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diff --git a/42835-0.txt b/42835-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d3a987f --- /dev/null +++ b/42835-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6237 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42835 *** + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file + which includes the lovely original illustrations in color. + See 42835-h.htm or 42835-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42835/42835-h/42835-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42835/42835-h.zip) + + + + + +TOMMY TREGENNIS. + +by + +MARY E. PHILLIPS. + +Illustrated by M. V. Wheelhouse. + + + + + + + +New York +E·P·Dutton & Company +Publishers + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + _Facing page_ + + Still the ladies talked only to Mammy 20 + + When breakfast was over, Tommy led Dobbin proudly up and down + the alley 24 + + "My lamb," she murmured, "my own precious lamb" 50 + + It was very slow progress that the two made along the uneven + cobbles 94 + + Towards evening Mrs Tregennis grew restless and uneasy, and went + down to the front and looked out anxiously over the angry sea + 122 + + At the Cobbler's window she stopped 152 + + On the day of Granny's funeral, Old John took care of Tommy 186 + + + + +TOMMY TREGENNIS + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +There was Daddy, of course, and Mammy and home. Outside home was the +world, and the world was a stretch of golden sand. It was a very +perplexing world to a small boy, for it had a trick, when one least +expected it, of hiding under the sea. At such times the confines of +the world narrowed, and the world itself became a succession of rocky +ledges entirely made up of don't-go-there-Tommy places, and most of +the fun was spoiled. + +There was always the danger, too, in the world of rocks that clothes +would not stand the extra strain they were called upon to bear. In +sliding down their sea-washed sides "Take care of your trousers, ma +handsome!" was forgotten until the bottom of the rock was reached and +the mischief done. Tommy's trousers were never very durable even in +the beginning of things, for they were made out of Mammy's worn-out +skirts and cast-off coats (all but the Sunday pair, that is) and so +little friction seemed to wear them into holes. + +Just as often as the warning concerning his clothes was given him, +just so often did Tommy disregard it, but never were the consequences +so disastrous as on that July evening when he walked slowly up the +cobble-paved alley to his home; a boy who had lost his illusions; a +boy who regarded sliding down sloping rocks as a highly over-rated +form of enjoyment. With one fat hand he held together a yawning rent, +while with the other now and again he rubbed his eyes. Slowly he +trailed unwilling feet over the cobbles, and only half-heartedly did +he kick the little pile of dust left under the wall near the Church +door, neglected by the dustman on his morning round. + +Mammy was standing in the doorway and saw him coming. "Surely this +cannot be Tommy Tregennis?" she said, in a puzzled, uncertain voice. + +Tommy's heart stood still. Suppose she didn't know him; suppose she +wouldn't have him in the house; suppose he had to sit out on the +cobble-stones all night! There was no end to the awful supposings. + +However "'Tis me, Mammy!" he explained, and tried to put matters on a +pleasant basis by butting her in the stomach as he ran head foremost. + +But Mammy drew back, a hurt, surprised look in her eyes. "It _sounds_ +like Tommy Tregennis's voice," she said uncertainly, "but surely +neither Tommy Tregennis nor his fäather ever comes home with they +trousers tore! I'm just waitin' for ma handsome, now," she +volunteered, "he's been out playin' in the----" + +"I'm your handsome, Mammy," declared a choking, muffled voice. "I'm +your Tommy, I am, but I've tore me trousers on the Skiddery Rock." + +It was dreadful to make such a confession, but necessity calls for +decided action; and the effect of the confession was good, for Mammy +admitted her graceless son and followed him into the kitchen. + +"No, don't sit down," she exclaimed, "let me see just what you've been +up to, young man. I'll tell your fäather when he comes home, Tommy +Tregennis, you tearin' up the good trousers he goes to sea to get for +ee!" + +Unprotesting, Tommy was led up to bed. "To-morrow," suggested Mammy, +"you'd best run fast all the way to school so as no one shan't see ee, +and start early before they other children goes out." + +There was a moment's silence, then a wailing cry: "Oh, Mammy, Mammy, +can't ee mend they trousers to-night?" Conclusively Mammy proved the +impossibility of such rapid repair and it was a broken-hearted Tommy +who knelt in his little cot. "Bless Mammy, 'n Daddy, 'n make Tommy a +good boy. Please get me trousers mended, Amen." Then "Give I just +another chanst, Mammy, just one more chanst." + +"But you've said that again and again, Tommy Tregennis, an' it's just +been untruth, untruth every time." + +"Well, it'll be truth this time, Mammy, for sure it will; just one +more chanst." Then very pleadingly, "Put 'em in the rag-bag, Mammy." + +Mrs. Tregennis looked horrified. "An' that I won't, my son. Do you +think I be _made_ of trousers that I can afford to use them for +house-cleanin' just because you've got 'em tore slidin' on Skiddery +Rock?" And Mammy kissed her son somewhat coldly and went down the +creaking wooden stairs. + +There was no sleep for the culprit; the evening light coming in at the +window mocked his misery. The sea was going down now, and in the +distance he could hear the laughter of the children who still played +on the widening sands; the very children who, to-morrow, would laugh +at him, Tommy Tregennis, because his trousers was tore. + +He decided that he would leave for school before breakfast as Mammy +had advised, and run very fast all the way. But even so, Tommy was +five now, and when you are five years old you no longer sit on the +window-seat in Miss Lavinia's school-room. When you are five your legs +are supposed to be so long that you can be given an ordinary chair at +the long, narrow table. + +Of course it was very grand to be promoted from the window-seat; it +meant one was definitely growing up. In spite of the promotion Tommy +often had regrets, for the outside world, as viewed from the window, +was most attractive. The window opened on to Miss Lavinia's +back-garden, and there were always sparrows, and often cats; bees in +the summer, too, and the gay colours of the flowers. The window-seat +was very low (that was why it was your place when you were only four) +and it would have been so easy to sit down there backwards. But a +chair was quite another matter. That meant standing on a spindle +first, then stretching upwards before you turned round and sat; and +detection would seem inevitable. + +There was the new game, too; the game in which you all lay flat on the +ground in a ring and blew at the bonfire in the middle, having first +of all piled it up with leaves and sticks (pretending leaves and +sticks, of course). And you sang all the time. Then you crawled nearer +and nearer to the centre until Miss Lavinia said: "Take care, Tommy; +suppose you should burn!" and you wriggled hurriedly back to your +place in the ring. + +But for such games trousers must be entire. Tommy broke down utterly +and sobbed beneath the bed clothes. + +Mammy must still be standing in the doorway for now and again he heard +a heavy tread up the alley. "Evenin'," a hearty voice would say, and +"G'd evenin'," Mammy would reply. + +Then there came a much lighter step, and through the open window Tommy +heard another voice which caused him to still his sobs and sit up in +bed, his hands tightly clasped and his little chest heaving under the +flannelette nightshirt. + +"Good-evenin', Miss Lavinia." This was exactly what Tommy had feared. + +"I've just had to put my Tommy to bed. He's tore his trousers on the +rocks, and I cannot mend they to-night. He must come early to school +to-morrow and bide still all day, so that the children won't laugh at +him. Yes, thank you, Miss; if he may go back to the window-seat +that'll be fine, and Billy Triggs can have his chair, then they +children won't see." + +When these arrangements had been made Miss Lavinia said "Good-night" +and her footsteps died away round the corner. + +The evening light grew dimmer and dimmer. Grotesque shadows lengthened +in the room and Tommy was still wide awake. At last he could bear it +no longer. + +"Mammy, Mammy!" he cried; but there was no response. + +A second call, however, brought her to the foot of the stairs, for he +distinctly heard her toe hit the stair-rod at the bottom that held the +linoleum in place. So he knew that she was really listening and called +once more. "Mammy, Mammy, don't let anyone have me!" + +"But who should want _you_, Tommy Tregennis?" + +"I don't know, Mammy," he shouted back in his lusty, young voice. "I +don't know, but I thought if you was in the kitchen some one might +come up the stairs and get I." + +"But who should want to take you away, Tommy Tregennis? Who should +want a little boy as tears his trousers when his Daddy's away at sea?" + +There it was again! Even a fly, unpardonably late in going to bed, was +buzzing on the window-pane, "Tommy's tore his trousers; Tommy's tore +his trousers!" Finally the moon looked in at the window laughing at +his grief, and Tommy fell into a troubled sleep. + +Many hours later he was wakened by the striking of a match and a flare +of light. Mammy was putting the kettle on the spirit-lamp at her +bedside, and by this Tommy knew that Daddy was home again. Rubbing his +eyes he sat up and looked anxiously at the foot of his cot. He saw +that the torn trousers were no longer there. He gave a deep sigh of +relief; it was true then; he had feared that it was perhaps only a +dream. But they were not there, so now he knew that the odd little +red-haired man who danced in the moonlight had really taken away those +dreadful trousers to make them into tiny coats for the ten little boys +and girls whom he invariably left at home on his nights out. + +Sleepily Tommy watched his mother's movements. When she had poured +water into the tea-pot he crept into the big bed, and as soon as Daddy +came the feast began. Some potato and gravy from the cold pasty oozed +out of Tommy's share and fell upon his nightshirt. It was too good to +be left, so Tommy licked vigorously making very sure that none was +wasted. Quickly the midnight meal ended. + +"Now, ma handsome," said Mammy (she must have forgotten about the +trousers), "skip back to bed like a fly in a jaboon." + +So Tommy skipped. Daddy blew out the candle, and soon their regular +breathing testified that all three slept. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +After all Tommy Tregennis had breakfast at the proper time the +following morning; and although he left home a little earlier than +usual it was with no intention of hurrying. Rather did he choose to +swagger slowly through the crooked streets, while every now and again +he bent ostentatiously to pick up a stone to throw at a sparrow, or a +lamp-post, or an old tin in the gutter. It did not matter in the least +what he aimed at, sparrow, post or tin, for never by any chance did he +hit it; but it mattered greatly that those children who had laughed +last night, laughed while he was sobbing in bed, should know that +there was no need for him to stand upright unless he cared to do so. +Without shame he could now assume any attitude he chose. For Tommy +Tregennis wore a new pair of trousers! + +Tommy himself had not known of their existence, but weeks before, at +night while he slept, Mammy had planned and cut and sewn by the light +of the kitchen lamp. With puckered brow, and tightly compressed lips +holding two or three pins, she had spread her old green coat carefully +on the kitchen table, smoothed out every wrinkle, and upon it placed a +piece of newspaper which bore some resemblance to the shape of Tommy's +legs. + +The first plan was faulty; the curve of the arm-hole interfered. The +newspaper pattern was taken up, Mammy's mouth held more pins and her +frown grew deeper. It was only after much anxious thought that she +decided finally that it was possible to cut a strip from a sleeve of +the coat and join it to the top of the trousers in such a way that +when Tommy's jersey was well pulled down the seam would not show. So +the pattern was pinned on more firmly, the first cut was made +half-an-inch from the edge of the paper, and after that there was no +drawing back. + +As Mammy planned and pinned and cut and sewed in the yellow light of +the lamp the silence of the little kitchen was only broken by the fall +of a cinder now and again, and by the steady ticking of the clocks. + +One clock stood on the chimney-piece, a canister on either side, and +beyond each canister a china dog with staring yellow eyes. It was the +chimney-piece clock that told the time. Nailed to the wall, to the +left of the fireplace, with long slender chains dangling and throwing +shadows in the lamplight, hung a cuckoo clock that was Tommy's most +cherished possession. All day and all night it ticked steadily through +the hours, but as the hands never moved it was not considered +trustworthy more than once a day; this was at five minutes past +twelve, when (at any rate on Saturdays and Sundays) Mammy would look +up to the wall, and say: "Deary me, five minutes past twelve; my dear +soul, why 'tis time to put on the potaties!" + +As the clocks ticked, and the cinders fell, and the oil in the lamp +burned low, Mammy's deft fingers moved very busily, and her thoughts +were very busy too. They carried her a long way back--ten years back, +in fact--to the time before she was Mammy, to the days when Tommy, and +even Tommy's father, had not yet come into her life. + +She was just Ellen in those days; Ellen Pertwee really, but no one +seemed to remember that she had a second name more than once a year +when it was all written in full in her Sunday School prize. For four +years Ellen had been a willing little servant-maid at Tomses the +draper's, but when she was eighteen there was a great change in her +life, for she went to the doctor's as house-parlour-maid, and her +wages were twelve pounds a year. She was very hazy at the time as to +the meaning of her grand new title; but the money was very real, and +she remembered even now how dazzled she was at the thought of so much +gold. + +With her first month's wages, ten years ago, she had bought the cloth +for her new green coat. It had cost her much deliberation and several +sleepless nights, but at last she had gone back to Tomses on her +fortnightly night-out, and made the important purchase. Night after +night she had cut and shaped and pinned and stitched, much as she was +cutting and shaping now. At last the coat was finished (all sewn by +hand, too, for Ellen had no machine in those days) and she wore it in +Church on her next Sunday out. + +It was after Church that very night that Tom Tregennis, much to her +surprise, asked her to walk out with him, and----. Well, now the new +green coat was the old green coat, and was being made into trousers +for little Tommy Tregennis to wear! + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +So far Draeth is comparatively unknown, for it lies a little off the +beaten track and hurrying tourists do not find it easily. The Limited +Express does not pull up at Scard, the junction, but hurries on, +through beautiful country, from Plymouth to Falmouth without a stop. +Visitors to Draeth, therefore, travel by a slower train from Mill Bay +and leave the main line at Scard. Here, seizing their own hand-luggage +(for the porters, like the express, are limited, and unlike the +express are slow), they cross the line by the bridge, and pass along a +bit of dusty road, following the direction indicated by a painted hand +under which is written "To the Draeth and Scard Branch Railway." + +The independence of the branch line is emphasized by the fact that the +Draeth train remains just outside the station until all the passengers +are in line upon the platform. It then steams up alongside with much +unnecessary fuss. When at last it starts it runs very slowly and the +line is single, but as a precaution against possible accidents an iron +bar passes across the window of each compartment. Thus, if a traveller +wishes to look out at the narrow East Draeth river, at the willows and +alders on its banks, and at the clumps of Rose Bay and Willowherb that +give rich colour to the line, he rubs his nose on the dusty bar while +he knocks his forehead on the window-frame above. + +So steep is the gradient from Scard to Draeth that half-way there the +train stops, and the engine steams away alone. Returning it is coupled +at the rear and now pulls the train backward at first doubling on its +track. Those who cannot travel facing the engine change places with +those who cannot sit with their backs in the direction in which they +are going. By the time these changes are effected the narrow East +Draeth river expands into a wide sheet of water if the tide is up, or +into a series of mud flats when the tide is low. Five minutes later +the train enters what is surely the prettiest of all Cornish stations, +and the journey is at an end. + +There was a man once who lived in Draeth who made many plans for +beautifying and improving the town. He built the Frying Pan Pier, and +it was he, too, who opened up the Pentafore Estate. The branch railway +also owes its existence to him. He dreamed of a modern sea-front all +asphalt and glittering lights, of a grand Hydro, too, which was to +front the sea on a commanding bit of cliff-coast less than a mile +eastward of the town. But he died and his plans came to naught, and +Draeth is still just Draeth! + +Beyond the station the East and West rivers join and together run out +to sea, dividing East Draeth from West Draeth and forming a safe +harbour for the fishing smacks that have safely weathered so many +storms. Lately the fishing has been poor in Draeth because the +steam-trawlers have driven away the fish, and in winter there is much +poverty in the town. + +It was dread of the winter that led the Tregennises to give up their +three-roomed cottage and move into a house that had eight windows in +the front and rose three stories high. The change was made in April so +that all might be in readiness for the summer and the visitors the +summer brought. + +The new home was only a stone's throw from the old one, and there was +much running backwards and forwards between the two houses, much +fetching and carrying, until the last moments in the old home came, +and nothing remained but to lock the door and give up the key to the +landlord. Then Mrs. Tregennis leaned up against the kitchen sink and +cried, while Tommy, not in the least understanding why, cried, too. + +"Mammy," he wailed, "Oh, Mammy, what've I done to ee?" "Done, ma lamb, +done?" Mrs. Tregennis spoke breathlessly between her sobs. "Why, +nothin', ma handsome; you're just the best little boy as ever I had." + +Then, having wiped Tommy's eyes and her own with a large red-bordered +handkerchief, Mrs. Tregennis ran upstairs for the last time, took one +more look at the empty rooms and, with set mouth and without a +backward glance, came slowly down the stairs. She took Tommy's hand in +hers, and silently and tearfully mother and son passed through the +open door, locked it behind them and crossed the cobble-stone alley +to the imposing double-fronted house which was henceforth to be home. + +Much more furniture was wanted in the three-storied house than in the +forsaken cottage, and for some months past the Tregennis family, +Daddy, Mammy and Tommy had attended all the neighbouring sales. They +were almost too nervous to bid when the articles they wished to buy +were put up for auction; when shame-facedly they had made their nod +they were held upon the tenterhooks of despair while some one else, +who could not possibly want the goods as much as they did, bid against +them and so raised the price. + +Now the furnishing was complete. The kitchen and one bedroom held the +old things, but in the other four rooms Mrs. Tregennis arranged with +pride the bargains collected at the sales, and the new things sent out +from a Plymouth shop. + +It was all so grand and wonderful that she could scarcely realize that +the rooms were her very own. Morning after morning, for many weeks, as +soon as she was dressed, she opened the door of the tiny sitting-room +on the first floor and looked round almost with awe on its beauty and +newness. On tiptoe she then advanced into the room, picked a piece of +cotton off the gay Brussels carpet, dusted an imaginary fleck from the +green art-serge tablecloth, and stroked out the fringe of the plush +mantel-border. Then, having slightly altered the position of one of +the velvet upholstered chairs, she passed out with a sigh of +contentment, and gently closed the door behind her. + +The final act of preparation in the new house was to hang up, in the +lower sitting-room window, a long narrow card bearing in gold letters +the word "Apartments." After this the Tregennis family settled down +and waited. + +June was a blank month for Draeth that year. It was unusually wet and +cold, and very few visitors came to the little fishing-town, and none +at all to the double-fronted house. Whenever a stranger walked up the +alley Mrs. Tregennis's hopes rose high, but not until July did anyone +knock at her door and ask about the price of rooms. Outwardly Mrs. +Tregennis was very calm but her inward agitation was great. She +displayed her rooms with pride, they were taken, and after that with +one party and another she was busy until the end of August. + +Early in September, towards the end of the afternoon, she was +interrupted in her dressing by the rapping of knuckles on the door. +She buttoned her bodice as she came downstairs, shook out her skirts +and hurriedly put on an apron before she opened it. "We wondered if +you could take us in just for the night," said the taller of two +ladies who stood on the step. "We are on a cycling tour and are going +on further to-morrow." + +"Please come in," said Mrs. Tregennis, and they passed into the +downstairs sitting-room, which was just on the left-hand side of the +door. + +"We've tried so many places," said the lady who had already spoken, +"and no one can take us." + +Mrs. Tregennis pulled forward two Windsor chairs for the ladies and +stood before them smoothing a non-existent crease from her white +apron. + +"Well, I might manage it, Miss," she said, "if the young gentleman +didn't mind, for I have this room free." + +"Oh, I do wish you could, for it's getting late to go on, and we're so +tired." + +"It would be no better to go on, Miss, the rooms at all the places is +full, I know. It's like this, you see, Miss." Mrs. Tregennis again +smoothed her apron. "Two young gentlemen really belongs to a party at +my sister-in-law's and only sleeps here, they have one bedroom. +Another young gentleman has the other bedroom and the upstairs +sitting-room. If it should be as how he would have a chair-bed in his +sitting-room for the night, then you could have his room." + +"Well, I do hope he will, Mrs. ----?" + +"Tregennis, Miss." + +"But Mrs. Tregennis, if the young gentleman doesn't wish to sleep on a +chair-bed what shall we do?" + +"There's the Royal Standard, Miss." + +"No, we had a very unsatisfactory lunch there, badly cooked and badly +served; the waitress wore a dirty apron and her hair was in curling +pins. We really couldn't go there!" + +"Well, Miss, will you call again in an hour's time; the young +gentleman will be in then, and I'll let you know for certain." + +"Tom," she said, when they had left, "there's two young ladies asking +for rooms for the night. They're on a cycling tour, but they'd no +bikes with them, and they hadn't a scrap of luggage. I've said I'll +take them if the young gentleman doesn't mind the chair-bed." + +Tregennis slowly uncrossed his legs as he sat in front of the kitchen +fire, and with his forefinger re-arranged the tobacco in the bowl of +his pipe. "Well, Ellen," he said slowly, "and suppose they be just +frauds?" + +"All I can say is as they don't look it, an' after all we'm got to +take our risks. A room for one night isn't much, but all the littles +add up, and the summer's nearly gone." After a pause she resumed. "The +Royal Standard isn't good enough for they, Thomas Tregennis, I'd have +you know, when folks wants things done in real style they comes to the +likes of we." + +Mrs. Tregennis cleared her throat and prepared her husband's tea. + +Two hours later the ladies had brought their bicycles and carry-alls +from the hotel-stable, and were sitting down to supper in Mrs. +Tregennis's sitting-room, for the young gentleman had proved most +accommodating in the matter of the chair-bed. + +It was after supper that the meeting with Tommy took place. The +arrival of unexpected visitors had put off his bedtime, and when these +visitors passed the kitchen door on their way out, he had only just +had his bath. He was standing on a chair while Mammy vigorously +brushed up his stiff fair hair. Peeping out below the pink nightshirt +were toes almost as pink as his flushed little face. All the time his +hair was being rubbed and brushed, he went through a rhythmic motion +of the body, slowly bending his knees, and rapidly straightening them +again. The upright movement frequently brought his head into sharp +contact with the hair-brush, but this in nowise disconcerted him. + +When Mammy's ladies appeared in the doorway, then in response to Mrs. +Tregennis's invitation actually walked into the kitchen, he was +overcome with shyness and hid his eyes in his hands. To his great +surprise, however, the ladies talked to Mammy, neglecting him utterly. +He was accustomed to much consideration, and gradually his tight +little fingers relaxed that he might peep through the gaps and see +what manner of strangers these were who were so ignorant of his +importance and of his claims upon them. + +Still the ladies talked only to Mammy. He could bear it no longer, so, +dropping his hands, he pursed up his mouth and whistled; at least he +called it whistling, but it was very much the same noise that Daddy +made each morning when the tea in his saucer was too hot. Its value as +a whistle, however, mattered very little, as it had the desired +effect. The taller lady, the one in the blue dress, looked at him in +surprise; evidently until now she had had no idea that he was there. + +"Hallo, Tommy," she said, and made a dash for his toes. + +"Hallo," he half-screamed, half-gurgled. "Hallo, Blue Lady," and flung +two chubby, suffocating arms tightly around her neck. Then, peeping +over her shoulder, "Hallo, Brown Lady," he laughed. Thus their +friendship began. + + [Illustration: STILL THE LADIES TALKED ONLY TO MAMMY.] + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +At breakfast the following morning the Blue Lady looked up from her +pilchards. She was eating slowly for pilchard bones are many in number +and very small. "Dorothea," she asked, "what about this cycling tour? +Do you want to go on to-day, or wouldn't it be rather nice to stay +here for one more night and just enjoy Draeth?" + +"I should love it!" the Brown Lady replied. + +Mrs. Tregennis was summoned. No, she didn't think the young gentleman +would at all mind having the chair-bed again; he'd slept very well +indeed and had been quite comfortable. As for her, well, she'd be +delighted for the ladies to stay. + +Thus it was settled, and they stayed. + +The tide was high that morning, and they pulled slowly up the +beautiful West River. After lunch they took photographs of Tommy at +play on the sands, and sat on the rocks reading. In the evening they +bathed for the second time that day, and went to bed at night +completely under the spell of Draeth. + +The next morning it was arranged that they should stay yet one more +night, and it ended in the young gentleman sleeping on the chair-bed +in his sitting-room for a week. Then, however, the ladies were obliged +to leave. By the end of the week they had planned to reach Padstowe +after cycling all round the Cornish coast, and had arranged that +luggage should be awaiting them there at the Salutation Inn where they +had already engaged rooms. + +The evening before they left the ladies went into Mrs. Tregennis's +bedroom to hear Tommy say his prayers. He was kneeling in the cot, and +by judicious pressure made the mattress rise and fall in such a way +that his petitions were more broken than is usually considered quite +reverent. + +"Please God take care of Daddy, 'n bring the fishes, 'n Mammy, 'n keep +me good, 'n----" + +A sudden somersault choked the rest. "I've got a sweet, Miss!" + +The opening of the right hand disclosed a hot, melted chocolate cream, +whose pink inside now filled up the lines of the small, fat palm. +After much licking brown and pink disappeared, but an uncomfortable +stickiness was left behind. The Brown Lady brought a sponge and towel +and washed the stickiness away. + +"Tommy," said the Blue Lady, "when you waken in the morning a wooden +horse called Dobbin will be downstairs under the kitchen table. That's +his new stable." + +"Who be it for?" asked Tommy all thought of sleep dispelled. + +"Well, it _might_ be for Jimmy Prynne." + +"Mammy, Mammy," with even more than customary vigour, "is the Dobbin +that's goin' to be under the kitchen table for Jimmy Prynne?" Then +with a catch suspiciously like a sob, "Jimmy Prynne doesn't wipe his +nose with a hankycher; he sniffs does Jimmy Prynne." + +"Oh, my dear soul," replied Mammy, in the doorway, "I haven't got no +Dobbin. 'Tis a grand thing for Jimmy Prynne if he's goin' to have a +horse for to ride. He'll be like the quality will Jimmy Prynne." + +"Mammy," brokenly, "do you think as sometimes Jimmy Prynne'll lend his +wooden horse to me?" + +"Tommy Tregennis," said the Blue Lady, throwing her arms round the +dejected figure still kneeling on the bed, but no longer bobbing up +and down. "Tommy Tregennis, if you go tightly to sleep, now at once, I +shouldn't be at all surprised if that wooden horse turned out to be +for you, and not for Jimmy Prynne at all." + +At once Tommy lay down in bed and screwed up his eyes. Then, rubbing +his forehead, "There ain't no sleep there," he said. + +So the Blue Lady held one hot hand in hers, and sitting on the side of +the cot sang many a nursery rhyme. + +"Hush-a-bye, baby," was sleepily demanded a second time. + + "Hush-a-bye, baby, thy cradle is green, + Thy father's a nobleman, thy mother's a queen; + Thy sister's a lady and wears a gold ring, + And Johnnie's a horseman, and rides for the king." + +"Was the horse called Dobbin?" Tommy asked, but before the answer came +he was riding a kicking wooden steed in the wonderful land of dreams. + +Later in the evening Tommy's Ladies bought Dobbin. Mrs. Tregennis said +that no fisher-child in Draeth had ever before possessed such a toy. +It was dapple-grey and very strong; it moved on wheels and was high +enough from the ground for a boy of five to sit astride, slip his feet +into the stirrups, and so prepare to set out on great adventures. + +Tommy was downstairs in his night-shirt at five o'clock the next +morning. He sat on Dobbin's back, kissed his carmine nostrils, poked +his glassy eyes, and wished to waken up the Prynne household to show +Jimmy Prynne his treasure and assert to him emphatically that Dobbin +was his, Tommy's, and his alone. + +From this course, however, his mother dissuaded him. She told him that +as yet the horse did not belong to him; until it had been given to +him, he was certainly not justified in calling it his own. + +"Perhaps after all," Mrs. Tregennis demurred, "it may be for some +other little boy in Draeth." + +"No, Mammy, no; the ladies _said_ it was to be for me if I slept +tight. They said so, Mammy, they said it was mine." + +To make quite sure of ownership, however, Tommy hurried up the two +flights of stairs and with both clenched fists hammered on the bedroom +door. "My ladies, my ladies; is the Dobbin for me?" + +He returned to the kitchen triumphant, and convicted Mammy of lack of +faith. + +When breakfast was over Tommy led Dobbin proudly up and down the alley +by the real leather reins. Three--then four--five--six--seven +children followed the horse and his master. + + [Illustration: WHEN BREAKFAST WAS OVER, TOMMY LED DOBBIN PROUDLY + UP AND DOWN THE ALLEY.] + +Then Jimmy Prynne stepped forward: "Tell ee what, Tommy Tregennis, 'll +give ee two cherries to ride him wanst down." + +This bargain was concluded. + +Ruby Dark parted with three treasured rusty pins for the privilege of +herself leading Dobbin three steps, one pin for each step. Although +she made her strides as long as possible her turn was soon over, and +other contracts were entertained. + +In half-an-hour's time the Tregennis household was richer by three +rusty pins, one screw, one length of stamp-edging, one dead rose, a +parrot's feather and a piece of string. + +After lunch that day the ladies left. Tommy smiled until they had +turned the corner, then a sudden despair seized him and he screamed +with grief. Dobbin's placid, glassy stare irritated him so much that +he hit him full in the face with his open palm. Afterwards in a fit of +remorse he flung his arms around the wooden neck and sobbed bitterly +into the flowing mane. Ten minutes later he and Dobbin slept together +on the kitchen floor. + +The house seemed strangely quiet to Mrs. Tregennis when the ladies had +gone. No other visitors had become so much a part of the household. + +A few days later the three gentlemen also left Draeth, and Mrs. +Tregennis prepared her house for the winter months. All the ornaments +from the sitting-rooms were wrapped up in paper and put away in a box +under the bed. The curtains and blinds were washed and folded +carefully to be in readiness for the spring; the Brussels carpet +upstairs was well swept and overlaid with newspapers; the velvet +mantel-border was turned up and brushed, and it, too, was swathed in a +paper covering. The best knives, spoons and forks were folded +separately in tissue paper and locked away in the cupboard underneath +the stairs. + +When all these preparations were complete Mrs. Tregennis realized that +winter was indeed upon them. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +Although Miss Lavinia's door was sorely in need of a coat of paint, no +house in Draeth had a brighter knocker, and no door-step was whiter +than hers. The twenty boys and girls who were Miss Lavinia's pupils +had learned to respect the whiteness of this step, and on muddy days +they jumped over it so that no footprint should mar its cleanliness. +More than twenty children Miss Lavinia could not take. The back +sitting-room was used as the schoolroom. There were tables and chairs +for the children with the longest legs, while the very little ones sat +on the two low window-seats. + +Tommy loved going to school, and he was never late. At twenty minutes +to nine each morning he left home, his face shining with soap and his +hair neatly brushed. On his way he almost always called for Ruthie, +who was now only his cousin, but who in the future was to be his wife. +Hand in hand the two children ran round the twists and corners of the +narrow alleys, until they were in Main Street itself. At the top of +Main Street, this side of the bridge, stood Miss Lavinia's house. At +this time of day the shabby green door stood wide open, and in the +narrow rather dark passage one saw the low wooden pegs on which the +children hung hats and jackets as they entered. + +When the new Guildhall clock struck nine Miss Lavinia walked into the +schoolroom, and the twenty children, standing in their places, made a +little bobbing curtsy and wished her "Good morning." Then when all the +hands were clasped and all eyes tightly closed they said "Our Father" +together, and after this sang a hymn led by Miss Lavinia's sweet +though trembling voice. + +Tommy enjoyed the hymn-singing very much. He had absolutely no idea of +tune, but as he learned the words very quickly that did not matter, +and his voice could always be heard above the rest. + +His quite favourite hymn was one about Angels in Heaven, and with +great energy he sang, "Bright songs they sing, sweet harps they hold," +but (if Miss Lavinia had only known!) his interpretation was +"sweethearts they hold." Of _harps_ he was quite ignorant, but his +Mammy often called him "sweetheart." He had a very vivid picture of a +chorus of Angels all with golden hair, white robes and beautiful +wings. They sang songs all day long, and each held by the hand a +little boy. In his fancy all the boys were very much like Tommy +Tregennis, as Tommy Tregennis appeared to himself in the looking-glass +that hung by the kitchen sink. + +His second favourite hymn was "Shall we gather at the river?" for +Angels came in that, too. He wished the verses did not leave it quite +so indefinite as to what it was that was gathered; after a little +thought he decided that it must be grasses and forget-me-nots and +dismissed the subject from his mind. + +Once he did speak to Miss Lavinia about it. "It means they meet +together, Tommy," she explained. + +"Meet to gather?" asked Tommy. + +"Yes," replied Miss Lavinia, and Tommy's difficulty remained. + +Although Miss Lavinia had no time-table to refer to, all the children +were kept busily occupied in one way or another from nine o'clock +until twelve. + +The first lesson was writing when for half-an-hour or so slate-pencils +squeaked unremittingly. The older boys and girls copied from a book, +but those who sat on the window-seats had a line set at the top of the +slate, and this they wrote out eight times below. During the +writing-lesson Miss Lavinia was able to run upstairs, make her bed and +dust the rooms. On her return the writing was put on one side, and +while some of the children did sums the younger ones read. Reading, of +course, meant saying letters and putting together words of one +syllable. Ruby Dark could go backwards from Z Y X to C B A without a +pause! + +The naughtiest girl in the school was Lizzie Wraggles. Lizzie sat on +the window seat. She was only four and looked very shy, but Miss +Lavinia said she was naughty and uncontrolled. It was always in the +reading-lesson that difficulties arose for Lizzie would not read +properly. + +Tommy's Ladies had left Draeth on a Saturday, and it was on the Monday +morning following that Lizzie was naughtier and more uncontrolled than +she had ever been before. On the Friday she had learned, after saying +it many times over, that S-O spelled _so_. This morning, in reading a +column of letters and little words, she had pronounced T-O as _tow_. + +"_Too_," corrected Miss Lavinia. + +"S-O, _so_; T-O, _tow_," murmured Lizzie in a low, sing-song voice. + +The squeaking of slate pencils ceased, and all the older children +stopped doing sums to listen. + +Miss Lavinia became agitated: "Say T-O, _tow_, Lizzie," she ordered +sternly, and Lizzie said "T-O, _tow_." + +Miss Lavinia flushed deeply: "I made a mistake," she explained. "T-O, +_too_." + +"_Tow_," whispered Lizzie. + +Then Miss Lavinia stood up and slapped her! It was a real slap on her +bare arm; a slap that was heard by every child in the room. The school +held its breath. + +Lizzie Wraggles looked straight into Miss Lavinia's eyes, dropped her +slate, and "Tow" she said, in quite a loud voice. + +Miss Lavinia picked up both Lizzie and the slate, and with a shake put +them on a hassock in the corner. Miss Lavinia was thoroughly +perturbed. "There you must sit," she said, "and write T-O fifty times +before you go home to dinner." + +The children had no proper play-time because there was no place in +which they could really play. But at half-past ten, while Miss Lavinia +did one or two odd jobs in the kitchen, they sat anywhere in the +school-room, and those who had brought lunch with them ate it then. +Miss Lavinia stayed away from the room longer than usual this morning. +The encounter with Lizzie Wraggles had upset her altogether. Never +before had she either slapped or shaken a child, and she could have +cried with vexation. + +When she returned to the school-room the chairs and tables were pushed +on one side so that the middle of the floor was left clear for a game. +Then they all joined hands in a ring and played "Luby Loo." + + Here we dance luby loo, + Here we dance luby light, + Here we dance luby loo + All on a Saturday night. + All your right hands in, + All your right hands out, + Shake your right hands a little, a little, + And turn yourselves about. + +Twenty shrill childish trebles (no, nineteen, for Lizzie Wraggles +still sat on the hassock in the corner) sang out the old tune and +words; nineteen right legs were shaken, nineteen left legs too; then +hands and heads wriggled and shook all through the six verses. + +Every morning after the game came composition. Sometimes it was +History composition, sometimes Geography, sometimes Scripture; +sometimes just anything Miss Lavinia read out of a book. The best +composition time of all was when Miss Lavinia told a story, right out +of her head. + +The children only half understood Miss Lavinia's stories, but in spite +of this they liked them better than any others, possibly because they +felt that these stories belonged to them and to Miss Lavinia only; out +of all the world no one else could know them, they were every bit +their own. + +It was to be Scripture composition this morning. When it was +composition all the children listened to Miss Lavinia first of all, +then the older boys and girls wrote about it from memory, while the +little ones did something else. + +After the games "Coppersition" was what Tommy liked best of all. Tommy +had a very real love for Miss Lavinia. To most people she was just a +little old maid who had great difficulty in making both ends meet, but +Tommy admired her greatly. He liked to look at her all the time she +was speaking; he admired the wave of her silvery hair and the shape of +her delicate, white hands--so different from Mammy's hands. Still his +Mammy had the most beautiful hands in all the world, and he would +fight any boy his own size who said she hadn't. Thus he ruminated when +the composition class began. Then he wondered if Miss Lavinia would +agree to wait for him until he was grown up, so that he could marry +her then if Ruthie would not greatly mind. + +He was recalled to the things of everyday by Miss Lavinia's urging +him to look at a picture in front of him. He was glad to do so, for +it was a delightful picture, Tommy thought. One of the most attractive +giants he had ever seen was crouching down behind a boulder of rock. +Facing him, at some little distance, stood a young man who wore very +few clothes and these of a most unusual pattern. + +"This," said Miss Lavinia, pointing to the central figure of the +picture, "this is David." + +David Williams, sitting in the corner near the old Grandfather clock, +smiled self-consciously as eighteen pairs of eyes turned to look at +him. (Lizzie Wraggles still sat on a hassock in the corner with her +back to the rest of the school.) + +"David," continued Miss Lavinia, and now nineteen pairs of eyes were +fixed solemnly on hers, "David was very brave. All the boys in this +room want to grow up to be brave men and true." + +Ten chests swelled visibly and the composition lesson continued: +"David went out in the light of the Eastern morning to meet the giant +who threatened all the land. And the sun's rays fell upon David as he +went forth. He had no weapons wherewith to fight the giant, but he +trusted in God who was his strength and his shield. On the way he +passed a brook, rippling through the fresh, green valley, and +stooping, he chose from the bed of the stream five large, smooth, +polished stones. Why do you think David wanted these stones?" + +"For to kill the giant," said Jimmy Prynne, and Tommy was annoyed that +he had not thought of the answer. + +"David," continued Miss Lavinia, "put a stone into his sling and hit +the giant" (here Miss Lavinia lowered her voice and there was deep +silence in the room) "right on the forehead between the eyes; and the +giant fell back dead." + +"Oh!" murmured the children, and David Williams, in the right-hand +corner by the old Grandfather clock, looked as though reflected glory +shone upon him. + +In a dazed way Tommy rubbed his forehead and wondered how it would +feel to have a stone just there. Then, remembering the distinction +achieved by Jimmy Prynne, "We'm going to have beans for dinner," he +declared. + +Miss Lavinia was shocked. She had hoped the story was making a deep +impression, and now, before she could point the moral, before she +could show how good must always soar triumphant and evil must ever +suffer defeat, Tommy Tregennis, one of her best little boys, had +interrupted in a manner that surely proved his thoughts to be very far +away. + +While Miss Lavinia hesitated, Ruthie's high-pitched voice broke the +silence. "'Tisn't that giant, Tommy," she said, "'twas Jack and that +giant, but this is David." + +Miss Lavinia's brow cleared. There was some connexion it seemed +between beans and the Scripture story and after all Tommy Tregennis +had listened although he had missed the point. + +After giving the composition Miss Lavinia went away to put on the +potatoes; then there was only time for a short Geography lesson with +the little ones before the Guildhall clock struck twelve, and morning +school was ended. + +"Shoes is too tight," Tommy complained to Ruthie, as they stood +together in the narrow passage, putting on their hats. "They pinches!" + +Ruthie sighed. "You do be growin' brave an' fast, Tommy," she replied. +"I can't keep up with ee nohow." + +Tommy drew himself up proudly. "When my head do be so high as the knob +on Mammy's cupboard, then I be a-goin' to wear long trousers," he +asserted. + +Ruthie looked at him still more admiringly, and, as her custom was, +slipped her hand into his, and turned towards the door. + +But Tommy hesitated. "I be gettin' a'most too big to hold hands," he +demurred, and, as he spoke, he tried to pull his hand away. + +"Don't ee be so silly," Ruthie admonished. "'Tisn't your hands as is +growin'. Your shoes is pinchin' because your feet do be that big; your +hands is all right, Tommy." + +This argument was unanswerable and the children ran home hand in hand. + +They were the last to leave. When the door closed behind them Miss +Lavinia went over to Lizzie Wraggles in the corner to see the fifty +"TO's" that were to be written before Lizzie went home. Alas! the only +"TO" on the slate was the one Miss Lavinia herself had written there +as a copy. Below was Lizzie's conception of a house. + +As for Lizzie herself she had fallen asleep and one tear was still wet +on her cheek. Miss Lavinia's heart softened. All the other children +had gone. She put one arm round Lizzie and gently roused the sleeping +child. "Lizzie," she whispered and kissed her, "little Lizzie, try to +be a good girl, dear; and try to read your words just as well as ever +you can." + +Lizzie smiled, a little roguish smile. "TO, _too_," she crooned, and +Miss Lavinia kissed her again and sent her home. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +Every Saturday morning Tommy kept Granny Tregennis company, for it was +then that Aunt Keziah Kate made her pastry. Granny Tregennis had lived +for a great many years and was getting very tired; so until twelve +o'clock each morning she stayed in bed. Her bed was a very high one +with a long post at each corner, and curtains hung all around. + +Tommy knew that Granny was always very anxious for his visit; for when +he came into the bedroom she was thinking of him audibly. "Where _can_ +Tommy Tregennis be?" he would hear her say: "Surely 'tis time for him +to come to his granny!" + +Then Tommy would creak across the room on tip-toe, climb first of all +on to a hassock, and from this to a chair; lifting up a corner of the +curtain, "Bo," he would cry, and Granny always gave a little start. +"Why, 'tis the very boy I was thinkin' of; 'tis Tommy Tregennis +himself." + +When these friendly greetings had passed between them, they settled +down comfortably for the morning. + +By the fireplace in Granny's room was a small cupboard, and in this +cupboard Tommy's Saturday playtoys were kept. One of his favourite +toys was a massive bedroom candlestick in shining brass. + +Granny had many stories to tell a little boy about that candlestick. +The very night that Tommy's father was brought to her, years and years +ago, she had stuck a lighted dip in the brass candlestick and had put +it in this very bedroom window, because Granfäather Tregennis was out +on a rough, wild sea catching pilchards. + +There was no light at the end of the Frying Pan then, for the pier was +not yet built and the men in the boats looked to the cottage windows +for guidance. When Granfäather came home, very cold and very wet, in +the grey light of the dawn, the candle was just guttering out. In the +candlestick were little runnings of grease, and in the big fourposter +bed, along with Granny, was a son. + +Tommy could picture Granfäather's great surprise when he came upstairs +and found a new boy in the house. It was disconcerting to feel that +new children might appear in this way at any moment. Whenever Tommy +had been away from home for some hours, he was always just a little +apprehensive lest another child should have come in his absence, +knowing, as he did, how very suddenly his own father had been brought +to Granny on the night of the storm. + +Among the playtoys, too, were a pair of wee, patent-leather slippers. +They were cracked now and stiff with age, and the tiny buckles that +used to be so bright were quite yellow. These were the first leather +shoes that Tommy's Daddy had ever worn. Tommy knew exactly how his +Daddy had tried to walk in them holding on to the horse-hair sofa +downstairs, and how he had sat down suddenly in the middle and sucked +the patent-leather toes. + +"And then my Daddy tried to get up again," Tommy would say, "but he +was so very, very little that he rolled right over 'n hit his head on +the sofy leg, 'n had brown paper on the big lump, 'n vinegar." + +When Granny had duly corroborated this version of the accident, they +set aside the worn old slippers and passed on to another toy. + +At eleven o'clock quite punctually Aunt Keziah Kate brought up a glass +of hot milk for Granny. This was the signal for Tommy to go downstairs +and help with the pastry. Quickly he ran down the twists and turns of +the quaint old-fashioned stairway, so that he might be the first to +get to the kitchen and hide behind the roller-towel before Aunt Keziah +Kate saw him. + +Like the ostrich Tommy was perfectly contented in his hiding-place, +utterly oblivious of the fact that the towel, hanging from the kitchen +door, only covered the upper part of him; from his knees downwards he +was exposed to the full view of the public. + +The public, in the guise of Aunt Keziah Kate, walked briskly into the +kitchen, "Now then, ma man," she was saying, "you shall have the +rolling-pin and a bit o'----" + +Then there was a start and an exclamation. "Why, my blessed fäather, +and where _is_ the boy? Surely 'n to goodness, I must have left 'e +upstairs." + +While Aunt Keziah Kate returned to Granny's room to look for the +missing nephew, a wriggling Tommy, some inches of runnerin' in his +mouth, gave rise to distracting undulations in the roller-towel. + +Back once more in the kitchen his Aunt instituted a thorough search; +behind the rocking-chair covered with the big woolwork antimacassar; +under the horse-hair sofa round which Daddy had walked in the new +patent-leather shoes; in the kitchen cupboard; even in the coal-box +and other probable and improbable places. + +There was one breathless moment when Aunt Keziah Kate rinsed her +fingers under the tap, and actually came to the roller-towel to dry +them. Even then she did not find the missing boy. + +By this time she was overcome with grief and sitting down on the sofa, +in an attitude of despair, gave way to tears; leastways she produced a +large handkerchief of granfäather's from her overall pocket, covered +her face with it, and rocked to and fro. + +"How shall a tell his mother?" she wailed; "oh, ma lamb, ma blessed +little lamb! His mother'll have to get a new little boy as none of us +knows, 'n poor little Tommy gone no one knows where." + +But this was the breaking strain. The roller-towel heaved and pulled, +and with clenched fists out rushed Tommy. + +"Hush, hush, hush!" he screamed. "I'm here, Aunt Keziah Kate, I'm +right here." Then in reply to her incredulous stare, "I was hidin'," +he explained, "hidin' behind the runnerin'-towel," and he jerked his +thumb in the direction of the kitchen door. + +"Found," said his Aunt, gasping for breath, "found!" She clasped her +hands tightly and closed her eyes, repeating, "Ma lamb is found." + +Then with a sudden descent to the things of everyday, "Now then, Tommy +Tregennis, here's the rollin' pin, 'n put your lame leg first and +press forwards, 'n get your bit o' pastry made, or we'll be all behind +with the cleanin' up when your granfäather comes home." + +Tommy's jam turn-over took up more time in the making than all the +rest of the pasties and tarts put together. First of all the paste had +to be rolled very heavily and very often; rolled so heavily and so +often in fact that it wore too thin in the middle. It was then pulled +and scraped from the board to which it stuck, and was all pinched up +by grubby fingers into a lump again. When it had been rubbed once more +into the shape of a ball, the rolling-pin was again used. By the time +the size, shape and thickness of the pastry satisfied Tommy's +requirements, it was of a uniform grey colour relieved, here and +there, by darker shades. Tommy then spread on the jam, doubled it over +and pinched it well to keep the open sides together. Tough from much +handling and hot from the oven the turn-over was eaten by Tommy +himself at the end of dinner. + +"Can't think," Granfäather Tregennis had said one Saturday, "can't +think why you let the boy eat that muck, Keziah Kate!" + +"Must have a peck o' dust in his lifetime, fäather." + +"Yes, 'n so he must, but surely 'n to goodness he needn't have it all +to wanst." + +Tommy, entirely unmoved, ate on. + +When dinner was over Tommy grew restless. He had not been home since +breakfast; that was a very long time ago and in his absence much might +have happened. + +He slipped from his chair and thrust his hands into his +trouser-pockets. "I'd best be goin' now, Granny," he said, and when +the old woman put her arms round him and kissed him he wriggled away, +and addressed his Granfäather, for another man would understand. + +"Granfäather," he said, "ma Mammy'll be missin' me." + +"To be sure she will, Thomas, to be sure she will." + +Granfäather removed his pipe from his mouth and with unerring aim spat +into the heart of the glowing coals; "you'd best be runnin' home now, +ma man; your Mammy'll mebbe be missin' you." + +After this there was no detaining Tommy. He snatched his cap and ran +all the way home. The door was shut, and he hammered on it with his +fists, and kicked with his toes in nervous dread. + +Mammy came to the door singing; how happy she sounded. "Be you all +alone, Mammy?" he demanded. + +"'N who should be with me, ma lovely?" + +"Daddy, or----" + +"Your Daddy's up to the station helpin' Uncle Sam." + +He ran into the kitchen. Everything seemed all right there, but what +about upstairs in his little cot? "'N there's no other little boy +here, is there?" he asked hesitatingly. + +Mammy's arms were round him in an instant. "'N what other little boy +should I be wantin', Tommy Tregennis?" she managed to say between his +hugs. "Why, you're just the best little boy as ever I had!" + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +As Christmas drew near Tommy was full of expectancy. In the windows of +the village shops pictures of Santa Claus were now displayed. Santa +Claus was a tall old gentleman with flowing beard and long, white +hair; he wore a bright red cloak, and on his back was a sack almost +bursting with the pressure of the toys it held. + +Like the other children of Draeth, Tommy flattened his turned-up nose +against the shop windows and looked at the treasures within; looked +until he could see no longer because of his breath upon the glass. A +vigorous rubbing with his coat sleeve set matters right once more, and +again his roving fancy pitched first on one then on another of the +toys beyond his reach. + +It was about a week before Christmas, and Mrs. Tregennis was preparing +Tommy for his nightly wash in the zinc bath in front of the kitchen +fire. + +"Mammy," he said, thoughtfully surveying his toes when the +home-knitted stockings had been pulled off inside out. "I be growin' +so that they stockin's be rather small for I, same as my vestises." + +"Your vestises, Tommy Tregennis, do be run up in the wash, but I see +nothin' at all wrong with they stockin's; they'm good stockin's, 'n +'ll do you my son for a month o' Sundays." + +Tommy's diplomacy had failed. His lip trembled slightly. "Mammy, when +Santy Claus do come down the bedroom chimbley 'n finds this tiddely +stockin' hangin' on the rail, he'll not be able to slip in even 'n +orange, let 'lone a drum." + +"That's so, ma handsome." Mrs. Tregennis knitted her brow in perplexed +thought. + +"'ll tell you what, ma lovely," she said after a few moments' pause. +"We'll hang a big stocking of your Daddy's on the rail instead." + +This suggestion brought no comfort to Tommy. + +"Then he'll go 'n think as how 'tis Daddy's stockin'," he objected; +"'n he'll be puttin' in pipes, 'n baccy, 'n things; 'n I don't want +they--leastways, not yet," he added as an afterthought. "I wants a +drum." + +Mammy understood the difficulty. "Well," she said, after another and a +longer pause, "we'll hang up your Daddy's stockin', but we'll write on +a bit of paper '_Little_ Tommy Tregennis', 'n pin it on the leg, 'n +the old gentleman'll never know no better." + +Tommy was pleased with this plan. Before going to sleep, however, he +stipulated that Daddy's stocking should be well darned before it was +hung up, so that no little gift could escape either by way of the heel +or the toe. + +Three days before Christmas the children were discussing Santa Claus +at school. + +Jonathan Hex, who was bigger than the rest, scoffed openly: "There +warn't no Santy Claus," he said, "it was just fathers and mothers it +was, as came in when you were asleep 'n rammed the things in the +stockin' 'n crep' out again on tippety toes." + +The other children were indignant at such unbelief, and Jonathan was +obliged to retract, otherwise he would have been excluded from the +circle gathered round the fire. + +Jimmy Prynne had a grievance against the size of chimneys in Draeth. +Jimmy was six, and easily remembered previous Christmases. Last year, +for instance, he found only a tiny box of chocolates in his stocking, +and his mother had read him a letter that came along with it; in fact +he had the letter at home now: + + "DEAR JIMMY PRYNNE (it ran) + + "This is only a littel preasant because there ant no room in + your chimeney if you want something biger you must have your + chimeney widenered before next year. + + "From + "SANTY CLAUS." + +David Williams was also six. He was Jimmy Prynne's cousin and he, too, +remembered last Christmas. He had a note from Santy in his stockin', +too, and nothin' else. Santy had wrote as he couldn't possibly get +down the chimberley because it was such a tight squeeze. He cried, he +remembered, and he was cold because they had no fire. His Mammy had +said she expected Santy would be thinner next time, and slip down +right enough. However they'd gone into a new house now, and the hole +was wider for he'd poked up to see. + +Tommy went home that evening greatly disturbed. There were so many +things he wanted, and he felt very doubtful indeed about their chimney +for the bedroom grate was small. + +That night when Mrs. Tregennis kissed him and said "Good-night and +bless ee" to her surprise Tommy asked for the candle to be left "jus' +a minute or two, Mammy!" The voice was so pleading that she gave way. + +Tommy listened to her footstep on the stair and for once was quite +glad when he heard her reach the bottom, pass into the kitchen and +close the door. + +Very softly he then crept out of bed and tiptoed across the room. + +Round the fireplace was a high old-fashioned fender. Tommy stretched +over this and tried to thrust one arm up the chimney. It seemed to be +rather wide but his arm was short, and did not reach very far. + +In the corner was Mammy's best umbrella. Seizing this he returned to +the grate and poked the umbrella upwards. Almost at once it came in +contact with something soft. Tommy was distinctly alarmed. Could it be +some robber-man waiting there quietly, oh, so quietly, until he was +asleep; waiting to slip down the chimney quite noiselessly and carry +him silently off? He nearly screamed for Mammy in his fright. + +After Christmas Tommy would be six, and at six a boy must be brave +like David 'n the giant. So Tommy summoned all his courage and again +thrust the umbrella upwards. The contact this time partially displaced +the obstruction in the chimney, and a piece of sacking slipped into +view. Then, indeed, Tommy's heart stood still. He realized at once +what had happened. Santy's rounds this year were evidently unusually +heavy, so he was secretly putting sacks of toys in chimneys +beforehand, so that when Christmas Eve came his work would be partly +done. + +Tommy took hold of the free end of the sacking and pulled gently, but +the bag was wedged too firmly to move. He then stepped inside the +fender, and this time using both hands he really put his back into the +work. The third tug released the sack which burst open as it fell and +bits of screwed-up paper were littered in all directions. + +"The packin' of the presents," Tommy had time to think before fate +overtook him. + +Sitting there inside the fender he was pelted with bits of mortar and +loose stones, tickled with feathers and old starlings' nests, +suffocated with falling soot, as the accumulation of years, set free +by the fall of the stuffed sack, fell upon him with terrifying speed. + +Then he lifted up his voice and wept, crying loudly for Mammy; a +frightened little boy upon whose face soot mingled with tears as he +sat there, utterly cowed, inside the high old-fashioned fender. At the +cry Mrs. Tregennis rushed upstairs and burst into the room, prepared +indeed for the worst, but not prepared for anything quite so bad as +that which she actually found. + +"'Tis just mad I be with ee, Tommy Tregennis," and she spoke through +tight lips. "There's a horrid little sight you be and the room not fit +for a Christian to sleep in, what call had you to go pokin' up +chimneys, 'n where 'm I to put you now?" + +Tommy's sobs were becoming more subdued. "Wanted to see how wide the +chimberly was," he spluttered, "'n I found Santy's sack here for me." + +"Santy's sack, indeed," said an angry Mammy; "I'll Santy's sack you my +son if you go playin' they monkey tricks. That's a sack to keep my +grate clean, so as bits shan't fall down, and it's stuck there for +years before we came here to live; 'n you must go pryin' and meddlin', +you shammock, you!" Mrs. Tregennis shook Tommy as she lifted him out +of the grate and over the fender. "Here's a fine set to for your tired +Mammy. Downstairs you go! Clear!" + +A clean night-shirt was aired for Tommy while he had his second bath. +He was then wrapped up in Daddy's winter coat and plumped into the +rocking-chair in the corner by the fire. + +It took Mrs. Tregennis a good half-hour to make the bedroom fit for +use and when she came downstairs again Tommy was fast asleep. Tenderly +she raised him to carry him back to bed. As her arms enfolded him a +long, sobbing sigh escaped from quivering lips, while a tear rolled +slowly down his cheek. + +"My lamb," she murmured, "my own precious lamb! This Christmas is +goin' to be a better time 'n last, 'n you'll have things in your +stockin', ma handsome, drum an' all!" Having well tucked in the +bed clothes Mrs. Tregennis took up the candle, and left her son to the +healing of the night. + + [Illustration: "MY LAMB," SHE MURMURED, "MY OWN PRECIOUS + LAMB"!] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +The three days before Christmas passed more slowly than any other days +in Tommy's life. As usual the hands of his cuckoo clock remained +stationary in spite of the steady movement of the pendulum; but to +Tommy's unspeakable annoyance, although the chimney-piece clock seemed +to tick louder than ever, he could scarcely see its hands move at all. + +To make matters worse school had broken up and it was too wet and too +cold for the children to play much out-of-doors. So all day long Tommy +was in the kitchen trying to find something to do to fill up the time. +When Ruthie was with him they quarrelled, and when she left him he was +more miserable still. + +Then Aunt Keziah Kate gave him some balls of coloured wool and Granny +taught him to crochet. This was most engrossing for a time. He used a +stubby forefinger as hook, pulling the loose loops as tight as +possible, and slowly and laboriously made lengths of uneven chain. +Later he taught Ruthie to make chains too, but was angry when he found +that her chains were not only better done than his, the loops being +much more even, but that she did quite six inches while he did only +three. + +At last, in spite of the slowly moving hands of the clock, it was +Christmas Eve. + +The whole day was one long excitement. At breakfast-time Tregennis, +Mrs. Tregennis and Tommy were all in a state of high tension. The +evening before, when Tommy was in bed and asleep, Tregennis had +brought home a goose, which he handed with pride to his wife. + +"Well," she exclaimed, "an' where did ee get that bird?" + +"A drawin'," answered Tregennis, laconically. He was always a man of +few words. + +"A drawin'! My blessed fäather! an' how much did ee pay?" + +"Only sixpence, Ellen, an' he weighs twelve pound." + +"Sixpence!" breathlessly. "I don't know how ee dare take such risks. +You might easily 'a' lost, and 'twould just 'a' been a good +sixpenny-bit wasted." + +"But I didn't lose, I won, an' here do be the bird; an' as plump a one +as'll be eaten by any o' the best in Draeth." + +"Well, well," said Mrs. Tregennis, and resumed her knitting, +momentarily neglected; "an' what a Christmas dinner we shall have--as +good as the gintry! Go round now to wanst, an' ask Granfäather, an' +Granny an' Keziah Kate. We'll mebbe never have another goose." + +After breakfast, therefore, on Christmas Eve the goose had to be +plucked. Work for Tregeagle Mrs. Tregennis said this was, with Tommy +playin' round all the time, and all the feathers all a-blowin' no one +knew where every time the kitchen door was opened. + +Tommy stuck the biggest feathers in his hair, and was a wild red +Indian; some of the smaller, fluffier ones he put by in his box of +treasures; all the rest Mammy tried to save to help to make a cushion +for the upstairs sitting-room. + +When Mrs. Tregennis was in the middle of cleaning the goose she was +interrupted by a loud knock. + +"See who's there, Tommy," she said, "an' shut the kitchen door so as +the feathers won't fly." + +Tommy obeyed and opened the outer door a few inches only, with the +instinctive caution of childhood, and peeped through the gap. + +"Fer your Mammy, Tommy," said the station carman, indicating an +enormous package at his feet. + +In his excitement Tommy forgot all about being careful and flung open +the kitchen door. A gust of wind seized the feathers and whirled them +round the room. Mrs. Tregennis's anger was checked by the entrance of +the carman, swaying with a square, solid-looking package done up in +sacking. When he dumped it down on the kitchen floor more feather +flew, but by this time Mrs. Tregennis was past thinking of flying +feathers. + +"'N what is this, Sam?" she demanded, "a joke?" + +"'Tis a pretty heavy joke," said the carman, first straightening his +shoulders, then with a large, red handkerchief wiping condensation +drops from his moustache, "'n a joke as has cost some folks good money +to send from London." + +"Then there do be some mistake, Sam Trimble, for I know no one to +London, an' this'll not be mine." + +But the address on the label showed plainly that the package was +indeed for Mrs. T. Tregennis, of Chapel Garth. + +Even the goose was forgotten when Sam Trimble had closed the door +behind him. Mrs. Tregennis washed her fingers so hurriedly under the +tap that she left red streaks on the runnerin' towel when she dried +her hands there. + +"Have you had the scissors, Tommy? Find Mammy's scissors, quick, ma +handsome." + +After a search, they remembered at the same time that the scissors had +been used before the goose could be cleaned, and they were found lying +under the neck of the bird just where Mrs. Tregennis had put them +before Sam Trimble knocked. + +The sacking was sewn with stout cord and the scissors were blunt, +therefore it was some little time before the opening made was wide +enough for Mrs. Tregennis to pull out the padding of straw. Under the +straw something hard revealed itself to the touch, but there were more +stitches to be cut through before the contents could be withdrawn. +Then Tommy held on as firmly as he could at one end of the sacking +while Mammy tried to pull out whatever it was that was so carefully +packed within. Something rolled to the floor as she pulled, and after +a glance at it she snatched it up and furtively hid it underneath her +apron. + +"What's that, Mammy?" said Tommy, all alert. + +"That," pointing disdainfully to the pile of straw, "'n do we pay for +your schoolin', Tommy Tregennis, an' you not so much as to know as +that's called straw!" + +"But there was somethin' as fell, an' you----" + +"You'm but a noosance an' in the way, Tommy. Run an' see if your +Daddy's on the quay, and if he be tell him to come an' help clear up." + +When Tommy had gone Mrs. Tregennis took from underneath her apron a +brown paper parcel, on which was written: "From Tommy's Ladies, for +his Christmas stocking." She put it among the potatoes and fire-wood +in the dark kitchen cupboard, and had only just time to kneel down and +pull out more straw when Tommy bounded into the kitchen and again made +the feathers fly. + +"Can't see Daddy nowheres, Mammy!" + +"And much trouble you've taken to find he, my son. However, never +mind, I've done it." With a final push and one last pull a simple but +well-made fumed-oak book-case came into view. + +Mrs. Tregennis lifted it from the ground. "Come on, Tommy," she said. + +"Where be we a goin', Mammy?" + +"Why, to show it, of course, to your Granfäather and Granny and Aunt +Keziah Kate; an' Aunt Martha, an' Auntie Jessie an' Ruthie an' all." + +The partly dressed goose was forgotten and left with its head dangling +dejectedly over the edge of the kitchen table. Thus, half an hour +later, Tregennis found it in the midst of a litter of feathers and +blood and straw. + +He had just finished clearing up when Mrs. Tregennis and Tommy +returned, and excitedly called him into the sitting-room on the +left-hand side of the door. In front of the book-case he stood in +silence. + +"'Tis from the ladies," Mrs. Tregennis said, in answer to his unspoken +question. + +"The ladies, not----" + +"Yes, from Tommy's Ladies." + +"Ellen," said Tregennis, passing a toil-worn hand over the smooth, +polished wood, "'tis a'most like bein' in church; 'tis like they +hymn-boards, an' pulpits an' such. 'Tis a'most like bein' in church." + +"An' not a penny under fifteen shillin' Martha says it must have cost. +An' to think as they just knocked at the door; no bikes nor nothin'; +not so much as a paper parcel in their hands, well, well!" With a last +look at the book-case Mrs. Tregennis returned to the kitchen and +finished her work on the neglected goose. + +That very afternoon the fumed-oak book-case was nailed up in the best +sitting-room. Until now many books belonging to Nelson's sevenpenny +library, left behind by visitors, had been piled up on the top of the +grandfather clock. These were all taken down, dusted and arranged in +red and gold rows along the two lower shelves, while the top shelf +Mrs. Tregennis reserved for some of her choicest ornaments. + +"Tom," she said, when this was done, "to-morrow after dinner we'll +have a fire, and sit here. 'Tis unusual, I'll admit, but, after all, +'tis Christmas time, and 'tis no good _bein'_ small an' _lookin'_ +small both; and here we'll sit; so there!" + +As soon as tea was over Tommy wished to go to bed. He was anxious to +intercept Santa Claus in his descent of the chimney, and, if possible, +exercise a certain selective power in the matter of toys. In his +inmost heart he was exceedingly glad that he had dislodged the sack of +paper. Had it still been in the chimney it would have been quite +impossible for Santy to slip through with his burden, and what would +have been the good of Daddy's labelled stocking then? + +As soon as Tommy was in bed Mrs. Tregennis withdrew from the potatoes +the parcel she had hidden there early in the day. It contained a brown +jersey suit and a good big box of chocolates of many kinds. + +When Tommy wakened on the morning of Christmas Day and sleepily +demanded that the candle should be lit, Daddy's stocking, with the +label pinned on the leg, held nuts and two oranges and two apples, +while a trumpet stuck out at the top. On the floor below lay a drum, +and a brown jersey suit and a box of chocolates. These Santy had +clearly meant for some other boy, but had dropped them by mistake in +his haste to be gone. + +Tommy was naturally delighted at receiving more than his share, but he +could not help being afraid that Santy might discover his loss and +soon return. By way of preventing this he suggested that the stuffed +sack should at once be replaced in the chimney and kept there for the +whole of the day. + +The lids with their long lashes drooped heavily over the sleepy blue +eyes, and Mammy lifted Tommy presents and all, into the big bed. Soon +he was breathing regularly through parted lips, and did not waken +until Daddy was ready to carry him pick-a-back down the stairs, to be +washed and dressed in front of the kitchen fire. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +TOMMY TREGENNIS, + Chapel Garth, + East Draeth. + +This was the address on a cheap, white envelope that the postman +brought on Boxing Day and pushed through the gap below the door. Mrs. +Tregennis picked up the letter and turned it over more than once +before passing it on to her husband. + +"Well, it beats me, Ellen," said he; "'tis a female hand for certain. +Who can be makin' up to our Tommy?" + +Mrs. Tregennis went to the door and espied Jimmy Prynne. "Seen our +Tommy?" she asked him. + +Jimmy jerked his thumb over his right shoulder, and Mrs. Tregennis +walked in the direction indicated. + +"Tommy," she called. + +But Tommy, conscious of grimy hands and sticky mouth, thought this was +a summons to wash, and affected not to hear. Something on the horizon +claimed his attention and he gazed fixedly out to sea. + +Mrs. Tregennis, therefore, waved the white envelope in vain. "Tommy, +postman's brought a letter for ee, for your very own." + +This was arrestive. Very few letters came to the house when there were +no visitors, and never before had there been one for Tommy. Often, +certainly, he had picked up old envelopes, and by licking the torn +flaps had made them stick down for a time so that he could pretend +that they were letters that had come for him. But now there was a real +letter all for his very own, and it was held in Mammy's hand only a +few yards off. He ran hastily, tripped over a stone, picked himself up +and ran on again. Then he actually held his own real letter in his +grimy hand. + +He could read the two capital T's without any difficulty, and of +course he knew that they stood for his name. This knowledge gave him +much satisfaction; it was a fine thing to be educated. He was all for +opening the envelope then and there, but, persuaded by Mammy, they +returned to the house together, and in Daddy's presence the flap was +torn. + +Inside the envelope was a gilt-edged card. At the top left-hand corner +of this a gaily-dressed boy with powdered hair was bowing to a Watteau +shepherdess who curtsied before him. The picture absorbed them until +Mammy discovered that there was interest, too, in the old-fashioned, +pointed handwriting below: + +"Miss Lavinia invites Tommy Tregennis to a party on New Year's Day, +from four o'clock until seven." + +There was no R.S.V.P. in the bottom, right-hand corner. The invited +guests would not have known what it meant; but when New Year's Day +came of course all who were bidden to the party would go. + +"My dear life," ejaculated Mammy. "I was never at a Christmas party in +all my born days. You'm a lucky boy, Tommy Tregennis!" + +Tommy nodded. + +After dinner on New Year's Day there was no rest for Mrs. Tregennis +until Tommy was dressed in the new brown jersey suit. He was ready +before half-past two and wished to set off for the party at once. When +Mammy, however, pictured to him how very disappointed Granny and Aunt +Keziah Kate would be if he did not go and show himself in his new +clothes, he decided to run in to see them first. He was gratified when +they unstintingly praised his personal appearance, although it was +only what he had expected. + +With one little thing or another it was half-past three before Tommy +was able to leave for Miss Lavinia's house. On such an occasion as +this no-one would have thought of referring to it as school. Following +his usual custom Tommy called for his cousin. He was much taken aback +when Auntie Jessie told him that Ruthie was upstairs and was not quite +ready, but would be brought to the party later. + +Ruthie's absence took some of the brightness out of the afternoon, and +as he drew nearer and nearer to Miss Lavinia's house Tommy became +unaccountably shy. To add to his embarrassment when he reached the +familiar door he found it shut, instead of standing invitingly open as +on ordinary school days. At the sight of the closed door the last +particle of courage left him, and he wished to run home fast and have +tea quietly with Mammy. Yet something urged him to be brave, and he +screwed up his hand tight, ready to hammer on the door. It was just at +this point that a gentleman walking down the street, seeing a small +boy and a high knocker, crossed over to Tommy and gave a loud rat-tat +to help him. Smiling he passed on, leaving Tommy more deeply +embarrassed than before. + +When Miss Lavinia, wearing her best black silk dress and a gold +locket, herself answered the knock Tommy stood still, not quite +knowing what to do next. When she stooped and kissed him he flushed +deeply, then, with a broad smile of anticipation, stood flat against +the wall in the narrow passage while she closed the door. + +Miss Lavinia, who was really just as shy and nervous as her guests, +led the way into the schoolroom, and here the sense of unfamiliarity +deepened. The desks and maps had gone and the room was hung with +evergreens. Round the fire stood children whom Tommy saw every single +day and never before had he been at a loss in entering upon a +conversation with any one of them. This afternoon, however, he found +nothing to say, and they all looked at one-another in silence. + +Miss Lavinia felt that the party was a failure and grew more and more +nervous as the silent moments were ticked out by the school-room +clock. She went away presently to speak to Mrs. Harris about the tea. +Mrs Harris was the woman who came in for an hour now and again to +help with the rough work, and she had volunteered to be there this +evening just to see Miss Lavinia through. + +A very genteel knock at the door put an end to Miss Lavinia's +superfluous directions. There was hushed expectancy among the groups +of children gathered round the fire when she ushered into the +schoolroom Ruthie's mother leading Ruthie by the hand. + +Ruthie was the only child who had been brought. + +In the very middle of the room she stood while her mother freed her +from the folds of a big Paisley shawl. Then she was revealed to +nineteen pairs of admiring eyes--a little girl in a white silk frock; +the only white silk frock in the room. + +"It is to save her Sunday dress," Ruthie's mother explained to Miss +Lavinia. "You see this will wash." + +She then lifted her daughter on to a table at the far end of the room, +and with a whispered injunction that she must on no account mess up +her clothes she left. + +The spell that until now had held the children was broken. Half +envious, half admiring they gathered round the table and looked at +Ruthie in a real party frock. Her hair had been in so many plaits for +so many hours that it stood out crisply all round her head. But the +greatest wonder of all was her gloves. Ruthie was actually wearing +gloves! White cotton gloves they were, held up at the top by a band of +black elastic; a band so tight that it had already made a groove in +each little arm between the elbow and the wrist. + +Tommy was the only one brave enough to speak about them. "You've +forgotten to take off your gloves, Ruthie." + +"Mammy said to keep 'em on." + +"Whafor?" + +"I don't know." + +"Take 'em off," said Tommy, and Ruthie, as usual, obeyed. + +The gloves and elastic bands were laid on the table, and from there +they fell to the floor. A kick from Tommy sent them into a corner +where Mrs. Harris found them the next morning when she came to tidy +up. + +The summons to tea broke up the group. Ten very shy little girls and +ten boys trying hard to look at ease, walked along the narrow passage +to Miss Lavinia's kitchen. Here table and chairs had been replaced by +trestle-boards and forms. + +It was a tight squeeze but a place was found for all the guests who, +in deep embarrassment, looked at the well-piled plates in front of +them. + +Miss Lavinia and Mrs. Harris walked round filling tea cups and passing +plates. + +In the deep silence Miss Lavinia quite dreaded the sound of her own +voice. She grew more and more nervous. She had given so much thought +to this, her first (and last!) little party. For weeks past she had +exercised numerous economies to make the giving of it possible, and +now that it was actually happening it was all a failure. The children +were not happy and there were still three hours to drag through. Her +mouth was so dry that she had to clear her throat and moisten her lips +before she could ask Ruby Dark to have more tea; and her words came so +jerkily that Ruby was surprised almost to the point of tears. + +Then Mrs. Harris came to the rescue. "Where be they crackers, Miss +Lavinia?" she demanded, and Miss Lavinia, opening the cupboard door, +brought out two gay boxes with twelve beautiful crackers lying closely +and shinily side by side. + +First each girl was given one and pulled it with the boy sitting near +her, and they all screwed up their eyes and there were little cries of +fright when the pop came. By the time the boys were given their +crackers all the children were out of their places, jumping up and +down with excitement, proudly wearing paper bonnets with frills, and +three-cornered caps, and paper aprons whose strings would never meet +round any waist. + +Miss Lavinia's nervousness suddenly passed. "Shoo!" she said as though +they were so many chickens. "Run back to the school-room." + +She clapped her hands and they surged along the passage laughing, +jumping, poking one another; a boisterous band of happy children for +whom tea and the crackers had broken the ice. + +First of all they would play "Hunt the Slipper," and therefore they +must all sit in a ring. + +"Mammy said not to sit on the floor," whispered Ruthie to Tommy. + +"Sit down," said Tommy scornfully. Ruthie sat, and the game began. + +The slipper went round and round and round. It was thrown across, and +up and back again, and Jimmy Prynne, outside the circle, grabbed and +missed and snatched again. There was much confusion, and no one quite +knew what anyone else was doing, or what they themselves were meant to +do, but it was a grand game, and in the merry laughter no-one joined +more heartily than Miss Lavinia herself. + +Next came "Nuts and May," and "Blind Man's Buff." The blind man always +guessed the wrong number of fingers held up, and yet managed to see +just quite a little either above or below the handkerchief that +smelled so sweetly of lavender and had belonged to Miss Lavinia's +father years and years ago. + +After this they were all so hot that they played "Postman's Knock" for +coolness. Jimmy Prynne went out first. He rapped sharply on the closed +door and Miss Lavinia opened it just a small crack and peered out into +the passage where Jimmy stood. Then followed the old-time dialogue, +dear to so many generations of children. + +"Who's there?" said Miss Lavinia. Memories laid away in lavender these +many years were awakened by the foolish old game. + +"Postman," replied a gruff, stern voice. + +The children sitting in a row, waiting--waiting, laughed their +appreciation of Jimmy's dramatic power. + +Then the dialogue continued. "What with?" + +"A letter." + +"How many stamps?" The air was tense. + +"Fifteen stamps." + +Then the most important question of all. "Who for?" + +There was a pause on the part of the postman. + +"Jimmy, Jimmy Prynne, choose me, Jimmy," and Ruby Dark stood up in her +excitement. + +Jimmy hesitated. + +Miss Lavinia, the doorkeeper, bent down, and in a very gentle whisper, +said: "Choose Ruby, Jimmy." And Ruby, shining eyes and chin uplifted +passed out into the dim light of the narrow passage, and there fifteen +kisses, each one carefully counted by the bearer of the letter, were +solemnly exchanged. + +Every one had a letter. Miss Lavinia saw that nobody was forgotten. +She was childishly glad when Tommy chose her and the letter bore one +hundred stamps; although, as she explained when they were together in +the passage, there really was not time for all the hundred then, they +must be content with two and the rest could be delivered some other +day. + +After this Mr. and Mrs. Brown, and the little dog, and the cushions, +and the whip, and the reins and all the other parts of the Old Family +Coach grew dizzier and dizzier with the restless whirling and turning +resulting from the many adventures and accidents that befell the coach +on its perilous summer morning's journey. + +Christmas parties come all too quickly to an end. It was nearly time +to go home, but first of all would Miss Lavinia tell them a story? So +the lamp was turned out, and in the firelight Miss Lavinia began. + +"Once upon a time" (every child looked straight into Miss Lavinia's +eyes). "Once upon a time, in the heart of a deep, green wood, a very +beautiful princess lived all alone. She had no father and no mother, +but all the creatures that flew, or crawled, or ran were her friends. + +"It was always summer in the wood. So the princess wore beautiful +garments made of silken gossamer, and the spiders wove a new robe for +her every morning, just when the sun was up. When the new gossamer +robe was ready the birds flew to the boughs of the beech tree under +which the princess slept, and sang sweet songs until the princess sat +up and rubbed her eyes, and said: 'Why, it is day!' + +"Then the birds flew away to look after their own families, and the +squirrels brought nuts and cracked them, and laid them at the feet of +the beautiful princess. + +"She was never hungry, this beautiful princess, for such wonderful +fruits grew in the wood. She was never cold, for the sun shone all day +long. When night came, and the moon and the stars took the place of +the sun, she lay down under the beech tree that had stood there for +hundreds of years, and covered herself with bracken, and slept. + +"She was perfectly happy, was the princess, until one night she had a +dream. It was the very first dream that she had ever had, and she +dreamed that she was alone. In the morning she sat up and rubbed her +eyes just at the dawn, long before the birds came. She looked down +through the long shadows of the trees. She was afraid, for 'I am +alone,' she said. It seemed a dreadful thing to be a beautiful +princess all alone in the heart of a deep, green wood." + +A glowing coal fell from the fire. Miss Lavinia paused for a moment, +and for the first time the children stirred. + +"When I'm growed up," said Ruthie, "I shall get married." + +"You must wait until some one asks you, Ruthie," Miss Lavinia gently +reproved her. + +"Didn't no-one never ask you, Miss Lavinia?" said Tommy, pushing a +hot, moist hand into hers. "'N so couldn't you never be married?" + +"What happened to the Princess in the wood?" asked Jimmy Prynne +impatiently. + +"Well, a butterfly that had also wakened very early flew round and +round the Princess, and then away from her, towards the shadows of the +trees. The Princess stood up and followed, one hand stretched out as +if to touch the coloured wings. The butterfly led her quite to the +edge of the wood. There, beyond the bracken that she gathered for her +bed under the beech tree, stood the most wonderful Prince in the +whole, wide world. + +"And the Princess knew that she was no longer alone. + +"'Come!' she said to the Prince. + +"'There is magic,' he replied, 'and I cannot cross the bracken unless +you lead me by the hand.' + +"So the Princess stepped through the high fern-fronds, and when she +held the hand of the Prince he kissed her. At his kiss a wind arose +and the branches of the trees waved to and fro. The birds twittered +uneasily, and there was a sound like thunder and falling rain. Then, +as hurrying shadows, the trees vanished. The Prince and the Princess +could no longer see the birds, but they heard the fluttering of their +wings overhead. + +"There was a sudden lightning flash that made the Prince and Princess +close their eyes. + +"When they opened them again they were no longer in the wood, but in a +room with a cheerful fire and a lighted lamp. The Princess had lost +her gossamer robe; she wore a blue serge frock and a white apron. The +Prince had on a blue jersey with a name on the front. They stood in +the little room hand in hand. + +"'I am no longer alone,' said the Princess, and smiled. + +"'Let us unlock the door,' said the Prince, 'then perhaps a little +child will come in.' + +"So they drew back the bolt and waited!" + +Tommy wriggled his hot hand from the clasp of Miss Lavinia's thin +fingers. "My Mammy'll be missin' me," he said, and struggled to his +feet. Then the clock struck seven. + +Five minutes later twenty little people, in coats and mufflers, kissed +Miss Lavinia and ran out laughing into the winter night. + +Miss Lavinia closed the door behind them and returned to the +firelight alone. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +Of course Tommy was much too excited to sleep. When a girl called +Annabel is coming to live in your house for ever and ever it naturally +absorbs all your thoughts. + +Annabel's father was a naval officer who was sailing away from +Plymouth for two years, and Annabel and Annabel's mother were to live +in Tommy's house until he came home again. + +All Tommy's particular friends, with the single exception of Ruthie, +were looking forward to the coming of Annabel, but Tommy had made it +quite clear to them that only now and again would she be able to give +them much attention, as most of the time she would be helping him to +carry out the most wonderful of wonderful games. + +A late train this very February night was to bring Annabel and her +mother to Draeth. Tommy reduced the bed clothes to indescribable +confusion while he waited for their coming. + +"Mammy, has Annabel come yet? Mammy, what's Annabel like?" + +Mrs. Tregennis came upstairs and for the twentieth time that day +described the little girl. + +She had seen neither Annabel nor Annabel's mother. It was with the +naval officer himself that she had made all arrangements, and as he +had crisp, curly hair, and very blue eyes she decided that his little +daughter possessed these qualities too. Tommy, therefore, pictured +Annabel with golden curls, rosy cheeks, blue eyes and a merry smile. + +"'N will she play with me, Mammy?" + +"If you'm a brave good boy, she will. But no sliding down Skiddery +Rock, mind." + +"'N shall I show her the Smuggler's Cave, 'n let her ride on Dobbin? +Oh, Mammy, I _wish_ as Annabel would come. You'll bring her straight +in to see me, Mammy, won't you, before her goes to bed?" + +Mrs. Tregennis promised. "But you'll have to be very good, ma +handsome," she warned him, "or your Mammy'll be properly ashamed of ee +'longside Annabel." + +For the first time Tommy felt the improvement of his moral character +to be a real need. + +Mrs. Tregennis went downstairs to make final preparation for supper, +while Tommy left to himself passed into the realms of play-acting. The +_dramatis personæ_ were Tommy Tregennis, enacted by himself, and +blue-eyed, curly-haired Annabel, represented for the moment by the +pillow. There were others, too, scattered dimly in the shadows of the +room. + +In the first act Tommy sat up in bed, clutched the pillow tightly, and +"I _love_ you," he said. + +Then, in reply to an interruption from the shadows: "No, her _don't_ +love ee, Jimmy Prynne!" + +The setting of the second act was slightly different, as, by this +time, the sheets and blankets were lying in a disorderly heap upon the +floor. Tommy was kneeling in the middle of the cot digging a +wonderful castle in the sand, while the pillow (that is, Annabel), +looked on with admiring wonder. Those others, in the shadows, tried +hard to make fine castles too, but Annabel gave them never a look. + +Before the curtain rose on the third act the real Annabel, accompanied +by her mother, entered the house. Ungraciously Tommy thumped the +pillow and flung it aside. + +In vain he listened for ascending footsteps. Why didn't Mammy at once +tell Annabel that he was waiting for her, he wondered. At last, after +what seemed to him hours and hours, he heard them come upstairs. + +There was a stumble, and a strange voice said: "Be careful, darling," +then they came on again. + +Oddly the footsteps did not stop at his door, and a moment later he +knew by the sounds overhead that Annabel and her mother were in their +own bedroom. + +"Mammy!" he called. + +At once she stood by his bed and, stooping, kissed him, with some new +quality in her kiss. + +"Wants to see Annabel, Mammy," he said plaintively, rubbing tired +eyes. "Bring her to see me, Mammy." + +Mrs. Tregennis hesitated, then stood in the doorway and spoke to the +visitors as they came downstairs. "My little Tommy's in bed, ma'am, +and can't go to sleep, he's so excited about seein' Annabel." + +Mrs. Tregennis held out her hand to draw the child into the room. + +"Oh," interposed Annabel's mother, scarcely pausing on the stairs, +"_Miss_ Annabel will speak to your boy in the morning, it is too late +to-night." + +"I wants to see her now, Mammy. I wants to see her to wanst," wailed +Tommy, losing his shyness when confronted with the dread possibility +of having to wait all through the hours until morning. "I wants to see +her _now_, Mammy," and his voice rose higher. + +The naval officer's wife held her daughter's hand and tightened her +lips. "He seems to be an undisciplined child," she said, and went down +to the sitting-room where supper was spread. + +While Tommy sobbed in his pillow Mrs. Tregennis spoke out her mind to +her husband. "A blessin' she may be, I'm not for sayin' that she isn't +when I think of good money for two whole years. But she be a blessin' +in a thick disguise, Tom, so there 'tis, an' can't be no tizzer. +_Miss_ Annabel! _Miss_, mind you, Thomas Tregennis. I reckon she be +just like her mother though she be but a maid of five years old. Well, +I be main sorry for _'e_. 'Tis proper glad he'll be to be away these +two years, I'm thinkin'. Real glad he be, I guess." + +When Tommy returned from school the following morning a sallow, +lank-haired girl stood in the doorway of the downstairs sitting-room. + +"Come here, boy," she demanded imperiously. + +Tommy looked at the unattractive stranger a full minute without +speaking; then--"Go out of my house," he said. + +Two mothers rushed hurriedly forward. + +"Tommy, Tommy," cried Mrs. Tregennis, "that do be Miss Annabel." + +"What a _rude_ boy!" said the naval officer's wife. + +Tommy took no notice of her. "'Tisn't Annabel," he said, shaking off +his mother's restraining hand. "Annabel has curls, an' is pretty, an' +smiles. That do be 'n ugly girl, that be." + +Annabel ran forward and smacked him. "I hate you, boy," she cried. + +Tommy was quite ready to fight, but his mother's grip prevented him; +all he could do was to make a hideous grimace as he was pushed +ignominously into the kitchen where the door was shut upon him. + +Later in the morning the naval officer's wife summoned Mrs. Tregennis +to her sitting-room (the room on the ground floor on the left-hand +side of the door), and expressed her wishes and views. "I must live +quite economically," she explained. "I do not wish to spend much money +on food. I should like you to do all the shopping, but there must be +no extravagance and no waste. We shall eat very little meat, but +plenty of vegetables. I do not like to think of cows and sheep, +animals that lend charm and poetry to country life, being sacrificed +to the material needs of my babe and myself. Vegetarian dishes form +the only Christian menu. To-day we will have haricot beans made up +into some little delicacy, and for the second course a small rice +pudding. Please take a half-pennyworth of milk for me each day, and +skim off the cream that rises to the top for my afternoon tea." + +"Oh, my blessed fäather; I've never met her like," confided Mrs. +Tregennis later to Aunt Keziah Kate who had just dropped in for a bit +of newsin'. "Two years of she'll about finish me, I reckon. Cream on +the top of a ha'porth of milk; my dear soul!" + +Four weeks of the downstairs visitors had made Mrs. Tregennis quite +irritable and short-tempered, and when, towards the end of March, the +postman brought an unstamped letter she quite crossly refused to take +it in. It came by the afternoon delivery, and Tregennis went to the +door as his wife was upstairs. + +"Ellen," he called, "here's a letter for ee, an' tuppence to pay." + +"An' what'll I be payin' tuppence for?" + +"It can't be left without; there's no stamp on 'e." + +"Then it must be taken back. I don't want 'e." To emphasize her words +Mrs. Tregennis retreated from the head of the stairs and closed her +bedroom door. + +Tregennis held the letter delicately between finger and thumb and +looked perplexedly at the postman, who tilted his official cap and +scratched his head. + +At this moment the Naval Officer's wife came out of her room. "Are +there any communications for me?" she asked. + +"No 'm, nothing at all," and Tregennis held up the unstamped letter to +the light, and tried in vain to penetrate the thickness of the +envelope. + +"Ah, I see there is two-pence to pay," said Annabel's mother, who +still stood in the doorway. "Perhaps you have not the money; pray use +this." She thrust forward two pennies as she spoke. + +Tregennis was a man by no means given to prejudices, but for this +woman he had conceived a violent dislike. "In no way thank ee, ma'am. +I have plenty of money here," and he slowly and carefully extracted +from the depth of his trouser pocket one penny and one halfpenny. +Shamefacedly he fumbled for a second halfpenny which could not be +found. First in one pocket, then in the other he felt, until the +postman showed some signs of impatience. The Naval Officer's wife +looked supercilious and returned to her room. + +Tregennis, hot and uncomfortable and feeling like a thief, went to the +kitchen cupboard. From the right hand corner of the second shelf he +took a yellow china pig with a longways slit in its back. This rattled +as he moved it, for it was Tommy's moneybox. The only way in which the +capital invested in the pig could be recovered was to turn the animal +upside down and shake it in rapid jerks. Not infrequently it happened +that the coins lodged right across the slit instead of slipping +through. So it was to-day. At last one penny fell on the table and +rolled to the floor. Stooping, Tregennis secured the penny and handing +it to the now openly impatient postman received in exchange his own +halfpenny and the unstamped letter addressed to his wife. + +He put the letter in a prominent place on the chimney-piece, propping +it up against one of the china dogs. Here Mrs. Tregennis found it a +little later. "Why, my blessed fäather," she exclaimed, when it caught +her eye, "we might be made of money. We might be the quality +themselves the way you do go flingin' away tuppences right and left. +Whatever made ee give tuppence for that?" + +Tregennis jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "_She_ wanted to pay!" + +"Well, that was proper sensible of ee, too, Tom," admitted his wife as +she took down the unstamped letter from the chimney-piece, turned it +over, and pushed her thumb under the flap. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +It was the Thursday before Good Friday, and in the Tregennis household +there was great excitement and joyous expectancy. Mrs. Tregennis had +sung softly to herself all the while she was dressing, greatly to the +annoyance of the Naval Officer's wife, who was invariably irritated +when people hummed. She was irritated, too, by Mrs. Tregennis's happy +manner when she carried in the downstairs sitting-room breakfast; and +again when breakfast was over and was being cleared away. + +Then, however, curiosity got the better of hurt dignity. "What time do +the ladies come?" she asked. + +"At ten minutes after six, ma'am." + +"Ah, then perhaps I had better defer my call until to-morrow. They +will have many little matters to occupy them this evening." + +"How do you mean 'call,' Ma'am?" asked Mrs. Tregennis anxiously, +feeling that there was probably trouble ahead. + +"I mean that I shall, of course, visit them at once," replied +Annabel's mother in her most affected manner. "If I approve of them, +and find that they belong to my own social grade, I shall most +certainly take them up and show them every civility." + +"I don't think the young ladies will want to trouble about visitors +and such," retorted Mrs. Tregennis hotly. "They be all for bein' out +and sittin' on the rocks, be our ladies, and they've got each other, +an' they don't want nothin' more. And they'm just of the very best, +ma'am, our ladies; truly lovely people they be." + +"They did not scruple to send you an unstamped letter, these people, +who are of the very best; but perhaps you think the stamp rubbed off +in the post?" + +"No'm, I _don't_ think that, there was never no stamp on at all, there +was no gummy corner, nor nothin'. 'Tis lucky that my husband had more +sense than me an' took it in. The ladies gave it to some one to post, +I guess, with a penny for a stamp, and the stamp was never put on. +Save a penny like that! Them!" Mrs. Tregennis hurried from the room +with her heavily loaded tray. + +To Mrs. Tregennis the hours of that Thursday passed very slowly. The +rooms for the ladies had been cleaned and prepared the day before, but +more than once she went into the upstairs sitting-room, and tried to +improve the hang of the curtains and the arrangement of the flowers +that looked so many more than they really were because of their +reflection in the overmantel glass. Once she ran hurriedly upstairs +and again inspected her drawer of bedroom towels to make quite sure +that she had put out the biggest and the best. Once, too, she walked +into the ladies' bedroom and rather anxiously inspected the cake of +pink soap that fitted so neatly into the perforated tray of the +soap-dish, and wondered if it was just exactly what they would really +like the best of all. In the middle of the morning two trunks arrived +as luggage in advance. When these had been carried upstairs and placed +at the foot of the bed the carman's foot-marks were removed with a +duster, and nothing further remained to be done. + +When Tommy burst in from school soon after four o'clock, his first +breathless words were, "Have my ladies come yet, Mammy?" and so +restless and excited was he that he could scarcely be induced to have +tea. + +When he was released from the table he ran out into the alley, and, +refusing all invitations to dig on the sands, he played round his own +doorway so that he might catch the first glimpse of his ladies when +they actually did arrive. Just before half-past six, however, when he +peeped round the corner and saw them coming, he was seized with +shyness and ran hastily into the kitchen, and hid in the cupboard +among the coals. + +Before they could shake hands Mrs. Tregennis must give hers a last +wipe on the oven cloth, while Tregennis rubbed both of his slowly up +and down the legs of his trousers. Then there was much talking, but as +they all talked together no one heard distinctly anything that anyone +else said. + +When finally one voice arose above the rest it belonged to the Blue +Lady. "Oh, how deliciously those chops are sizzeling; we're just as +hungry as hunters." Then, "Where's Tommy?" she asked. + +Mrs. Tregennis looked around puzzled, then put her head out of the +window. "He was here but a minute since, excited as could be." + +Then she bethought herself of the cupboard and opened the door +revealing her handsome among the coals. In his eagerness to hide he +had fallen, and hands and face were black with coal-dust. + +"Come forth, Tommy," he was commanded, and, grinning shyly, he obeyed. + +"Now, stand perfectly still," and, stooping, the Blue Lady selected a +cleanish spot on his face and there she kissed him. + +Tommy, completely forgetting his orders, flung his arms around her +neck, leaving impressions in coal-dust on her linen collar and on her +face. + +"It isn't of the least consequence," she assured Mrs. Tregennis. +"They'll both wash." + +As they walked upstairs to their own sitting-room the Blue Lady +slipped her hand into the Brown Lady's saying, "Oh, Dorothea, isn't it +good to be here? Just good, good, good!" + +Before they had quite finished tea there was a muffled sound on the +door and some one walked into the room. + +"We've had a beautiful tea, Mrs. Tregennis. We've each eaten a huge +chop, but, as usual, I didn't get my fair share of cream." Then the +Blue Lady stopped abruptly for she read in her friend's face that +something was wrong. Turning she saw that a stranger stood in the +room. + +"I beg your pardon," she said, rising, with a touch of hauteur in her +voice, "I thought it was Mrs. Tregennis who came in when the door +opened." Then she waited. + +The stranger responded with what was meant to be a winning smile. "My +little girl and I are in the downstairs sitting-room," she began to +explain, "and I came in now----" + +"Ah, I understand," interrupted the Blue Lady, more warmth in her +tone. "You have moved down there for us, and came in here now +absentmindedly?" + +"Not at all," exclaimed the Naval Officer's wife, as she sat down +unasked. "I came to welcome you to Draeth." + +Meeting with no answer she continued. "There is no society at all +here, no intellectual companionship, nothing but the commonplace life +of an insignificant fishing-town. Lest you should be dull, Annabel, my +babe, and I will place all our spare hours at your disposal." + +"I am sure you mean very kindly." The Brown Lady, who still dabbed at +jam and cream with her knife, grew hot when she heard the calm even +tones proceeding. "But we have come down here purposely to avoid the +rush of the S----; that is, to be quiet and alone. I am sure you will +understand when I say that we wish for no companionship but that of +each other, during the short time we are here." + +As the Blue Lady spoke she opened the door, and with a slight +inclination bowed the visitor from the room. + +"Oh, Margaret!" The Blue Lady flicked crumbs across the table with +unerring aim. + +"No, Margaret, it's no good being flippant and playing like that, I +_will_ speak. You were very rude to her, and you know you were." + +"Yes, I think I was, but courteously rude. How else _could_ you treat +a woman like that. Let's have Mrs. Tregennis up and find out who in +the name of fortune she is, and after that we'll run down to the sea." + +The Blue Lady rang the bell, then singing, she whirled the little +Brown Lady round and round the room: + + "Oh, for the smell of the salt and the weed, + Oh, for the rush of the waves, + Oh, for the cliffs where the white sea-gulls breed, + And oh, for the murmuring caves! + + Here when the beacon light flashes at night, + Here when the winter winds roar, + Here when----" + +"I'm out of breath," panted the Brown Lady. + +"Do stop this jigging round, and this ridiculous impromptu rhyming. +You were just like this when we were here before, but being nearly a +year older now you ought to know better. Here's Mrs. Tregennis, so you +_must_ stop." + +"Mrs. Tregennis," the Blue Lady burst forth. "Who is she? Where did +she come from? Why is she here? And how long does she mean to stay?" + +"Oh, Miss, 'tis brave an' sorry I be. I told her this morning as how +you wouldn't want to be taken up, but she would come. There she be now +ringin' and ringin' her bell. Always in a fanteague about somethin', +she be." + +"Well, go and see what she wants; all this can wait, for we're going +out." + +Hatless the two friends ran downstairs and out, in the fading light, +to the sea. + +From the very way in which the bell was ringing Mrs. Tregennis knew +that no pleasant moments awaited her in the downstairs sitting-room. + +First of all there was a complaint about supper. It had been ordered +for a quarter past seven; it was now ten minutes past seven, and the +cloth was not even laid. "You must remember that I am most particular +about punctuality, Mrs. Tregennis, nothing displeases me more than to +have meals late. I hope that because two strangers have come here for +a few weeks you will not neglect me and my child." + +Mrs. Tregennis stood, silent, and outwardly patient. "Do you know at +all who they are?" continued her exasperating lodger. "The taller one +said they had come down from London to avoid the rush of the s----. +Then she stopped. What could there be beginning with 's' that they +should wish to escape?" + +"Supper begins with 's,' and it'll be fine an' late ma'am, if I don't +go and see about it." And Mrs. Tregennis escaped from the room. + +When she returned the naval officer's wife spoke with excitement. +"I've found out," she cried. "They're shop girls!" and paused, to give +dramatic emphasis to her words. + +As Mrs. Tregennis appeared quite unmoved she continued. "To escape +from the rush of the s----! Of course there must be sales on in the +London shops now, and they've managed to save up money enough to come +down here to rest until the sales are over, then they will go back +again to work. You had better see that they pay beforehand for all +they have, or you may find yourself in Queer Street when they go +away." + +"Mrs. Radford!" Mrs. Tregennis had never before addressed her lodger +by name, so it was all the more impressive. "Mrs. Radford, I'll not +hear one word against our ladies. They haven't thought fit to tell me +who they be, and 'tis no business of mine. Shop girls or no, I cannot +say, but they'm real ladies, whatever they be, and I'll not hear a +word against them, so there's where 'tis to." + +"You need not become angry, my good woman. Their appearance is +certainly not in their favour, for they are almost shabbily dressed; +plain blue and brown Norfolk suits that are by no means new. When they +arrived I looked through the window most particularly to see their +style of dress, and I may say I was by no means favourably impressed." + +"If you'd like to know, ma'am, they're the very clothes they wore down +here last year, an' they weren't new then. Very sootable to Draeth +they be to my way of thinkin'. But I don't want to talk about them to +you at all, if you don't mind, ma'am. It seems sort of an insult to +our ladies to be discussin' their clothes an' such. And if you'll ring +when you've finished, ma'am, I'll come in again to clear away." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +It was perfect Easter weather. It was so hot that when you closed your +eyes you thought it was the middle of summer, until you opened them +and saw, high up on the cliffs, the leafless trees. Still, as always +in Draeth, in spite of the heat, the air had that delightful freshness +which results from the mingling of the sea-breezes with the winds +which blow from the Cornish moorlands. + +In every hedge myriads of primroses opened wide and startled eyes to +the blue of the sky. Purple violets nestled among the green grass +blades. Timidly the hart's tongue fern unrolled the delicate green of +its mitred leaf. The lords and ladies were in flower, and zealously +guarded their secret within the closed, mysterious spathe. Over all +the blackthorn shed snow-white petals, and the whole air was full of +the intoxicating smell of the gorse. + +In and out of the hedges darted the mating birds; chaffinches and +yellow-hammers, thrushes and blackbirds; robins and linnets; and +hedge-sparrows that are not sparrows at all. All together they sang +the song of Love and of Springtime, while, on the house-tops in the +town, the starlings mocked them all. Such faithful mockery, too, that +when you were indoors it was truly bewildering, for you were sure that +blackbirds and thrushes were perching on Mrs. Tregennis's chimney +pots, until the sweet whistle ended with the ridiculous squawk that +always betrays the starling, and lets you know that you have been +befooled. + +As the ladies sat at breakfast on Saturday morning a stumble on the +stairs heralded Tommy's approach. + +He fumbled with the handle of the door, opened it wide, then +remembered to knock and came in. + +After a scarcely perceptible pause of indecision he walked to the +Brown Lady. "A letter," he said, and pushed it very deliberately into +her hand. + +"Oh, Tommy," bemoaned the Blue Lady, "have you no letter for me?" + +"There was three for ee yesterday mornin', so 'tis the turn of she." + +He jerked his thumb at Miss Dorothea who tore open the flap of the +envelope, saying, "That's quite just, Tommy." + +But when she had opened out the folded sheet within, she gave an +embarrassed exclamation and flushed deeply. "I'm very sorry, Margaret, +but it's for you. I didn't look at the address, but just opened it." + +The Blue Lady took the open sheet and envelope, and, in her turn, +reddened slightly. "I thought perhaps there might be a letter," she +remarked. + +"Yes," said the Brown Lady, and silence fell between them. + +Totally misunderstanding this, Tommy tried to put matters right. +"'Taint fair," he said in a loud and angry voice. "There was three for +ee yesterday," and he snatched the letter from Miss Margaret as he +spoke. + +Unfortunately for Tommy, Mammy passed the open door at this moment. + +"Oh, my dear soul," she exclaimed, when the incident had been +explained to her. "I telled ee the letter was for Miss Margaret. Go +right away to wanst." + +"It didn't really matter at all," the Blue Lady interrupted. "And, you +see, according to Tommy's idea of justice it was quite wrong for the +letter to be for me." + +But Mammy was angry, and holding a tearful and ruffled Tommy firmly by +the hand she led him downstairs. + +So the morning began badly. Mammy's lips were tightly closed. Tommy +ate his breakfast in sullen silence, standing instead of sitting to +annoy Mammy, who took no notice of her son's waywardness, and so made +matters worse. + +After breakfast Mrs. Tregennis held out a penny to Tommy, who was +wiping his lips with the back of his hand. "See if you can get a bit +of mint to Bridget's, and be quick back." + +"I ain't a-goin' to fetch no more errands for ee to-day," Tommy replied +to his mother, raising his clear, blue, innocent eyes, and looking +unflinchingly into hers. + +"Oh, very well," said Mammy with a sigh, making a feint of undoing her +apron strings. "Then I must go to wanst myself, busy though I be." + +"Why can't ee send Mabel, or Annie, or Ruthie?" objected Tommy in a +determined voice. + +"What!" said Mrs. Tregennis, "and let all the neighbours know as Tommy +Tregennis isn't to be trusted to fetch an errand for his Mammy? Never. +I've got 'eaps an' 'eaps of work to do, and 'tis very busy I be, but +I'll go for the mint myself." + +Then for the first time Tommy's glance wavered; he held out his hand. +"Give I the money," he said, "I s'pose I must go this wanst. Give I +the money," and away he ran. + +On his return he laid the mint on the kitchen table. + +"There," he said, "but I tell ee I ain't goin' to fetch no more +errands all day." + +"No?" replied Mammy pleasantly, and hummed a little tune as she +stripped off the leaves of the mint before chopping them up for the +sauce. + +Tommy waited a while. Then, "May I go and play on the beach now, +Mammy?" he asked. + +"Go just where you like, my son," was the reply "and I hope you'll +spend a very happy morning wherever you be." + +Tommy left the house with a defiant exterior and a leaden feeling +within. At play on the beach he lost his ball, which was a rather +specially good one, and found, in exchange, two much smaller ones that +would not bounce, and therefore offered little in the way of +compensation. + +At dinner time Mammy was very cheerful, Daddy was silent and Tommy was +sad. + +After dinner he ran off hastily lest more errands should be required +of him, and, for a time, forgot his sorrows in trying to recover by +force his own ball from Jimmy Prynne. Jimmy had found it lying snugly +in the hollow of a rock where Tommy now remembered he had hidden it +for safety. When he had regained possession he removed from the tail +of his Jersey cap the two small balls that had lost their bounce; +these he kicked disgustedly in the direction of Jimmy Prynne, and +turned contemptuously away. + +He made up his mind to enjoy to the full the happiness of being +thoroughly naughty. No other children were on the Skiddery Rock, but +Tommy slid down its steeply polished side again and again, and still +nothing tore. + +Then he decided that he would get his feet just as wet as it was +possible for feet to be. So he threw his ball out to sea and waded in +after it; and threw it again and waded again; and again, and yet +again, until a wetter pair of boots and stockings than those worn by +Tommy Tregennis it would have been impossible to find. This +distinction achieved, a little voice within became unpleasantly +clamorous; not the warning voice of conscience, but the insistent +voice of fear. Tommy waded out of the water and wished with all his +heart that his feet were dry. + +A few moments he spent in deliberation, then turning his back upon the +cold, wet sea he walked slowly in the direction of Granny Tregennis's +house. At each step he took the water squelched unpleasantly inside +his boots, and each squelching step brought him nearer to an angry +mother's justifiable wrath. + +"Granny," he whispered, poking his head through the kitchen window. +"Granny." + +Although it was such a warm day Granny Tregennis sat in the rocking +chair by the kitchen fire. + +"Yes, ma lovely?" she replied. "An' where have ee been all day, ma +handsome? Saturday, too, an' your Granny left all alone." + +"Come home along o' me, Granny," pleaded Tommy. + +"Why, whatever for should I be comin' home along o' ee?" demanded +Granny Tregennis. + +"Come home along o' me," repeated Tommy, "come with me to my Mammy; +_please_, Granny." + +"An' why?" + +"Somehow I've gotten my feet all wet," and Tommy, who by this time was +inside the quaint, low-ceilinged room, looked ruefully down at the +thick, sodden boots. + +"Keziah Kate," called Granny, "take thicky lamb home." + +"Taint the same thing," argued Tommy, "'tisn't a bit the same. Aunt +Keziah Kate do allus be a-comin', she be. Come yourself, Granny, come +home along of I." + +So persistent was the pleading that for the first time in many weeks +Granny put on bonnet and shawl and emerged from her doorway. + +It was very slow progress that the two made along the uneven cobbles. +When they were about half-way home they saw Mrs. Tregennis in the +distance. + +"Sh-sh-sh!" warned Tommy, putting a grimy finger across his lips. + +But all caution was vain; Mammy looked up, saw them, turned and walked +towards them. + +"Why, Granny," she asked, "whatever's brought ee out-o'-doors, and +evenin' time, too?" + +Granny and Tommy felt equally guilty. Granny, as the elder, felt +called upon to explain. "Tommy's gotten his feet wet, Ellen. Don't be +hard on 'e." + +"So, my son, you'm a naughty boy, be you, and goes to hide behind your +Granny's skirts? Bringin' your Granny out like this, Tommy Tregennis, +because you'm afraid to come home alone. I'd take shame, an' I was +you." + +While Granny Tregennis sorrowfully retraced her steps Tommy +accompanied his mother with sinking heart. + +Tregennis was sitting by the kitchen fire. "I've gotten my feet wet, +Daddy," volunteered Tommy. + +"That you have!" he replied, looking down at the tell-tale boots. + +"Take 'em off quickly," ordered Mammy, but Tommy was unequal to the +task of grappling with the wet, knotted laces. + +"Take 'em off quickly!" he in his turn urged his Daddy, who felt like +a conspirator as Tommy confidingly raised first one foot, then the +other, that the offending boots might be unlaced and removed. + +"Now my stockin's, Daddy," he pleaded in a whisper; but here Mrs. +Tregennis interposed. + +"You'm not goin' to have clean stockin's on late Saturday afternoon, +Tommy, so now you know," she asserted decidedly, as she came forward +with a sturdy pair of strap shoes, and lifting Tommy to a chair +proceeded to put them on over the wet stockings. + + [Illustration: IT WAS VERY SLOW PROGRESS THAT THE TWO MADE ALONG + THE UNEVEN COBBLES.] + +"I can't bear it, Mammy; I won't have they," Tommy cried. + +There was no resisting Mammy's strength; the shoes were not only on, +but buttoned. + +"I won't have they, Mammy. Lemme go to bed." + +"You may go to bed the minute you've had your tea, my son; but first +run an' get me two cabbages to Bridget's." + +A downward movement on Tommy's part drew a warning from Mrs. +Tregennis. "Don't ee remove they shoes, my son. Now run off quickly +and get me two cabbages to Bridget's." + +As Mrs. Tregennis spoke she put some coppers into Tommy's hand. +Tommy's fingers remained limp and the pennies rolled over the kitchen +floor. At the same time he kicked off the strap shoes and sent them to +the farthest corner of the room. + +Then Tommy was whipped, and in spite of cries and kicks the strap +shoes were again buttoned on his wet, resisting feet. "Now go and get +me two cabbages to Bridget's," commanded Mrs. Tregennis. + +"Shan't fetch no more errands for ee, ever;" asseverated Tommy, his +fingers clenched. + +"Go an' get me two cabbages to Bridget's," said Mrs. Tregennis, now +punctuating each word with a slap, and Tommy's sobs rose anew. + +At this moment Aunt Keziah Kate entered. Tommy fled to her from the +enemy, and buried his head in her clean white apron. + +"What is ut, ma lovely?" Aunt Keziah Kate asked tenderly, as she +stroked the tousled head. + +By this time the Blue Lady had come downstairs to find out the cause +of Tommy's trouble. + +"Go and get me two cabbages to Bridget's," once more repeated Mrs. +Tregennis, while Daddy walked over to the soap-dish by the kitchen +sink, and having taken from it a square of damp flannel wiped Tommy's +tearful eyes. + +"Come, ma lovely!" said Aunt Keziah Kate, and + +"Go!" ordered Mammy. + +Still Tommy wavered. + +"Go to Bridget's, Tommy Tregennis, an' get me two stockin's." + +"If they're for our dinner," interrupted Miss Margaret, "we'd really +prefer cabbages." + +Tommy looked up with the shadow of a smile, then, holding out his hand +for the pennies, walked to the door. On the threshold, however, he +paused for a moment, then returned to the kitchen, took the flannel +which Daddy still held and vigorously rubbed his eyes. + +"Shan't let no-one see as 'ow I've been a-cryin'," he explained, and +ran off to fetch the errand. + +After tea Tommy sat on Tregennis's knee, while Tregennis took off the +offending stockings, and rubbed the wet feet in front of the kitchen +fire, the while a spirited conversation was carried on between the +two. + +"You shouldn't never disobey your Mammy, Tommy." + +"Shan't fetch no more errands, not never, for she." + +"An' the ladies in the house, too." + +"Annie or Mabel can fetch they errands, I tell ee." + +"Your Mammy's always workin' so hard, too, Tommy. 'Eaps an' 'eaps of +work she do get through in the day." + +"I'll not go never no more! Somebody else can fetch they cabbages and +things." + +"When you haven't got your Mammy an' me you'll be sorry you'm a +naughty boy, Tommy." + +This was a subject of conversation which Tommy always discouraged. + +"When you an' Mammy do be dead," he replied, "I shall get married +quick, I shall. I shall marry Ruthie to wanst, else I shan't have no +one to look after me, I shan't." + +Then the tousled head began to droop wearily, for it had been a day of +sorrow. "Can't talk to ee any more to-night, Daddy. I be too tired to +talk to ee any more to-night. Put I to bed, Daddy." + +Mrs. Tregennis was upstairs laying the cloth for supper, so with +clumsy hands Tregennis undressed the boy and tucked him tightly in his +cot. + +"Say 'good-night' to my Mammy for me, 'n, good-night, Daddy." + +The sleepy head burrowed into the pillow, while the long lashes +drooped over the tired blue eyes. + +Although Tommy still felt defiant he could not go to sleep in such an +unfinished way. He heard a step on the creaking stair, and "Mammy," he +shouted, "good-night, Mammy." + +Mrs. Tregennis came into the room. + +"Haven't said no prayers yet, Mammy." + +"I shouldn't say no prayers to-night," Mrs. Tregennis advised; "not if +I was you. Jesus 'e don't love little boys what's naughty." + +"Oh, yes, 'e do," said Tommy, with conviction. Then, "'E don't like +'em to be naughty, 'e don't," he added, "but 'e loves 'em all the +same." + +Then Tommy said his prayers and the good-night kiss was exchanged. + +Once more Tommy burrowed into the pillow and Mammy left the room. + +But there was still one thing forgotten, and Tommy raised himself in +his cot. "Daddy," he called, "Daddy, you needn't say good-night to my +Mammy for me; I've said it to she myself." + +After this he lay down contentedly. Five minutes later he was asleep +and the day of sorrows was ended. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +The sun shone in at the open windows so brightly on Easter Day that it +wakened up Miss Margaret some time before Mrs. Tregennis came with the +hot water and the early morning tea. She leaned on her elbow and +looked out down the alley to the sea. + +Under the corner of the next roof two starlings were busily engaged in +nest-building. The father starling was very active, but cautious. He +took quite unnecessary precautions to avoid detection on his foraging +expeditions, precautions that only brought him the more definitely +under notice. + +Miss Margaret watched him with interest. Flying down to the cobbles he +picked up, one by one, three pieces of straw. Returning to the +rain-spout he perched on the prominent corner, holding the three +straws cross-wise in his beak. He turned his head first to the left, +then to the right; then to the left and right again, eagerly alert for +possible dangers. + +His grotesque movements attracted the attention of a milk-boy who was +walking up the alley, a can of milk in either hand. Balancing one can +on the cobbles the boy picked up a piece of sea-weed that was lying +there, and aimed it at the corner of the rain-spout where it caught +and hung. The starling opened his beak, dropped the straws and +hurriedly sought the shelter of the eaves, an indignant, ruffled +bird. After all, the boy had done him a good turn, for, when he had +made quite sure that the enemy had withdrawn, he reappeared, seized +the hanging seaweed and carried it to his waiting wife. + +After this the church door opened; the world was waking up. In +unofficial dress the verger swept out the dust of the week. It annoyed +Miss Margaret to see that he did not take the responsibility of his +own pile of dust. When it was all collected in the porch he swept it +to the lower step, and from there to the cobbles of the alley. A few +vigorous movements of his broom removed it from the immediate +neighbourhood of the church door and scattered it artlessly among the +uneven stones. + +In the bedroom below Tommy also was awake. This Easter morning was an +eventful one for him. He was going to wear a "noo sailor soot." It was +a suit with long trousers, the first long trousers Tommy had ever +had. Uncle Sam, who was in the navy, had given him a real lanyard +with a shrill whistle attached. Mammy had bought a new black silk +handkerchief, too, to go under the white sailor-collar of the blouse. +Naturally Tommy was eager to be dressed, and it was irksome to have to +lie quietly in bed for so long. + +At last Mammy had done all that was required for the ladies and it was +Tommy's turn next. It seemed a great waste of time to be washed and +have your hair done, although, when the preliminaries were at an end +and the new clothes were on, long trousers and all, it proved worth +it. + +"There, ma handsome," said Mammy, admiringly, "you _do_ be in +dandy-go-risset. Dressed to death and put to stand you be, my man!" + +"Would my ladies like to see my noo soot, Mammy?" he asked, and +followed the bacon and eggs into their sitting-room. + +The ladies could not find words to express their admiration, but Mrs. +Tregennis's vocabulary was such that she could cope bravely with the +situation. + +"Ain't he flish, Miss?" she asked, with pride. "Proper titched 'e be." + +The ladies felt that this exactly expressed what they wished to say. + +"Dressed to death, 'e be, and thinks 'tis Sunday," Mrs. Tregennis +continued, and was leading Tommy from the room when he was hastily +summoned by Miss Margaret, while Miss Dorothea handed him a large +plate on which were two Easter eggs full of sweets; a chocolate donkey +harnessed with wire and pink ribbon to a chocolate cart; a chocolate +ship in full sail and three chocolate hares. One hare stood on its +hind legs, one was in the act of running, while the brown body of the +other lay stretched out flat upon the white china plate. + +"Which'll I eat first, and which'll I give to Ruthie?" Tommy asked +excitedly while the plate was being passed to him and before he yet +held it in his hands. + +Discussing these two important points with his mother he walked from +the room. + +Accompanied by Auntie Jessie and Ruthie, Tommy went to church. At +first he was very devout; his new clothes helped to keep him in a +state of spiritual exaltation. When the singing was over he wanted to +go outside into the alley and blow his whistle. In the open window of +Mrs. Ham's cottage her parrot was calling. "Tommy, Tommy, Tommy," it +cried; and again, "Tommy, Tommy, Tommy!" Tommy very much wished he +could obey the summons, although he knew by experience that if he were +there to reply to the persistent bird Polly would merely put her head +on one side, turn slowly round on her perch, and refuse to speak +another word. + +At last the long service ended and he was free. "Where'll I go till +dinner time?" he asked as he ran into the kitchen. + +Daddy suggested his Granny might like to see the long trousers and +hear the whistle blown. Away Tommy sped and did not return until +dinner was on the table. + +After dinner Tommy went upstairs with Mammy to dress, but stayed +behind in the bedroom when she returned to Daddy in the kitchen. + +One Easter egg full of sweets he had given to Ruthie. Half the sweets +in the other he had eaten himself, but all the chocolate animals were +still intact. These he marshalled in a row on the big bed and wondered +what game he should play. + +First of all he loaded the chocolate cart with seaweed that had been +thrown up by the tide on to the shore at the foot of the bed. The +vehicle was not overloaded, for the stranded sea-weed was odd bits of +coloured wool that did not weigh very heavy. These Tommy carefully +carted away to manure his potato-patch on the cliff at the extreme +edge of the pillow. + +In time this game palled and Tommy pondered. Chocolate hares were +stupid, useless animals for a pretending game at sea; so he bit off +first the head and then the tail of the one at full gallop. + +After this he set aside the donkey and cart in favour of the ship in +full sail. It was a fishing-boat; it was, in fact, his Daddy's boat, +"The Light of Home." + +One by one Tommy carried all his possessions but this from the big bed +to the chest of drawers, where he arranged them according to a +definite system of his own. + +This work took some little time, but when it was accomplished he was +able to give his undivided attention to the chocolate lugger. With +care and precision he moulded the blankets and sheets into furrows +across the bed, so that the "Light of Home" might sail with pride on +the crest of the wave. His Daddy was aboard the lugger catchin' 'eaps +an' 'eaps of fish. So he, Tommy, would have a noo mackintosh, real +tarpaulin, too. His Daddy had promised him this the next big catch he +had. + +But Daddy always caught his fish at night-time, and here was the sun +just streaming in at the window. + +This must be remedied at once. By standing on a chair Tommy was able +to reach the blind-cord; when he had pulled down the dark green blind +there was a satisfactory gloom within the room. + +Now a new difficulty arose. If it was real dark the "Light of Home" +might lose her way, or, even worse, she might be wrecked. Then Daddy +an' the 'eaps an' eaps of fish, an' the noo mackintosh would perish +with her too. + +Tommy knew all about the Eddystone. He knew that there were three men +there, and that they had two months out and one month in. He knew, +too, that the lighthouse was built on quite a small platform of rock. +The inverted soap-dish made an excellent pretending rock, and on it +Tommy placed a little paraffin lamp that always stood on the table by +the bed. + +At first when he lighted the lamp he turned the wick up far too high, +and there was so much smoke and so big a flame that he could not +possibly put the chimney in place. He turned it out slowly and was +more successful in his second attempt, although even then he did not +find the glass chimney at all easy to adjust. Proudly the "Light of +Home" sailed round the inverted soap-dish and the smoking lamp. Still +Daddy caught 'eaps an' 'eaps of fish. But, alas! a storm arose, and +the poor "Light of Home" listed in a truly terrifying manner. + +The storm gave rise to a new idea. Daddy was no longer aboard the +lugger. It was Granfäather Tregennis instead. Daddy was just a little +new boy lying in a big fourposter bed. But there must be a light in +Granny's window to help Granfäather to sail safely home. + +Tommy was in luck. As a rule there was no candle in Mammy's bedroom, +only the paraffin lamp. To-day there stood on the chest of drawers the +ladies' china candlestick, fitted with a quite new candle. Tommy +pulled up a chair to the foot of the bed, lighted the candle and put +the candlestick on the chair. Then he tilted it a little so that the +light might shine through the rails at the foot of the bed, for the +foot of the bed was the window of Granny's room. + +While these preparations were afoot the "Light of Home" had been lying +neglected in the trough of a wave. Now she again began to sail over +the furrowed bed clothes. But the storm was telling on her. Slowly but +surely her outer coat was melting away, leaving sticky brown streaks +on Tommy's fingers and on the snowy whiteness of the clean bed-quilt. + +"You hobjeck you! you article you! I'll tell your fäather the minute +he comes in." + +The "Light of Home" slipped through Tommy's fingers. The Eddystone +lurched over, fell from its soap-dish rock and was engulfed in the +quilty billows below. Mrs. Tregennis rushed from the position she had +taken up in the doorway, seized the lamp and extinguished the flame. + +Tommy's eyes dilated with fear. "Now I shall get it somethin' awful!" +he thought, and shrank against the erstwhile raging sea. + +For once words failed Mrs. Tregennis. She looked at the big bed, whose +counterpane was brown with chocolate streaks and black with paraffin +smuts. She looked at her son, sticky, smutty and subdued. On the new +white collar of the sailor blouse were the chocolate imprints of his +restless fingers. Down the right leg of the new long trousers were +splashes of grease. The room was thick with the smoke from the lamp +and the smell was vile. + +It was not often that Tommy was really whipped, and when Mammy opened +the top long drawer of the chest of drawers with a sharp little jerk +the tears welled up slowly in his big blue eyes. When she took from +the drawer the supple cane that was so seldom used, and advanced +towards him with grim determination, he broke into piteous sobs. + +A quarter of an hour later a tearful Tommy sat limply on a chair in +the kitchen; he wore his old blue trousers and his old red jersey top. +Sunday though it was Mammy stood at the table and with brown paper and +a hot iron removed the splashes of grease from the right leg of the +new sailor suit. The dandy-go-risset suit of the early morning! + +A painful silence lasted for several moments, then: + +"Do ee love I any more, Mammy?" + +Mrs. Tregennis rested the hot iron on the stand and looked fixedly at +Tommy. "How _can_ I love ee, Tommy Tregennis, when you'm such a +naughty boy." + +"No," Tommy's voice broke. "I don't s'pose ee do love I any more; +but"--and now the voice was very pleading--"I do love ee brave an' +much, Mammy, quite so much as that," and the two restless hands, from +which all chocolate stains had been removed, were held more than half +a yard apart. + +Mrs. Tregennis showed no signs of relenting but gave all her attention +to moving the iron lightly up and down over the stiff, brown paper. + +The kitchen door opened and Miss Margaret walked in. In amazement she +paused; first, because Tommy was in his very everyday clothes; +secondly, because Mrs. Tregennis was ironing on Sunday afternoon. The +ladies had been sitting down by the sea, surrounded by Easter calm, +and were ignorant of the grim tragedy enacted in the Tregennis +household. + +Miss Margaret was horrified when she was put in possession of the +facts. "Oh, Tommy!" her voice was very expressive and her face was +very sad. "How more than dreadful it would have been if you'd been all +burned up to nothing. Burned right up to nothing at all, only the +soles of your new brown boots left lying upon the bedroom floor." + +Tommy shuddered and looked down at his feet. + +"What would your Daddy and Mammy have done then?" Miss Margaret +continued. "They'd have been left all alone just with the soles of +your boots." + +This amused Tommy. He laughed. + +Already the tragedy was being relegated to the background of his mind. +He slipped off the chair, and, advancing to Mammy who was folding up +the trousers, offered her the piece of pink ribbon that had harnessed +the chocolate donkey to the chocolate cart. + +"For keeps!" he explained. + +The fact that Mammy accepted the gift was a sign that the feud was +ended. + +Along the kitchen floor, over the linoleum, was a strip of old carpet, +put there partly to take the tread and partly to give a little extra +comfort and keep the feet warm at meal-times. In jumping across the +floor Tommy pushed this out of place. + +"Mind my best Brussels!" warned Mammy, playfully, and Tommy felt that +he was indeed forgiven. + +His joy thereupon became so exuberant that the strip of carpet was +kicked entirely out of place. + +Then Mrs. Tregennis became firm again. "Put that carpet straight to +wanst," she ordered, and reluctantly Tommy obeyed at one end of the +strip. + +"Now here," said Mammy, pointing to the disarranged part at her feet. + +"That be your end," demurred Tommy, but the stern looks of both Mammy +and Miss Margaret compelled him to adjust that end also. + +Miss Margaret knew instinctively that in putting it to rights Tommy +meant to flick up the whole strip and so plunge headlong into disgrace +once more. With diplomacy and tact, therefore, and apparently +unintentionally, she stood right on the middle of the strip and began +to talk to Mrs. Tregennis. + +Before Miss Margaret left the kitchen Tregennis came in from the +front. Once more the story of Tommy's mishap was repeated. + +Tregennis turned to Miss Margaret. "I shall have to take 'e in hand +myself, Miss," he said slowly, "if so be as he isn't a better boy." + +Miss Margaret left the kitchen and, smiling, told the Brown Lady of +the awesome threat. Tregennis was a loving and entirely lovable man, +but much too gentle, too simple and too kindly to cope with Tommy's +boisterous daring. + +Downstairs in the kitchen gloom had again descended. Tommy stuck his +hands in his pockets and looked up into his mother's face. "Tell-tit," +he said, "oh, tell-tit," and with the full vigour of his sturdy legs +he kicked the carpet strip awry. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +It was more than a week since Tommy's Ladies had come to Draeth. +Easter was over, and until Whitsuntide no more steamer-loads of +Plymouth trippers would visit the little town. On landing the steamer +passengers invariably followed the same plan. Presumably during the +short voyage they had had enough of the sea, for on leaving the boat +they at once trailed up the main street of Draeth, either in +scattering groups or in twos. The groups included children: little +girls with tightly curled hair and little boys in velvet suits. +Sometimes the twos held each other's hands, spoke little and looked +down at the ground as they walked; sometimes they were parted by the +whole width of the roadway, each seemingly indifferent to the presence +of the other. + +The groups looked in at the shop-windows until they were hungry; then, +carrying bulging paper-bags, they retraced their steps and, sitting in +sheltered corners among the rocks, looking out beyond the island to +the open sea, they ate stolidly until the bags were empty. Later the +tide came up and restored the beach to order, carrying out, even +beyond the breakwater of the island, all the litter of paper bags, +banana skins, orange peel, glass and tin--all mercifully washed +outwards to the horizon until they became waterlogged and sank to the +ocean floor. + +On Easter Monday the ladies walked to a distant and secluded part of +the coast and were happy all the morning in avoiding the rush of +holiday-makers. From afar they watched the approach of the thronged +steamers, and speculated idly as to the probable number of boatloads +that would land. Because it was good for the watermen they were glad +that the steamers came. + +As they were leaving the house after dinner, a weary lady had +approached them. Behind her stood another woman, equally weary, and a +pale-faced, meek-eyed man. "Excuse me," the first weary lady had said, +addressing Miss Dorothea, "but will you be so very kind as to tell me +where we can find the stocks?" she spoke with nervous eagerness. "You +see, we are only here for the day." + +Miss Dorothea had directed her to the stocks just around the corner, +and had followed the Blue Lady down the alley. But she was not to +escape so easily. "Excuse me once more," said the weary stranger, +somewhat out of breath with running after her, "but is there anything +else to be seen in Draeth; you see, we are only here for the day." + +On the following Monday, as they were walking up from the sands at +dinner time, they were laughing over the Easter reminiscences, and +comparing the beauty and stillness around them with the bustle and +throng of the week before. Then they began to speak of Mrs. Radford. +They found it very difficult to avoid her, although they had not +responded to her early advances. Whenever they left the house they +were conscious that her eyes followed them until they were out of +sight; she stood, barely concealed by the curtains of the window, to +mark their return. + +The Blue Lady was growing impatient; the unceasing spying annoyed her. + +The Brown Lady saw not only the humour, but also the pathos, of Mrs. +Radford's actions. "But think, Margaret," she said; "it isn't real +ill-nature that makes her so. It's just a sort of jealousy; we have so +much, and she has so little." + +"I don't agree with you. She has a husband and a child, and money +enough to enable her to live without effort." + +"Yes, she has all that, but she lacks absolutely the joy of living. +You yourself possess this in so high a degree that you scarcely allow +for its absence in others." + +"Ah, well," sighed the Blue Lady, "I really will try to be more +tolerant, but the woman irritates me beyond endurance." + +She ran upstairs to the sitting-room: + +"Oh the wild joys of living," she quoted, "the leaping from rock +to----" + +Her good resolutions were forgotten, for there, curled up on the sofa, +sat Annabel. She was not an attractive child in appearance: she was +too tall for her age, and, in spite of the fact that she was five +years old, she spoke in a babyish manner which sounded unnatural and +was, indeed, the result of affectation. + +She was the first to speak. "Miss Magalet, 'tan I have dinner wiv +'oo?" + +"No, Annabel, you most certainly can _not_. Why don't you speak +plainly--Tommy does. And you must never again come up here when we are +not in." + +"You have much nicer dinners than us," continued the child; "me never +has g'evy and meat, only beans and fings." + +"Poor mite!" said the Brown Lady below her breath. + +Annabel had wriggled off the sofa and was pointing to a gay chocolate +box on the mahogany wash-stand that served as a sideboard. "'S dem for +Tommy?" she asked. + +The Blue Lady lost patience. "They _were_ for Tommy," she said, quite +sharply; "but I don't think they're very good; they don't seem quite +fresh, so you can have them if you like." + +The child, completely satisfied, went downstairs to show her mother +the gift. + +"It's no good," said the Blue Lady, ashamed of her unkindness to a +little child. "She's exactly like her mother and I cannot like her." + +For dinner the ladies had ordered ox-tail soup, lamb and green peas, +gooseberry tart and cream. So much Mrs. Radford learned when she +peeped in at the kitchen door as Mrs. Tregennis was dishing up the +second course. + +"What very extravagant dinners they order." + +Mrs. Tregennis took no notice of the remark, but, stooping, closed the +oven door, and, digging a fork into the joint, lifted it from the tin +to the hot dish waiting on the fender. At that moment the upstairs +bell rang. Mrs. Tregennis answered it and returned with the plates and +the soup-tureen. + +Mrs. Radford raised the lid of the tureen. "What delicious soup!" she +remarked, "and what a lot they have left. They would never miss it, +Mrs. Tregennis, if you would let me have some." + +There was no reply. + +"Won't you give me just a little--just enough for Annabel?" + +Then Mrs. Tregennis spoke. "I shouldn't think of doing such a thing!" +she answered, indignantly. "Why, I wouldn't take not even so much as a +crumb of theirs, not even for my own Tommy, no, not if 'twas ever so!" + +Even then Mrs. Radford was not ashamed. "A few green peas----" she +began again. + +"Not _one_ green pea, ma'am," replied Mrs. Tregennis, firmly, "and +you'll excuse me for sayin' it, ma'am, but I really cannot understand +as how you can ask for any such thing; so there's where 'tis to." + +Mrs. Radford flushed hotly. "Well! _you'll_ see," she said +vindictively, "they're living at too grand a rate, they are. Their +money won't last out, it won't. You can't say that you were not +warned." + +Passing into her own room Mrs. Radford slammed the door, while Mrs. +Tregennis carried the lamb, green peas and baked potatoes upstairs to +the spendthrift ladies. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +For more than three weeks it had been very fine on land, but at sea it +was rough and stormy, and the water was churned up and thick. For +boulter-fishing in the spring the sea must be clear. Because of the +bad weather-conditions there was much poverty in Draeth. Between the +end of September and the third week in April some of the fishermen had +earned barely three pounds. Since Christmas the boats had not once +been able to put out to sea. This meant that all through Lent, when +the fish fetches record prices, there had not been a single catch. + +The poverty of the fisher-folk pressed heavily on the tradespeople +too. When children were almost starving they could not refuse to +supply the homes with food. Certainly they entered in their credit +ledgers the amounts that were due to them from this family or that, +but they well knew that in many cases the reckoning was so great that +it would take more than a lifetime to pay it off. + +As it so often happens at times like these the most deserving found +the least relief. The Prynnes, the Tregennises, the Williamses, the +Darks and others shunned debt as they would have shunned the plague. +Rather than ask for food to be supplied to them on credit they would +starve. Day by day the hoard saved up against a rainy day grew less; +for you may be prepared to meet a rainy day, but when the rainy day +lengthens into a rainy month then you feel the pinch. For many +families in Draeth this was the time of fear. The ever-present +question was: How much longer was it possible to hold out? + +Then suddenly, when things were at their worst, the weather changed. +The wind slewed round to another quarter, the turbid waters became +clear, and the fisher-folk grew light-hearted, for at last the boats +would put out to sea. + +It was on the Monday of the last week in April that the fleet made +preparations for sailing. Tregennis looked upon it as a lucky omen +that on that very morning he had caught a rat on the "Light of Home." +For some days he had known the plaguey thing was there. Down in the +cuddy-hole he had found an old coat of his bitten through in the +sleeve. Some of the nets, too, had been gnawed in places, and he had +had to be busy mending tackle. It is a grave matter when a rat boards +a lugger, for there is no knowing how many more may follow. The four +men on the "Light of Home" had laid trap after trap, temptingly +baited, but without result. + +Now this morning Tregennis had at last put an end to the plaguey +varmint. As this trouble was overcome it was taken by the men as a +sign that further good luck loomed ahead. + +Miss Margaret went into the kitchen before breakfast and found Mrs. +Tregennis packing the basket of food for Tregennis to take to sea. + +"It do look a lot, don't it, Miss? There isn't much room on the boat, +so you has to get it packed up tight as can be. They did oughter be +back on Wednesday morning, but I puts in for a bit longer than that in +case." + +"If you find your store of food running short, Tregennis," advised +Miss Margaret, "remember that you ought to chew a great number of +times, forty-five chews to each bit of food I think it is, and then +the supplies will last all the longer." + +"My dear life, Miss; 'e do just bolt his food." + +"Can't seem to taste it, somehow, if I do keep it in my mouth," +Tregennis explained. + +"He do eat his food too fast, Miss; I never knoo anyone eat so fast as +'e; I be always a-tellin' 'e." + +"Well, he must practise this morning. Are you going to give him ham +for breakfast, Mrs. Tregennis?" + +"'Am?--no, miss--I'll 'am 'en. He haven't been to sea and caught no +fish. If he don't work neither shall he eat. That's in the Bible, +isn't it, Miss?" + +"Something like it," agreed Miss Margaret. + +"Yes, 'tis there, for sure. If a man will not work neither shall he +eat. It don't say nothin' about a woman in like case." + +"Oh, well," interrupted Tregennis, smiling good-humouredly. "_Will_ +not work; but I _will_ work when there's work to be done--the pity is +so often we _can't_." + +"You're both evading this question of chewing," Miss Margaret +complained. "It's all the fashion now to chew. They say that if you +follow this plan you only need half the usual amount of food. You see +it all nourishes you then; otherwise half is wasted." + +"Sakes! Tom, you remember that!" admonished Mrs. Tregennis. "'An you +too, Tommy, my man. Come here an' listen to your Mammy. If there's +goin' to be any savin' in it every bite as you puts into your mouth +you chews on forty-five times---- If so be as you can count so far," +she added, as an afterthought. + +"One--two--three--four--_five_--six--seven," began Tommy, in a dreary, +sing-song voice, with incatchings of the breath. + +"That'll do," interposed Miss Margaret, hastily. "I am quite sure, +Tommy Tregennis, that you can count up to forty-five very nicely +indeed," and, laughing, she went upstairs. + +After breakfast the ladies came down to see the boats leave the +harbour with the tide. + +"'Taint no good, Miss, after all," Mrs. Tregennis called out gloomily +as they passed the kitchen door. + +"Oh, Mrs. Tregennis, why? I'm so sorry! Has the wind changed again?" + +"Oh, not the _fishin'_, Miss, but the _chewin'_," she hastened to +explain. "Tom and Tommy was both tryin' hard but by the time they'd +chewed less an' twenty chews they didn't 'ave nothin' left." + +"We was just chewin' on nothin'," added Tregennis, who was drying his +face on the runnerin' towel. + +"T'ad all slippen down," volunteered Tommy, looking up from lacing his +boots. + +Miss Margaret looked at them sorrowfully. "There, you see," she +declaimed, "it is just the universal finding. You will not allow +yourselves to be improved! You do not wish to be nourished! You will +not chew! Thus you waste half, nay, more than half, of the food you +eat." + +Then, relapsing into her normal manner, "Perhaps I'm not quite +justified in speaking," she admitted, "for I know quite definitely I +couldn't chew forty-five times myself, and I haven't been as +enterprising as you, for I've never even tried." + +Tregennis picked up the basket of food that had led to the discussion, +and Tommy and the ladies accompanied him to the quay where he boarded +the "Light of Home." + +Sitting in the sunshine on the rocks, Tommy's Ladies watched the +fishing boats tack across to Polderry then veer slowly round and sail +in a south-westerly direction. From Tregennis they knew that the fleet +was making for Mevagissey, where they would shoot their nets and hope +to get a good catch for baiting the boulters. In those waters they +thought that the smaller fish, pollock, pilchards (not fit, at this +time of the year, for food), herring and whiting would be plentiful. + +To those who do not know, boulter-fishing seems a fairly easy +occupation. The boats sail away with something trawling after them on +the floor of the sea, and the fish is caught! + +Actually it is one of the hardest bits of work a man can do. If the +first shoot of the nets is successful the boulter is baited without +delay, and the luggers may sail away at once far beyond the Eddystone +to the fishing-grounds some fifty miles from Draeth. Often, however, +it happens that the nets are shot two, three, or even four times +before the men have fish enough to bait the hooks. + +The boulter is made up of thick, weighted ropes. As each boulter is +fitted with two thousand hooks, and as these hooks are fastened to it +with cotton-line about eight or nine feet apart, it follows that the +whole boulter is from three to four miles long. + +All the two thousand hooks pass four times through the hands of the +men on the lugger. First of all they must be baited, and after this +they must be shot. To the end of the boulter that is shot first from +the boat a cork buoy bearing a flag is fastened. This is called the +dan. At the middle of the boulter is a second dan. "This," as +Tregennis had explained to the ladies, "do give a second chanst, for +when once 'tis gone overboard you can't never even say it do belong to +ee. Anythin' may 'appen to 'e, you can't never tell." + +When the fish is caught on the two thousand deadly hooks these pass +for the third time through the fishermen's hands, for now they must be +hauled. Lastly, when the lugger is back in the harbour, they must all +be cleared, not cleared of the catch only, but of all the mutilated +bits of bait. Then they are thoroughly cleaned, carefully coiled round +and put away in readiness for the next time the boats are afloat. + +Miss Margaret and Miss Dorothea were discussing the heaviness of the +work and the hard lot of the fisher-folk as they watched the luggers +sail away round the curve of the coast towards Mevagissey and the +bait. + +As they spoke a cormorant dived in front of them beneath the water. + +"There!" said Miss Dorothea, indignantly. "Just as if it wasn't enough +for these people to have steam-trawlers, and weather and dog-fish in +array against them! And now the cormorants are coming in flocks and +are eating up all the smaller fish along the coast. It's an arrant +shame!" + +It was just one o'clock. The last lugger had rounded the curve. The +ladies picked up their books and walked slowly home over the polished +rocks and along the firm wide stretch of sand that grew still wider as +the tide flowed slowly out. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +The day after the fishing boats put out there was a sudden change in +the weather. Little white horses rode in the bay. On land the wind +blew in sharp, fitful gusts. The watermen said that there must be a +fall of snow inland. + +Towards evening Mrs. Tregennis grew restless and uneasy. After +fastening up the house for the night she slipped back the bolt, and, +throwing on a shawl, went down to the front and looked out anxiously +over the angry sea. + +When she carried in the breakfast the following morning there were +deep shadows under her tired eyes. + +"You didn't sleep properly last night, now, did you?" asked Miss +Dorothea; and Mrs. Tregennis admitted that she had been awake for many +hours. + +"I didn't only partly undress," she explained. "I felt somehow so +restless and onsettled inside o' me. But 'tis all right now, Miss," +and Mrs. Tregennis smiled brightly, "for the boats they be sighted I +do hear tell, and they'll be here about eleven o'clock." + +Soon after eleven one by one the boats sailed up the harbour. Most of +the fishing families of Draeth were represented on the quay, for there +was much anxiety to find out at once if the first catch since +Christmas had been good. + + [Illustration: TOWARDS EVENING MRS. TREGENNIS GREW RESTLESS AND + UNEASY, AND WENT DOWN TO THE FRONT AND LOOKED OUT ANXIOUSLY OVER + THE ANGRY SEA.] + +Mrs. Tregennis did not go down. She was too busy to leave home, but +she sang light-heartedly as she went about her work. + +"Where's my Daddy to?" asked Tommy, when he came home from school. + +"Not come home yet, ma handsome." + +"Boats is in," objected Tommy. + +"Yes, my man, but I s'pose your Daddy's busy cleanin' up. Run an' find +'en, ma lovely, an' tell 'en to come in quick an' have dinner afore he +goes to bed." + +Tommy ran off to the quay and walked alongside, trying to pick out his +Daddy's boat. + +"Hallo, Tommy," said Uncle Sam, who was hauling up water in a bucket +over the side of the 'Henrietta.' + +"Hallo," replied Tommy, "I be lookin' for my Daddy; where be the +'Light of Home,' Uncle Sam?" + +"Dear life, I don't know! Up there 'appen," and Uncle Sam jerked his +thumb in the direction of the bridge. + +Tommy sped on. There was Uncle Harry in his boat and Uncle Jim in his. +But no Daddy and no "Light of Home" could Tommy find. + +"Uncle Jim, do tell I, where be the 'Light of Home'?" + +"Sure I don't know, Thomas, my son. Can't ee find she?" + +Tommy shook his head. + +"Try down below," and Uncle Jim waved vaguely towards the mouth of the +harbour. + +"Been there," Tommy demurred, "an' Uncle Sam 'e said come up 'ere, 'e +did." + +Uncle Jim was removing old bait from the boulter; he stopped and +scratched his head. + +Tommy's eyes grew large and puzzled. + +In a few minutes the word passed round that the "Light of Home" was +missing, and with her were Tom and Jack Tregennis, James Prynne and +Billy Dark. + +Tommy walked into the kitchen with a white, strained face. "Mammy," he +said, and again, "Mammy." Then he swallowed hard. "I can't find my +Daddy and the' Light of Home' bain't in." + +Mrs. Tregennis was kneeling in front of the fire, making toast. She +rose and turned fiercely on her son. "I'll about half kill ee, Tommy +Tregennis," she said, "if you come here scarin' with such tales as +they. I don't want none of that sort of yarn here. I'll knock ee +flying!" + +For a moment they looked into each other's eyes. Then Tommy flung +himself on the floor in a passion of weeping, while Mrs. Tregennis +stood staring in front of her, still holding the toasting-fork in her +hand. + +Awkwardly, and as if ashamed, Uncle Sam edged into the kitchen. + +"Don't ee take on now, Ellen," he admonished. "'Twill sure to be all +right; it be just----" + +"Of course 'twill be all right, an' righter than right," she +interrupted, angrily. "'Tis but that fulish child. Get up, Tommy, and +come an' have your dinner, or you'm be late to school." + +Tommy still lay on the floor, his face buried in his arms. + +"Get _up_, I tell ee, or I'll shift ee, my son." + +Then, as there was still no movement: "If you don't get up to wanst, +Tommy Tregennis, I'll tell your fäather the minute----" + +The familiar threat ended abruptly, and Mrs. Tregennis turned away, +put down the toasting-fork and filled the kettle at the sink. + +All through that weary Wednesday Draeth waited for the "Light of Home" +and still she did not come. There was a heavy fall of snow inland, the +papers said, and the wind at sea grew more and more boisterous. On +Thursday morning there was snow in Draeth itself, the roofs were +white, and it settled on the fields above the cliffs. + +Still there was no sign of the "Light of Home." Glasses swept the +horizon in vain. No sail was in sight! + +Dozens of people were on the front looking out seaward the whole day +long. Women wept and little children were terrified. + +All this time Mrs. Tregennis never left the house, but went about her +work with tight, colourless lips, and with unseeing eyes. At school +Tommy sat still and frightened, but his Mammy said 'twas better as he +should go. + +Mrs. Radford attempted tactless consolation, but Tommy's Ladies +behaved as far as possible in a normal way. Outside they shunned the +shifting throng on the front, because they dreaded hearing the +muttered conjectures. So they sat some little distance apart on the +rocks, straining--like all the rest of Draeth--straining out to sea. + +"If I were the parson here," said Miss Margaret, "I should open the +church and ask all those people on the front to come in. I'd just have +one strong, simple prayer and sing 'For those in peril on the sea.' I +shouldn't say anything to them because I should only cry if I did." +Miss Margaret groped for her handkerchief and wiped away the tears +that were trickling down her cheek. + +In the whole wide world there seemed to be one thing only that really +mattered, and this was that the "Light of Home" should sail over the +horizon and ride with the tide up the harbour to Draeth. + +The remaining hours of the Thursday dragged with incredible slowness. +It was a relief when night came and there could be no more weary +gazing seaward for a few hours at least. + +When Mrs. Tregennis brought the tea in the morning there was a new +look in her eyes. + +"Well?" asked the ladies, fearfully. + +"They've sighted the boat," she said. Then her unnatural composure +gave way; she leaned up against the wall and sobbed. + +Miss Margaret jumped out of bed, rescued the tray and put her arms +around her. + +"You darling," she said. "You've been just so brave, it's been +wonderful." And she and the Brown Lady cried too, cried until they +laughed, then laughed until they cried again. + +Crowds waited on the Frying Pan and on the quay to see the "Light of +Home" come in. Her bows were knocked out with the lashing of the wind +and the sea. But they had got the fish! The men were heavy with sleep, +stunned with exposure, shaking with cold. But they had got the fish! + +Bit by bit their story was told. When they had anchored on the Tuesday +afternoon they had, of course, thrown out the boulter with the anchor. +About nine o'clock that night when they wanted to sail along a bit +they found the boulter had parted from the anchor. There was nothing +for it but to make their way to the dan, cast anchor there and wait +patiently until daylight. By this time all the other boats were +sailing home. They secured the boulter all right, but they didn't seem +to have much fish. So they thought to wait a time longer, sailed +farther southwards and anchored again. + +Then the wind had come up somethin' awful. As their lugger was not +built for a heavy open sea, they reckoned to make for home. But they +found that the strong spring tide had swept the boulter round so that +it was firmly caught as ever was on some rock or somethin' at the +bottom o' the sea. In workin' another man's gear you'd rather risk +your life than leave the boulter behind! So again there was nothin' +for it but to wait; wait this time until the heavy tide turned and +swept their boulter back again from the obstruction on which it had +caught. + +Hours they had had to wait for this, and even then they couldn't get +off. Ill-luck seemed to dog them, for once more the boulter parted; +this time in the middle. How long they were 'eavin' an' pullin' an' +gropin' they couldn't rightly say. For more than twenty-four hours +they had had neither food nor fire. But they had got the fish and the +owner of the boat had his boulter right enough, and that alone was a +matter of twenty poun' an' more. + +The catch of the "Light of Home" made a record sale. There, on the +quay, the fish was all arranged in heaps--congers, ray, skate, cod, +ling, hake, even a few turbot and halibut lying royally alone. + +"There was certainly 'eaps of fish," the auctioneer remarked, "and +good fish at that." + +"'Uman creatures' lives," Jack Chorley was heard to quote. + +The auctioneer frowned him down, blew his nose and started. + +"Beautiful fish, gentlemen," thus suavely he addressed the buyers. +"Now what offers, gentlemen, for the beautiful 'eaps of skate?" + +Eight--nine--ten--; up went the bidding, until the pile of skate +brought fifteen shillings a dozen, and the ray fetched the same high +figure, too. Congers stuck at twelve shillings a hundredweight, but +the hake reached as much as one-and-ten apiece; the turbot rose to +twelve shillings the fish, and one halibut alone brought forty-two +shillings. + +On droned the voice of the auctioneer. "'Ow much for this lot, +gentlemen? a shame to let it go for ten shillin', sirs. 'Tis too good +a 'eap to be give for nothin'. Come, gentlemen, come! What offers I +say?" + +"'Twarn't on no rock as that boulter parted," said Jim Hex, and +shifted his wad of baccy from the right cheek to the left. + +"No more it warn't, Jim," agreed Joe Cox. "Too good a catch for a +rock." + +"A wreck for sartin'," and Jim spat over the side of the quay. + +"A bit o' what 'peared to be a woman's gound were catched up along wi' +the boulter," corroborated Tregennis, somewhat huskily, from the +shattered bow of the boat. + +"Poor soul!" said a woman on the outskirts, who had overheard. There +was a half-sob in her voice. + +Jack Chorley looked at her angrily. "Damn!" he said, and vindictively +hit at a fly that was trying to settle on his nose. + +As the clock chimed a quarter past four the sale was ending. Slowly +Tommy trailed along the street to his Mammy and his home. Seeing the +crowd on the quay he turned aside to find out its cause. + +"Daddy," he shouted, "oh, Daddy!" + +Heedless of mooring-ropes and slippery bits of fish he ran and +stumbled, stumbled and ran, towards the "Light of Home." + +"Daddy, oh, Daddy!" he sobbed, and reached the edge of the quay. + +Tregennis stretched out his arms, lifted him into the lugger and held +him tight. Again there was a woman's sob and the air was tense. + +"Have a bib for your tea, my son," said Uncle Jack, and laughed rather +uncertainly as he held up to him a little fish, something between a +pollock and a whiting. + +"An' here be two plate-ray to take home to your Mammy," added Billy +Dark, who was young and unmarried, "an' happen you'd best take your +Daddy along too." + +Once more the crowd parted and Tommy and his Daddy passed through. + +Mrs. Tregennis could not trust herself to go down to the quay, so she +had not seen Tregennis yet, for the fish must come first. + +"I expect you'm cold and hungry, Tom," was her greeting when at last +he came holding Tommy by the hand. Her lower lip trembled as she +spoke. "Here be a good meal for ee, an' there be hot bottles in the +bed. So hurry up do ee now, for you do be fair done." + +"I tried Miss Margaret's plan o' chewin'," said Tregennis, smiling a +little wearily as he sat down to a bit of somethin' to eat. "An' upon +my sam I believe there be somethin' in it. But in a while there warn't +nothin' left to chew. Not in my mouth I don't mean this time, but not +in the hamper neither. Brave an' empty 'e was I can tell ee; never a +single crumb left, no, not even for a sparrer to pick." + +Later in the evening Mrs. Tregennis held in her hand eight pounds nine +shillings and sixpence, Tregennis's share of the record sale. + +"What be I to do with this vasty sum?" she asked the ladies, as they +sat by the fire and laughed at nothing at all. "I shall think I be +some size now," she asserted, drawing herself very upright and +tilting her chin. "What'll I do with all this gold?" + +"Why not go up to London?" suggested the Blue Lady, "and stay at the +Hotel Cecil. I believe you can live there quite comfortably for five +pounds a day." + +"Can ee now, Miss, indeed? I hadn't known of that. Well, th' objects +no money to me, so Tommy, shall you an' me an' Daddy go up to London +for to see the King?" + +"Yes," nodded Tommy, his mouth full of bread and butter. + +"Then come along o' me," said Mammy, and she put on her hat and coat, +walked up Main Street to the Post Office, and there with pride she +pushed the eight pounds nine shillings and sixpence across the counter +to be added to her small account. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +Although May had come Tommy's Ladies had not yet gone. Much to Mrs. +Radford's annoyance their money was still holding out. + +Here and there in the woods of Draeth late primroses lingered; while +purple-tinged anemones still caught the sun that was cut off more and +more each day by the slowly unfolding leafy screen of the oaks. + +Miss Lavinia had read lately that in other schools children were +learning about flowers and birds and even about the things that +crawled. In connexion with this she had read much of Educational +Values that she did not understand in the very least. But it seemed to +her a delightful change that sometimes in the afternoon the little +girls should put aside their hemming and that the little boys should +sponge out their sums, and that they should then talk about the +flowers the children gathered in the woods and in the lanes. + +Miss Lavinia bought a book which helped her to look intelligently at +the flowers and to understand the wonders that were there. Again and +again she was surprised to find that the children, as a result of +their own observations, saw many things that she herself did not know +of until she had read about them in her little book. + +Mr. Toms, the draper, sent his children to Miss Lavinia's school. This +Mr. Toms was the son of the Mr. Toms from whom Tommy's Mammy bought +the cloth for her green coat so many years ago. He was a very +practical, go-ahead man, was the present Mr. Toms; a man whose motto +was "Progress," and by progress he meant "Push," and "Getting on in +the World." + +Mr. Toms felt that afternoons spent in the study of common wild +flowers represented so much waste of time. So keenly did he feel this +that one early closing day he called on Miss Lavinia to talk to her +about the matter. Miss Lavinia received him in the best parlour and +was very nervous, for a visit from the parents of her pupils was a +most unusual event. + +Mr. Toms sat down on the extreme edge of one of Miss Lavinia's +Chippendale chairs, and after clearing his throat loudly explained to +her that what he paid for was a good sound education with no +high-falutin' nonsense. Sums and such had made him the man he was; +sums and such would surely train his boys to follow worthily in their +father's footsteps. + +The flow of words quite paralysed Miss Lavinia; she had no answer to +give. + +Mr. Toms again cleared his throat. "It's in this way, Miss Lavinia," +he continued, "time is given us to be used. An all-merciful Providence +has put us here to do the best we can, and we must make the most of +our talents. They mustn't be wrapped up in a napkin and hid." + +By this time Mr. Toms's thumbs were in his arm-holes and he was in his +best platform vein. + +"There's them as doesn't heed, but _I_ say 'waste not, want not,' +whether it be bread, or money, or time. Let not the talents be abused! +And when my boys come home and talk about primroses and such, well +then I feel annoyed and rightly so." + +Again he cleared his throat, but was arrested in the further +expression of his views by the tears that filled Miss Lavinia's faded +blue eyes. + +In spite of pompous manners and in spite of push, Mr. Toms was a +kindly man at heart, and a little old maid's tears made him feel +ashamed. "Oh, I say, Miss Lavinia ...," he stammered, "oh, I say ...!" + +"I am very foolish," she answered him. "I think I am a little tired. +But about the flowers! I read that it was being done in quite big +schools. I myself know very little about them but I thought that I, +too, would like to try." Then her delicate cheeks flushed as she went +on speaking. "I thought, too, that as God himself has made all these +wonders, it could not possibly be waste of time for us to stop now and +again and look at the beauty that he gives. But ... I do not know. +Perhaps I am wrong...." + +Again Mr. Toms cleared his throat. "Upon my word, Miss Lavinia," he +interrupted; "upon my word, I believe that it's me. Anyhow, go on, go +on; I'll say no more! It can't do no harm anyhow, and who knows but it +may be good." + +When the following week Miss Lavinia took her school to walk, two by +two, through the woods of the West River, Mr. Toms was glad that the +afternoon was fine. In the evening, when his boys showed him little +twigs of oak already bearing the future acorns, he was so much +interested that he took old Mr. Toms's magnifying glass, until now +used in reading the Bible only, and through it saw the flowers on a +larger scale. + +"Well, it caps me, Mother," he remarked to his wife as he replaced the +lens in the drawer of the bureau. "Forty-five years have I lived in +this town and never till to-day did I know as oak trees flowered!" + +It was after this walk in the woods that Tommy discovered that the +Tregennises had a garden. Naturally he was greatly excited by the +discovery and ran into the kitchen volubly explaining the need for +watering at once without a moment's delay. + +"My dear soul, Tommy Tregennis, what's all this?" asked his mother. + +"Oh, Mammy, Mammy, gimme some water in a cup to water my garden; give +it to me to wanst please Mammy, or my garden'll mebbe die." + +Mrs. Tregennis did as she was commanded. Taking from the cupboard an +enamelled mug she filled it with water at the tap above the sink, +handed it to her son and followed him to the door. + +There, sure enough, underneath the window, in three separate places +little blades of grass had pushed their way upwards between the +cobble-stones. + +Tommy pointed to these with pride, then, stooping, he put the mug upon +the ground. But the stones were uneven there and the mug of water +wobbled. In all moments of stress Tommy's tongue curled round the +corner of his mouth. It curled now. Then with care and deliberation he +chose another and a safer place where the cup stood firm. + +After this Tommy himself knelt upon the uneven stones and tenderly +stroked the fresh green blades. "Now, Mammy, look!" he said; and while +Mammy looked he lifted up the enamelled cup, bent slightly forward, +over-balanced, and fell upon his garden-plot. + +There was a moment of deep suspense, but when Tommy found that not one +of his plants was injured he smiled happily. + +"S'more water, please Mammy," and he passed the cup towards the +doorway. + +"But all they plants be just flooded with water, my sweetheart," +objected Mrs. Tregennis. "They'll be drownded quite if you water 'em +any more." + +"_That_," Tommy explained patiently, "was accident; that wasn't +waterin', that wasn't." + +This was an unanswerable argument and without further ado Mammy +refilled the cup. + +After this, in sun or rain, Tommy watered his garden twice a day. It +was to him an unfailing source of joy. + +He told the Blue Lady all about it as they walked up from the sands +together. "'N before I go to bed I must water my garden. There's seven +grasses in the one closest up to the drain; 'spect it gets splashed 'n +likes it. There be on'y five in the one in front, but there be +somethin' thick an' tight in the miggle of he. 'N there's ... I don't +'xactly remember how many grasses there do be under the wall. 'N what +be the thick an' tight thing in the miggle, Miss?" + +"I can guess, Tommy, but I won't tell you. You watch and watch, and +just see for yourself what happens." + +"I'm allus watchin' _an'_ watchin'," replied Tommy, gloomily. "It be +they cats! Goin' round the corner they run right over my garden, they +do. I be allus watchin' an' shooin', 'n Mammy she be allus a-shooin' +of they too." + +By this time they were half-way up the alley and very near the house. +To his horror Tommy saw his Daddy, his own Daddy, walk ruthlessly over +the three small patches of green. + +"Oh, oh, oh ...," he screamed, darting forward in a very passion of +anger. "You be a-killing of my garden, 'n I hates ee, I do, I just +hates ee!" + +His eyes were tightly closed in his rage and with clenched fists he +hit out wildly at his Daddy, only to find his outstretched arms firmly +imprisoned in his mother's grasp. + +Mrs. Tregennis addressed Miss Margaret. "You'll often have been +wondering, Miss, how my Tommy came by such a funny lookin' sort o' +face. 'Tis with cryin' so much that 'e got 'e. 'Tis a brave pity that +he be so plain." + +Tommy choked down a sob. "I do know some boys as is uglier 'n me," he +affirmed. + +"Oh?" Mammy sounded sceptical. + +"Jimmy Prynne's worse ugly 'n me," said Tommy, still shaken with +sobs. + +"I'd think shame if I was ee, Tommy Tregennis, callin' a likely boy +like Jimmy Prynne ugly, that would I." + +Tommy wept more loudly. + +"I shouldn't make a face like that, no, not even if my head was off." +Mammy was scornful. + +Tommy felt that there was a flaw in the argument but sobbed more +noisily still. + +Then Mammy grew stern. "Stop that noise, Tommy," she said, forcefully, +accompanying her words with a shake. + +Tommy screamed all the louder. + +"My blessed fäather," Mammy remarked to the empty air. The Blue Lady +and Daddy had discreetly vanished. "Whose boy may this be makin' such +a disgraceful scene. Whoever he be _his_ Mammy an' Daddy won't be +wantin' _'e_ any more. There's no pleasure in lookin' at a boy like +'e." + +Tommy's screams ended quite suddenly and he consigned the whole +incident to oblivion. "Some water for my garden, please Mammy," he +said. + +"No, my son, not to-night. We'll have no waterin' to-night. You'm a +naughty, hasty boy, 'n you'll go right up to bed this minute." + +With a sob in his throat Tommy went. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + +They were all standing outside the kitchen window in the dinner-hour, +the Blue Lady and the Brown Lady, Daddy, Mammy and Tommy. In the +doorway, not of the group, but looking longingly towards it, stood +Annabel. + +"'Tis the tight thick thing in the miggle," Tommy was explaining +volubly. "It's been an' broke this mornin', an' now 'tis all feathery +an' different." + +"That's what you've been watching for, Tommy; that is the flower of +the grass." + +Tommy looked at the Blue Lady in amazement. "Flowers do be blue an' +red," he objected, "an' my miggle thing's green." + +"Tommy," Annabel still in the doorway spoke in a supplicating voice. +"Tommy, let me see the green grass-flower." + +The owner of the garden took not the least notice of her request. + +Mammy, Daddy and the ladies had returned to the dinner they had left +to see the wonder out-of-doors, so the children were alone. + +Annabel drew nearer. "Which is it?" she asked, bending down, her hands +on her knees. + +"Go away," said Tommy, kicking a loose stone in her direction. "I +shan't show ee my garden." + +"Tisn't a garden," retaliated Annabel. "My mother says it isn't no +garden, it's just bits of grass." + +Deep down in Tommy's heart there had sometimes been a suspicion that +his garden was not quite as other people's, but he had resolutely put +the thought from him. Now Annabel's scornful words strengthened his +fears. He hit her quite hard, ran into the house and made his way +upstairs so quickly that his toes hit the front of each step in his +hurry. Into the ladies' room he burst without the preliminary knock +insisted upon by Mammy. + +"Is my garden a garden," he demanded; "or is it just bits o' grass?" + +"Do you love your plants very much, Tommy?" + +Tommy's fingers closed tightly and his lips were compressed as he +vigorously nodded his head. + +"In that case," decided Miss Margaret, as she added more cream to the +strawberries on her plate, "In that case it is most distinctly a +garden." + +"I should like to give ee a bunch...." Tommy paused for a moment. A +bunch of what? + +He decided that just "a bunch" would do, so he began again. + +"I'd like to give ee a bunch out of my garden." + +"Oh, but Tommy, it does seem such a pity to pick...." Miss Margaret +in her turn groped for a word. "The blades," she concluded +satisfactorily. + +"But just on'y _three_ blades," pleaded Tommy. + +"_Two_," decided Miss Margaret, and together they went downstairs to +make the selection. + +When the two blades had been most carefully chosen and most tenderly +picked, something still troubled the gardener. + +"What is it now, Tommy Tregennis?" + +"I wish I could take Miss Lavinia a bunch from my garden, I do." + +Miss Margaret hesitated. She did not know Miss Lavinia, and wondered +if she was a woman of understanding, or if she would only scorn the +gift that meant so much to the little giver. + +"Pick just a tiny bunch," she advised, "I think Miss Lavinia would +like that." + +Tommy selected two blades from each of the three plants, but still he +paused. + +"Will my other grasses have flowers ever?" he asked, confident that +the Blue Lady could always tell him everything he wished to know. + +She stooped now to examine the others. "Yes," she told him; "they will +be in flower quite soon." + +Happily Tommy knelt once more and plucked his "miggle feather" to add +to Miss Lavinia's bunch, then he ran off to school in such excitement +that he quite forgot to call for Ruthie on the way. + +Miss Margaret returned to her room, and taking from the shelf the +_Oxford Book of English Verse_, she opened it at Thomas Edward Brown's +poem "A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot." With a smile she laid +the two blades of grass between the pages. + +When children took flowers to Miss Lavinia they laid them on her desk +unobserved by the rest of the school, if possible. Then when Miss +Lavinia came into the room the giver's heart would beat quickly until +she picked up the offering, smelled it, said "How very beautiful," and +looked all around. Then of course the giver smiled a little conscious +smile and Miss Lavinia would see this, and say, "Oh, is it from you +Ruby, or Jimmy, or David?" as the case might be. + +Tommy had never had this delightful experience, but this afternoon he +glowed with joy for at last it was to be his. He slipped into the +schoolroom when it was empty, placed his "bunch" on the desk, then ran +out of the house again, and unconcernedly kicked dust in the gutter. + +Here Ruthie joined him and kicked too. "Why didn't ee fetch me, +Tommy?" she asked. + +"I've put some of my grasses on the desk." + +This seemed to Ruthie quite a sufficient reason. "Oh, Tommy," she +said, "but hasn't it spoiled your garden?" + +"No; leastways, not much; 'n besides, more'll grow." Tommy spoke as +one who knows. The clock struck two and the children ran in to take +their places at the long, narrow table. + +Tommy's conscious smile began as soon as Miss Lavinia appeared in the +doorway, and gradually it broadened as she walked to her desk. Then +quite suddenly the smile faded and Tommy's mouth drooped ominously at +the corners. + +Miss Lavinia had brushed aside the grass and opened her desk without +comment! + +Large tear-drops began to fall on that part of the table that was +Tommy's place, and Miss Lavinia's attention was arrested by a +strangled sob. + +"Why, what's the matter, Tommy?" she asked, it was so unusual for +Tommy to cry. + +"You haven't said his flowers was beautiful," volunteered Ruthie. + +"His flowers?" echoed Miss Lavinia; she was deeply puzzled. + +Ruthie ran to the desk and gathered together the six blades and the +"miggle feather." + +"They be from Tommy's very own garden," Ruthie further explained. "He +waters they every night an' mornin', Tommy does, outside the kitchen +window, and shoos off they cats, so's they can really grow." + +Some of the older children laughed, but a glance from Miss Lavinia +caused their laughter to be instantly suppressed. + +Miss Lavinia left the desk and holding in her left hand the six blades +and the flower of the grass she went to Tommy's corner of the table. +With her disengaged right arm she drew him to her, and memories of her +own far-away childhood gave her understanding, just as Miss Margaret +had hoped. + +"Tommy," she said, very gently; "Tommy, thank you very much for your +present. It was kind of you to pick these for me from your very own +garden, and they are very beautiful." + +"Beautiful!" that was the word Tommy wanted. + +"To-day I should like to see them in water on my desk, and to-morrow I +shall press them between blotting-paper and mount them on a card; you +shall write your name on the card and hang it on the wall." + +While Miss Lavinia spoke Tommy's tears dried, and when she ended the +broad smile was there once more. + +When afternoon school was over Tommy ran home very quickly, for +hanging over the river was a large, black cloud, and he feared that +rain might fall before he could water his plants. He was eager, too, +to see whether the other miggle things had grown into flowers in his +absence. + +His hands were tucked away in his trouser-pockets, but every now and +then as he ran one or the other was withdrawn; the arm thus freed from +control made wild circles in the air, while in his excitement he blew +through tightly closed lips in a vain attempt to whistle. + +At the last turning he underwent a sudden metamorphosis, and becoming +a ramping lion he plunged madly round the corner in case Mammy should +be standing in the doorway. Then the shrill roar broke off abruptly +and the waving arms fell limply to his side. + +Perfectly still he stood there, while for the second time that day +large tear-drops slowly gathered in his eyes and rolled unheeded down +his cheeks. Deep sobs followed and Tommy groped his way slowly into +the house. + +"Oh, Mammy, Mammy," he moaned; "my garden's all picked and withered; +my garden's all picked and withered." + +Mrs. Tregennis was not in the kitchen; probably she was in a house +near by, but Tommy could not take his sorrow to a crowd. Slowly he +made his way to the upstairs sitting room, and there he found Miss +Margaret writing letters. + +"My Lady," he sobbed, "my Lady, my garden's all picked and withered." + +"Oh, Tommy," she answered softly. Drawing him tenderly to her she +dried away the tears as they came. + +After a little pause, "Shall I come down with you to see it?" she +asked. + +Tommy sorrowfully shook his head. "I don't like to see 'e lyin' there +all dead," he explained. So Miss Margaret went down alone. + +There, scattered among the cobble-stones were the treasured blades of +grass. They had been ruthlessly torn from their roots, and lay all +curled up and shrivelled in the sun. Of all Tommy's garden not one +green blade remained. Carefully Miss Margaret picked up the limp and +faded leaves; none must be left for Tommy to see again lying there all +dead. Just as she had taken up the last dead blade, big drops splashed +upon the door-step, and the shower that Tommy had outrun came heavily +down. + +As Miss Margaret was closing the door Mrs. Tregennis ran hurriedly +across the alley; over her shoulders as protection from the rain she +had thrown a thick woollen antimacassar snatched from the back of +Auntie Jessie's rocking-chair. + +On the door-step she rested, panting, flushed and smiling. "Oh, Miss," +she gasped, "what a shower, and Miss Dorothea somewheres along the +beach! I must find Tom and send him with a cloak to the caves, may be +she'll be shelterin' there." + +"Yes," responded Miss Margaret in a way that plainly showed she +scarcely heard what Mrs. Tregennis was saying. + +Opening her hand she disclosed the dead grass blades lying there. +"It's Tommy's garden," she explained. + +Mrs. Tregennis opened the door again, stepped out into the drenching +rain, looked down between the stones and understood. + +"My poor lamb; where is he, Miss?" + +"Upstairs in our room crying." + +"Bless his little heart! I'm afraid Annabel did it, Miss Margaret, and +in a way our Tommy did justly deserve it, for he's been very naughty +to she, time an' again he has." + +"Yes, I know, Mrs. Tregennis, but ..." Miss Margaret hesitated a +moment. "You know it's largely my fault, too, for I haven't been a bit +nice to that child ever once." + +"Oh, Miss!" expostulated Mrs. Tregennis. + +"No, you know I haven't," and turning Miss Margaret knocked at the +door of Mrs. Radford's sitting-room. + +An affected voice bade her "Come in." Mrs. Radford was reading, while +Annabel learned to sew with a hot needle and sticky cotton on a long +calico strip. + +"Oh," said Mrs. Radford, languidly, in her best society manner, not +rising to receive her visitor. "It is you!" + +"Yes, may Annabel come upstairs with me for a little while?" + +Annabel looked frightened, and closed her lips in a firm straight +line. + +Although Mrs. Radford constantly reminded herself that the upstairs +visitors were quite common people, yet she felt gratified now, and +motioned to Annabel to put her sewing away. + +Miss Margaret took hold of Annabel's hand, and together they went from +the room. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + +Downstairs in the kitchen Tommy was being comforted by his mother. In +the upstairs sitting room Annabel and Miss Margaret sat together and +Miss Margaret was wondering how she should begin what she had to say. + +Annabel's expression was one of sullen obstinacy, her lips were still +set in a hard, straight line, and her eyes followed the intricacies of +the pattern of the Brussels carpet. Miss Margaret hesitated to ask the +child if it was she who had torn up the blades of grass, for she +feared to prepare the way for a lie. + +"I am so sorry you spoiled Tommy's garden this afternoon, Annabel," +she ventured. + +Annabel's eyes were still on the carpet, and with her toe she outlined +a full-blown rose. "It wasn't a garden; it was just bits of grass," +she asserted. + +"It was only bits of grass to you," Miss Margaret agreed, "but Tommy +had watched it and watered it for weeks, and to him it was a real +garden. Now you have spoiled it all, and made Tommy very unhappy." + +"_I hate him_," said Annabel, defiantly, between closed teeth. + +"Yes, I know, of course you do," and for the first time Annabel looked +up. + +Then Miss Margaret drew her to her. "I say, Annabel, don't you think +you and Tommy and I might be real good friends now, and all just be +very nice to each other?" + +Then Annabel's lips trembled; but no tears fell. + +"Does Tommy know?" she asked, and when she was told that he did not +she went out of the room and stood at the top of the stairs. Bending +forward, her hands resting on her knees, she peered down the steep +staircase. + +"Tommy," she called, "Tommy Tregennis," but there was no response. + +"Tommy Tregennis, come here!" The call was louder this time. + +"Tommy, Miss Margaret and me wants you." + +At this Tommy's head was poked round the kitchen door. + +All Annabel's usual diffidence in Tommy's company had vanished. + +"Come here, Tommy!" she insisted, and Tommy, impelled by some new +quality in her, walked slowly up the stairs. + +"Tommy," said Annabel, rather hesitatingly, but looking straight into +his eyes; "Tommy, I rooted up your garden." + +For the second time that day Tommy hit her quite hard. + +"Tommy!" called Miss Margaret, in a stern voice, and Tommy, followed +by Annabel, obeyed the summons. + +Then Miss Margaret explained to Tommy that he had often been very rude +and unkind to Annabel, and that in the future they must all be +friends. Whereupon Annabel held out her hand to Tommy, and Tommy +promptly pushed it away. + +Miss Margaret was wisely blind to this by-play, and began to unfold a +plan she had formed. + +"I'm thinking about the garden," she said, meditatively, and the +children forgot each other and gave their attention to her. + +"I think it will grow again; but it will be very slow. Wouldn't it be +rather nice to plant some other flowers, and take care of them until +the grasses come again?" + +"How?" demanded Tommy. + +"I thought we might have boxes made to stand on the ground under the +window, and----" + +"Not on my garden," interrupted Tommy. + +"No, most certainly not. Not right on your garden, but quite close up +to the windows. One will be an unusual shape, because under the +kitchen window there's the drain to think of, too." Miss Margaret +looked out. "It isn't raining now; shall we go and measure the lengths +of our boxes?" + +Downstairs they ran, borrowed Mrs. Tregennis's inch-tape, and outside +under the windows they all three measured. + +Here Miss Dorothea, returning from the shelter of the caves, found +them and went with them up Main Street to the carpenter's, where they +gave the order for the boxes to be made, painted green, and delivered +on Monday without fail. + +At the green-grocer's they ordered good soil for the new garden and +sturdy little wall-flower plants full of tightly closed buds. Here, +too, Miss Margaret bought Californian oranges, and paid for +rosy-cheeked apples to be sent with the soil and plants on Monday. + +"Now then, home and tea," she ordered; but at the cobbler's window she +stopped. + +"He lodges with my Aunt Martha," volunteered Tommy. + +But the Blue Lady was not thinking of the cobbler, whose form could be +dimly descried through the screen of hanging laces, patches of leather +and cards of boot-protectors with which the window was dressed. + +"It's Friday to-day," she said, impressively. + +"Why shouldn't we have it to-morrow?" + +"Have what?" asked Miss Dorothea. "What are you talking about?" + +"Why, the pony and trap, of course," and Miss Margaret pointed to a +little card in a corner pane, on which was unevenly printed: + +PONY AND GINGLE ON HIRE + +"For us," said Annabel. "I never!" and the children seized each +other's hands in their excitement; but whose hand was put out first +this time it was impossible to say. + +There was scarcely room for them all in the shop of the cobbler who +lodged with Aunt Martha. Miss Margaret bought from him numbers of +pairs of cheap boot-laces, for which she had no possible use, because +she was a little ashamed of their invasion of the tiny shop, when she +learned that the pony and trap did not belong to him, but was +advertised by him for a friend who lived at West Draeth, just to do 'e +a turn. In the name of his friend, the cobbler promised that if the +sun shone the following morning "the gingle 'e should be at the door +of Tommy's house at ten o'clock without fail!" + +In spite of his repeated assurance that there should be no mistake, +Tommy was seized with a sudden misgiving on the way home and ran back +to remind him not to forget. + +"I've spoken to 'e," he panted, when he was in line again, "an' 'e +says it'll be there." Then "I'm goin' to tell my Mammy," he shouted, +and was off once more. + +When the others reached the house Tommy was in the middle of a voluble +and wholly unintelligible explanation, from which Mrs. Tregennis tried +vainly to extract some meaning. + +"Will you have an orange, Annabel?" asked Miss Margaret at the door. + +All Annabel's affectation had dropped from her this evening: she was +just a normal child. As such she nodded, smiling broadly. + +"Catch then," and Annabel made a careful cup of her hands, and caught. + +As the ladies went upstairs they were followed by Mrs. Tregennis with +the tea. + +"Mrs. Tregennis, will you have an orange?" + + [Illustration: AT THE COBBLER'S WINDOW SHE STOPPED.] + +"No, thank you, Miss, an' that I won't. Mrs. Radford's just been +sayin' as how they must have cost you fourpence apiece, so really, +Miss, I couldn't eat one of they, no, not if it was ever so." + +"Does Mrs. Radford still think we are rapidly coming to the end of our +money?" asked Miss Dorothea. + +"Yes, Miss, indeed she does; she says 'tis like Oldham wakes, whatever +they be, an' that it can't last out." + +"Are you afraid, too?" + +"Me afraid? an' that I'm not, an' you as always pays over an' above +for what you have." + +Mrs. Tregennis still stood in the doorway, holding the teapot in her +right hand, and here Tommy joined her. + +"Well, then," Miss Margaret's voice was quite pleading, "won't you +have an orange?" + +Mrs. Tregennis put the teapot down on the brown tile that served as a +stand. "I simply couldn't, Miss," she stated emphatically; "it would +choke me, that it would." + +"Do you think it would be safe to experiment on Tommy? Tommy, would +you choke if you were to eat one of the oranges we bought this +afternoon?" + +In reply Tommy stretched out both hands for the fruit, and his teeth +had met in the thick rind before Mammy could improve his manners. + +"An' what do you say, my son? I'd be ashamed!" + +"Thank you," said Tommy, removing a large piece of orange peel from +between his teeth. + +"I should say 'Miss,' ma lovely," still corrected Mammy, but by this +time a little fountain of sweet, yellow juice spurted upwards from the +orange, and Tommy, sucking vigorously, walked away. + +Later in the evening, as the ladies were going out once more Mrs. +Radford opened her door and beckoned them into the room. + +"It was kind of you to ask my babe to drive with you to-morrow," she +said, in her most mincing tones, "but I have always most carefully +protected her from the society of common children, and I would rather +keep her by my side." + +So the ladies went round to see Auntie Jessie, with the result that in +all Draeth no child went to bed that night more happily than Ruthie +Tregennis, Tommy's cousin and future wife. + +But Annabel's pillow was wet! + + + + +CHAPTER XX + + +"I haven't forgotten Blue Lady; I haven't forgotten, please, Miss +Margaret, Miss," and Tommy turned over sleepily in bed, then wakened, +yawned, rubbed his eyes and sat upright. + +"What sort o' weather, Daddy?" he demanded. "Is't sun an' fine?" + +It was. + +Tommy then called down to Mammy in the kitchen, pleading to be dressed +at once, so as to be ready when the gingle came. Mammy got out his +brown jersey suit. + +"Miss Margaret said old clothes, Mammy, so I shan't wear 'e." + +"You'll do they no harm, and you'll just wear 'em." + +"I wants my old clothes, Mammy, where be 'em. Miss Margaret said old +clothes; she said old clothes, Mammy, she did." + +It was not until Miss Margaret approved of the brown jersey suit that +Tommy submitted and was dressed. + +When he was ready he stood in the doorway, and to every one who passed +he shouted the news. "I be goin' a-drivin' in a gingle to Polderry." +And to the question, "Who with?" he gave the invariable answer, "With +Miss Margaret and Miss Dorothea and Ruthie and me." + +After breakfast the sun was hidden behind a cloud of mist. Tommy and +the ladies consulted the glass on the front. It was very high, and all +the watermen thought there was no fear of rain. Then Mrs. Tregennis +packed the luncheon basket, and Tommy wished it was ten o'clock. + +Miss Margaret had a happy thought, and suggested that they should go +across to West Draeth and themselves bring round the gingle for Miss +Dorothea and Ruthie. This was a grand idea. Hurriedly Mrs. Tregennis +put on Tommy's boots and ran upstairs for his warm coat and his cap. + +Miss Margaret and Tommy crossed the river by the ferry for quickness. +"If you like, Tommy, you shall help me to hold the reins and to +drive," promised Miss Margaret. + +"If it be all the same to ee I'd rather have the whip," was the reply. + +"But why?" + +"For to hit 'en." + +"But he won't want hitting," objected Miss Margaret. "I expect he'll +trot along awfully well and won't want any hitting at all." + +Tommy looked unconvinced, and as they left the boat at the slip he +turned the conversation into other channels. "Lugger a-buildin' over +there," he pointed with his thumb. "Must be for West Draeth as 'tis on +that side. I seen one lanch one evenin' an' one lanch the next." + +By the time Tommy had imparted all he knew of boatbuilding and +launches they had reached Mr. Chard's door. The gingle was already +outside, and while the pony was being brought round a small crowd of +boys collected and watched with interest. + +"Hallo, Tommy Tregennis." + +"Hallo!" + +"What be a-doin' over here, Tommy; ain't there room for ee to East +Draeth?" + +"Goin' to Polderry," said Tommy, proudly, and fell into the gingle as +he spoke. + +"Do these boys go to school with you, Tommy?" and Tommy told Miss +Margaret that they did. + +"They West Drayers do play their own side evenin's," he explained, +"when they comes over to we they comes with their mothers an' just +sits on our sands, an' that do be just so good as nothin', that be." + +From every doorway people came out to see the start of the gingle for +Polderry. Everybody waved and everybody shouted, and it was for all +the world like a Sunday-school treat. Near the Post Office a louder +cry than ever came from Tommy and was at once echoed by Ruthie, and +both children rose up and waved their long white mufflers. + +"We'm goin' to Polderry; we'm goin' to Polderry." + +Miss Margaret's whole attention was taken up with the astonished pony, +but, far away in the distance, standing on the quay, Miss Dorothea +descried the figure of Uncle Harry and Uncle Harry was waving and +shouting too. + +Polderry was only five miles off along the cliff, but in driving you +cover nearly twice that distance in order to have a better road. Miss +Margaret had been directed to go past the station, up by the +golf-links, through St Peter's and along the main road to Esselton, +then they were to turn off to the right down the beautiful Brenton +Valley and so to Polderry. + +In the gingle Tommy sat up near the horse on the right-hand side with +Miss Margaret next to him. Opposite Tommy was Miss Dorothea, so that +Ruthie was near the door facing Miss Margaret. The reins, therefore, +passed in front of Tommy, and suddenly he clutched them very tight +while they were driving through the town, with the result that Jimmy, +the pony, swerved to the left and almost ran into the corner of the +bridge. Miss Margaret told him that he should help to drive when they +were up on the wide country road, and very reluctantly Tommy let go. +It was both surprising and disappointing when immediately afterwards +Tommy again seized the reins, this time so tightly that it was with +difficulty that his fingers were unclasped. + +"You must be quite obedient," Miss Margaret reminded him. + +So little, however, did Tommy realize what was meant by obedience that +scarcely had she finished speaking than he again seized the reins with +both hands, while a naughty look of defiance appeared on his face. + +After this there was distinct depression in the gingle until Ruthie's +shrill, bright voice pierced the gloom. + +"There do be a nest on that wall under the ivy," she said, very +confidentially. "'Tis a brave, big secret, an' no-one knows of it at +all except only me an' Tommy, an' my daddy an' mammy, an' his daddy +an' mammy, 'n Aunt Keziah Kate an' Granfäather Tregennis." + +"Just a family secret," interposed Miss Margaret. "And what sort of a +nest is it?" + +"I don't know what sort o' nest it be. It do be a very nice little +tight nest, an' 'tis quite empty this little nest, but I don't know +what kind of nest 'e do be; just little an' tight." + +Tommy disliked being ignored. "It hasn't got no eggs in it, 'tis +empty; ef there was eggs in 'e _I_ should know what 'twas." + +"My daddy, he knows of a nest up here wanst," Ruthie continued, "that +had twelve eggs in it, twelve speckly eggs." + +"Oh, Ruthie, as many as twelve?" + +"Yes, just so many as twelve." + +"But what a very improvident mother-bird!" Miss Margaret objected. +"How would she ever manage to feed twelve babies? And think of the +very hard work it would be for the father to teach twelve +children-birds to sing." + +All this time Jimmy was pulling his load uphill, trotting every now +and again, as though he were thoroughly enjoying the morning's work. + +When the top of the hill was in sight, "Which way do we turn, to the +right or to the left, Tommy?" asked Miss Dorothea. + +"To the left," replied Tommy, without hesitation. + +"How do you know which is your right hand and which is your left?" + +Tommy became most communicative. "Why, I writes with my right hand +over to school. There be two girls an' one boy in the second class as +writes with their left hand, so they can't never tell. I wrote my name +wanst six times on one side of my slate and six times on the other, +an' it was so lovely I had to bring it home to show Mammy, Miss +Lavinia said. 'Twas brave an' handsome, it was!" + +"What be they white flowers?" interrupted Ruthie. + +"Stitchwort," the ladies answered. + +"'Tisn't, 'tis cat's eyes!" contradicted Tommy. + +"Hush, Tommy," said Ruthie, "you'm a naughty boy. My mammy always +calls they 'rattle-baskets' because it do rattle so when 'tis dry." + +Ruthie's last words came spasmodically, for Tommy had unexpectedly +leaned forward over the splashboard and hit Jimmy on the back with his +white muffler. It had been a great disappointment to Tommy to find, +when they started, that there was no whip in the gingle, and that the +pleasure of hittin' 'en was not to be his. Realizing that the muffler +would make a fairly good substitute, he used it with such effect that +the startled pony broke into a quick gallop, and the ladies and Ruthie +were jerked backwards in their seats. + +When Miss Margaret had quietened the pony she spoke very seriously to +Tommy. + +Jimmy proved an unusually good pony for steep hills, taking them at a +brisk trot. Going downhill, however, he was cautious and picked his +way most carefully. Half-way down a steep, rough road Tommy again +used his muffler as a whip. Then Miss Margaret was quite angry. As she +felt that more words were useless, she merely loosened the muffler +from his tight grasp and put it in the corner near the lunchbasket, +where Ruthie sat. + +It was most perplexing and embarrassing to have one's principal guest +in constant need of correction. + +Tommy was evidently quite surprised at Miss Margaret's decided action +in the matter of the muffler, and for some moments afterwards sat +silent and subdued. Then slowly, very slowly, his left hand stole +towards her disengaged right resting upon the cushion. This seemed a +sign of repentance on Tommy's part, and Miss Margaret's fingers closed +tightly over his as she smiled across at Miss Dorothea. + +Her happiness in Tommy's regeneration was short-lived. Snatching his +hand away, "Get me some o' that stuff, Miss Margaret," he shouted, +"get me some o' that stuff for a whistle." + +"What stuff?" + +"Suckymores, suckymores for a whistle." + +They were still driving down the steep, rugged road, so Miss Margaret +turned Jimmy to the grass of the hedge-bank and Miss Dorothea, Ruthie +and Tommy got out. Miss Dorothea was able to break off some grand +sycamore twigs for whistles, enough for all the boys in Miss Lavinia's +school. + +"Whoa, Jimmy; steady, Jimmy!" and Miss Margaret pulled hard at the +right rein, only just saving Tommy from being knocked down by the +wheel and run over. + +Tommy tried to look natural and unconcerned, but Miss Dorothea had +seen the cause of Jimmy's start. Tommy had picked up a hazel switch +and, thinking himself unobserved, had hit the pony sharply on the +flank. + +It seemed quite useless to reprove him any more, so Miss Margaret +sternly ordered him to return to the gingle. This he obstinately +refused to do. He was goin' to walk for a bit, he was goin' to run on +behind, he was. When Miss Dorothea walked towards him he ran away. He +was literally lifted into the gingle, and then sat in Miss Dorothea's +place, refusing to move, as he wished to be next to Ruthie. Ruthie +herself explained to him that in that way the balance would be all +wrong, but he still remained obdurate. Once more he was lifted up and +put into his proper place. + +Then, although Miss Margaret took the reins, she did not drive on. +Instead, "Miss Dorothea," she said, "shall we go on to Polderry, or +shall we drive straight back home?" + +"Oh, Miss Margaret," pleaded Ruthie, "please, please, go on! don't ee +go home. Tommy _will_ be a good boy, won't ee now, Tommy?" + +Tommy shook his head affirmatively. + +"Well," said Miss Margaret, "you must quite understand that if we go +on you are to be good. If you are naughty again I shall turn Jimmy +round and drive home at once." + +Unfortunately Tommy was used to threats that were seldom carried out. +The policeman would come for him, Mammy said, when he was naughty, +and, although he had often been really quite naughty, still the +policeman had not come. At other times he was told that he would be +sent to London to live with the monkeys in the Zoo. At first this +possibility had filled him with dread, but now familiarity had blunted +the sharp edge of fear. + +Something in Miss Margaret's manner, however, warned him that hers was +not an idle speech, and he decided that he must be really careful for +the rest of the drive. + +A little farther on, down the same hilly part of the main road, a lady +approached them. "Have you just come through a village?" she asked, as +they were passing by. + +They had noticed on the right, down a side road, a few scattered +houses, but scarcely thought it could be called a village. + +"Had it any shops or a garage?" she asked again, and seemed +disheartened when they told her that there were no shops nearer than +Draeth, five miles away. + +Afterwards they understood her anxiety, for right in the middle of the +roadway stood a big, immovable motor. Two men were crawling under its +body, and Miss Margaret had to call out sharply to one of them to +withdraw his feet before she could drive Jimmy and the gingle past. + +At Polderry it was decided that the very first thing to do was to eat +the lunch that Mrs. Tregennis had packed in the big round basket. + +When Tommy and Ruthie found that the yellow part of their eggs was +green outside they were much surprised. + +"Be they raw?" asked Tommy. + +"Hard-boiled," answered Miss Dorothea, and Tommy ate his egg quickly, +all by itself. + +After this he gave back his slice of bread and butter. "Don't want 'e +now, I wants a piece of cake." + +"You must eat the bread and butter first," he was told. + +"No, shan't," he said, and passed it on to Ruthie, who could not take +it from him because Miss Margaret shook her head. + +"Shan't _eat_ 'en," Tommy stated, emphatically. + +But this was a case in which Miss Margaret undoubtedly held the upper +hand. She made no reply to Tommy's assertion, and when he tried to +extract a piece of cake from the basket it was placed beyond his +reach. + +"_Shan't_ eat 'en," he said again, but again no notice was taken of +his words. Defiantly he picked up the bucket and spade and began to +dig in the sand. + +A tempting row of Cornish splits, halved and spread with jam and +cream, was prepared by Miss Dorothea. + +Tommy soon returned. "Can I have a split, please?" he asked, in quite +a different voice. + +"Yes," he was promised, "as soon as ever the bread and butter's +eaten." + +He shook his head, and almost at once asked again, "_Please_ can I +have a split, 'n jam 'n cream?" + +"Tommy," said Miss Margaret, very definitely, "don't be such a foolish +boy. Until you have eaten the bread and butter you can have nothing +else. Try to understand that I mean that." + +Tommy's hands hung limply at his sides. He gazed in open-mouthed +amazement at Miss Margaret. She did really and truly mean it, he +supposed. It was very odd and very surprising, and he picked up the +rejected bread and butter and slowly began to eat. + +"Oh, my cake," exclaimed Ruthie, as half a slice of saffron-cake broke +in her hand and fell into the sand. + +"You can't eat that now, Ruthie," laughed Miss Margaret, as she was +about to pick it up. "It will be much too gritty." + +Then Miss Margaret realized that she had made a grave tactical error, +for at once Tommy's bread and butter fell at his feet. + +"That must be eaten," said Miss Margaret quickly, and Tommy put his +heel upon it and ground it deep down in the sand. Out of the corners +of his eyes he glanced at Miss Margaret, but apparently she was quite +unaware of his action, so he sidled up to her and once more pleaded +for a split. + +At this point, with disconcerting suddenness, the rain began to fall. +Hastily the luncheon basket was repacked and Miss Margaret, Miss +Dorothea and Ruthie ran to the shelter of a coach-house near by, where +they were given permission to stay. Tommy remained behind and resumed +his digging in the sand. When no notice was taken of his absence, he +decided that making castles in the rain was poor sport. Accordingly he +rejoined his party and found them merrily continuing the interrupted +lunch. + +Confidently he approached Miss Margaret, asking for "a split an' +cream, please." + +"But I can't give you a split," she said, "you were to have it when +you'd eaten the bread and butter, and not until then." + +"I did eat the bread and butter in my hand." + +"What about the piece in the sand?" + +Then Miss Margaret _had_ seen him tread on it: this was unexpected. + +"Couldn't help droppin' 'e," he said, now almost tearfully. + +"But why did you bury it deep down in the sand?" + +"I thought somebody might come along an' not know, an' pick 'e up an' +eat 'e, an' it wouldn't be nice for they." + +"Very well," said Miss Margaret, "I'll give you another piece exactly +the same size, and when you've eaten that you can have splits and +cream and just whatever you like." + +But Tommy refused and kicked a ball savagely round and round the +coach-house to soothe his outraged feelings. Violent exercise, +however, did not allay his hunger. + +"_Please_ can I have a split," he asked once more. + +Without speaking, Miss Margaret offered him a piece of bread and +butter exactly the size of that which he had hidden in the sand, and +Tommy ate it without remonstrance. + +After lunch the picnic-party played ball-games in the roomy +coach-house, but when at the end of an hour the rain showed no sign of +abating, the ladies, in spite of Ruthie's earnest pleading, decided +that it would be wiser to go home. + +Somewhat dejectedly they walked to the inn for the gingle and Jimmy. +Tommy brought up the rear, trailing his long spade after him and +rattling his bucket against his knees each step he took. "Well," Miss +Dorothea overheard him say, "Well, Ruthie; now this day do be bravely +spoiled." + +On the homeward drive Miss Dorothea told the children the history of +Little Black Sambo. Then Ruthie told a story in which full-stops +occurred in the middle of sentences whenever it was absolutely +necessary that she should pause for breath. + +"There was wanst a little boy an' he had a rabbit and it lived in a +house in the garden an' he went up to feed it with green stuff one +night an' he. Left the door open an' he met a man an' he said to the +man what have you got in your pocket an' the man said a little rabbit +an' the boy took this little baby rabbit an' took it to his home +because he'd lost his own rabbit. Through leavin' the door open an' he +met a man an' he said to the man what've you got in your pocket an' he +said a very little bird so he took it to his home and put it in a +house in his garden." + +At some length the story went on. Always the boy met a man, and always +the man had in his pocket some strange and unexpected animal which the +boy took to his home and put in a house in the garden. + +But finally, "An' the boy went out again an' he met a lady wheelin' a +pram an' there was a baby in the pram an' the boy said what've _you_ +got in your pocket an' the lady said I haven't got nothin' in my +pocket an' neither she hadn't got nothin' in her pocket for she only +had a little baby an' the little baby was in the pram." + +Then Ruthie looked round the gingle, smiling, and the wet audience of +three, realizing that in this unfinished and unsatisfactory way the +story ended, thanked her politely, and wondered whether the boy kept +all his new pets safely or whether, like the original rabbit, they too +escaped. + +Going up the hill from Esselton they again passed the big, immovable +car; it was still standing right in the middle of the road. All the +passengers sat very closely together under the hood, evidently +awaiting relief. Fired by Ruthie's example, Tommy decided that he, +too, would tell a story. + +"There was wanst a rabbit--. An' it went down to the beach--. An' +there was another rabbit, too--. An' a great, big giant came down--. +An' he took away one of the rabbits, did the giant--. An' the giant +ate it all up." + +They were passing St Peter's by this time. Draeth and home and Mammy +were very near and Tommy felt unhappy inside. "I do be feelin' brave +an' bad," he said, lifting tearful eyes to Miss Margaret. But Miss +Margaret was busily occupied with the pony and the reins, and had no +sympathy to extend to a conscience-stricken boy. + +In pelting rain the gingle drew up in front of Mr. Chard's door. "Been +a-sailin', Tommy Tregennis?" asked some of the West Drayers, but Tommy +felt too bad to reply. + +"Been a good boy, my lovely?" asked Mammy, as she drew off his boots. + +"I dunno!" + +"But you must know," said Mammy, as she buttoned the strap shoes. +"Been a good boy?" + +There was no answer. + +"Well, have you been naughty?" Mammy persisted. + +Tommy wriggled down from the chair. "I dunno, and don't ee bother I no +more, Mammy, ask Miss Margaret what I been," and he ran from the +house, unmindful of the rain, to seek the soothing presence of his +never-failing admirer, Aunt Keziah Kate. + +After tea Mammy had a long and serious talk with the ladies. "'Underds +of times," she admitted, she threatened Tommy, and nothing happened. +"When there's visitors here I feel I must go the easiest way," she +explained. + +"He's too good to be spoiled," urged Miss Margaret. + +"We don't want to spoil him, Miss, his daddy an' me, and we must try +and be firmer with him, for he do indeed be gettin' out of hand." + +At six o'clock Miss Margaret heard Tommy go into the bedroom, and soon +afterwards there was Mrs. Tregennis's heavier step on the stairs. +There was a rustle of bed clothes and a creaking of springs, and by +these signs Miss Margaret knew that Tommy was in bed. + +"Tommy," said Mrs. Tregennis, "do you know why your Mammy do be +feelin' very sad?" + +"No Mammy," was the reply, "but shall us talk a bit about you, when ee +was just a very little girl." + +"No, my son," said Mrs. Tregennis, with great firmness; "we'm not +goin' to talk about me when I was small; we be goin' to talk about +you, instead, my son." + +Then the door was closed and Miss Margaret heard no more. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + +After the Polderry picnic the relations between Tommy and his ladies +were distinctly strained. In many little ways they worked for his +regeneration and tried to bring home to him the enormity of his +offences. + +On the following day, which was Sunday, he himself showed tact in +avoiding the upstairs sitting-room. Mammy brought up the letters and +whenever the ladies approached the kitchen they found Tommy fully and +unobtrusively occupied with urgent affairs in the corner farthest from +the door. + +On Monday morning when he was running along the quay from school, his +quick eye saw a halfpenny lying in the dust near some drying tackle. +This was unprecedented good fortune. It was the first money that Tommy +had ever found. After picking it up he looked round for possible +claimants, but as none appeared he put it in his pocket and pursued +his homeward way. + +He found only Mammy indoors. She was very busy just then, and although +she was moderately enthusiastic over his find, he felt the need of +wider sympathy and ran out into the alley on the off-chance of meeting +with Jimmy Prynne. + +Jimmy Prynne was not in sight, but coming up from the sea were his +ladies. They carried travelling-rugs and books, and were laughing +together as they walked. Tommy had always taken them into his +confidence at once no matter whether it was in joy or sorrow. To-day +he felt an unaccountable diffidence in approaching them. + +Somewhat hesitatingly he drew near and their laughter at once ceased. +"Found this!" and he held his dusty halfpenny up to view. + +Miss Dorothea said nothing, Miss Margaret merely remarked "Oh," and +passed on. + +Quite obviously they had not seen his treasure. "'Tis a 'a'penny," he +insisted. "I found 'e on the quay all in a 'eap o' dust." + +Miss Dorothea passed into the house. Miss Margaret smiled politely, +and "Oh," she said once more. + +Tommy was sick at heart. It was as though the very foundations of his +world were giving way. + +In the matter of finds he seemed to have struck a run of luck, for on +Tuesday he came home with a knife picked up on the shingle near the +Frying Pan steps. It was an ivory-handled knife and had four blades of +different sizes; they were all rusty and all broken. + +"I'll give ee my knife, Daddy," said Tommy, at tea-time, pushing it +across the table. + +"Mustn't do that, must never give nothin' as cuts." + +"Why?" asked Tommy. + +"'Twill cut love. If so be as I took that knife I shouldn't love ee +any more. 'Tis all right if 'e do be bought, so here be a 'a'penny for +ee." + +Daddy thrust the knife into his deep, trouser pocket, and Tommy put +the halfpenny into his. + +Tommy felt that his ladies would surely be interested in this day's +event. There was not only the thrilling incident of the finding of the +knife, but there was the subsequent financial transaction with Daddy, +and a second halfpenny in his trouser pocket to-day. He poured out his +story to them as they were mounting the stairs. To his amazement it +left them cold. + +When next they passed the kitchen door he entreated his Daddy to show +the knife to them, and Tregennis displayed the four broken blades from +which he had removed the rust with bits of cinder. + +"You will find that most useful, Tregennis," said Miss Margaret. To +Tommy she spoke not at all. + +In the doorway she relaxed just a little. "You have really been quite +lucky, Tommy," she remarked, and went with Miss Dorothea down to the +sea. + +Later the ladies had occasion to buy stamps. Coming from the +post-office they saw Tommy sitting on the quay-wall, knocking off bits +of mortar with his heels. + +"Our one-time friend!" laughed Miss Dorothea, but Miss Margaret looked +straight ahead. + +When Tommy saw them he slipped from the wall and ran behind them +whistling and singing to attract attention. As this proved a dull and +ineffectual game he dodged in front kicking an old salmon tin before +him as he ran. By the Three Jolly Tars Teddy Falconer was playing. +When he saw Tommy he hastily picked up his ball and shrank into the +doorway of the inn. Now Tommy would have been distinctly glad for this +incident to pass unobserved, but it was at this moment, unluckily, +that Miss Margaret became aware of him. + +"Why does Teddy look so frightened?" she asked. + +"'Tother day I did kick his ball for 'e, and ..." with a dramatic +gesture towards the shrinking Teddy, "'e did run into his house to +tell his Mammy." + +The look that Miss Margaret gave Tommy showed him that his position +was in no wise strengthened. He fell behind and walked home dejectedly +to tea. + +At half-past six that evening, when the water was high, there was to +be a launch, Tregennis said. Miss Dorothea was tired, so Miss Margaret +went alone to see the new lugger take the water. She missed the launch +because it was all over half-an-hour before she got there, but she +found instead, playing on the quay, Mary Sarah and Katie, and the +whole Stevenson family. + +Of course the Stevensons were there, Mary Sarah explained, for they +were the O'Grady's cousins. Mary Sarah was as much as five, and in +virtue of her age she took the lead. Mary Sarah enlightened the others +as to the identity of the Lady, and vouched for her respectability, so +to speak. The Lady had often spoken to her, she told them with an air +of superiority, and she had often spoken to the Lady when the Lady was +sittin' writin' up on the top o' the cliffs. + +When the conversation dragged a reference was made to sweets, and the +whole party repaired to Mrs. Tregennis's house. + +"Mrs. Tregennis," called out Miss Margaret, "here's Mary Sarah +O'Grady, and Katie O'Grady, and their cousins the Stevensons and me. +We've all come here for sweets. Have you any to give away?" + +There was a blank moment when Mrs. Tregennis announced that she hadn't +got no not one. + +Tommy, who was in the kitchen at the time, was delighted to think that +sweets were not forthcoming for Mary Sarah and Katie, and the whole +family of Stevensons. + +Then Miss Margaret brightened up. "I remember!" she said, and ran +upstairs two steps at a time. + +When she returned she had in her hand a good-sized paper bag which she +gave to Mary Sarah. + +"Now Mary Sarah," she admonished; "you share them out, turn and turn +about. Be quite fair. They're such pretty children," she remarked to +Mrs. Tregennis. + +"They did oughter be," was the reply, "for they be Irish to the very +finger-tips." + +Miss Margaret again turned to the group of children. "What have you +got, Katie?" and Katie withdrew from her mouth a big bull's-eye. + +With bulging cheek, and somewhat inarticulately, Mary Sarah spoke. +"Her do have a shocking bad cold," she said with the wisdom of three +times five; "they mints will be brave an' good for she." + +This incident made a deep impression upon Tommy. So far the ladies had +been his own special property; he had shared them quite occasionally +with Ruthie, but with her alone. That Mary Sarah and Katie and the +Stevensons should adopt them was by no means in accordance with his +wishes. Something must be done, and that something clearly must be +the strengthening of his own moral character. + +Weeks before Miss Margaret had initiated Tommy into the mysteries of +an early morning rite. You first of all clasped hands (right hands it +had to be, Tommy's left was always rejected), and then you said "Good +morning," and smiled, and after that you shook the hands up and down +and jumped once to each shake. Both shaking and jumping got quicker +and quicker, and at last ended with an abrupt stop, and your arms fell +stiffly to your sides. + +To Tommy this ceremony had become an integral part of the morning. It +was strange, too, how only Miss Margaret knew the proper way. When +Miss Dorothea tried to shake hands with him once he found that she had +absolutely no knowledge of the right method of procedure and he had +been obliged to tell her so. + +For three mornings now the ceremony had been neglected. On the +Wednesday Tommy determined that it must no longer be omitted, and when +he saw Miss Margaret he held out his hand and smiled. Miss Margaret +smiled too, took his hand in hers, shook it just once, said "Good +morning," then turned to Mrs. Tregennis and gave orders for the day. + +"Why wouldn't Miss Margaret shake hands with me proper?" he asked +afterwards. + +"Don't ee know?" Mammy replied, "I guess _I_ know. You think, my son." + +So Tommy thought. + +There was great excitement in Draeth the next day, for a big +Conservative tea-meeting had been arranged for the afternoon, and The +Member was to be present. + +At one end of the tea-table Mrs. Tregennis presided. She was +accompanied by Tommy in the dandy-go-risset sailor suit, and by +Tregennis. Tregennis felt very stiff and uncomfortable, for as this +was such an important occasion Mrs. Tregennis had decided that he must +discard the fisherman's jersey in favour of his wedding suit. In all +the eight years he had been married this suit had not been worn above +a dozen times, for, as he declared to Miss Margaret, "It has to be +some fine weather, Miss, when I puts on they." + +This afternoon the wedding suit was worn, and Tregennis, Mrs. +Tregennis and Tommy sat down to tea with their fellow-Conservatives +and with all the quality of Draeth. An excellent tea was provided at +sixpence a head; The Member made a few remarks on the political +outlook which were well received, and the meeting broke up amid +general congratulations. As Mrs. Tregennis explained afterwards to the +ladies she herself was not a Conservative, in fact, her father was a +Liberal, so if it came to a question of family she was a Liberal too. +She knew naught of it, but always hoped that the best man would get +in, politics or no politics. Tommy, she supposed, would be brought up +as a Conservative and follow in his father's steps. + +"But that is too dreadful to contemplate," exclaimed Miss Margaret. +"Tommy, come here." + +This was a tone of voice Tommy had not heard for five days. He came +with alacrity. + +Miss Margaret held out a bottle of boiled sweets that were just the +very best kind he liked; hard and scrunchy they were on the outside, +soft and sticky within. + +"These," said Miss Margaret, "are Liberal sweets. Each time you eat +one you must say, 'I'm a good Liberal.'" + +Tommy grinned. + +"That do be bribery and corruption," objected Tregennis. + +"Never mind," Miss Margaret replied. "Now, Tommy, what are you to +say?" + +Tommy had taken two sweets at the same time and there was a bulge in +each cheek. In reply to Miss Margaret's question he bit first on the +right side of his mouth, and "I be a brave good Liberal," he asserted. +Then he bit on the left side and the formula was repeated. + +Afterwards, "I don't care which I be, 'servative or Liberal," he +affirmed, "but I do like they sweets better'n either." + +The next morning Miss Margaret shook hands with him in quite the +proper manner. They jumped quite thirteen times and the ending was +exceptionally sudden and abrupt. While Miss Margaret stood stiffly in +front of him Tommy made a little dash forward and threw his arms +around her. She stooped and kissed him and Tommy went off happily to +school. + +So big was the bottle of Liberal sweets that even on Saturday there +were still some left. Just before tea Tommy asked many times that +Mammy would get these from the cupboard and let him eat them then. + +"Not before tea, ma handsome; not till ee do go to bed." + +"Wants they now to wanst, _please_ Mammy," Tommy stated. + +"Not till ee do go to bed, I tell ee." + +"Gimme one of they Liberal sweets _now_." + +"Tommy," it was Miss Margaret's voice. "Tommy, I want to give you a +box of chocolates to-morrow, but if you ask once more to-day for the +bottle of sweets, I shall keep the chocolates for myself." + +"There, you hear," said Mammy, "an' you do know now, Tommy, that what +Miss Margaret says that she do mean." + +Tommy nodded a little shamefacedly. "Yes, I know," he assented; "I +remember." + +When Tommy came in from play two hours later he walked up to the +kitchen cupboard. + +"Mammy," he demanded eagerly, holding up his hands to the shelf out of +reach, "Mammy, I tell ee, do give I one o' they Lib...." + +Then came recollection. "Oh," he said, "I had a'most forgot." + +His outstretched hands dropped to his sides, he clutched the stuff of +his trousers to keep the restless fingers still, and with very tightly +closed lips turned his back on the cupboard and the kitchen, and +walked upstairs to bed. + +Thus it was that Tommy took the first conscious and determined step +towards the improvement of his moral character. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + + +In the upper windows of the double-fronted house near the church plain +short blinds had replaced the long Madras muslin curtains. Again the +gay Brussels carpet in the best sitting-room was covered with +newspaper and the ornaments were put away. All visitors had left +Draeth, for the Summer was over, and with the summer Tommy's sixth +birthday had come and gone. + +Being six did not bring with it the rare delight that Tommy had +expected. For one thing he missed his ladies; for another he was +troubled by the growing sadness of his Mammy's face. Twice when he +came in unexpectedly he had found her in tears, and yet she had +assured him that she had no headache anywhere. + +It was most unfortunate, too, that just when things were a little +dreary Granny Tregennis should be so very tired. Whenever Tommy ran in +to see her now, he found that she was still in bed, and although she +wanted him to play with her on Saturday mornings yet, when he went +upstairs, she seemed to have but little pleasure in the play-toys that +were kept in the fireplace cupboard. + +"My Granny did ought to have a brave long sleep," he asserted with +puckered brow. + +"She do be goin' to have a brave long sleep, ma handsome," Mammy's +eyes filled with tears as she spoke and this seemed to Tommy +inconsistent. + +On the front, looking for occupation, he fell in with Old John. Old +John was a life-long friend, but of late there had been so many other +interests to attract him that Old John had been neglected. + +Now Tommy hailed him. "Gotten a noo pair o' trousers," he shouted, and +almost overbalanced in his effort to stand on one leg with the other +stretched out at right angles in front of him. + +"Hm!" said Old John. + +Taking his pipe from his mouth he examined the trousers critically. +"Hm!" he said again. + +"My Mammy's blue skirt," Tommy explained, proudly, while he reversed +his position. He now stood on the left leg and thrust forward the +right. + +"Hallo!" he cried, for Mammy was approaching to bring him in to bed. + +"Tommy 'e do tell me 'e've gotten noo trousers." + +Mammy nodded. + +"Made out o' your blue skirt, Ellen Tregennis?" + +Mammy nodded and smiled. + +"You'm gotten as good a little woman as ever is in the world for your +Mammy, Tommy." Old John looked at Mrs. Tregennis, who laughed in +acknowledgement of the compliment. + +"We'm forced to do as careful as we can," she said. "When Tom can't go +neither boulter-fishin' nor whiffin' we be livin' on our means like +the gintry; then I make clothes for Tommy, so's he'll be respectable. +'Taint no mortal use, Old John, for we to _look_ small and _be_ small +both, so there's where 'tis to." + +"Makes 'en out of hers!" This was a fact that Tommy was very proud of. + +Again Mammy laughed. "Well, 'tis so," she admitted. "Tom an' me we +wears the clothes, then Tommy wears 'en, then they do be made into +mats an' we treads on 'en. Blouses bain't no good though, for 'e," she +added ruefully; "very wastely things they be to tear up for 'e, the +sleeves do come s'awkward!" + +"An' Tom now, 'e do be a brave good husband?" queried Old John. + +"That he be. I wouldn't stand no nonsense, I wouldn't be 'umbugged +about with 'e, me at my size." + +Mammy smiled and led Tommy off to bed. + +At the top of the alley Tommy stopped. "I'll be back in a minute," he +said as he turned towards Main Street. + +"Where be a-goin'?" asked Mammy. + +"Where be I a-goin'?" Tommy echoed in surprise. "Why I be a-goin' to +say good-night to my Gran." + +"I shouldn't go to-night, ma handsome; Granny's tired." + +Tommy turned and looked at his mother in amazement. Every night ever +since he could remember he had run along to say "good-night" to +Granny. + +"She'll want me, an' I must go," he demurred. + +"She do be too tired for ee to-night, my lamb." + +"Do ee mean, Mammy, that 'er do be too tired for me to say good-night +to she?" Tommy was frankly incredulous. + +Mammy nodded and again the tears came. "She can't do with ee, not +to-night," she said very softly. + +Much puzzled Tommy was led into the house and undressed; still puzzled +he went upstairs to bed. Half-an-hour later he fell asleep, wondering. + +The next day, Saturday, a reluctant Tommy was sent to spend the +morning on the beach, while Mammy went along to be with Aunt Keziah +Kate, for Granny's tiredness was nearly over. + +In the old-fashioned bedroom there was little to do but wait. + +"She do be slippin' away fast," said Aunt Keziah Kate. + +Gently she stroked the frail old hands that lay on the coarse +coverlet. There were no tears in her eyes. There would be plenty of +time for weeping afterwards, now they must just wait. + +"It do be just like Gran." Mammy hastily brushed away a tear. "Never +wasn't no trouble to no-one, wasn't Gran. All her life she've spent in +considerin' others. As long as visitors was here she've keppen up; now +that the summer's over she do be quietly slippin' away." + +The old woman, lying so quietly on the bed, opened her eyes and her +lips moved slowly. Aunt Keziah Kate bent to catch the whispered words. + +"Saturday?" + +Aunt Keziah Kate nodded. + +"What be the time?" + +Aunt Keziah Kate told her. + +"Then where be Tommy?" + +"You don't want 'e mother this mornin', do ee?" + +An almost imperceptible movement of Granny's head was the reply, and +Tommy was hastily found and brought up from the sunshine of the beach +to the dim light of Granny's room. + +"Go very quietly, my lamb," warned Mrs. Tregennis. + +"But I allus do," answered Tommy, rather indignantly. "She don't never +hear me come; it do be a surprise for she." + +Then he creaked across the room on tip-toe, stepped first of all on to +the hassock and from this to the chair. When he raised the curtain the +sight of the lined face lying so still, so very still, upon the pillow +stopped the "Bo" before it left his lips. + +Instead, "Granny, Granny," he whispered. "I do be come to play with +ee, my Granny." + +The tired old eyes opened very slowly, and for a moment it almost +seemed as though she smiled. "Ma lovely," she whispered. + +But there were no play-toys to-day, for in the same room where a new +life had begun so many years ago an old one was soon to end. There was +no storm now. Outside the sun shone brightly, and a little breeze +gently moved the old chintz window curtains made so many years ago by +Granny's busy hands. + +Granfäather Tregennis had come into the room and large tears were +rolling down his cheeks. Tommy thought that grown men never cried. His +wonder deepened when Granfäather, who was quite grown up, knelt down +on the other side of the bed and covered his face with his hands. + +Mammy and Aunt Keziah Kate were crying too. + +Tommy's heart tightened with despair. Granny had forgotten him, for +again her eyes were closed. + +Then he remembered something that would surely arouse her interest, +and from his trouser pocket he pulled out yards of tangled, woollen +chain; the very chain that Granny had taught him to make in the +far-away Christmas holidays. + +"I made this for ee, Granny," he said, putting into her hands a motley +string of pink, and green, and blue and red. "I did make 'e for ee all +myself, no-one else did never do none of 'e at all." + +Once more Granny opened her eyes. "Thank ee ma lovely," she whispered, +and a little sigh fluttered between her parted lips. + +Then Tommy was led away. + +When Aunt Keziah Kate would have removed the tangled chain the feeble +fingers closed and held it more firmly. + +Afterwards, when Granny was at rest, Granfäather Tregennis took it +from the cold hands and put it away in a drawer with his few +treasures--a dry, withered rose given him by Granny many, many years +ago, and an artificial spray of orange-blossom worn by Granny on their +wedding-day. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + + +On the day of Granny's funeral Old John took care of Tommy. + +Old John lived up towards the Barbican, in as neat a cottage as you +could find in Draeth. No woman ever did a hand's turn in his little, +two-roomed crib; the old sailor washed and mended, cleaned and +scrubbed, and kept his home so well that, as Mrs. Tregennis remarked, +'twould be possible to eat anything as 'e'd made, an' eat it off his +floor at that, an' she for one would gladly do it. + +It was not until Old John was getting on in years that he had married +and set up a cabin of his own. He had given up sailorin' then and +turned fisherman, because he wouldn't leave his bonny little maid so +much alone. + +Only to himself, never to any other, did Old John confess that the +bonny little maid had proved a misfit. God, how he had loved her! Nigh +on eighty was Old John now, and still he dreamed of her at night. Too +much given to newsin' she had been and that was all the trouble. + +"'Ousin' and tea-drinkin' don't hold in our line o' life," Old John +had told her, but she had only laughed and followed her own bent. +Under her care, or lack of care, the trim cottage by the Barbican had +become a dirty hovel. + + [Illustration: ON THE DAY OF GRANNY'S FUNERAL, OLD JOHN TOOK + CARE OF TOMMY.] + +Before his love could wane she died. Thirty-five years had gone by +since the night that Old John held her for the last time in his arms. +In her place she left a son, and the son was more of a misfit than the +mother who bore him. + +"One o' they creeperses!" was the judgement of Draeth, and Old John +knew that the judgement was just. But not only was his John sly, he +was idle and lazy as well. + +"If I could only have had a son like Tommy, an' a wife like ...," then +Old John checked himself sharply; there was disloyalty in the thought +and he gave undivided attention to his guest. + +"What be we a-goin' to have for dinner?" Tommy was asking. + +"Fish," replied Old John. + +"What did ee eat for breakfast?" + +"Fish as I catched at sunrise." + +"An' what'll ee have for supper?" + +"Fish again." + +"Seems a lot o' fish in one day," Tommy stated. + +"Why, yes; of course. 'Twouldn't be so cheap to live else, Tommy. +Don't ee know thicky tiddley verse: + + Fish for breakfast that we 'ad, + An' for dinner 'ad a chad, + An' for tea we 'ad some ray, + So we 'ad fish three times that day!" + +The young voice and the old one said the lines over and over in a +monotonous sing-song until Tommy knew them off by heart. + +Movements overhead showed that John was getting up. Although it was +nearly half-past nine he had not yet left the bedroom. When he came +downstairs he looked sulky and unwashed and ate his breakfast in +sullen silence. + +"Fish to sell?" he muttered. + +Old John pointed to his early morning catch. + +As well as being sly and lazy John was also a bit soft, and never +acted on his own responsibility. + +"How much be I to get for they?" he asked. + +It was only a small catch and Old John lifted the fish from the basket +to estimate their value. + +"Should fetch tenpence," he decided, "but make what ee can. If ee +can't get tenpence, take eightpence; an' if 'ee can't get eightpence, +take sixpence; but make what ee can. Should fetch tenpence, though," +he said again as he replaced the fish and passed the basket to his +son. + +John always followed the line of least resistance. Half-way to the +quay he met a man who handled his fish with a view to buying. + +"What do you want for they?" he was asked. + +"My fäather said get tenpence if ee can, or eightpence if ee can; or +sixpence if ee can; just make what ee can. So what'll ee give for +they?" + +Long before his return was expected John slouched into the cottage +kitchen and threw four pennies on the table. "For they fish," he said, +and walked away to join a knot of idlers on the front. + +Old John sighed as he gathered up the coins. He felt very old these +days: he wasn't by no means the man he used to be, and it was very +difficult to live. + +"Goin' a-whiffin' again to-day?" Tommy asked him, and he brought his +mind to bear upon the needs of the moment. + +"Not whiffin', but afore tea I must see to my lobster pots," he +replied. "Did ought to get a good catch, too. What be a-goin' to do, +Tommy, when art a grown man? Fishin'?" + +Tommy shook his head. "No," he stated, emphatically. "My Mammy says it +do be starvation to put a lad to fishin' now. I'll be a p'liceman an' +scare they children bravely, that I will." Tommy drew himself up in +proud anticipation of his authority-to-be. + +"Bit lonely, bain't ee sometimes, Tommy?" was Old John's next essay. + +Tommy did not understand, so Old John tried to make his meaning clear. + +"'Twould be nice for ee to have a baby sister to play with an' look +after," he said. Then he knew that he had blundered. + +Tommy clenched his fingers, set his teeth together and breathed hard. +"Ef a baby sister do come to _my_ house," he declared, "I shall +upstairs with she, an' out through the toppest window 'er'll go." + +"Well, well, well!" Old John was at a loss. When you are close on +eighty it is not easy to sustain a conversation with a boy of six. + +"Where be my granny?" Tommy asked, unexpectedly. + +Old John was confused. It did not come easy to him to talk o' things +as 'ad to do wi' religion. + +"In heaven," he answered, hesitatingly. + +Tommy went to the door and looked earnestly upwards at the clouds, + + ".....white as flocks new shorn + And fresh from the clear brook." + +His eyes filled with tears, but he blinked them bravely back. Mammy +had said not to cry, and he tried hard to be a man. + +"I wonder if God wanted she as much as us," he said. Then a feeling of +unutterable loneliness came upon him. His bravery fell from him, and +he ran sobbing to Old John. + +"I be frightened," he sobbed. "I want Mammy; will Mammy have gotten +home?" + +Clumsily Old John held him in his arms, and, six years old though he +was, Tommy fell asleep just like a little boy. Since Saturday +everything had been so sad and so unusual; he had not been to school +and the days had dragged. He had gone to bed late and got up early, +and now he was quite tired out. Old John carried him upstairs and laid +him gently upon the unmade bed. There Tommy slept until he was +awakened for the dinner of fish. + +Before tea Tommy left Old John's cottage, and Old John went to see to +his lobster pots. + +In her unaccustomed black Mammy's pale face looked still paler. Daddy +was wearing his wedding-suit and a broad black tie. It was all so +unusual that Tommy felt almost a stranger in his own house. Auntie +Martha came in early in the evening and brought with her a coat of +Mabel's which she thought would do for Tommy to wear to school in the +coming winter months. + +"It do be a bit small for Mabel, anyhow," she explained, "an' now as +her do be a-wearin' black it ain't but little good to she." + +It was a fawn coat with brown velvet collar and cuffs--a beautiful +coat, Tommy thought. This present was a gleam of brightness in a +dreary day, and he wished the winter would come quickly that he might +wear it at once. + +"Come along to bed, Tommy," said Mammy, "and bring the noo coat with +ee." + +"All right, Mammy," he replied, "won't be but a minute," and he walked +to the door. + +"Where be a-goin'?" Mammy spoke very gently. + +"To say good-night to my Gran." + +Then realization came. "She isn't there," he whispered, and, turning, +went silently upstairs. + +In his prayers that night he stumbled. "Bless granfäather----" he +prayed, and stopped. Then, "an' please God kiss my Granny good-night +for me," he asked, "an' make me a brave, good boy." + +As Mrs. Tregennis went downstairs Tregennis came in from the sea. +"Ellen," he said, in an awestruck voice, "Ellen, Old John 'e be +drownded." + +"Can't be," said Mrs. Tregennis. "Why, he was here but an hour agone. +You see'd 'e yourself, Tom." + +Tregennis nodded. "He was lobster-catchin', Crudely way. The men were +seine-fishin' an' up on the cliffs the 'ooers was a-'ooin of 'em on. +Old John he looked up at the 'ooers an' somehow missed atween the +rocks and his boat and slippen down. Seiners they came up quick, but +they haven't found 'e yet. I wanted just to come in an' tell ee, +Ellen, didn't want ee to hear accident-like. I must go back now and +help," and Tregennis returned to do what he could. + +But not until late the next day did they find Old John's body. John, +his son, put on his father's best clothes, and idled on the front +while the fishermen of Draeth dragged the water near the Crudely +rocks. When he found anyone willing to listen to him he spoke. "Funny +thing," he muttered, "very funny thing. Fäather's been to sea all +these years, an' never got drownded afore. Very funny thing it do be +for sure, an' what be I a-goin' to do now?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + + +Mrs. Tregennis sat at the kitchen table. With a short and rather blunt +pencil she was making calculations on a half-sheet of note-paper. +Never before in the month of April had they stood so well and known so +little fear. Mrs. Radford had been so very difficult and had tried +Mrs. Tregennis so sorely that early in January she had been asked to +leave; still during all the months she had lived there her money had +come in safely week after week and had been a great help. Then +Tregennis had been at work more or less regularly since the beginning +of January, not fishin', 'tis true, but diggin' and cartin', which he +found very hard, but to which he stuck doggedly all the same. + +The digging and carting had been in connexion with the building of the +new Council Schools, which stood rather high up above the West River, +just opposite the station. Some weeks Tregennis had earned as much as +eighteen shillings, and as a result of this the little sum in the +bank, which represented summer visitors and summer fishing, had +remained untouched. + +So Mrs. Tregennis was adding up. There was over eight pound from that +catch on the wreck when the boulter parted, and two weeks afterwards +there was nigh on three pound, and then there had been two pound five, +an' fifteen shillin', an'---- + +At this point Mrs. Tregennis lost count. Her little sums were all +upset by Tommy's return from school. + +Tommy was evidently very angry. He half-kicked the door open, then +banged it behind him and stamped into the kitchen. When Mrs. Tregennis +looked up she saw that his fingers were tightly clenched and that he +was gritting his teeth. Without speaking, she put the lead pencil to +her lips and slowly made more figures on the piece of paper. + +Tommy took off the coat he was wearing, threw it on the floor and +kicked it into the fender. + +Then Mammy arose. + +"Well, Tommy Tregennis," she said, "'an' shall I bring some more of +your clothes for ee to kick about the place? Will ee have the brown +jersey suit, my son, and the long sailor trousers?" + +Tommy stood rigid and defiant. His eyes flashed as he answered his +mother. "I shan't wear 'e never no more." He pointed dramatically with +his right hand in the direction of the fireplace. "Never, no more, I +tell ee, no, _never_!" + +"Pick you that coat out o' the ashes," Mrs. Tregennis ordered. + +For a moment Tommy hesitated, then reluctantly he obeyed. + +Mrs. Tregennis took it from him and put it on a chair. It was the coat +that had once been Mabel's--the coat that was trimmed with brown +velvet and that had been given to Tommy on the night of Granny's +funeral. + +There was a brief silence, then Tommy spoke again. "I shan't wear 'e, +never no more," he repeated. If it had not been for the fact that he +was going on seven and had not cried for more than a month, Tommy +would certainly have cried now. + +Mrs. Tregennis realized this. "Why not?" she asked sympathetically. + +Then two tears came, but Tommy blinked them bravely back. Even to +Mammy he hesitated to give his reason, for shame had overwhelmed him, +and the mockery had hurt. + +He clenched his fingers as he lived through the whole scene once more, +then he swallowed hard and explained. "The boys they do be a-sayin' as +Tommy Tregennis 'e do wear an old maid's coat." Then, "Mammy, Mammy, I +_can't_ wear 'e never no more! I needn't, Mammy, say it, oh, _say_ +it!" he implored. + +"Well, ma lovely," replied Mrs. Tregennis, "your Mammy would much like +to wear a beautiful silk gownd like the queen wears in London, but +she've gotten to wear just this." As Mrs. Tregennis sat down she drew +aside the apron that covered her plain serge skirt. + +Instantly Tommy's arms were around her neck. "Mammy, Mammy," he +relented, "I'll wear 'e, sure I will; I'll wear 'e an' never heed they +boys, then ee can have a brave silk gownd, Mammy, just like the queen +do wear to London." + +"Oh, never mind," said Mrs. Tregennis, "I'm not so set on a silken +gownd if it comes to that, wool'll do me in my line of life, an' I'll +give your coat to some little boy as is smaller 'an you, an' that'll +be fine all round." As she and Tregennis agreed afterwards Tommy'd +really wore that coat a lot, an' so they didn't ought to grumble, an' +he was really very good about his clothes, pore lamb; an' if he was +cold he could wear his best blue coat to school, 'twouldn't do it no +harm, not with care, and summer would be upon them very soon and no +coats needed then. + +This happened to be the last day of Tregennis's work at the new school +buildings, and the following morning, with something of relief, he +went out shrimping. He came home with two quarts and more of very fine +shrimps, which Mrs. Tregennis boiled and took round for sale in the +afternoon. When she returned, having disposed of all the plates of +shrimps, she found that Tommy was home from school and was in a state +of great excitement. + +For the first time he had been allowed to write in ink! He had made +only one quite little blot and one very small smudge! + +"Miss Lavinia said 'twas brave an' handsome, Mammy," he told her. "She +said to take it home, Mammy, 'cos 'twas so fine an' lovely, so here 't +be for ee to see." + +"Tom and Sam dig in the sand. The ant can run on the sand. The sand is +wet but the ant runs fast on the wet sand." + +Mrs. Tregennis and Tommy together read out the written words, and +looked with pride at the "good" in red ink at the bottom of the page. + +"This do be some fine, ma lovely," said Mammy, appreciatively, and, +going to the cupboard, she took her purse from the second shelf and +gave Tommy a penny. + +"There's a penny and a saucer; run an' get some cream for your tea, ma +handsome, because your ink-writin' do be that beautiful." + +Off Tommy ran to the one dairy in Draeth where cream can be bought by +the penn'orth. + +It was all so thrilling and exciting that Tommy quite forgot his +manners, and on his return, rounding a corner, he ran up against +Auntie Jessie, and Auntie Jessie had seen him lick his finger after +sticking it well into the cream. + +"My!" gasped Tommy. + +"_Well!_" said Auntie Jessie, and walked on. + +Tommy felt dreadful. "Now I shall get it somethin' awful," he +muttered. "Now I shall just be 'bout half killed." Then, holding the +saucer well in front of him, he ran quickly home. + +"Mammy," he explained, somewhat breathlessly, "I didn't know as I was +a goin' to do it. 'Twent in quite of itself, it did. They be all +a-comin' to tell ee, Mammy, but don't ee hit I for I've telled ee of +it first. I didn't know as I was a-goin' to do it, but there 'twas, +an' Auntie Jessie she saw an' 'll tell ee, but 'twent in of itself, it +did, sure as sure it did, Mammy." + +"What be all this about, Tommy Tregennis?" Mammy inquired. "Try to +talk a bit of sense, do ee now." And then she heard the story of +Tommy's lapse from decency. + +Like Auntie Jessie, Mammy merely said, "_Well!_" + +"I've never done no such thing afore, Mammy," argued Tommy, "'an' I've +seen other boys an' girls a-puttin' their fingers in pennorths of jam +one, two, three _an'_ four times." + +"Oh, _they_ children!" replied Mammy, and Tommy knew that somehow his +line of defence was weak. + +"Mammy," he said, very pleadingly, "Mammy, it did just slippen in, it +did," and he held the guilty finger up in front of him and looked at +it sadly as he slowly shook his head. + +"Don't ee do it never no more, then," admonished Mrs. Tregennis, "an' +here's your Daddy so we'll have some tea." + +"Cream on a week-day!" exclaimed Tregennis, in surprise. + +"Yes," assented Mammy, "our Tommy's done some brave good ink-writin', +so we be all havin' a treat." "We'm properly livin' high," she +continued, "just like the gintry we be," and as she spoke she took a +small teaspoonful of cream from the saucer into which Tommy's finger +had slipped by mistake and emptied it carefully on to the side of her +plate. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + + "There's no dew left on the daisies and clover, + There's no rain left in heaven; + I've said my seven times over and over: + Seven times one are seven." + + +Tommy was standing at the table before breakfast, reciting in a +breathless, sing-song voice. Before school closed for the summer +holidays Miss Lavinia had taught him the poem so that he could say it +as a surprise to Daddy and Mammy this morning. For this morning was +the 29th of August, and Tommy's birthday, and he was just exactly +"seven times one." + +His parents listened to him with pride, but Mammy could not help +feeling a little sad, for she realized how very quickly Tommy was +growing up. Because she was always busy the months simply sped along. +This spring had passed unusually quickly, and now here was the summer +almost over and Tommy was actually seven years old! + +Mrs. Tregennis had been very successful in letting her rooms this +season; since the first week in May the house had been full. She and +Daddy and Tommy were all greatly disappointed that Tommy's Ladies were +not coming to Draeth this year. They had sent some of their friends, +certainly, and they proved to be very nice people and paid Mrs. +Tregennis well. But, of course, it was not the same. From these +friends, too, Mrs. Tregennis had heard disquieting rumours, and she +was much afraid that it would be a long, long time before the Blue +Lady and the Brown Lady would come again to Draeth to stay. + + "And show me your nest with the young ones in it, + I will not steal them away; + I am old, you can trust me, linnet, linnet; + I am seven times one to-day." + +Tommy ended the surprise poem with pride, for not one stumble had he +made all the way through from beginning to end. Daddy showed his +appreciation by giving him a sixpenny bit, as he wished him "Many +'appy returns o' the day." + +This awakened memories of the past, and Tommy became reflective. + +"My poor Granny used to give me a half-a-crown on my birthday," he +remarked, reminiscently. "She didn't never have ought to 'a done it," +he continued, shaking his head, "for she couldn't rightly afford 'e. +Still, she did allus give me a half-a-crown did my poor Gran!" + +Further reflections were interrupted by the postman. + +"Well, I be glad an' yet I'm not glad," Mrs. Tregennis said, when she +had come to the end of her letter and passed it over to Daddy. + +"He did ought to be shot!" was Tregennis's fierce comment when he had +read to the end of the first page. + +"Who did ought to be shot, Daddy?" Tommy's efforts to balance the +sixpenny-bit on the extreme tip of his nose were interrupted while he +put the question. + +"Miss Margaret's been gettin' married, ma lovely," Mrs. Tregennis told +him. + +This seemed no explanation to Tommy, and he persisted in his question. +"Who did ought to be shot, Daddy?" he repeated. + +Tregennis looked across at his wife. "There ain't no man in this world +good enough for Miss Margaret," he asserted. "He did ought to be shot +even for so much as lookin' at her, but as for wantin' to marry +her--well----." Here words failed him. + +Meanwhile Mrs. Tregennis had taken off the wrapper from an illustrated +paper that the postman had brought, too. Turning over the pages, she +came to one down which a thick, red line was drawn, and there was Miss +Margaret's likeness just staring her in the face! + +Silently Tommy and Tregennis looked as Mrs. Tregennis pointed. + +"'Elliott and Fry,'" read Mrs. Tregennis, meaninglessly. + +Tregennis nodded. "Them's the chaps as took it." + +"Then this is _him_!" said Mammy, and put her finger on the portrait +next to Miss Margaret's own. + +Then she drew in her breath sharply. "Why, she be marryin' a _Sir_!" +she exclaimed. "They'll never come here no more." + +She looked sadly round the tiny kitchen. There was the line on which +Miss Margaret's wet skirts had hung, time and time again. That was the +rocking-chair Miss Margaret had sat in many a day when the evenings +were turning cold. Under the table was the Dobbin that the Blue Lady +and the Brown Lady had given to Tommy at the very first of all. + +"An' now she be married to a Sir," she murmured, "an' she'll never +come here no more!" + +It was Tommy's seventh birthday, yet gloom was upon them all! + +The handle of the outside door was turned and Granfäather Tregennis +stood on the threshold. + +"Mornin'," he said, nodding all round comprehensively. + +Then he gave his whole attention to Tommy. + +"'Appy returns to ee, my man!" + +Awkwardly he stood there for a moment, fumbling with something he held +in his hand. + +"This do be the half-a-crown as your Granny always gived ee when your +birthday comed nigh." + +As he put the money on the table there were tears in his eyes, and he +turned abruptly and left. + +"Granfäather do be breakin' up," sighed Mrs. Tregennis. "Never been +the same he haven't since Gran died. He do miss her somethin' awful, +and we shan't have him long. Ah, well," she sighed again, as she +rolled up her sleeves to the elbow in readiness for the washing-up; +"there do be a sight of weariness in the world as well as joy. We've +no cause to grumble much, 'tis true; but somehow this mornin' I be +altogether down, and there's where 'tis to!" + +Just before tea that day, when Tommy was playing on the sands, Mrs. +Tregennis introduced a subject that was much on her mind. + +"School begins Monday, Tom," she reminded him. + +"Both?" he asked, laconically. + +Mrs. Tregennis nodded affirmatively. + +"Seems on'y right to tell Miss Lavinia," she went on to say. Then, +after a rather long pause, "I suppose she'm well enough off; I suppose +she've enough to live?" + +"Should think th' old doctor 'e left she a bit," answered Tregennis, +reflectively. "Her've enough to live I should reckon." + +"Seems hard like to take the children away; she be such a kindly dear +soul is Miss Lavinia," and as Mrs. Tregennis cut the bread and butter +she pondered as to what was the best thing to do. + +On Monday the new Council Schools would open. The buildings were very +grand and modern, and the head master was coming down from a college +in London. There was no school-money to pay, it seemed, although the +education was to be of the best. Mrs. Tregennis knew that nearly all +the children were leaving Miss Lavinia's for the new school, and she +and Tregennis had decided that Tommy should go too. + +For years past there had been so many parents anxious to send their +children to Miss Lavinia that she had made no rule about giving +notice. If, on the morning that school reopened, she found that one +or two of her scholars had left, she sent round a message at once to +some of the addresses she kept written down in a note-book in her +desk, and in the afternoon the vacant places were always filled. + +This time Mrs. Tregennis knew that there would be many vacant places, +and she felt somehow that Miss Lavinia was not prepared for the change +the new school must inevitably mean to her. So she talked the matter +over with Tregennis, and they decided that after tea she should go on +and just tell Miss Lavinia that Tommy was leaving, it would seem more +polite like. So after tea Mrs. Tregennis and Tommy went on. + +They found Miss Lavinia standing on her door-step; she was dressed for +walking and was locking the door behind her when they approached. At +once she unlocked the door, re-entered the house, and showed her +visitors into the best parlour. Here she left them for a few moments +while, with old-fashioned courtesy, she went upstairs to remove her +bonnet and mantle so that Mrs. Tregennis should not feel that she must +hurry away. + +Tommy had never before been in Miss Lavinia's parlour, and he stood by +the highly polished round table in the centre of the room, lost in +admiration of the stuffed birds and wax flowers that were placed under +glass shades on mats of gaily coloured wool. There were piles of +books, too, on the polished table. These were arranged corner-wise +with regard to each other. They all had leather bindings, and there +were three or four in each pile. + +When Miss Lavinia came into the room she walked across to the window +and drew up the dark green blind half-way, so that a stream of evening +sunshine darted across the parlour and myriads of tiny dust-particles +danced in the shaft of light. + +Miss Lavinia bade Mrs. Tregennis be seated, but Tommy still leaned up +against the polished table. + +There was a moment's awkward pause, then "Is Tommy tired of holiday +and ready for school?" Miss Lavinia asked, smiling. + +Mrs. Tregennis found difficulty in answering. "'Tis just about that +I've come, please, Miss," she said, after some hesitation. "You see, +Miss, all the others is goin', too, and there's nothin' at all to pay, +an' we'm only poor, an' they say the learnin's to be of the best, and +all the other boys be goin', so I suppose our Tommy did ought to go, +too." + +"Go? Where?" But even as Miss Lavinia's lips framed the question she +knew what the answer would be. + +"To the new Council School, Miss Lavinia," faltered Mrs. Tregennis. + +Then the two women looked at each other without speaking. Both were +troubled, and there seemed nothing more to say. + +It was Mrs. Tregennis who broke the silence. "We know what we owe you, +Miss Lavinia, his Daddy an' me. You've done a lot for our Tommy, Miss. +He've come on well and learnt a lot. Not only schoolin' I'm thinkin' +of, Miss Lavinia, but in his manners an' all, an' in doin' right and +tryin' to be brave. He'll not get that at the new school, I'm +thinkin'." + +"Thank you, Mrs. Tregennis," Miss Lavinia was smiling bravely. "Tommy +has always been one of my best little boys, and, for myself, I am very +sorry that he must go." + +Again there was a pause. Miss Lavinia seemed to pass through a little +struggle with herself. Then, "And did you say there were others?" she +asked. + +Mrs. Tregennis flushed deeply. "Yes, Miss Lavinia, Ma'am, and didn't +you know, Miss? All they boys be goin': Jimmy Prynne, and David +Williams and the Tomses, an' all of they." + +Mrs. Tregennis rose from her seat. "I be so sorry, please, Miss +Lavinia," she said, impulsively, holding out her hands to the little +figure, sitting perfectly upright on the Chippendale chair. "Oh, Miss +Lavinia, I do be that sorry!" Then, hesitatingly, "If I may make so +bold, does it _matter_, Miss Lavinia?" + +It was now Miss Lavinia's turn to flush. Her eyes were very bright and +her chin was uplifted. + +"Thank you, Mrs. Tregennis," she said, and lied bravely; "I am very +sorry to lose the children, more sorry than I can tell you, but of +course it does not matter in that sense." + +Mrs. Tregennis was relieved. "That's just what Tom said; he said +'twould be all right in that way, did Tom. Still, I do be very sorry +for Tommy to go." + +Mrs. Tregennis moved slowly to the door, then turned again. "Tommy +said his piece beautiful this mornin', Miss Lavinia. Thank you for +teachin' him. It was lovely." + +At first Miss Lavinia was puzzled, then she remembered. + +"Why, of course, it's Tommy's birthday," she said, and walked across +the room to the polished mahogany table. + +From the top of a pile of books she took one that was much smaller +than the rest, and had a padded binding of crimson leather. After +turning over the pages she put it down in front of Tommy, dipped a pen +into the ink, and bade him write his name upon the dotted line, to +which she pointed. + +"This is my birthday book, Tommy," she explained, "and when you have +written your name there I shall always know when your birthday comes +round each year." + +Slowly and carefully Tommy wrote, his tongue curling round the corner +of his mouth the while. The one dotted line was not long enough, so he +finished on the line below. His name looked very beautiful when it was +written there, and Miss Lavinia blotted it carefully before replacing +the little crimson book on its own pile on the shining table. + +When her visitors had left Miss Lavinia sat alone in the best parlour, +looking out across the river with tired, unseeing eyes. + +Tommy and Mrs. Tregennis walked slowly home. Tommy was very silent, +for his thoughts were fully occupied with Miss Lavinia's crimson +Birthday Book in which he had written his name so lovely. + +At first he was perplexed and wondered why Miss Lavinia had wanted to +have his name written there, but after a little thought it became +quite plain to him. Every year, when the twenty-ninth of August came +round, Miss Lavinia would remember him, Tommy. Every year, on the +evening of that day, she would enter the best parlour, and, after +closing the door behind her, she would walk across to the window and +raise the dark green blind a little way. When the blind was drawn a +broad shaft of light would cross the room and hundreds of little bits +of dust would come in with the light and dance gaily all together in +the golden beam. + +Then Miss Lavinia would push to one side the piles of books, and, +kneeling, facing the stuffed birds and the gay wax flowers, she would +rest her elbows on the brightly polished table and pray for him, +Tommy, that he might be a good boy and grow up to be a brave, true +man. + +Tommy had no doubt at all that this was just exactly what Miss Lavinia +would do. He could see it all quite clearly as he walked slowly home +with Mammy. + +On Monday morning, at a quarter to nine, an unaccustomed sound broke +over Draeth. It was the ringing of the big bell in the tower of the +new Council Schools. + +Against her better judgement, Miss Lavinia was drawn by the sound to +the window of the best parlour. Here she saw the boys and girls who +had once been hers trooping, laughing, and heedless of her pain, to +the big new school. + +Tommy and Ruthie were the last to pass beneath Miss Lavinia's window. + +At Miss Lavinia's open door Tommy paused. + +Ruthie laughed. "Come on, Tommy," Miss Lavinia heard her say as she +pulled him towards her, and hand in hand, the two children ran along +the street and over the bridge. + +Miss Lavinia saw them enter the big iron gates, and saw their +hesitation when they were parted. For Tommy had to turn to the right +and pass through the doorway, over which "Boys" was moulded in the +stonework, while Ruthie walked across the playground to the entrance +for the girls. + +Miss Lavinia clasped her hands together for a moment. Then, as the +clock was striking nine, with firm lips and head erect, she turned +from the window and walked slowly to the schoolroom, where Annie +Geach, Ruby Dark, Lizzie Wraggles and one little new girl were waiting +for her to read the morning prayer. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42835 *** |