Part 15 (2/2)
”Never mind that,” said Ailwin. ”We may know, some day or other, or we may not. Meantime, it is ours. Come, make haste, and see what there is to wrap up poor baby in, on cold nights.”
”We will look for something of that sort,--I am sure we might use such a thing as that,” said Oliver: ”but...”
”But,” said Mildred, ”I don't think these other things are ours, any more than they ever were. n.o.body ever gave them to us. They have belonged to somebody else;--to somebody that may be wondering at this moment where they are.”
”Nonsense, Mildred!” exclaimed Ailwin. ”Who gave you the harness that braces the raft, or the meal you have been living on these two days, I wonder: and how do you know but somebody is hungry, and longing for it, at this minute?”
”I wish they had it, then,” replied Mildred. ”But, Oliver, were we wrong to use the meal? I never thought of that.”
”Nor I: but I think we were right enough there. The meal would all have been spoiled presently; and meal (and the harness too) is a sort of thing that we can pay for, or make up for in some way, if ever we can meet with the people who lost that chest.”
”And George, and all of us, might have starved without it.”
”Yes: we must take what we want to eat, when it comes in our way, and there is n.o.body to ask leave of: and, if ever we get out of this place, we can inquire who lost a meal-chest or set of harness, and offer to pay for what we took. But I do think it is different with these things.”
”So do I,” said Mildred. ”Those table-cloths, and that embroidered cap,--somebody has taken pains to make them, and might not like to sell them. And look! Look at Roger! He has pulled out a great heavy bag of money.”
”Now, Roger, put that bag where you found it,” said Oliver. ”It is none of yours.”
”How do I know that I shall find it again, the next time I look?”
replied Roger, walking off with the bag.
Mildred was afraid of Oliver's following him, and of another quarrel happening. She put her arm within her brother's, and he could easily guess why.
”Don't be afraid, dear,” he said. ”If Roger chooses to do a dishonest thing, it is his own affair. We have warned him; and that is all we have to do with it. We must be honest ourselves,--that is all.”
”Then I think we had better not look any further into the chest,” said Mildred; ”only just to find something warm to wrap Geordie in. The clothes look so nice--we might fancy we wanted things that we can very well do without.”
”I am not much afraid of that,” replied her brother: ”and it would be a pity the things should spoil with the damp. They would be dry in an hour in this warm sun; and we could pack them away again before night.”
”Roger will never let you do that,” declared Ailwin. ”Not a rag will he leave to anybody that you don't stow away while he is out of sight.
Never did I see such perverse children as you, and so thankless for G.o.d's gifts. I should be ashamed to be no more grateful than you for what He puts into your very hands.”
Mildred looked at her brother now with a different face. She was perplexed and alarmed; but she saw that Oliver was not.
”Roger cannot carry off anything,” he replied. ”He may bury and hide what he pleases; but they will all be somewhere about the Red-hill; and we can tell anybody who comes to fetch us off whatever we know about the goods.”
”n.o.body will ever come and fetch us off,” said Ailwin, beginning to cry.
”The people at a distance don't care a straw what becomes of us; and you children here at hand are so perverse and troublesome, I don't know how to bear my life between you.”
”If n.o.body comes to save us,” said Oliver, calmly, ”I do not see what good this money and these fine clothes will do to Roger and you.”
”Roger and me! Pray what do you mean by that?”
”I mean that you and he are for taking these things that do not belong to us; and Mildred and I are against it. Only tell me this one thing, Ailwin. Do you believe that your cloak and stockings were sent in Nan Redfurn's way, that she might take them? And do you think it would have been perverse in her not to run away with them?”
”Now, Oliver, what nonsense you talk! As if I wanted a rag of these things for my own wear! As if I would touch a penny that was not honestly got!”
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