Part 17 (1/2)

”It's the first rocket, I'm sure!” exclaimed Frank, dropping the nut-crackers, ”let us go off to a window somewhere, for I am sure the fireworks are going to begin.”

”How jolly!” cried Mervyn. ”Aunt, may we run up to Miss Kerr's room?”

”Can't we see them from here?” asked Mr. Dashwood, pulling up the blind and looking out. ”What a beautiful dark night it is! Better stay here, chicks, I think. See, there goes another rocket!”

”Oh, that is lovely!” cried Bunny, clapping her hands. ”But, papa, dear, we can see them much better from Miss Kerr's room, she has such a nice balcony, and she promised to let us go up to it if mama would allow us.”

”Very well, then, away you go,” said her father; ”but be quick, or you will lose all the fun.”

”Be sure and wrap yourselves up, dear children, if you go out into the balcony,” said Mrs. Dashwood. ”The night air is very sharp.”

”Oh, yes, mama, we will make ourselves as warm as toast,” cried Bunny gaily. ”Come, Frank, do come up to the balcony with us.”

”All right, little woman, jump upon my back and we'll run a race with Mervyn.”

Very much delighted at such an invitation, Bunny sprang from a chair on to Frank's back, and away they went galloping madly after Mervyn, up the stairs and along the pa.s.sage to Miss Kerr's room. There they found Sophie waiting for them, heavily laden with cloaks and shawls in which she insisted on wrapping them up till they were nearly smothered, and shrieked wildly for just one little s.p.a.ce through which they might manage to breathe.

”Very well, you will all catch your deaths of colds,” cried Sophie.

”Miss Bunny, you will want the doctor to-morrow, I am quite sure;”

and she flounced out of the room and banged the door after her.

”Good riddance to bad rubbis.h.!.+” cried Frank, laughing, as he released poor Mervyn's face from the thick shawl in which the maid had rolled him up. ”She's an awful scold that Sophie.”

”But she's jolly kind to us sometimes,” said Mervyn stoutly; ”and we torment her dreadfully, don't we, Bunny?”

”Yes, we do indeed,” answered the little girl; ”and she doesn't always scold, Master Frank.”

”Goodness me! don't be so indignant,” cried Frank. ”I meant no offence. I daresay Sophie is a regular angel.”

”She's not quite that,” said Miss Kerr as she opened the window and let the young people out upon the balcony. ”But I am glad to hear the children stand up for her, for, as Mervyn says, they do torment her, and still she is very good-natured and kind to them on the whole.”

”Yes, indeed she is,” said Mervyn; ”but oh! just look at that, isn't it exquisite?”

”Lovely!” cried Frank. ”It's a regular shower of golden hail! But I think I like the Roman candles best. Look, Bunny, there's one--see--those two stars--watch how they change colour--first they're red--then blue--then--”

”Oh, yes, yes,” cried Bunny dancing about. ”There they go, right away over the sea! What lovely things fireworks are!”

”It is a pity we could not have gone down on the Spa to see the set pieces,” said Frank. ”I believe they are most beautiful. But then the crowd is something dreadful.”

”Do they send the fireworks up from the Spa?” asked Mervyn; ”they look just as if they were coming from the road up there in front of the Crown Hotel.”

”No, they are sent from a place just over the Spa, up among the trees there, but a long way below the hotel.”

”Oh dear! there goes a splendid rocket,” cried Mervyn, ”and doesn't it make a lovely noise?”

”Oh! I can't bear the noise,” said Bunny, putting her fingers in her ears, ”it makes me jump.”