Part 10 (1/2)

”You have made Betty very happy now, Mrs. Henderson,” said Kitty, without a trace of envy in her heart. ”Thank you for all you have done for us. Good-night.”

”Good-night, and thank you for our fine tea,” said Dan, and one by one they pa.s.sed out of the scented garden, and on their homeward way.

A soft evening mist was creeping slowly up over the river and the sloping meadow; the distant woods looked desolate, and almost awesome.

Kitty could nut picture them now peopled as they had been in the morning, and her efforts to do so were soon interrupted by a little piteous voice beside her.

”My feets do hurt me,” said Tony plaintively. ”I s'pose I mustn't take off my boots?”

”Poor old Tony,” cried Dan. ”Here, let me carry you,” and he hoisted his tired little brother on to his shoulders. But Dan was tired too, and the way was long, and they had either to walk in single file along the tiny track worn beside the sleepers, or over the sleepers themselves, and that meant progressing by a series of hops and jumps, which might perhaps be amusing for a few minutes at the beginning of a day's pleasuring, but is very far from amusing when one is tired and the way is long. The summer evening was warm too.

”I wish the old 'Rover' would come along,” panted Dan at the end of about a quarter of an hour's march. ”I'd get those fellows to give us a lift for part of the way at any rate.”

”Oh,” sighed Betty, ”how lovely that would be! But things don't happen when you want them to, do they?”

Miss Betty's sad and cynical view of life was wrong though, for not so very much later the familiar rumbling and shaking, and puffing and rattling, reached their ears once more, and coming, too, from the direction of Wenbridge.

In a state of anxious excitement they all stood to await it. ”Hadn't we better hold up a pocket-handkerchief for a white flag to show them we are friendly?” asked Betty anxiously.

”They wouldn't understand if we did,” said Dan impatiently.

”They'd only think we were trying to frighten them. Kitty, if you go back towards them, holding up your hand, they will know it's all right.

They will trust you. It's only me they are down on, really.”

Kitty went back at once, and fortunately, just as she was trying to attract their attention and make them understand that she had only friendly intentions, they brought the engine to a standstill for Tonkin to get down and collect some f.a.ggots which lay beside the way.

The engine snorted, and spit, and panted, and Dumble watched Kitty's approach with an eye which was not encouraging; but Kitty, though her heart was quaking a little, advanced bravely.

”Dumble,” she called to him, in a friendly, conciliating voice, stretching up to him confidingly--”Dumble, we are _so_ tired. My little brother Tony can hardly get on at all, his feet are hurting him so badly, and he is too heavy for Dan to carry all the way; and Dan is tired too, and--and we wondered if--if you would give us a lift, even if it is only for a little way. Will you?”

Dumble, his face rather flushed, straightened himself. ”Look at my nose, miss,” he said meaningly. ”Look at my nose,” pointing to that poor feature, which certainly looked red and swollen. ”That's your brother's doings, heaving apples and not caring what he strikes with 'em, and yet after that you can come and ask me to take 'ee all aboard of my train.”

”I am very sorry, Dumble, that you got hit, I am really, but--well, you did get the apples and some nice sandwiches too, you know; and when you aim at Dan it is never with anything nicer than hot water, and you know you did really scald him once but he never told how it was done.”

Dumble looked rather foolish. ”Didn't 'ee now?” he said, but his tone was less indignant. ”Yes, we had the apples, and fine ones they were too. Well, come along. Tell 'em all to look sharp and hop up, for 'tis 'bout time we was to 'ome, and the 'Rover' put up for the night.”

Gladly enough the others obeyed her eager signals. Joyfully they scrambled up into the high carriage and dropped on the dusty, gritty seats. Dan and his enemies exchanged broad, sheepish smiles, but they were amiable smiles. Tonkin flung up the last of the f.a.ggots and climbed up on the engine, and off they started. And _what_ a journey it was! All about them stretched the country, vast and still and empty, they themselves, seemingly, the only living creatures in it, the panting and rumbling of the engine the only sound to be heard, for it drowned all such gentle sounds as the ”good-nights” of the birds, the distant lowing of cows, the rippling of the brook beside the way.

Daylight was fading fast. Here and there the way was narrow, and the hedges so high that the hawthorns almost met overhead; and here and there, where tall fir trees lined the road on either side, it was very nearly dark.

By two of them, at least, that journey in the fading light was never forgotten. It had been such a happy day, so free from worries and naughtiness or squabbles, or any cause for regret; and now they were going home, happy but tired, and longing to be in the dear old untidy, shabby home again. Kitty, with Tony nestling against her, leaned back in her corner restfully, and thought of her home with a depth of feeling she could not have defined. ”If it could only be like this always,” she said to herself, ”and there is no reason why it shouldn't if only we were good and every one was nice. I wonder, I wonder if I cannot make it so that father wouldn't want any one to live with us.”

On they rattled and jolted, past the two cottages, with their windows lighted up now and the blinds drawn; past the little well, its cave looking dark and mysterious under its green canopy. Kitty, lost to the others and their talk, gazed with loving eyes at everything.

”Dear little well,” she thought. ”Dear old 'Rover,' and Gorlay, and home, how I do love every inch and stick and stone of it! I think I should die if I had to leave--”

”Kitty, _have you got_ a s.h.i.+lling?” Dan shrieked in her ear with such vigour that Kitty really leaped in her seat.

”What _is_ the matter?” she demanded crossly. It was not pleasant to be roused from her musings and brought back thus to everyday, prosaic matters; and it happened to her so often, or so it seemed.

”I have asked you three times already. Have you got a s.h.i.+lling?