
+"You stay quiet," said Ben, nudging her; "where's the use of bothering?"
+
+The train flew through the country faster and faster, the air blew more
+and more fresh against Netty's cheeks. She began to sniff. Could that
+delicious smell be the smell of the sea, the great, rolling blue sea
+which she had never seen, but which she had so often dreamed about?
+
+[Illustration]
+
+There was another little white-faced girl who sat near Netty, and Netty
+asked her if she thought they were getting near the sea. She had a sharp
+face and had been to the sea before, and she rather despised Netty for
+her ignorance. Poor Netty was about to sink back into her seat with a
+feeling of disappointment when a grave-looking lady who had the charge
+of the compartment said, in a quiet voice:
+
+"We cannot reach the sea for a long time yet, little girl, but I see you
+are much pleased and very much interested in everything; would you like
+to come and sit near me?"
+
+All too willingly Netty changed her seat, and presently she and the kind
+lady entered into a vigorous conversation. Netty confessed how anxious
+she was about the baby. She tapped the bottle in her pocket and
+described how she had made the necessary food with milk and water and a
+pinch of sugar.
+
+"Dan will be fretting for his lunch by now," she said; "I do wish I
+could get hold of him."
+
+"We shall be stopping at a big station in two or three minutes now,"
+said the lady, whose name was Mrs. Holmes, "and I will get out and find
+Miss Pryce, who, I think from your description, must be the lady who has
+charge of the little one. I will bring him back to you then. But what a
+very audacious little girl you are to think that a baby would be allowed
+to come to the Sunday treat."
+
+"I could not have come without him," replied Netty.
+
+"What is your name?" asked Mrs. Holmes.
+
+Poor Netty was on the point of saying Netty Floss, but at that moment
+she caught Ben's eye and his warning glance saved her from making a
+startling revelation.
+
+"Susy Minchin," she answered.
+
+"Minchin! I know the Minchins well. How is your Mother? I have not seen
+her for some time."
+
+"Very well, indeed," answered Netty, flushing brightly. Her heart beat
+with a sudden feeling of alarm. This was quite terrible news. The kind
+lady knew her supposed Mother, Mrs. Minchin. Netty had not the faintest
+idea what Mrs. Minchin was like; she did not know how many there were in
+family, but a dreadful memory now darted through her brain--the curate
+had said that he did not believe that the Minchins had a young baby.
+
+Suppose this lady who knew Mrs. Minchin so well should remember that
+fact, then what should she do?
+
+The train stopped, Mrs. Holmes got out, and presently returned with the
+baby.
+
+"By the way," she said, as she placed the child in Netty's arms, "is
+this your little brother?"
+
+"No, ma'am, my little cousin," answered Netty, whose distress had
+rendered her wonderfully sharp and indifferent to the many lies she was
+telling. "He's my little cousin, ma'am, but I love him as if he were my
+own brother."
+
+"So I can see, and he seems a dear little fellow, but what pale cheeks!
+Do you give the poor baby enough to eat?"
+
+The baby was smiling in that inconsequent and yet fascinating way which
+babies of a certain age adopt.
+
+His lips were forming into pretty three-corners, and his eyes were
+blinking, and when he saw the bottle which Netty drew out of her pocket
+he stretched out his little arms with delight and cooed with
+satisfaction.
+
+Soon several of the other children clustered round little Dan and began
+to fuss about him, and when they thrust sweets into his mouth he thought
+the fun excellent and crowed and laughed and flung his arms in the air.
+
+"The sea will do him a sight of good, the darling," said Netty, kissing
+him with rapture.
+
+Soon afterwards they reached Southend, and then the real pleasure of the
+day began. Never as long as she lived could Netty forget that exciting
+and wonderful day--the happiness of running along those sands, of
+picking up those shells for herself, of sitting with Dan in her arms and
+letting the soft sea breezes blow over her face; then, as the waves came
+nearer and nearer, the darting away with little screams of frightened
+rapture. Oh! there never in all the world could be a second day like
+this! Then, too, the baby himself entered into the fun, and the best of
+the whole thing was that before the day was over the baby, the only baby
+in the whole party, began to assume the airs of a master, for all the
+children noticed him, and the ladies noticed him, and even the curates
+and the rector noticed him, and they all said: "What a pale-faced and
+yet what a sweet baby he is!"
+
+And several offered to carry him, until Netty felt that he was quite a
+diadem in her crown, and a most honourable and distinguished appendage.
+
+"See," she whispered to Ben, in the height of her joy, "did you ever see
+anything like the fuss they're making over our Dan? Wasn't I right to
+bring him?"
+
+"Oh! don't bother," cried Ben; "I'm going to play with some boys at the
+other side of the beach, and won't be back for a couple of hours."
+
+Plenty of food was given to the happy children, and they returned home
+dead-tired, some of them half-asleep, but all with dreams of bliss which
+would remain in their hearts for many a long day.
+
+Perhaps of all the children who went to that school feast there was no
+happier than Netty. She forgot her own wrong-doing in thinking of the
+delightful scenes she had so lately witnessed, and fell asleep that
+night holding the baby in her arms in a state of absolute bliss; but
+alas! clouds were already coming over her sky.
+
+Early in the morning she awoke to find that Dan was hot and restless.
+Dan, although he had enjoyed himself vastly the day before, had not been
+treated judiciously. The many sweet-meats that the children had insisted
+on giving him had upset his baby digestion. He awoke peevish,
+heavy-eyed, and highly feverish. Netty, who idolised him, went straight
+to her Mother to ask her opinion with regard to him.
+
+"He's not well," said Netty; "he's not well a bit. I had best go at once
+and see the doctor, or take him round to the sixpenny dispensary."
+
+Mrs. Floss turned towards the bed where the baby lay, pulled down the
+clothes, and looked at him.
+
+[Illustration: _There never in all the world could be a second day like
+this!_]
+
+"There's nothing the matter with the child," she said. "Don't you get
+fussing with your silly ways; the child's all right."
+
+"He's not, Mother. I am sure he ought to have medicine of some sort."
+
+"There, there, don't be silly," said the woman. "I am going out for a
+day's charing, and have no time to be bothered. Look after Dan and do
+your duty. I expect he took a chill yesterday when you took him to
+Battersea Park; so now you must stay at home and nurse him back to
+health."
+
+Poor little Netty smiled rather faintly.
+
+"You're looking dead-beat yourself," said the woman. "I can't make out
+what's come to all of you. There's Ben hadn't any appetite for his good
+plain breakfast. Now, you go and look after baby; I'm glad it's
+Saturday: you needn't be at school."
+
+The day was hot, even hotter than the previous one. Mrs. Floss started
+off on her charing expedition, and Netty sat on the doorstep with the
+sick baby. Dan grew worse each moment. He could scarcely open his
+languid eyes, his little face was deadly pale, and at times a shudder
+ran through his frame.
+
+Mrs. Court came and looked at him ominously. "You'd better have left him
+with me," she said. "He's eaten something that has disagreed with him,
+and now he'll have convulsions and die."
+
+"Oh! don't say such cruel things," cried poor Netty.
+
+Mrs. Court hobbled back to her room, and Netty sat on with an awestruck
+look on her face. Presently she stooped down and kissed the baby on his
+brow. He was stirring restlessly. Netty felt that she loved him better
+even than Ben, better than anything else in the world.
+
+"Don't you go, and die, baby," she said, in a low whisper. And now the
+baby, just as if he heard the words and understood them, opened his
+sweet blue eyes, and looked her full in the face, and then he gave a
+faint smile and shut his eyes again, and she heard him breathing
+quickly, and the next moment a spasm crossed his little face.
+
+Netty could stand it no longer.
+
+"I must take him to someone; but I haven't a penny in the world. Oh!
+what shall I do? I know: I'll go to Mrs. Holmes, that kind lady; she'll
+tell me what to do for Dan. She may punish me, she may do what she
+likes, for I'll tell her the whole gospel truth, if only she'll save
+Dan."
+
+Netty staggered to her feet; there was resolution on her little face.
+
+Mrs. Holmes had taken a fancy to the child who loved the baby so well,
+and on parting the night before she had said to her:
+
+"I have just moved into a new house, Susy Minchin, and as perhaps you do
+not know of the change, will you tell your Mother this is my new
+address," and then she repeated it slowly twice to the child: "5,
+George-street, Bloomsbury. Now, you will remember that, little girl,
+won't you? and when I want your Mother to come to do a day's charing I
+will let her know."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Netty had scarcely listened at the time. What did it matter to her? for
+she was not Susy Minchin: she was Netty Floss.
+
+But now like a ray of sunshine the memory of this address crossed her
+mind.
+
+George-street, Bloomsbury, was a long way off, but Netty was a brave
+walker. It took two hours, carrying that heavy baby, to get there, and
+as she walked the baby's face frightened her more and more, but with the
+aid of several friendly policemen she did get at last to George-street.
+She walked up the steps of the tall house and sounded the knocker, and
+waited with great anxiety until the door was opened. It was opened, not
+by a servant, who in all probability would have sent Netty away, but by
+no less a person than Mrs. Holmes herself.
+
+"Why, Susy!" cried the lady, starting back; "who would suppose that I
+should see you here, and the dear baby too? What is the matter?"
+
+"Oh! let me in," panted poor Netty; "do, please, and I ain't Susy--I'm
+Netty, and this ain't my little cousin--he's my own brother, and he's
+bad, very bad. Oh, ma'am, I'm such a miserable girl!"
+
+In great astonishment Mrs. Holmes did allow the little girl to come into
+the house. She took her into a small room and looked at once at the
+baby. One glance showed her that he was very ill indeed.
+
+"My dear child," she said, "what a good thing you came when you did. In
+an hour's time the poor baby might have died."
+
+Mrs. Holmes rang the bell briskly.
+
+"Bring a hot bath here and some mustard immediately," she said to the
+servant; "and be quick, please, and then go round to Dr. Ross at the
+corner and say that Mrs. Holmes wants to see him at once."
+
+[Illustration: _"Why, Susy! what is the matter?"_]
+
+All these things were done. The baby was taken out of Netty's arms,
+undressed, and put into the bath. The doctor called, felt his little
+swollen gums, and said they were really at the root of the mischief. He
+lanced them and the baby got immediate relief. In less than an hour he
+was lying in a soft sleep in Netty's arms.
+
+"He will do now," said Dr. Ross; "but if matters had been postponed I
+would not have given much chance of his life."
+
+"And now, Susy, what is it?" said Mrs. Holmes, looking for the first
+time attentively at the child. "Don't cry, my dear, the little fellow
+will live; but what was that you said to me about _not_ being Susy?"
+
+"Oh! I must tell you," cried Netty; "I know you'll turn me out, but it
+doesn't matter now, for you have saved baby's life."
+
+And then she did tell her story; with sobs, bitter sobs, she told it,
+and somehow Mrs. Holmes had never felt nearer crying in her life than as
+she listened.
+
+At last the poor little accusing voice was silent, and Netty looked up
+with swollen eyes of misery to receive her sentence.
+
+"You did very wrong, of course, Netty," said Mrs. Holmes; "and I shall
+be obliged to tell my Vicar, for we must enquire immediately where Tom
+and Susy Minchin really were. But, my dear child, I am not going to be
+very angry with you. I think when Daniel suffered so much this morning
+you received your punishment, and I am not going to give you another. I
+mean to forgive you, and to try to give you a chance in life."
+
+"Oh, you're an angel," said poor Netty; "will you be my friend even
+though I have done this?"
+
+"You must promise never to do anything of the kind again."
+
+"Do you think I would want to?" said Netty; "and will you please forgive
+Ben too, ma'am; he isn't bad really, but we did so _pine_ to look at
+the sea. We had never seen it, and it was _such a big temptation_."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"I quite understand," said Mrs. Holmes, and she stooped and kissed
+Netty. "I will come round this evening to your house in order to see
+your Mother," she said. "I am going to be your friend in the future."
+
+Mrs. Holmes was as good as her word. The baby quickly got well again,
+Netty and Ben were forgiven, and were made _bona-fide_ scholars at the
+Sunday-school. When the school feast came round the following year they
+were able to go to the feast, and as a matter of course had tickets; but
+a greater treat was in store, for there was a special ticket sent by the
+Ladies' Committee to no less a person than Dan himself. He was the only
+baby allowed to come, and he had his own ticket.
+
+
+
+
+The Other Carews.
+
+By
+
+M. B. Manwell.
+
+
+"Don't you _wish_ that the other Carews could come to our birthday
+party?" wistfully said Clary, the only girl among Doctor John Carew's
+"seven little pickles," as he called them.
+
+"They would come like a shot if Uncle George would allow them, I know,"
+observed Mark, the second Carew boy, with the red hair that was always
+so handy to fire off a joke about.
+
+"Hum! perhaps so. The weather's getting coldish, and they'd be glad to
+come, if it was only to warm themselves a bit!" Oliver's eyes rolled
+significantly at Mark's head, the owner of which, with an angry whoop,
+made a dive at the speaker. There was an uproar in the play-room on the
+spot. Five Carew boys, pursued by the furious Mark, leaped, laughing and
+shouting, over chairs and stools, and even across the table.
+
+"Wait till I catch one of you, that's all!" panted Mark, stumbling over
+a stool which Chris mischievously pushed in his way.
+
+"Wait, sir! Oh, certainly, sir!" teasingly said Chris, bowing almost in
+two while Mark ruefully rubbed his shins.
+
+"Oh, boys, don't quarrel! Let us sit quiet and talk about the other
+Carews!" Clary plaintively pleaded. "Don't you think we could somehow
+get them to my birthday party?"
+
+The little sister was tucked away in the old rocking-chair in a corner,
+safely out of the way of the line of march of her wild brothers. She was
+a frail, small mortal, with long, smooth, yellow hair and anxious blue
+eyes, just the apple of everybody's eye in the Tile House.
+
+"Father and Uncle George have never spoken to one another for three
+whole years. Everybody in Allonby Edge knows that, and so do you, Clary!
+Is it likely that the other Carews would be allowed to come to your
+birthday party--is it now, I ask?" Oliver, the eldest, put his hands in
+his pockets, and stood with his back to the empty fireplace, secretly
+flattering himself that even Father could not strike a more manly
+attitude.
+
+It was Saturday--a pouring wet Saturday--and the boys were
+house-prisoners. They had struggled through every indoor game they knew,
+starting with a pillow-fight before the beds were made, to the tearful
+wrath of old Euphemia, who kept Dr. John Carew's house because the
+sweet-faced Mother, whom the children adored so, was ill and frail most
+of her days.
+
+When in the pillow-fray a bolster burst and the feathers thickly snowed
+the staircase and hall, Euphemia's wrath boiled over, and the boys, with
+Clary also, were sternly hustled upstairs to the play-room, there to be
+locked in until the dinner-bell should release them. Peace at any price
+Euphemia was determined to have.
+
+"You don't think they can get into mischief locked in--there's the
+window, you know, Euphemia," nervously said Mother. It was one of the
+poor lady's particularly bad days, and she was shut up in her own room.
+
+"No, mem, there's no fear. Not even such wild little reskels as ours
+would climb out o' that high window, an' there ain't no other outlet
+save it be the chimney. Not that I'd be surprised to see 'em one after
+another creep out o' the chimney-pot black as black!" Euphemia, with
+her head in the air, walked off muttering.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+However, as the morning wore on and a wondrous quiet reigned at the top
+of the house, where the boys were engaged in painting fearsome animals
+and golliwogs on the jambs of the mantelpiece, Euphemia relented.
+
+"Mary Jane," said she to the good-tempered, red-elbowed help in the
+kitchen, "you take up this plate o' gingerbread to the children. Pretty
+dears, they must be nigh starving!" And a goodly heap of gingerbread
+chunks travelled upstairs to the play-room, the door of which was
+unlocked.
+
+It was over this welcome interruption that a wonderful new game was
+hatched.
+
+"Clary, tell us about the mountain railway," said Oliver, seating
+himself on the edge of the table to munch contentedly.
+
+His little sister had spent the previous winter with her ailing Mother
+in the Alps, at an hotel built on purpose for sick folk as high up in
+the air as was possible. And the boys were never tired of listening to
+her descriptions of the life so far up in the clouds and snows that the
+sun was nearly always shining hotly.
+
+"I shouldn't mind being sick myself if it was only just to wear those
+funny snow-boots and walk over the hard snow up and down the
+mountain-sides," said Mark, reaching out for another piece of
+gingerbread.
+
+"Oh, I'd like the tobogganing--the 'luging,' Clary calls it. Fancy
+spinning down in the moonlight!" cried one of the smaller boys, Johnny.
+
+"No! Give me the riskiest of all--that queer railway up and down the
+great mountain. Tell us about it again, Clary," urged Oliver.
+
+"That's called the funicular!" Very proud of being able to say the long
+word, Clary propped up her every-day doll beside her in the
+rocking-chair and, folding her mites of hands, proceeded to explain.
+
+"It's quite a little young railway, y' know. It's only to take people up
+to the hotel on top of the Mont, where Mother and I lived last winter."
+Then she told the boys how the little train toiled up the sheer face of
+a great mountain to the clouds. And it had to descend, also, which was
+worse far. Clary shuddered and hid her blue eyes as she described that
+coming down, while the eyes of the boys fairly bolted over the mere
+thought of a journey so full of risks and perils.
+
+"It must have been prime!" calmly observed Chris, always to the front if
+danger were in the air. "What did you think about, Clary, when the
+funicular came jolting down the steps hewn out for it in the steep
+mountain? What did it feel like? Come now, tell us," persisted Chris
+curiously.
+
+"I fink it was like stepping out of a high window into the dark night,"
+explained the little maid. "I didn't like it, an' I pulled the wire to
+shut my dolly's eyes, case she saw and it f'itened her, y' know!" The
+first thought of mother Clary had been for her waxen baby.
+
+"Well, let's play at the funicular," suggested Oliver, when the
+gingerbread plate was cleared.
+
+"Hooray! Down the banisters?" Mark was on fire in a moment. So were the
+other boys, and there was a stampede for the staircase.
+
+"You can come, too, Clary!" shouted her brothers, and, bustling out of
+the rocking-chair, the little mother carefully carried her baby
+treasure, wrapped in a tiny shawl, for the perilous journey down the
+mountain-side.
+
+The Tile House was of considerable size: it and the White House where
+Doctor George Carew lived were the only two large dwellings in the
+village of Allonby Edge. But of the two the Tile House was the higher,
+having an extra storey. The staircase was, consequently, a pretty long
+one, with only one landing at the upper floor, which led up to the play
+attic and servants' rooms.
+
+"Couldn't have a better railway than this!" said Oliver, his head on one
+side as he regarded the length of banister.
+
+Presently, the boys were tasting the fearful joy of precipitating
+themselves down the slippery route, which they grandly called the
+funicular.
+
+The journeys were accompanied by a good deal of uproar, but the green
+baize swing-door shut off the sound from the ears of Euphemia and Mary
+Jane in the kitchen.
+
+So the noisy crew had it all their own way.
+
+Oliver was the driver of the train, and Mark the guard, the rest being
+passengers, and the traffic up and down to the hotel on the high Alps
+was something extraordinary.
+
+"It's the going up that's the horrid difficulty!" panted Johnny, whose
+legs were rather short to interlace in the banister rails and thus heave
+himself upwards as the other boys did.
+
+"Difficulties were made on purpose to be overcome," loftily said Mark,
+"and mountain railways are full of them. Now then, Clary," he shouted
+upstairs, "why don't you be a passenger? Aren't you getting tired of
+living up in the mountain hotel? Don't you want to come home and see
+your family?"
+
+"Yeth, I do want to come home," piped a small voice from far away up
+under the roof. "So does my Hilda Rose," and Clary's little fair head
+peered over the top banister.
+
+"Come along then!" recklessly shouted the boys. "Can't you get aboard
+the funicular yourself and start your journey?"
+
+"What sillies girls are; just like women, always expecting somebody to
+hand them in and hand them out!" grumbled Mark, who, being the guard,
+felt bound to go up and start the lady passenger.
+
+"Now then, ma'am," he said briskly, "you and your little girl had better
+get in. Train's going to start when I wave this green flag!"
+
+"Oh, please hold my Hilda Rose until I get my seat," nervously said the
+passenger. "Oh! Mark--I mean Mr. Guard, do you think that Hilda Rose and
+me can go down wifout falling?"
+
+"Why, of course!" scornfully answered the guard. "Haven't you been on a
+funicular before--the real thing? What's the use of bragging about the
+dangers you've been through if you can't face them a second time? Now,
+then, are you ready, ma'am?"
+
+[Illustration: _Oliver was stooping over the senseless little figure._]
+
+"Oh, no; not yet! Oh, but we sitted the other way in the real railway!"
+tearfully remonstrated the passenger, who had been settled by the guard
+on the banister face downwards.
+
+"Can't help that, ma'am. It's the way we run trains. We gen'lly do
+things different from the foreigners. Now then, I'll tie your little
+girl on your back with her sash-ends, and, if you hold on tight, you
+will both get to the bottom all right!"
+
+And she might have got to her destination in safety had the passenger
+been a boy accustomed to banister sliding instead of a weak, fragile
+little girl.
+
+"Ready below there?" shouted down the guard. "There, ma'am, I've
+telegraphed down that you're coming!"
+
+Mark's hand let go the wildly clinging passenger. A green flag was
+waved. A shrill whistling rang through the house.
+
+The funicular was off!
+
+Then came faint, muffled cries of terror: a swish through the air as the
+two passengers came sliding down: a louder shriek: and, lastly, a thud
+on the hall floor that made the hearts of the waiting group of boys
+stand quite still for a second or two.
+
+At their feet was a huddled heap of blue frock and white pinafore, over
+which trailed a wisp of long fair hair. The heap was perfectly still,
+perfectly silent.
+
+"Is she--is she----?" Mark's tongue clove to the roof of his mouth and
+refused to finish the question when, tearing down the staircase, he
+reached the hall, his face livid under the red hair. Oliver was stooping
+over the senseless little figure, touching with frightened fingers now
+the little face, then the still small hands.
+
+"Fetch Euphemia, quick!" the boy said hoarsely.
+
+Like an arrow Johnny fled through the green baize door, and then, with
+an alarmed cry, old Euphemia ran into the hall.
+
+"Oh, my pretty, my pretty!" Trembling like a leaf and ghastly white, the
+old woman crouched down to gently feel each little limb. And as she did
+so the boys covered their eyes to hide the sight.
+
+"Did anyone of ye push her down? How was it, tell me true?"
+
+"No, no; oh! nobody pushed her! She fell all the way down the
+banisters!" several of the boys spoke together.
+
+"We were playing at the funicular, and she lost her balance!" The last
+words were sobbed out by Mark.
+
+"Playing at the--what?" gasped Euphemia, in horror. "Boy!"--she clutched
+Oliver's shoulder--"flee to the White House and fetch Doctor George. Say
+it's life or death. The master's away for a long round on the hills at
+the farms. Tell them that. Go!"
+
+"But, Euphemia--Uncle George would refuse to come inside our door!"
+stammered Oliver.
+
+"Do as I bid ye, boy, and quick! Say to Dr. George these words from old
+Euphemia: 'The Lord do unto you and yours as ye do unto us in this sore
+need!' He will heed that message, if he's got a heart, not a stone, in
+him!"
+
+With a shuddering groan, Oliver ran out into the pelting rain,
+bare-headed, on to the other end of Allonby Edge, where stood the White
+House with the red lamp, the home of the other Doctor Carew, the brother
+who had not spoken to Oliver's Father for three years.
+
+As he raced along, with a heart beating in terror at what he had left
+behind on the hall-floor, there flitted through the boy's brain the old
+wondering curiosity as to what made the doctor-brothers such bitter
+enemies.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the dining-room of the White House a group of children were staring
+idly out of the window, watching the village ducks, the only creatures
+really enjoying the deluge of rain on that wet Saturday.
+
+The table was spread for early dinner, and the appetising sniffs
+stealing up from the kitchen reminded the other Carews that they were
+hungry.
+
+"Oh, do look!" Gwen nudged Tony excitedly. "There's a boy with nothing
+on his head tearing along in the rain! He will fall over those wobbling
+ducks if he doesn't look out!"
+
+"I do believe he is making for our house!" slowly said Tony, as he
+stared out eagerly.
+
+"There's somebody taken suddenly ill, that's it! He's coming for Pater!"
+observed Traffy, a bright little urchin who had just stepped out of
+petticoats into a sailor suit and Latin.
+
+"Oh, oh! it's one of the Carew boys from Tile House, and he is coming in
+here!" Trissy, the youngest, whispered, in an awestruck voice, and she
+shrank back from the window. The four Carews of the White House had
+brooded to the full as much as the young folk of the Tile House over the
+estrangement between their Fathers, though they had never dared to ask
+their parents any questions about the matter.
+
+All the children knew this much, that old Grandpapa had been Doctor Mark
+Carew of Allonby Edge, and when he died his two sons succeeded to his
+practice as partners. In time the young doctors married, and the elder
+children remembered dimly that the Tile House and the White House had
+been like one home with two roofs.
+
+Then came the mysterious quarrel that froze up that "good and joyful
+thing, dwelling together in unity." It was all so sad and heart-breaking
+that nobody ever ventured to question the two brothers thus living apart
+in enmity. The more you love anyone, the more terrible a thing it is to
+quarrel with that person.
+
+So the breach had gone on widening with the years, and the little
+Carews had grown out of all knowledge of each other, especially as they
+bicycled every day to different schools in the county town. It was only
+in church indeed that they kept up any sort of acquaintance with each
+other's looks.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Yes, it's one of the other Carews," Tony said gravely. "And Father's in
+the surgery: he drove up five minutes ago. What can be the matter? That
+boy is tearing at the surgery bell. Listen!"
+
+With their hearts in their mouths the Carews tip-toed along the passage
+leading to the surgery-door, which was shut fast. There seemed to be a
+dreadful silence in the house. Mother was upstairs with the fretful
+baby of the family, and there was nobody to run to.
+
+Behind the close-shut surgery-door a strange scene was going on. Sitting
+well back in his consulting-chair, his hands spread out, finger to
+finger, thumb to thumb, Doctor George was gazing sternly in silence at
+an eager little speaker.
+
+"Oh, do come; do, Uncle George! Our Clary is killed, and Father's away
+on his rounds among the hill-farms!"
+
+Oliver's teeth chattered in his head, and his little knees knocked
+together as he stood with the rain-drops falling from his bare head on
+to his little shoulders.
+
+"Did your Mother send you here for me?" Doctor George asked harshly.
+
+"No; oh, no! We dared not tell Mother! Clary fell from the top of the
+Tile House to the hall floor, and she's all white and still. And
+Euphemia lifted her arm, and it fell double!"
+
+Dr. George suddenly sat up straight.
+
+"Is it broken or is it a sprain?" he asked peremptorily.
+
+"I--I don't know. I think she's killed!" answered the boy brokenly.
+
+Oliver was nearly fainting from sheer fright, as Dr. George could see
+for himself.
+
+"Come along, boy," he said sharply, and he gathered together two or
+three necessaries from the surgery-table while he spoke.
+
+Presently two figures plunged out into the pouring rain.
+
+"Father's gone with the other Carew! What can be the matter? Perhaps
+Uncle John's killed, and they're going to make it up!" whispered the
+girls.
+
+"You are sillies!" scornfully said Tony. "How can people make it up if
+they're dead?"
+
+Ah, how, Tony? The time for that has gone by, indeed, boy!
+
+Of the two figures that fled through the rain, the doctor reached the
+Tile House first. In a trice he pushed aside Euphemia and he was
+kneeling beside the motionless little figure; and, presently, when he
+had gently probed the little form and lifted one limb after another, he
+groaned under his breath. This little, tender, fair-headed thing, with
+the face that reminded him so startlingly of his dead Mother, was sorely
+injured; perhaps fatally so. As yet, he knew not.
+
+Without a word, he cautiously lifted the unconscious Clary in his strong
+arms, and signed to Euphemia to lead the way.
+
+Then the door of the room he entered with his burden was shut, and the
+Carew boys huddled close together, a miserable group. What if they had
+killed the little, tender sisterling who was their queen and idol?
+
+And Mother upstairs in her sick-room knew nothing as yet, while Father,
+away on his long hill-round, was equally ignorant. It seemed to make
+things so much more terrible to the little boys that they alone should
+know.
+
+"Come away, beside the fire, dearies." Mary Jane beckoned them into the
+kitchen, and the wretched boys crept round the ruddy blaze, which
+seemed, somehow, like a friend, and they stretched out their cold hands
+to its warmth as they waited, too frightened to wonder aloud what was
+being done in that room where Euphemia and Uncle George were shut up
+with Clary.
+
+When Mother's bell rang their hearts jumped into their mouths.
+
+"No! none of you boys are going up!" said Mary Jane firmly. "Euphemia,
+she said as 'twas as much as my place was worth if I let the mistress
+know o' this before the doctor comes home. So I'll carry up her
+dinner-tray and keep my tongue atween my teeth, and you boys must bide
+quiet as quiet till we see!"
+
+The boys shivered as Mary Jane, lifting up the tray, significantly
+nodded.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was quite an hour after. Mary Jane, loyal to the core, had kept her
+ailing mistress in perfect ignorance of the terrible calamity, and the
+little boys still crowded round the kitchen fire waiting.
+
+Suddenly every head was raised. "That's Peter's trot; don't you hear?
+Father's coming home!"
+
+Each of the boys stood up. Who was to go out to meet the gig and tell
+the dreadful news to Doctor John?
+
+"Perhaps I ought to do it!" said Mark, in a strangled voice. "I started
+the train, y' know! So I'll take all the blame on myself!"
+
+Somehow the other boys thought poor Mark, for all his shock of red hair,
+looked exactly like one of the brave knights of old setting forth to
+battle. Old Peter, the doctor's horse, eager for his stable comforts and
+shelter, brought the gig round in fine style, and Doctor John alighted
+quickly, with the upward glance at Mother's window which he never
+forgot.
+
+"Why, sonny," he began cheerily, then halted as, with a tweak at his
+Father's sleeve, Mark beckoned him indoors. "Is there anything the
+matter with Mother? Quick; speak, boy!" The doctor's voice was sharp
+with fear. But Mark could not speak, and Doctor John, with a heart of
+lead, followed the boy into the house.
+
+"In there, Father! It's Clary, and it's all my fault!" Mark's voice had
+come back, but it was a mere whisper, and he pointed to the close-shut
+door.
+
+[Illustration: _Doctor John was on his knees beside the bed_]
+
+Turning the door-handle quickly, Doctor John nearly fell backwards. Over
+the bed, on which lay a little figure, bent the brother to whom he had
+not spoken for three years, with his ear laid close to the little heart,
+listening to its fluttering beats, and one hand raised warningly at the
+sound of the opening door. The next moment the wonder-shock had passed.
+Without a word Doctor John was on his knees beside the bed, and Doctor
+George, glancing up, saw that it was Clary's Father who had entered.
+Then he stood up straight, and would have retreated hastily, but his
+forefinger was tight in the clutch of a weak, small hand. Doctor George
+was chained to the spot; he dared not move.
+
+"She opened her eyes once, and gripped my finger like that!" he
+whispered awkwardly.
+
+The Father did not speak, nor even look away from the white, still face.
+But, stretching across the bed, he laid a detaining hand on his
+brother's coat-sleeve.
+
+It was quite late in the afternoon when the two doctors came out into
+the hall. The boys crept to the half-open kitchen door to listen
+eagerly.
+
+"Thank God, and thank you, George, she will live!"
+
+It was a strained harsh voice, but it was Father's, and the boys all
+pressed forward.
+
+Then they hastily retreated, for, while the two doctors stood side by
+side, Father's head was bent on Uncle George's shoulder and their hands
+were clasped hard.
+
+"They must be making it up!" whispered Oliver to his awestruck brothers.
+
+And it was so. The breach of years was healed in a single afternoon. The
+brothers were once again friends. Whatever their quarrel had been--and
+neither the children of the Tile House nor the other Carews ever knew
+what it was about--it fled away like a morning mist in the face of a
+great peril, for death had come very close to little Clary that rainy
+Saturday.
+
+It was many weeks before she left her bed, but when her own birthday
+came round Father carried her, covered with shawls, in to tea, and Clary
+could not believe her blue eyes.
+
+On the table was a huge frosted white cake, with flags flying and
+"CLARE" in great letters upon it, while Mother, who had grown pounds
+better lately, smiled behind the army of cups and saucers.
+
+But wonder of wonders, round and round the table, the guests were all
+Carews!
+
+"'A motley crew' we are!" cheerfully announced Doctor George, and all
+the children radiantly clapped their hands at his joke. Even the White
+House baby, which had been carried to the feast, gurgled and crowed
+loudly on its Mother's lap.
+
+And when they all pressed forward with their birthday gifts and to wish
+Clary many happy returns of the day, Mark, his ears as red as his hair,
+whispered under his breath: "I was just awf'lly sorry, Clary! An' I'll
+never, never forget that little girls and women are different from us
+rough boys!"
+
+And Mark never will; nor will any of the Carew boys.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+Kurus: The King of the Cannibal Islands.
+
+By
+
+Maggie Browne.
+
+
+It certainly was the very ugliest doll you ever saw. It hadn't a bit of
+wax about it. It was a rag doll, a brown rag doll with black woolly
+hair, beads for eyes, and--horror of horrors--a ring through its nose!
+Then its clothes--no pretty pink frock and clean pinafore, no clothes to
+take off and on--it had only a black fur rug round its waist.
+
+Mollie was nearly in tears as she stared at it, and Geoffrey's cheeks
+were very red.
+
+It had come in a most promising cardboard box, wrapped up in the
+cleanest of tissue-paper; and when Mollie opened the parcel she had felt
+sure that the doll would have pink cheeks, blue eyes, and lovely golden
+hair--and then to find such a thing!
+
+"It is too bad of Uncle Percy," said Mollie; "it is almost unkind."
+
+"I think it is more 'curous' than pretty," said Geoffrey solemnly; "I
+should call it 'Kurus.'" He had been trying for several minutes to think
+of something to say to comfort Mollie.
+
+"But I wanted to call it Evelina," said Molly; "I can't call that thing
+Evelina. Why, I can't even show it to Bessie."
+
+[Illustration: _Geoffrey began to dig the hole._]
+
+Now, Bessie was the little girl next door, Mollie's own well-beloved
+playmate.
+
+"I don't think I should show it to anyone," said Geoffrey, and then he
+began to think.
+
+Mollie was thinking too.
+
+"Mary Selina Trewin," said Geoffrey solemnly.
+
+Mollie jumped. When her Mother called her Mary Selina she knew something
+serious was coming.
+
+"Mary Selina Trewin," said Geoffrey, "who has seen that doll?--Nobody.
+Who saw the postman bring it?--Nobody. Who knows it is here?--Nobody."
+
+"What are you talking about?" said Mollie, much puzzled.
+
+"Mary Selina Trewin," said Geoffrey, "who shall see it? Who shall know
+it is here?--Why, nobody. We will get rid of that doll; we will hide
+it." And then he whispered mysteriously: "We will bury it this very
+minute. Come along." And Mollie went, just pushing the doll into the box
+with all the papers, and hiding it under her pinafore.
+
+They reached the garden without being seen, and Geoffrey began to dig
+the hole.
+
+"It must be deep as deep as deep," said Mollie.
+
+"Deeper than that," said Geoffrey.
+
+But it is not easy to dig with a stick, and the hole was anything but
+deep when Nurse's voice was heard calling: "Miss Mollie! Master
+Geoffrey!"
+
+"What shall we do?" said Geoffrey.
+
+"Put it in quickly, cover it up, and we'll make the hole deeper after
+tea," said Mollie.
+
+So the box and doll were popped in the hole and covered up, and Mollie
+and Geoffrey ran in to Nurse. Nurse wanted to make them tidy for tea.
+Never had the two children stood so quietly to have their faces washed
+and their hair brushed.
+
+At tea-time they talked so little that Mother began to suspect that
+something was wrong.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"I wonder the doll doesn't come from Uncle Percy, Mollie," she said. "I
+expect he is searching for the very prettiest of all the dollies."
+
+Molly nearly choked over her bread-and-butter; but Geoffrey said never a
+word.
+
+He was staring out of the window, staring at Snap, who was tearing up
+and down the lawn, carrying something brown in his mouth.
+
+"What has Snap found?" said Mother. "Is it a rabbit? Really I must ask
+Jane to----"
+
+"I'll go, Mother," said Geoffrey, and he was down from his chair without
+waiting for Mother to say "Yes" or "No."
+
+"Oh, oh, oh!" cried Mollie. "Look at Snap!"
+
+"What can it be?" said Mother. "Ah! Geoffrey has caught him. Now we
+shall see what it was."
+
+But Geoffrey came back into the room with the reddest of cheeks and the
+emptiest of hands.
+
+"What had the dog got, Geoffrey?" asked Mother. "Mollie, what is the
+matter?"
+
+Certainly Mollie's conduct was peculiar. She was making signs to
+Geoffrey, pointing out of the window, opening her mouth, and shaking her
+head.
+
+"T-t-t--" stammered Mollie, and then there was a knock at the front
+door.
+
+"Who can that be?" said Mother.
+
+A voice was heard in the hall, a voice they all knew.
+
+"Uncle Percy himself," cried Mother; "then, Mollie, he must have brought
+your doll."
+
+Uncle Percy came into the room and was welcomed warmly by Mother, but
+very quietly by the children. As soon as they could they slipped out of
+the room and made their way into the garden. "We shall have to tell
+now," said Mollie. "Where did you put it?"
+
+"I threw it behind the laurel-bush," said Geoffrey. "I suppose I had
+better get it."
+
+He ran to the laurel-bush and Mollie followed.
+
+"Mary Selina Trewin," said Geoffrey, "it isn't there." And though they
+searched and hunted they couldn't find any trace of the ugly doll.
+
+"Oh, dear," said Mollie, "what are we to do?"
+
+This time she began to cry really.
+
+"Well, you are a queer girl," said Geoffrey; "you nearly cried when it
+came, and now you really cry when it is gone."
+
+"But what will Uncle Percy say?" said Mollie.
+
+"Well, the only thing to do," said Geoffrey, "is to tell Mother all
+about it."
+
+"Oh, Geoffrey," said Mollie, "we may find it."
+
+But Geoffrey was quite decided. "Snap must have eaten the old thing up.
+Come along."
+
+The children found their Mother and Uncle Percy sitting by the fire
+talking busily. What they were saying neither Mollie nor Geoffrey heard;
+they were too busy to listen, for on the table lay an open cardboard
+box, and in the box lay a lovely doll--blue eyes, pink cheeks, golden
+hair, dressed in the prettiest of dresses and cleanest of pinafores.
+
+"Oh!" said Mollie.
+
+"Oh!" said Geoffrey.
+
+"There you are, young people," said Uncle Percy. "Yes, Mollie, that is
+the doll I promised you. Do you think you will like it?"
+
+"But the other?" said Geoffrey.
+
+"Oh, you heard what we were saying, did you, young man?" said Uncle
+Percy. "Well, I'm sorry I sent the wrong parcel, but Mother will send it
+back as soon as----"
+
+"But she can't send it back," said Mollie.
+
+"Snap has eaten it," said Geoffrey.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"What?" cried Uncle Percy.
+
+And then, of course, out came the whole story. They were scolded, they
+were punished, they were comforted and kissed, and Mollie went to bed
+that night hugging Evelina, the rosy-cheeked beauty, very tightly.
+
+And the other! Uncle Percy said it didn't matter; he had only bought it
+to play a joke on someone. Mother and Mollie and Geoffrey and Jane and
+everybody hunted everywhere for it, but they didn't find it. A few days
+later a letter came from Bessie asking "Geoffrey and Mollie to come to
+tea with the King of the Cannibal Islands."
+
+"The gardener found him in the garden," said Bessie, as Geoffrey and
+Mollie stared at Bessie's new doll. "Someone must have thrown him away,
+for he was ragged and torn; but Mother mended him, and, though he's
+queer, I like him the best of all my dolls."
+
+"He is curous," said Geoffrey.
+
+"I think I will call him Kurus, the King of the Cannibal Islands," said
+Bessie.
+
+Mollie and Geoffrey were not very cheerful that afternoon, but Bessie
+did not notice it; she was so pleased with Kurus.
+
+As the two children went home they felt very solemn and sad.
+
+"It was it," said Mollie.
+
+"Of course," said Geoffrey. "Snap, you know."
+
+"What shall we do?" said Mollie.
+
+"Tell Mother," said Geoffrey; "she'll help."
+
+And Mother did help. She talked to Uncle Percy and to the children; but
+nobody said a word to Bessie, and, though she still has Kurus and is
+very fond of him, she does not know all the queer things that happened
+to him.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Big Temptation, by
+L. T. Meade and M. B. Manwell and Maggie Brown
+
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