Part 25 (2/2)
Presently they came to a grocery store, where all sorts of things stood outside of the door.
”Strawberries were in the market, so these little wretches instantly plunged both hands into a box of them, and stuffed them into their mouths. Next they sat themselves down in a corner made by some big boxes, and quietly helped themselves to a box of strawberries apiece.
You can imagine the state of their little night-dresses, when they were through with this feast, just a ma.s.s of strawberry stain. They were so small and so quiet, that no one in the store noticed them for some time, and no one chanced to pa.s.s. At last a lady came by, and spied them. Of course she instantly saw they were runaways, and spoke to them.
”'We isn't yunning away,' Jean insisted, 'we is only going to see uncle.'
”'But where is your mamma?' persisted the lady.
”'Her's gone to see uncle, too,' said Jean. The lady knew they had probably run away from some neighbouring house, so she went into the store to ask a clerk to come and see if he knew them. But while she was gone, the children slipped away down the side street. The clerk told us all about this afterwards, for it was a store where my sister often went.
”Then the little ones probably wandered around a good deal, though we never knew where, except that they came to some water in a gutter, somewhere, and took to it like ducks. They must have paddled in it for some time--'was.h.i.+ng their feets,' Jean told us afterwards, as an excuse.
”Of course, by this time they had collected a crowd around them, for just imagine what they looked like! Nothing on but white night-dresses--I mean, of course, that were originally white,--but now spattered a foot deep with muddy water, and stained all over with crushed strawberries; and they were barefooted, with their golden curls stuck full of burs, till they looked like little porcupines.”
”_Grandma_! how funny! and to think that was mamma,” broke in Cricket, in great enjoyment of the picture.
”They must have looked as badly as Zaidee and Helen did when they came in from swimming in the tanks at the cheese factory the other day.”
”Worse, if anything, because the strawberry stains made them look as if they had been through the wars, poor little mites. At last a policeman took them in charge.”
”Think of mamma being actually arrested! That's worse than anything that's ever happened to me,” said Cricket.
”That's your good fortune,” laughed grandma. ”Your wash-rag isn't getting along very fast, is it? I thought you were going to knit as I talk.”
”Oh, I am! I am!” cried Cricket, scrabbling up her wash-rag, which she had entirely forgotten. ”Go on, grandma.”
”So a policeman took them in charge. He said the children didn't seem a bit frightened, but took everything very coolly, insisting all the time that they were on the way to see uncle.
”'Who is uncle?' asked the policeman, and Jean said: 'He's Uncle Darling, and he lives on Wide Stweet.'
”'But what's his name?' asked the policeman, thinking the children were calling him by their pet name.
”'Uncle Darling,' Jean kept repeating.
”'We'll take them to the station, and report at headquarters,' said the policeman, finally.”
”Think of mamma's actually being taken to the lock-up,” murmured Cricket.
”But the children were very determined little things, and insisted that they were going to Wide Stweet to see uncle. Presently a gentleman pa.s.sed, and asked the reason of the commotion.
”'Runaways,' somebody answered, whereupon Jean instantly piped up, 'I say I _isn't_ yunning away. I is goin' to Wide Stweet to see Uncle Darling.'
”'Darling?' said the gentleman. 'I know Darling of Broad Street. These little sc.r.a.ps must have slipped away from his house. Call a cab, policeman, and we'll go and see.'
”So a cab was called, and the policeman mounted the box, and the man got inside with the children, and off they went to Broad Street, which Jean called Wide Stweet.
<script>