Part 17 (1/2)

”Ain't you going to give _me_ any? Is the kid to have _everything_?”

”Tommy!” said Clare, with a steady look in his eyes that frightened him, ”your turn will come next. You won't die of want for a day or two yet. I'll see to you as soon as I can. Only, remember, baby comes first! I'm going to leave her with you. You needn't take her up.

You're not able to carry her. You would let her fall. But if, when I come home, I find anything has happened to her, _I'll put you in the water-b.u.t.t_--I WILL. And I'll do it when the moon is in it.”

Tommy pulled a hideous face, and began to yell. Clare seized him by the throat.

”Make that noise again, you rascal, and I'll choke you. If you're good to baby while I'm away, I won't eat a mouthful till you've had some; if you're not good to her, you know what will happen! You've got the thing in your own hands!”

”She'll go an' do something I can't help, an' then you'll go for to drown me!”

Again he began to howl, but Clare checked him as before. ”If you wake her up, I'll--” He had no words, and shook him for lack of any. ”I see,” he resumed, ”I shall have to lock you up in the coal-cellar till I come back! Here! come along!”

Tommy was quiet instantly, and fell to pleading. Clare lent a gracious ear, and yielding to Tommy's protestations, left him with his treasure, and set out on his quest.

He got out through the kitchen, the rustiness of the fastenings of its door delaying him a little, and over the wall by the imprisoned door, taking care to lift as little as possible of his person above the coping as he crossed. He dared not go along the wall in the daylight, or get down in the smith's yard; he dropped straight to the ground.

The country was level, and casting his eyes about, he saw, at no great distance, what looked like a farmstead. He knew cows were milked early, but did not know what time it was. Hoping anyhow to reach the place before the milk was put away in the pans, he set out to run straight across the fields. But he soon found he could not run, and had to drop into a walk.

When he got into the yard, he saw a young woman carrying a foaming pail of milk across to the dairy. He ran to her, and addressed her with his usual ”Please, ma'am;” but the pail was heavy, and she kept on without answering him. Clare followed her, and looking into the dairy, saw an elderly woman.

”Please, ma'am, could you afford me as much fresh milk as would fill that bottle?” he said, showing it.

”Well, my man,” she answered pleasantly, ”I think we might venture as far without fear of the workhouse! But what on earth made you bring such a thimble of a bottle as that?”

”I have no money to pay for it, you see, ma'am; and I thought a little bottle would be better to beg with; it wouldn't be so hard on the farmer!”

”Bless the boy! Much good a drop of milk like that will do him!” said the woman, turning to the girl ”Is it for your mother's tea?”

”No, ma'am; it's for a baby--a very little baby, ma'am!--I think it will hold enough,” he added, giving an anxious glance at the bottle in his hand, ”to keep her alive till I get work.”

The woman looked, and her heart was drawn to the boy who stood gazing at her with his whole solemn, pathetic yet strong face--with his wide, clear eyes, his decided nose, large and straight, his rather long, fine mouth, trembling with eager anxiety, and his confident chin. She saw hunger in his grimy cheeks; she saw that his manners were those of a gentleman, and his clothes poor enough for any tramp, though evidently not made for a tramp. She would have concluded him escaped from cruel guardians, for she was a reader of _The Family Herald_; but that would not account for the baby! The baby did not tally!

”How old's the baby?” she asked.

”I don't know, ma'am; she only came to us last night.”

”Who brought her?”

She imagined the boy a simpleton, and expected one of such answers as inconvenient questions in natural history receive from nurses.

”I don't know, ma'am. I took her out of the water-b.u.t.t.”

The thing grew bewildering.

”Who put her there?”

”I don't know, ma'am.”

”Whose baby is she, then?”