Part 40 (2/2)
”And what do you mean by that?” cried Joe, angrily in turn.
”Proper place for a donkey where there's plenty of gra.s.s.”
”Ah, now you've got one of your nasty disagreeable fits on. Just like a Cornishman--I mean boy.”
”Better be a Cornish chap than a Frenchy.”
”Frenchy! We've been long enough in England to be English now,” cried Joe. ”But it's too hard for us not to go.”
”Regular shame!” said Gwyn. ”I've been longing for this day so as to have a regular examination. It must be a wonderful place, Joe. Quite a maze.”
”Oh, I don't know,” said Joe, superciliously; ”just a long hole, and when you've seen one bit you've seen all.”
”That's what the fox said to the grapes,” said Gwyn, with a laugh.
”No, he didn't; he said they were sour.”
”Never mind; it's just your way. The place will be wonderful. There are sure to be plenty of crystals and stalact.i.tes and wonderful caverns and places. Oh, I do wish we were going down.”
”I don't know that I do now--the place will be horribly damp.”
”Fox again.”
”Look here, Gwyn Pendarve, if you wish to quarrel, say so, and I'll go somewhere else.”
”But I don't want to quarrel, Joseph Jollivet, Esquire,” said Gwyn, imitating the other's stilted way of speaking. ”What's the good of quarrelling with you?”
Joe picked up a stone and threw it as far as he could, so as to get rid of some of his irritability; and Grip, who had been sitting watching the boys, wondering what was the matter, went off helter-skelter, found the stone, and brought it back crackling against his sharp white teeth, dropped it at Joe's feet, and began to dance about and make leaps from the ground, barking, as if saying, ”Throw it again--throw it again!”
”Lie down, you old stupid!” cried Gwyn.
”Let him have a run,” said Joe, picking up the stone and jerking it as far as he could over the short gra.s.sy down, the dog tearing off again.
”Ugh! Look at your hand,” said Gwyn, ”all wet with the dog's 'serlimer,' as the showman called it.”
”Oh, that's clean enough,” said Joe; but he gave his hand a rub on the gra.s.s all the same.
The dog came back panting, and Joe picked up the stone to give it another jerk, but, looking round for a fresh direction in which to throw it, he dropped the piece of granite.
”Come on!” he shouted, as he started off; ”they're going to the shaft.”
Gwyn glanced in the direction of the mine, and started after Joe, raced up to him, and they ran along to the building over the mouth, getting there just at the same time as the Colonel and Major Jollivet, the dog coming frantically behind.
”Well, boys,” cried the Colonel, ”here we are, you see. Wish us luck.”
”Of course I do, father,” said Gwyn. ”But you'd better let us come, too.”
”No, no, no, no,” said the Colonel, ”better wait a bit. Besides, you are not dressed for it. We are, you see.”
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