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diff --git a/29380.txt b/29380.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4baee78 --- /dev/null +++ b/29380.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4667 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Adventures of Herr Baby, by Mrs. +Molesworth, Illustrated by Walter Crane + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Adventures of Herr Baby + + +Author: Mrs. Molesworth + + + +Release Date: July 11, 2009 [eBook #29380] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF HERR BABY*** + + +E-text prepared by Delphine Lettau, Clive Pickton, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Canada Team +(http://www.pgdpcanada.net) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 29380-h.htm or 29380-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29380/29380-h/29380-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29380/29380-h.zip) + + + + + +THE ADVENTURES OF HERR BABY + +by + +MRS. MOLESWORTH + +Author of 'Carrots,' 'Us,' Etc. + + + 'I have a boy of five years old: + His face is fair and fresh to see.' + WORDSWORTH + +Illustrated by Walter Crane + + + + + + + + [Illustration: There was Baby, seated on the grass, one arm fondly + clasping Minet's neck, while with the other he firmly held the famous + money-box.--P. 138.] + + + +London +Macmillan and Co. +and New York +1895 + +First printed (4to) 1881 +Reprinted (Globe 8vo) 1886, 1887, 1890, 1892, 1895 + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER I. +FOUR YEARS OLD 1 + +CHAPTER II. +INSIDE A TRUNK 20 + +CHAPTER III. +UP IN THE MORNING EARLY 41 + +CHAPTER IV. +GOING AWAY 60 + +CHAPTER V. +BY LAND AND SEA 81 + +CHAPTER VI. +AN OLD SHOP AND AN OGRE 101 + +CHAPTER VII. +BABY'S SECRET 125 + +CHAPTER VIII. +FOUND 145 + +CHAPTER IX. +"EAST OR WEST, HAME IS BEST" 163 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +"OH LOOK, LOOK, BABY'S MADE PEEPY-SNOOZLE INTO +'THE PARSON IN THE PULPIT THAT COULDN'T SAY HIS +PRAYERS,'" CRIED DENNY 6 + +HE SAT WITH ONE ARM PROPPED ON THE TABLE, AND HIS +ROUND HEAD LEANING ON HIS HAND, WHILE THE OTHER +HELD THE PIECE OF BREAD AND BUTTER--BUTTER DOWNWARDS, +OF COURSE 16 + +THERE WAS ONE TRUNK WHICH TOOK MY FANCY MORE +THAN ALL THE OTHERS 30 + +FOR A MINUTE OR TWO BABY COULD NOT MAKE OUT WHAT +HAD HAPPENED 50 + +"ZOU WILL P'OMISE, BETSY, P'OMISE CERTAIN SURE, +NEBBER TO FORGET" 61 + +POOR LITTLE BOYS, FOR, AFTER ALL, FRITZ HIMSELF +WASN'T VERY BIG! THEY STOOD TOGETHER HAND IN +HAND ON THE STATION PLATFORM, LOOKING, AND +FEELING, RATHER DESOLATE 84 + +"ARE THAT JOGRAPHY?" HE SAID 94 + +"OH AUNTIE," HE SAID, "P'EASE 'TOP ONE MINUTE. +HIM SEES SHINY GLASS JUGS LIKE DEAR LITTLE +MOTHER'S. OH, DO 'TOP" 106 + +BABY VENTURED TO PEEP ROUND. THE LITTLE BLACK-EYED +WHITE-CAPPED MAN CAME TOWARDS THEM SMILING 121 + +THERE WAS BABY, SEATED ON THE GRASS, ONE ARM +FONDLY CLASPING MINET'S NECK, WHILE WITH THE +OTHER HE FIRMLY HELD THE FAMOUS MONEY-BOX 138 + +AUNTIE STOOD STILL A MOMENT TO LISTEN 155 + +FORGETTING ALL ABOUT EVERYTHING, EXCEPT THAT HER +BABY WAS FOUND, UP JUMPED MOTHER 170 + + + + +THE ADVENTURES OF HERR BABY + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +FOUR YEARS OLD + + "I was four yesterday; when I'm quite old + I'll have a cricket-ball made of pure gold; + I'll never stand up to show that I'm grown; + I'll go at liberty upstairs or down." + + +He trotted upstairs. Perhaps trotting is not quite the right word, but I +can't find a better. It wasn't at all like a horse or pony trotting, for +he went one foot at a time, right foot first, and when right foot was +safely landed on a step, up came left foot and the rest of Baby himself +after right foot. It took a good while, but Baby didn't mind. He used to +think a good deal while he was going up and down stairs, and it was not +his way to be often in a hurry. There was one thing he could _not_ bear, +and that was any one trying to carry him upstairs. Oh, that did vex +him! His face used to get quite red, right up to the roots of his curly +hair, and down to the edge of the big collar of his sailor suit, for he +had been put into sailor suits last Christmas, and, if the person who +was lifting him up didn't let go all at once, Baby would begin to wriggle. +He was really clever at wriggling; even if you knew his way it was not +easy to hold him, and with any one that didn't know his way he could get +off in half a minute. + +But this time there was no one about, and Baby stumped on--yes _that_ is +a better word--Baby stumped on, or up, "wifout nobody teasing." His face +was grave, very grave, for inside the little house of which his two blue +eyes were the windows, a great deal of work was going on. He was busy +wondering about, and trying to understand, some of the strange news he +had heard downstairs in the drawing-room. + +"Over the sea," he said to himself. "Him would like to see the sea. +Auntie said over the sea in a boat, a werry big boat. Him wonders how +big." + +And his mind went back to the biggest boat he had ever seen, which was +in the toy-shop at Brookton, when he had gone with his mother to be +fitted for new boots. But even that wouldn't be big enough. Mother, and +auntie, and grandfather, and Celia, and Fritz, and Denny, and cook, and +Lisa, and Thomas and Jones, and the other servants, and the horses, +and--and---- Baby stopped to take breath inside, for though he had not +been speaking aloud he felt quite choked with all the names coming so +fast. "And pussy, and the calanies, and the Bully, and Fritz's dormice, +oh no, them _couldn't_ all get in." Perhaps if Baby doubled up his legs +underneath he might squeeze himself in, but that would be no good, he +couldn't go sailing, sailing all over the sea by himself, like the old +woman in "Harry's Nursery Songs," who went sailing, sailing, up in a +basket, "seventy times as high as the moon." Oh no, even that boat +wouldn't be big enough. They must have one as big as--and Baby stopped +to look round. But just then a shout from inside the nursery made him +wake up, for he had got to the last little stair before the top landing, +and again right foot and half Baby, followed by left foot and the other +half Baby, stumped on their way. + +They pulled up--right foot and left foot, with Baby's solemn face top of +all--at the nursery door. It was shut. Now one of the things Baby liked +to do for himself was to open doors, and now and then he could manage it +very well. But, alas, the nursery lock was too high up for him to get a +good hold of it. He pulled, and pushed, and got quite red, all for no +use. Worse than that, the pushing and pulling were heard inside. Some +one came forward and opened the door, nearly knocking poor Baby over. + +"Ach, Herr Baby, mine child, why you not say when you come?" Lisa cried +out. Lisa was Baby's nurse. Her face was rosy and round, and she looked +very kind. She would have liked to pick him up to make sure he had got +no knocks, but she knew too well that would not do. So all she could do +was to say again-- + +"Mine child--ach, Herr Baby!" + +Baby did not take any notice. + +"Zeally," he said coolly, "ganfather must do somesing to zem locks. Zem +is all most dedful 'tiff." + +Lisa smiled to herself. She was used to Baby's ways. + +"Herr Baby shall grow tall some day," she said. "Zen him can open +doors." + +Lisa's talking was nearly as funny as Baby's, and, indeed, I rather +think that hers had made his all the funnier. But, any way, they +understood each other. He was thinking over what she had said, when a +scream from the nursery made them both turn round in a hurry. + +"O Lisa, O Baby, come in quick, do. Peepy-Snoozle has got out of the +cage, and he'll be out at the door in another moment. Quick, quick, come +in and shut the door." + +Lisa and Baby did not wait to be twice told. Inside the nursery there +was a great flurry. Celia, Fritz, and Denny were all there crawling over +the floor and screaming at each other. + +"_I_ have him! there--oh, now that's too bad. Fritz, you frightened him +away again," called out Celia. + +"_Me_ frighten him away! Why he knows me ever so much better than you +girls," said Fritz. + +"He just doesn't then," said Denny with triumph, "for here he is safe in +my apron." + +But she had hardly said the words when she gave a little scream. "He's +off again, oh quick, Baby, quick, catch him." + +How Baby did it, I can't tell. His hands seemed too small to catch +anything, even a dormouse. But catch the truant he did, and very proud +Baby looked when he held up his two little fists, which he had made into +a "mouse-trap" _really_, for the occasion, with Peepy-Snoozle's "coxy" +little head and bright beady eyes poking out at the top. + +"Oh look, look, Baby's made Peepy-Snoozle into 'the parson in the pulpit +that couldn't say his prayers,'" cried Denny, dancing about. + +"All the same, he'd better go back into his cage," said Fritz, who had a +right to be heard, as he was the master and owner of the dormice. "Come +along, Baby, poke him in." + +Baby was busy kissing and petting Peepy-Snoozle by this time, for, +though he did not approve of much of that sort of thing for himself, he +was very fond of petting little animals, who were not little boys. And +to tell the truth, it was not often he got a chance of petting his big +brother's dormice. It was quite pretty to see the way he kissed +Peepy-Snoozle's soft brown head, especially his nose, stroking it gently +against his own smooth cheeks and chattering to the little creature. + +"Dear little darling. Sweet little denkle darling," he said. "Him would +like to have a house all full of Peepy-'noozles, zem is so sweet and +soft." + +"Wouldn't you like a coat made of their skins?" said Denny. "Think how +soft that would be." + + [Illustration: "Oh look, look, Baby's made Peepy-Snoozle into + 'the parson in the pulpit that couldn't say his prayers,'" cried + Denny.--P. 6.] + +"No, sairtin him wouldn't," said Baby. "Him wouldn't pull off all their +sweet little skins and hairs to make him a coat. Denny's a c'uel girl." + +"There won't be much more skin or hairs left if you go on scrubbing him +up and down with your sharp little nose like that," said Fritz. + +Baby drew back his face in a fright. + +"Put him in the cage then," he said, and with Fritz's help this was +safely done. Then Baby stood silent, slowly rubbing his own nose up and +down, and looking very grave. + +"Him's nose _isn't_ sharp," he said at last, turning upon Denny. "Sharp +means knifes and scidders." + +All the children burst out laughing. Of course they understood things +better than Baby, for even Denny, the youngest next to him, was nine, +that is twice his age, which by the by was a puzzle to Denny herself, +for Celia had teased her one day by saying that according to that when +Baby was eighty Denny would be a hundred and sixty, and nobody ever +lived to be so old, so how could it be. + +But Denny, though she didn't _always_ understand everything herself, was +very quick at taking up other people if they didn't. + +"Oh, you stupid little goose," she said. "Of course, Fritz didn't mean +as sharp as a knife. There's different kinds of sharps--there's +different kinds of everything." + +Baby looked at her gravely. He had his own way of defending himself. + +"Werry well. If him's a goose him won't talk to you, and him won't tell +you somesing _werry_ funny and dedful bootiful that him heard in the +'groind room." + +All eyes were turned on Baby. + +"Oh, do tell us, Baby darling, _do_ tell us," said Celia and Denny. + +Fritz gave Baby a friendly pat on the back. + +"You'll tell _me_, old fellow, won't you?" he said. Baby looked at him. + +"Yes," he said at last; "him will tell you,'cos you let him have +Peepy-'noozle, and 'cos you doesn't call him a goose--like _girls_ does. +I'll whister in your ear, Fritz, if you'll bend down." + +But Celia thought this was too bad. + +"_I_ didn't call you a goose, Baby," she said. "I think you might tell +me too." + +"And I'll promise never to call you a goose again if you'll tell _me_," +said Denny. + +Baby had a great soul. It was beneath him to take a mean revenge, he +felt, especially on a _girl_! So he shut his little mouth tightly, knit +his little brows, and thought it over for a moment or two. Then his +face cleared. + +"Him _will_ tell you all--all you children," he said at last, "but it's +werry long and dedful wonderful, and you mustn't inrumpt him. P'omise?" + +"Promise," shouted the three. + +"Well then, litsen. We's all goin' away--zeally away--over the +sea--dedful far. As far as the sky, p'raps." + +"In a balloon?" said Denny, whose tongue wouldn't keep still even though +she was very much interested in the news. + +"No, in a boat," replied Baby, forgetting to notice that this was an +"inrumption," "in a werry 'normous boat. All's going. Him was looking +for 'tamps in mother's basket of teared letters under the little table, +and mother and ganfather and auntie didn't know him were there, and +ganfather said to mother somesing him couldn't understand--somesing +about _thit_ house, and mother said, yes, 'twould be a werry good thing +to go away 'fore the cold weather comed, and the children would be +p'eased. And auntie said she would like to tell the children, but----" + +Another "inrumption." This time from Fritz. + +"Baby, stop a minute," he exclaimed. "Celia, Denny--Baby's too little +to understand, but," and here Fritz's round chubby face got very red, +"don't you think we've no right to let him tell, if it's something +mother means to tell us herself? She didn't know Baby was there--he said +so." + +But before Celia or Denny could answer, Baby turned upon Fritz. + +"Him _tolded_ you not to inrumpt," he said, with supreme contempt. "If +you would litsen you would see. Mother _did_ know him was there at the +ending, for auntie said she'd like to tell the children--that's you, and +Denny and Celia--but him comed out from the little table and said _him_ +would like to tell the children hisself. And mother were dedful +surprised, and so was ganfather and auntie. And then they all bursted +out laughing and told him lots of things--about going in the railway, +and in a 'normous boat to that other country, where there's cows to pull +the carts, and all the people talk lubbish-talk, like Lisa when she's +cross. And zen, and zen, him comed upstairs to tell you." + +Baby looked round triumphantly. Celia and Fritz and Denny looked first +at him and then at each other. This was wonderful news--almost too +wonderful to be true. + +"We must be going to Italy or somewhere like that," said Celia. "How +lovely! I wonder why they didn't tell us before?" + +"Italy," repeated Denny, "that's the country like a boot, isn't it? I do +hope there won't be any snakes. I'd rather far stay at home than go +where there's snakes." + +"_I_ wouldn't," said Fritz, grandly. "I'd like to go to India or Africa, +or any of those places where there's lots of lions and tigers and +snakes, and anything you like. Give me a good revolver and _you'd_ see." + +"Don't talk nonsense, Fritz," said Celia. "You're far too little a boy +for shooting and guns and all that. It's setting a bad example to Baby +to talk that boasting way, and it's very silly too." + +"Indeed, miss. Much obliged to you, miss," said Fritz. "I'd only just +like to know, miss, who it was came to my room the other night and was +sure she heard robbers, and begged Fritz to peep behind the swing-door +in the long passage. And 'oh,' said this person, 'I do so wish you had a +gun that you could point at them to frighten them away.' Fritz wasn't +such a very little boy just then." + +Celia's face got rather red, and she looked as if she was going to get +angry, but at that moment, happily, Lisa appeared with the tray for the +nursery tea. She had left the room when the dormouse was caught, so she +had not heard the wonderful news, and it had all to be told over again. +She smiled and seemed pleased, but not as surprised as the children +expected. + +"Why, aren't you surprised, Lisa?" said the children. "Did you know +before? Why didn't you tell us?" + +Lisa shook her head and looked very wise. + +"What country are we going to? Can you tell us that?" said Celia. + +"Is it to your country? Is it to what you call Dutchland?" said Fritz. +"I think it's an awfully queer thing that countries can't be called by +the same names everywhere. It makes geography ever so much harder. We've +got to call the people that live in Holland Dutch, and they call +themselves--oh, I don't know what they call themselves----" + +"Hollanders," said Lisa. + +"Hollanders!" repeated Fritz. "Well, that's a sensible sort of name for +people that live in Holland. But _we've_ got to call them Dutch; and +then, to make it more muddled still, Lisa calls her country Dutchland, +and the people Dutch, and _we_ call them German I think it's very +stupid. If I was to make geography I wouldn't do it that way." + +"What's jography?" said Baby. + +"Knowing all about all the countries and all the places in the world," +said Denny. + +"Him wants to learn that," said Baby. + +"Oh, you're _far_ too little!" said Denny. "_I_ only began it last year. +Oh, you're ever so much too little!" + +"Him's not too little to go in the 'normous boat to _see_ all zem +countlies," said Baby, valiantly. "Him _will_ learn jography." + +"That's right, Baby," said Fritz. "Stick up for yourself. You'll be a +great deal bigger than Denny some day." + +Denny was getting ready an answer when Lisa, who knew pretty well the +signs of war between Fritz and Denny, called to all the children to come +to tea; and as both Fritz and Denny were great hands at bread and +butter, they forgot to quarrel, and began pulling their chairs in to the +table, and in a few minutes all four were busy at work. + +What a pretty sight, and what a pleasant thing a nursery tea is! when +the children, that is to say, are sweet-faced and smiling, with clean +pinafores, and clean hands, and gentle voices; not leaning over the +table, knocking over cups, and snatching rudely at the "butteriest" +pieces of bread and butter, and making digs at the sugar when nurse is +not looking. _That_ kind of nursery tea is not to my mind, and not at +all the kind to which I am always delighted to receive an invitation, +written in very round, very black letters, on very small sheets of +paper. The nursery teas in Baby's nursery were not always _quite_ what I +like to see them, for Celia, Fritz, and Denny, and Baby too, had their +tiresome days as well as their pleasant ones, and though they meant to +be good to each other, they did not _always_ do just what they meant, or +really wished, at the bottom of their hearts. But to-day all the little +storms were forgotten in the great news, and all the faces looked bright +and eager, though just at first not much was said, for when children are +hungry of course they can't chatter quite so fast, and all the four +tongues were silent till at least one cup of tea, and perhaps three or +four slices of bread and butter each--just as a beginning, you know--had +disappeared. + +Then said Celia,-- + +"Lisa, do tell us if you know what sort of a place we're going to." + +"Cows pulls carts there," observed Baby; "and--and--what was the 'nother +thing? We'll have frogses for dinner." + +"Baby!" said the others, "_what nonsense_!" + +"'Tisn't nonsense. Ganfather said Thomas and Dones wouldn't go 'cos they +was fightened of frogses for dinner. _Him_ doesn't care--frogses tastes +werry good." + +"How do you know? You've never tasted them," said Fritz. + +"Ganfather said zem was werry good." + +"Grandfather was joking," said Celia. "I've often heard him laugh at +people that way. It's just nonsense--Thomas and Jones don't know any +better. Do they eat frogs in your country, Lisa?" + +"In mine country, Fraeulein Celie?" said Lisa, looking rather vexed. "No +indeed. Man eats goot, most goot tings, in mine country. Say, Herr +Baby--Herr Baby knows what goot tings Lisa would give him in her +country." + +"Yes," said Baby, "such good tings. Tocolate and cakes--lots--and +bootiful soup, all sweet, not like salty soup. Him would like werry much +to go to Lisa's countly." + +"Do cows pull carts in your country, Lisa?" asked Denny. + +"Some parts. Not where mine family lives," said Lisa. "No, Fraeulein +Denny, it's not to mine country we're going. Mine country is it colt, so +colt; and your lady mamma and your lady auntie they want to go where it +is warm, so warm, and sun all winter." + +"_I_ should like that too," said Celia, "I hate winter." + +"That's 'cos you're a girl," said Fritz; "you crumple yourself up by the +fire and sit shivering--no wonder you're cold. You should come out +skating like Denny, and then you'd get warm." + +"Denny's a girl too. You said it was because I was a girl," said Celia. + +"Well, she's not as silly as some girls, any way," said Fritz, rather +"put down." + +Baby was sitting silent. He had made an end of two cups of tea and five +pieces of bread and butter. + +He was not, therefore, _quite_ so hungry as he had been at the +beginning, but still he was a long way off having made what was called +in the nursery a "good tea." Something was on his mind. He sat with one +arm propped on the table, and his round head leaning on his hand, while +the other held the piece of bread and butter--butter downwards, of +course--which had been on its way to his mouth when his brown study had +come over him. + + [Illustration: He sat with one arm propped on the table and his round + head leaning on his hand, while the other held the piece of bread and + butter--butter downwards, of course.--P. 16.] + +"Herr Baby," said Lisa, "eat, mine child." + +Baby took no notice. + +"What has he then?" said Lisa, who was very easily frightened about her +dear Herr Baby. "Can he be ill? He eats not." + +"Ill," said Celia. "No fear, Lisa. He's had ever so much bread and +butter. Don't you want any more, Baby? What are you thinking about? +We're going to have honey on our last pieces to-night, aren't we, Lisa? +For a treat, you know, because of the news of going away." + +Celia wanted the honey because she was very fond of it; but besides +that, she thought it would wake Baby out of his brown study to hear +about it, for he was very fond of it too. + +He did catch the word, for he turned his blue eyes gravely on Celia. + +"Honey's werry good," he said, "but him's not at his last piece yet. Him +doesn't sink he'll _ever_ be at his last piece to-night; him's had to +stop eating for he's so dedful busy in him's head." + +"Poor little man, have you got a pain in your head?" said his sister, +kindly. "Is that what you mean?" + +"No, no," said Baby, softly shaking his head, "no pain. It's only busy +sinking." + +"What about?" said all the children. + +Baby sat straight up. + +"Children," he said, "him zeally can't eat, sinking of what a dedful +packing there'll be. All of everysing. Him zeally sinks it would be best +to begin to-night." + +At this moment the door opened. It was mother. She often came up to the +nursery at tea-time, and + + "When the children had been good; + That is, be it understood, + Good at meal times, good at play," + +I need hardly say, they were very, very pleased to see her. Indeed there +were times even when they were glad to see her face at the door when +they _hadn't_ been very good, for somehow she had a way of putting +things right again, and making them feel both how wrong and how _silly_ +it is to be cross and quarrelsome, that nobody else had. And she would +just help the kind words out without seeming to do so, and take away +that sore, horrid feeling that one _can't_ be good, even though one is +longing so to be happy and friendly again. + +But this evening there had been nothing worse than a little squabbling; +the children all greeted mother merrily, only Baby still looked rather +solemn. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +INSIDE A TRUNK + + "For girls are as silly as spoons, dears, + And boys are as jolly as bricks. + * * * * * + Oh Mammy, _you_ tell us a story!-- + They won't hear a word that _I_ say." + + +"Mother, mother!" they all cried with one voice, and the three big ones +jumped up and ran to her, all pulling her at once. + +"Mother, mother, do sit down in the rocking-chair and look comfortable," +said Fritz. + +"There's still some tea. You'll have a cup of _our_ tea, won't you, +mother?" said Celia. + +"And some bread and honey," said Denny. + +"It won't spoil your afternoon tea; don't say it will," said all +together, for nothing would ever make them believe that when mother came +up to the nursery at tea-time it could be allowed that she should not +have a share of whatever there was. + +"Such a good thing we had honey to-night," said Celia, who was busy +cutting a very dainty piece of bread and butter. "We persuaded Lisa to +give it us _extra_, you know, mother, because of the news. And, oh, +mother, what do you think Baby says? he----" + +"Baby! what is the matter with him?" interrupted mother. + +They all turned to look at him. Poor Baby, he had set to work to get +down from his chair to run to mother with the others, but the chair was +high and Baby was short, and Lisa, who had gone to the cupboard for a +fresh cup and saucer for "madame," as she called the children's mother, +had not noticed the trouble Herr Baby had got himself into. One little +leg and a part of his body were stuck fast in the open space between the +bars at the back, his head had somehow got under the arm of the chair, +and could not be got out again without help. And Baby was far too proud +to call out for help as long as there was a chance of his doing without +it. But he really was in a very uncomfortable state, and it was a wonder +that the chair, which was a light wicker one, had not toppled over with +the queer way in which he was hanging. They got him out at last; his +face was very red, and I _think_ the tears had been very near coming, +but he choked them down, and looking up gravely he said to his mother,-- + +"Him's chair is getting too small. Him hasn't room to turn." + +"Is it really?" said his mother, quite gravely too. She saw that Celia +and Fritz were ready to burst out laughing at poor Baby, and she didn't +want them to do so, for Baby had really been very brave, and now when he +was trying hard not to cry it would have been too bad to laugh at him. +"Is it really?" she said. "I must see about it, and if it is too small +we must get you another." + +"Him doesn't want you to pack up _that_ chair," said Baby again, giving +himself a sort of shake, as if to make sure that his head, and his legs, +and all the rest of him, were in their proper places after being so +turned about and twisted by his struggles in the chair. + +"He's quite in a fuss about packing," said Celia; "that's what I was +going to tell you, mother. He stopped in the middle of his tea to think +about it, and he said he thought we'd better begin to-night." + +"Yes," said Baby. "There's such _lots_ to pack. All our toys, and the +labbits, and the mouses, and the horses, and the fireplaces, and the +tables, and the cups, and the saucers," his eyes wandering round the +room as he went on with his list. "Him thinks we'll need _lots_ of boats +to go in." + +"And two or three railway trains all to ourselves," said mother. + +Baby looked up at her gravely. He could not make out if mother was in +fun or earnest. His little puzzled face made mother draw him to her and +give him a kiss. + +"It's a shame to talk nonsense to such a serious little man," she said. +"Don't trouble yourself about the packing, Baby dear. Don't you know +grandfather, and auntie, and I have had lots of packings to do in our +lives? Why, we had to pack up _two_ houses when we came away from India, +and that was much much farther away than where we're going now! And you +were _such_ a tiny baby then--it was very much harder, for mother was +very very sad, and she never thought you would grow to be a big strong +boy like what you are now." + +"Was that when----" began thoughtless Denny, but Fritz gave her a tug. + +"You _know_ it makes mother unhappy to talk about that time," he +whispered; but mother heard him. + +"No, Fritz," she said; "I don't mind Denny thinking about it. I am so +glad to have all of you, dears, happy and good, that my sorrow is not so +bad as it was. And I am so glad you and Celia can remember your father. +Poor Baby--_he_ can't remember him," she said, softly stroking Baby's +face. + +"'Cos he went to Heaven when him was so little," said Baby. Then he put +his arms round mother's neck. "Him and Fritz will soon grow big, and be +werry good to mother," he said. "And ganfather and auntie are werry good +to mother, isn't they?" he added. + +"Yes indeed," said mother; "and to all of you too. What would we do +without grandfather and auntie?" + +"Some poor little boys and girls has no mothers and ganfathers, and no +stockings and shoes, and no _nothings_," said Baby solemnly. + +"There's _some_ things I shouldn't mind not having," said Fritz; "I +shouldn't mind having no lessons." + +"O Fritz," said his sisters; "what a lazy boy you are!" + +"No, I'm just _not_ lazy. I'm awfully fond of doing _everything_--I +don't even mind if it's a hard thing, so long as it isn't anything in +books," said Fritz, sturdily. "Some people's made one way, and some's +made another, and I'm made the way of not liking books." + +"I wonder what Baby will say to books," said mother, smiling. + +"Is jography in books," said Baby. "Him wants to learn jography." + +"_I_ think it's awfully stupid," said Denny. "I'm sure you won't like it +once you begin. Did _you_ like lessons when you were little, mother?" + +"Yes, I'm sure mother did," said Fritz. "People's fathers and mothers +were always far gooder than their children are. I've noticed that. If +ever big people tell you about when they were little, it's always about +how good they were. And they say always, 'Dear me, how happy children +should be nowadays; _we_ were never allowed to do so and so when _we_ +were little.' That's the way old Mrs. Nesbitt always talks, isn't it +mother? I wonder if it's true. If people keep getting naughtier than +their fathers and mothers were, the world will get _very_ naughty some +day. _Is_ it true?" + +"I think it's true that children get to be more spoilt," said Denny in a +low voice. "Just look how Baby's clambering all over mother! O Baby, +you nearly knocked over mother's cup! _I_ never was allowed to do like +that when _I_ was a little girl." + +Everybody burst out laughing--even mother--but Denny had the good +quality of not minding being laughed at. + +"Was the tea nice, and the bread and butter and honey?" she said +eagerly, as mother rose to put the empty cup in a place of safety. + +"Very nice, thank you," said mother. "But I must go, dears. I have a +good many things to talk about with grandfather and auntie." + +"Packing?" said Baby. + +"How you do go on about packing!" said Denny. "Of course mother's not +going to pack to-night." + +Baby's face fell. + +"Him does so want to begin packing," he said dolefully. "'Appose we +forgottened somesing, and we was over the sea!" + +"Well, I must talk about it all, and write down all we have to take," +said mother. "So I must go to auntie now." + +"Oh, not yet, not yet. Just five minutes more!" cried the children. +"And, mother," said Celia, "you've not answered my question. _Is_ it +true that children used to be so much better long ago? Were you never +naughty?" + +"Sometimes," said mother, smiling. + +"Oh, I'm so glad!" said Celia. "Often, mother? I do hope you were often +naughty. Do tell us a story about something naughty you did when you +were little. You know it would be a good lesson for us. It would show us +how awfully good one may learn to be, for, you know, you're awfully good +now." + +"Yes, of course you are," said Fritz and Denny. + +"Mother's _dedfully_ good," said Baby, poking up his face from her knee +where he had again perched himself, to kiss her. "Do tell him one story +of when you was a little girl, mother." + +Mother's face seemed for a minute rather puzzled. Then it suddenly +cleared up. + +"I will tell you a very little story," she said; "it really is a very +little story, but it is as long as I have time for just now, and it may +amuse you. Baby's packing put it in my head." + +"Is it about when you were a little girl, mother?" interrupted Denny. + +"Yes. Well, when I was a little girl, I had no mother." + +The elder children nodded their heads. But Baby, to whom it was a new +idea, shook his sadly. + +"Zat was a gate pity," he said. "Poor mother to have no mother. Had you +no shoes and stockings, and nothing nice to eat?" + +"You sill----" began Denny, but mother stopped her. + +"Oh yes," she said, "I had shoes and stockings, and everything I wanted, +for I had a very kind father. You know how kind grandfather is? And I +had a kind sister whom you know too. But when I was a little girl, my +sister was not herself _very_ big, and she had a great deal to do _for_ +a not very big girl, you know. There were our brothers, for we had +several, and though they were generally away at school there seemed +always something to do for them--letters to write to them, if there was +nothing else--and then, in the holidays, there were all their new +shirts, and stockings, and things to get to take back to school. Helen +seemed always busy. She had been at school too, before your grandfather +came back from India, for five years, bringing me with him, quite a wee +little girl of four. And Helen was so happy to be with us again, that +she begged not to go back to school, and, as she was really very well +on for her age, grandfather let her stay at home." + +"There, you see," whispered Celia, nudging Fritz. "It's beginning--it +always does--you hear how awfully good auntie was." + +Mother went on quietly. If she heard what Celia said she took no notice. +"Grandfather let her stay at home and have lessons there. She had a +great many lessons to learn for her age besides those that one learns +out of books. She had to learn to be very active, and very thoughtful, +and, above all, very patient. For the little sister she had to take care +of was, I am afraid, a very spoilt little girl when she first came home. +Grandfather had spoiled her without meaning it; he was so sorry for her +because she had no mother, and Helen was so sorry for her too, that it +was rather difficult for her not to spoil her as well." + +Here Baby himself "inrumpted." + +"Him doesn't understand," he said. "Who _were_ that little girl? Him +wants a story about mother when _her_ was a little girl;" and the +corners of his mouth went down, and his eyes grew dewy-looking, in a +very sad way. + + [Illustration: There was one trunk which took my fancy more than + all the others.--P. 30.] + +"Poor Baby," said mother. "I'll try and tell it more plainly. _I_ was +that little girl, and auntie was my sister Helen. I must get on with my +little story. I was forgetting that Baby would not quite understand. +Well, one day to my great delight, Helen told me that grandfather was +going to take her and me and the two brothers, who were then at home, to +spend Christmas with one of our aunts in London. This aunt had children +too, and though I had never seen them Helen told me they were very nice, +for she knew them well, as she used to go there for her holidays before +we came home. She told me most about a little girl called Lilly, who was +just about my age. I had never had a little friend of my own age, and I +was always talking and thinking about how nice it would be, and I was +quite vexed with Helen because she would not begin to pack up at once. I +was always teasing her to know what trunks we should take, and if all my +dolls might go, and I am sure poor Helen often wished she had not told +me anything about it till the very day before. I got in the way of going +up to the big attic where the trunks were kept, and of looking at them +and wondering which would go, and wishing Helen would let me have one +all for myself and my dolls and their things. There was one trunk which +took my fancy more than all the others. It was an old-fashioned +trunk, but it must have been a very good one, for it shut with a sort of +spring, and inside it had several divisions, some with little lids of +their own, and I used to think how nice it would be for me, I could put +all my dolls in so beautifully, and each would have a kind of house for +itself. I don't remember how I managed to get it open, perhaps it had +been a little open when I first began my visits to the attic, for the +lid was very heavy, and I was neither big nor strong for my age. But it +_was_ open, and it stayed so, for no one else ever went up to the attic +but I. The other people in the house were too busy, and no one would +have thought there was anything amusing in looking at empty trunks in a +row. But I went up to the attic day after day. I climbed up the narrow +staircase as soon as I had had my breakfast, and stayed there till I +heard my nurse calling me to get ready to go out, or to come to my +lessons, for I was beginning to learn to read, and I used to have a +little lesson every day. And at last one day I said to my sister, + +"'Helen, may I have the big trunk with the little cupboards in it for +_my_ trunk?' + +"Helen was busy at the time, and I don't think she heard exactly what I +said. She answered me hurriedly that she would see about it afterwards. +But I went on teasing. + +"'May I begin putting Marietta and Lady Regina into the little cupboards +inside?' I said. + +"'Oh yes, I daresay you can if you like,' said Helen. She told me +afterwards that when I spoke of cupboards she never thought I meant a +trunk, she thought I was speaking of some of the nursery cupboards. + +"It was just bed-time then, too late for me to go to the attic, for I +knew there was no chance of my getting leave to go up there with a +candle. But I fell asleep with my head full of how nicely I could put +the dolls into the trunk, each with her clothes beside her, and the very +first thing the next morning I got them all together and I mounted up to +the attic. I had never told nurse about my going up there. Once or +twice, perhaps, she had seen me coming down the stair, but very likely +she had thought I had only been a little way up to look out of a window +there was there. I don't know why I didn't tell her, perhaps I was +afraid of her stopping my going. I waited till she was busy about her +work, fetching coals and so on, and then I trotted off with Lady Regina +under one arm and Marietta under the other, and a bundle of their +clothes tied up in my pinafore before, to make my way upstairs to the +delightful trunk. It was open as usual, and after putting my dolls and +bundles down on the floor, I managed to lift out the two top trays. One +of them was much larger than the other, and it was in what I called the +cupboards below the smaller one that I settled to put Regina and +Marietta. There were two of these little cupboards, and each had a lid. +They would just do beautifully. Under the larger tray there was just one +big space without a lid, 'just a hole,' I called it. I went on for a +little time, laying in some of the clothes first to make a nice soft +place for the dolls to lie on, but I soon got tired. It was so very far +to reach over, for the outside edges of the box were high, higher of +course than the _inside_ divisions, for the trays I had taken out, which +lay on the top of the lower spaces, were a good depth, and there had +been no division between them. It came into my head that it would be +much easier if I were to get into the box myself--I could stand in the +big hole, as I called it, and reach over to the little divisions where I +wanted to put the dolls, and it would be far less tiring than trying to +reach over from the outside. So I clambered in--it was not very +difficult--and when I found myself really inside the trunk I was so +pleased that I sat down cross-legged, like a little Turk, to take a rest +before going on with what I called my packing. But sitting still for +long was not in my way--I soon jumped up again, meaning to reach over +for Lady Regina, who was lying on the floor beside the trunk, but, how +it happened I cannot tell, I suppose I somehow caught the tapes which +fastened the lid; any way down it came! It did not hurt me much, for I +had not had time to stretch out my head, and the weight fell mostly on +my shoulders, sideways as it were, and before I knew what had happened I +found myself doubled up somehow in my hole, with the heavy lid on the +top of me, all in the dark, except a little line of light round the +edge, for the lid had not shut quite down; the hasp of the lock--as the +little sticking-out piece is called--had caught in the fall, and was +wedged into a wrong place. So, luckily for me, there was still a space +for some air to come in, and a little light, though very little. I was +dreadfully frightened at first; then I began to get over my fright a +little, and to struggle to get out. Of course my first idea was to try +to push up the lid with my head and shoulders; I remember the feeling of +it pushing back upon me--the dreadful feeling that I couldn't move it, +that I was shut up there and couldn't get out! I was too little to +understand all at once that there could be any danger, that I might +perhaps be suffocated--that means choked, Baby--for want of air; or that +I might really be hurt by being so cramped and doubled up. And really +there was not much danger; if I had been older I should have been more +frightened than there was really any reason to be. But I was big enough +to begin very quickly to get very angry and impatient. I had never in +all my life been forced to do anything I disliked; often and often my +nurse, and sometimes Helen, had begged me to try to sit still for a +minute or two, but I never would. And now the lesson of having to give +in to something much worse than sitting still in my nice little chair by +the nursery fire, or standing still for two minutes while a new frock +was tried on, had to be learnt! There was no getting rid of it; I kicked +and I pushed, it was no use; the strong heavy lid which had been to +India and back two or three times would not move the least bit. I tried +to poke out my fingers through the little space that was left, but I +could not find the lock, and it was a good thing I did not, for if I had +touched the hasp, most likely the lid would have fallen quite into its +place, crushing my poor little fingers, and shutting me in without any +air at all. At last I thought of another plan. I set to work screaming. + +"'Nurse, nurse, Nelly, oh Nelly,' I cried, and at last I shouted, 'Papa, +_Papa_, PAPA,' at the top of my voice. But it was no use! Most children +would have begun screaming at the very first. But I was not a +_frightened_ child, and I was very proud. I did not want any one to find +me shut up in a box like that, besides, they would be sure to stop my +ever coming up to the attic again. So it was not till I had tired myself +out with trying to push up the lid that I set to work to screaming, and +that made it all the more provoking that my calls brought no one. At +last I got so out of patience that I set to work again kicking for no +use at all, but just because I was so angry. I kicked and screamed, and +at last I burst into tears and _roared_. Then I caught sight, through +the chink, of Lady Regina's blue dress, where the doll was lying on the +floor near the trunk. + +"'Nasty Regina,' I shouted, 'nasty, ugly Regina. You are lying there as +if there was nothing the matter, and it was all for you I came up here. +I hate dolls--they never do nothing. If you were a little dog you'd go +and bark, and then somebody would come and let me out.' + +"Then I went on crying and sobbing till I was perfectly tired, and then +what do you think I did? Though I was so uncomfortable, all crushed up +into a little ball, I went to sleep! I went to sleep as soundly as if I +had been in my own little bed, and afterwards I found, from what they +told me, that I must have slept quite two hours. When I woke up I could +not think where I was. I felt so stiff and sore, and when I tried to +stretch myself out I could not, and then I remembered where I was! It +seemed quite dark; I wondered if it was night, till I noticed the little +chink of light at the edge of the lid, and then I began to cry again, +but not so wildly as before. All of a sudden I thought I heard a +sound--some one was coming upstairs! and then I heard voices. + +"'Fallen out of the window,' one said. 'Oh no, nurse, she _couldn't_! +She could never get through.' + +"But yet the person seemed to be looking out of the window all the same, +for I heard them opening and shutting it. And then I called out again. + +"'Oh Nelly, Nelly. I'se here; I'se shut up in the big box with the +cupboards.' + +"They didn't hear me at first. My little voice must have sounded very +faint and squeaky from out of the trunk, besides they were not half-way +up the attic-stairs. So I went on crying-- + +"'Oh Nelly, Nelly! I'se up here. Oh Nelly, Nelly!' + +"She heard me this time. Dear Nelly! I never have called to her in vain, +children, in all my life. And in half a minute she had dashed up the +stairs, and, guided by my voice, was kneeling down beside the trunk. + +"'Little May, my poor little May,' Nelly called out; and do you know I +really think she was crying too! I was--by the time Nelly and the +servants who were with her had got the lid unhooked and raised, and had +lifted me out--I was in floods of tears. I clung to Nelly, and told her +how 'dedful' it had been, and she petted me so that I am afraid I quite +forgot it was all my own fault. + +"'You might have been there for hours and hours, May,' Nelly said to me, +'if it hadn't been for nurse thinking of the window on the stair. You +must never go off by yourself to do things like that,' and when I told +her that I had asked her and she had given me leave, she said she had +not at all known what I meant, and that I must try to remember not to +tease about things once I had been told to wait. Any way I think I had +got a good lesson of patience that day, and one that I never forgot, for +it really is not at all a pleasant thing to be shut up in a big trunk." + +Mother stopped. + +Baby, who had been listening with solemn eyes, said slowly, + +"Him will not pack by hisself. Him will wait till somebody can help him. +It would be so dedful sad if him was to get shuttened up like poor +little mother, and perhaps you'd all go away ac'oss the sea and nebber +find him." + +The corners of his mouth went down at this sorrowful picture, and his +eyes looked as if they were beginning to think about crying. But mother +and Celia set to work petting and kissing him before the tears had time +to come. + +"As if we would ever go across the sea without _him_," said mother. + +"Why, we should never know how to do _anything_ without Herr Baby," said +Celia. + +"Fritz and Baby will do all the fussy things in travelling--taking the +tickets, and counting the luggage, and all that--they're such big men, +aren't they?" said Denny, with mischief in her twinkling green eyes. + +"Now you, just mind what you're about," said Fritz, gallantly. "You'll +make him cry just when mother's been comforting him up. Such stupids +girls are!" he added in a lower voice. + +"I really must go now," said mother, getting up from her chair. "Auntie +will not know what has become of me. I have been up here, why a whole +half hour, instead of five minutes!" + +"Auntie will think mother's got shut up in a trunk again," said Denny, +whose tongue _never_ could be still for long, and at this piece of wit +they all burst out laughing. + +All but Herr Baby. He couldn't see that it was any laughing matter. +Mother's story had sunk deep into his mind. Trunks were things to be +careful of. Baby saw this clearly. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +UP IN THE MORNING EARLY + + "Sweet, eager promises bind him to this, + Never to do so again." + + +He woke early next morning. He had so much to think of, you see. So much +that even his dreams were full of all he had heard yesterday. + +"Him's been d'eaming him was in the big, big, 'normous boat, and zen him +d'eamed of being shuttened up in a t'unk like _poor_ little mother," he +confided to Denny. + +He was forced to tell Denny a good many things, because they slept in +the same room, and, of course, everybody knows that _whatever_ mammas +and nurses say, going-to-sleep-in-bed time is _the_ time for talking. +Waking-up-in-the-morning time is rather tempting, too, particularly in +summer, when the sun comes in at the windows _so_ brightly and the birds +are _so_ lively, chattering away to each other, and all the world is up +and about, except "_us_," who _have_ to stay in bed till seven o'clock! +Ah, it _is_ a trial! On the whole, I don't think chattering in the +mornings is so much to be found fault with as chattering at night. It is +only children who are so silly as to keep themselves awake when the time +for going to sleep has come. The birds and the bees, and the little +lambs even, all know when that time has come, and go to sleep without +any worry to themselves or other people. But children are not always so +sensible. I _could_ tell you a story--only I am afraid if she were to +read it in this little book it would make her feel so ashamed that I +should really be sorry for her, so I will not tell you her name nor +where she lives--of a little girl who was promised two pounds, two whole +gold pounds--fancy! if for one month she would go quietly to sleep at +night when she was put to bed, and let her sister do the same; and she +was to lose two shillings every night she forgot or disobeyed. Well, +what do you think? at the end of two weeks the two pounds had come down +already to nineteen shillings! She had forgotten already ten times, or +ten and a half times--I don't quite understand how it had come to +nineteen, but so it had; and at the end of the month--no I don't think +I will tell you what it had come down to. Only this will show you how +much more difficult it is to get out of a bad habit than to get into a +good one, for this little girl is very sweet and good in many ways, and +I love her dearly--_only_ she had got into this bad habit, and it was +stronger, as bad habits so often are, than her real true wish to do what +her mother told her. + +But I have wandered away from Herr Baby, and I am afraid you won't be +pleased. He was forced, I was saying, to tell Denny a good many things, +because he was most with her. I don't think he would have told her as +much but for that, for Denny's head was a very flighty one, and she +never cared to think or talk about the same thing for long together, +which was not _at all_ Herr Baby's way. _He_ liked to think a good deal +about everything, and one thing lasted him a good while. + +"Him's been d'eaming such a lot," he said to Denny this morning. + +"I think dreams are very stupid," said Denny. "What's the good of them? +If they made things come _real_ they would be some good. Like, you know, +if I was to dream somebody gave me something awfully nice, and then when +I woke up I was to see the thing on my bed, _then_ dreams would be some +good." + +"But if zou d'eamed somesing dedful, like being shuttened up in a t'unk +like _poor_ little mother, _zen_ it wouldn't be nice for it to come +zeal," said Baby, who never forgot to look at things from both sides. + +"No, of course it wouldn't. How stupid you are!" said Denny. "And how +your head does run on one thing. I'm quite tired of you talking about +mother being shut up in the trunk. Do talk of something else." + +"Him can't talk of somesing else when him's sinking of one sing," said +Baby gravely. + +"Well, then don't talk at all," said Denny sharply, "and indeed I think +we'd better be quiet, or Lisa will be coming in, and scolding us. It's +only half-past six." + +Baby did not speak for a minute or two. Then he said solemnly, + +"When us goes away ac'oss the sea in the 'normous boat, him _hopes_ him +won't sleep in the same zoom as you any more." + +"I'm sure I hope not," said Denny snappishly. There was some excuse for +her this morning, she was really rather sleepy, and it is very tiresome +to be wakened up at half-past six, when one is quite inclined to sleep +till half-past seven. + +But Baby could not go to sleep again. His mind was still running on +packing. If he could but have a _little_ box of his own to pack his own +treasures in, then he would be sure none would be forgotten. He did not +want a _big_ trunk--not one in which he could be shuttened up like +mother, but just a nice little one. If mother would give him one! +Stay--where had he seen one, just what he wanted, was it in the nursery +or in the cupboard where Fritz kept his garden-tools and his skates, and +all the big boy things which Baby too hoped to have of his own some day? +No, it was not there. It must have been--yes, it was in the pantry when +he went to ask James for a glass of water. Up on a shelf, high up it +stood, "a tiny _sweet_ little t'unk," said Herr Baby to himself, +"wouldn't mother let him have it?" He would ask her this morning as soon +as he saw her. Then he lay still and thought over to himself all the +things he would pack in the tiny sweet little t'unk; his best Bible with +his name + + "Raymond Arthur Aylmer," + +in the gold letters on the back, should have the nicest corner, of +course, and his "_scented_ purse," as he called the Russia leather purse +which grandfather had given him on his last birthday, that would go +nicely beside the Bible, and his watch that _really_ ticked as long as +you turned the key in it--all those things would fit in, nicely packed +in "totton wool," of course, and crushy paper. The thought of it all +made Baby's fingers fidget with eagerness to begin his packing. If only +mother would give him the box! It must be mother's, for if it was +James's he would keep it in his own room instead of up on the pantry +shelf among all the glasses and cups. If Baby could just see it again he +would know 'ezackly if it would do! + +Baby looked about him. Everything was perfectly still, he heard no one +moving about the house--Denny had said it was only half-past six. + +"Denny," said Baby softly. + +No reply. + +"_Denny_," a very little louder. + +Still no reply; but Baby, by leaning over the edge of his cot a little, +could see that Denny's eyes were shut, and her nose was half buried in +the pillow in the way she always turned it when she went to sleep. Denny +had gone to sleep again. + +"Zes," said Herr Baby to himself; "her's a'leep--her's beazing so soft." + +He looked about him again; he stuck one little warm white foot out of +bed--it did feel _rather_ cold; he felt more than half inclined just to +cuddle himself up warm again and lie still till Lisa came to dress him. +But the thought of the little t'unk was too much for him. + +"Him would so like just to _see_ it," he said to himself. + +Then he stood right up in bed and clambered over the edge of the cot the +way he had to do to get out of it by himself. He did not make much +noise--not enough to waken Denny, and indeed he would not much have +minded if she _had_ awakened, only that perhaps she would have wanted to +go too, and Baby wished just to go down to the pantry this quiet time of +the morning before any one was there and take a good look by himself. + +It was cold on the stair--just at the edge, that is to say, where the +carpet did not cover, and where he had stepped without thinking, not +being used to trotting about on bare feet, you see. But in the middle, +on the carpet, it was nice and soft and warm. + +"It would be dedful to be poor boys wif no shoes and stockings," he said +to himself, "'cept on the carpet. Him would like to buy lots of lubly +soft carpets for zem poor boys." + +And he pitied the poor boys still more when he got to the back passage +leading to the pantry, where there was no carpet at all, only oilcloth. +He pattered along as fast as he could; there was no sound to be heard +but the ticking of the clock, and Baby wondered that he had never +noticed before what a loud ticking clock it was; it did not come into +his head that it was very late for none of the servants to be down, for +such matters were not his concern, and if he had known the truth that +Denny had made a mistake of an hour, and that it was only half-past five +instead of half-past six, he would not have thought much about it. + +He got to the pantry at last. It was darker in here than in the passage +outside, which was a disappointment. The shutters were shut, that was +the reason, and when Baby looked up at them and saw how strong and +barred they were, even _he_ felt that it would be no use to try to open +them. He climbed up on to the dresser that ran round one side of the +wall to see better. Yes, there it was--the tiny, sweet, little +t'unk--just as he had been fancying it. Not so very high up either. If +he could but give it a little poke out he could almost reach it down--it +could not be heavy, it was _such_ a tiny t'unk; and, oh, if he could +carry it out to the passage, where it was light, how beautifully he +could look at it! He stood up on tiptoe, and found he could almost reach +it. A brush with a sticking-out handle was lying beside him. Baby took +it, and found that by poking it in a little behind the box he could make +it move out, and if it were moved out a very little way he could reach +to lift it down. He moved it out enough, then he stretched up his two +hands to lift it down--it was not very heavy, but still rather heavier +than he had thought. But with the help of his curly head, which he +partly rested it on, he got it out safely enough, and was just slipping +it gently downwards to the dresser when _somehow_ the brush handle, +which he had left on the shelf, caught him or the box, he could not tell +which, and, startled by the feeling of something pushing against him, +Baby lost his balance and fell! Off the dresser right down on to the +hard floor, which had no carpet even to make it softer, he tumbled, and +the little t'unk on the top of him. What a noise it made--even in the +middle of his fright Baby could not help thinking what a tremendous +noise he and the box seemed to make. He lay still for a minute; luckily +the box, though it had come straight after him, had fallen a little to +one side, and had not hit him. He was bruised enough by the floor +already--any more bumps would have been _too_ much, would they not? But +the poor box itself was to be pitied; it had come open in the fall, and +all that was in it had naturally tumbled out. _That_ explained the noise +and clatter. The box had held--indeed it had been made on purpose to +hold them--two beautiful glass jugs, which had been sent to mother all +the way from Italy! Baby had never seen them, because they were only +used when mother and auntie wanted the dinner-table to look very nice, +and of course Baby was too little ever to come down to dinner. And, +alas, the beautiful jugs, so fine and thin that one could almost have +thought the fairies had made them, were both broken, one of them, +indeed, crushed and shivered into mere bits of glass lying about the +pantry floor, and the box itself had lost its lid, for the hinges had +been broken, too, in the fall. + + [Illustration: For a minute or two Baby could not make out what had + happened.--P. 50.] + +For a minute or two Baby could not make out what had happened. He felt a +little stupid with the fall, and sore too. But he never was ready to cry +for bumps or knocks; he would cry much more quickly if any one spoke +sharply to him than if he hurt himself. So at first he lay still, +wondering what was the matter. Then he sat up and looked about him, and +_then_, seeing the broken box and the broken glass, he understood that +he had done some harm, and he burst into piteous sobbing. + +"Him didn't mean," he cried; "him didn't know there was nuffin in the +tiny t'unk. Oh, what shall him do?" + +He cried and sobbed, and, being now very frightened, he cried the more +when he saw that there was blood on his little white nightgown, and that +the blood came from one of his little cold feet, which had been cut by a +piece of the broken glass. Baby was much more frightened by the sight of +blood than by anything else--when he climbed up on the nursery chest of +drawers, and Denny told him he'd be killed if he fell down, he didn't +mind a bit, but when Lisa said that he might hurt his face if he fell, +and make it _bleed_, he came down at once--and now the sight of the +blood was too much. + +"Oh, him's hurt hisself, him's all bleeding!" he cried. "Oh, _what_ +shall him do?" + +He dared not move, for he was afraid of lifting the cut foot--he really +did not know what to do--when he heard steps coming along the passage, +pattering steps something like his own, and before he had time to think +who it could be, a second little white-night-gowned figure trotted into +the room. + +"Baby, poor Baby, what's the matter?" and, looking up, Baby saw it was +Fritz. + +"Him's hurt hisself, him's tumbled, and the tiny t'unk is brokened, and +somesing else is brokened. Him didn't mean," he sobbed; and Fritz sat +down on the floor beside him, having the good sense to keep out of the +way of the broken glass, and lifted the little bleeding foot gently. + +"Must have some sticking-plaster," said Fritz. "There's some in mother's +pocket-book in her room. We must go to mother, Baby." + +"But him can't walk," said Baby piteously. "Him's foot bleedens dedful +when him moves it." + +"Then I must carry you," said Fritz, importantly. + +With some difficulty he got Baby on to his back and set off with him. +Baby had often ridden on Fritz's back before, in the nursery, for fun, +and it seemed very nice and easy. But now, though he had only his +nightgown on, Fritz was surprised to find how heavy he seemed after +going a little way. He was obliged to rest after he had gone up a few +steps, and Baby began to cry worse than before when he saw how tired +poor Fritz was. I really don't know how they ever got to the door of +mother's room, and, when their knocking brought her out, it was rather +a frightening sight for her--Baby perched on Fritz's back, both little +boys looking white and miserable, and the wounded foot covered with +blood. + +But mother knew better than to ask what was the matter till she had done +something to put things to rights again. + +"Him's foot" was the first thing Baby said, stretching out his poor +little toes. + +And the foot looked so bad that mother felt quite thankful when she had +bathed it and found that the cut was not really a very deep one after +all. And when it was nicely plastered up, and both little boys were +tucked into mother's bed to get warm again, then mother had to hear all +about it. It was not much Fritz could tell. He, too, had wakened early, +and had heard Denny and Baby talking, for he slept in a little room near +theirs. He had fallen half asleep again, and started up, fancying he +heard a noise and a cry, and, getting out of bed, had found his way to +the pantry, guided by Baby's sobs. But what Baby was doing in the +pantry, or why he had wandered off there all alone so early in the +morning, Fritz did not know. + +So Baby had to tell his own story, which he did straight on in his own +way. He never thought of _not_ telling it straight on; he was afraid +mother would be sorry when she heard about the "somesing" that was +broken, but it had never entered his little head that one could help +telling mother "ezackly" all about anything. And so he told the +whole--how he had been "sinking" about trunks and packing, and +"d'eaming" about them too, how Denny had been "razer c'oss" and wouldn't +talk, and how the thought of the tiny sweet t'unk had come into his head +all of itself, and he had fancied how nice it would be to go downstairs +and look at it on the pantry shelf, and then how all the misfortunes had +come. At the end he burst into tears again when he had to tell of the +"somesing brokened," now lying about in shiny fragments on the pantry +floor. + +Poor mother! She knew in a minute what it was that was broken, and I +cannot say but that she was very sorry, more sorry perhaps than Baby +could understand, for she had had the pretty jugs many years, and the +thoughts of happy days were mingled with the shining of the rainbow +glass. Baby saw the sorry look on her face, and stretched up his two +arms to clasp her neck. + +"Him is so sorry, so werry sorry," he said. "Him will take all the money +of him's money-box to buy more shiny jugs for mother." + +Mother kissed him, but told him that could not be. + +"The jugs came from a far-away country, Baby dear," she said, "and you +could not get them here. Besides, I cared for them in a way you can't +understand. I had had them a long time, and one gets to care for things, +even if they are not very pretty in themselves, when one has had them so +long." + +"Oh ses, him does understand," said Baby. "Him cares for old 'sings, far +best." + +"Yes," said Fritz, "he really does, mother. He cries when Lisa says she +must put away his old shoes, and his old woolly lamb is dreadful--really +dreadful, but he _won't_ give it away." + +"It _has_ such a sweet face," said Baby. + +"Well I don't care; I wish it was burnt up. He mustn't take it in the +railway with us when we go away; must he, mother?" + +"Couldn't it be washed?" said mother. + +"I don't think so, and I don't believe Baby would like it as much if it +was. Would you, Baby?" said Fritz. + +Baby would not answer directly. He seemed rather in a hurry to change +the subject. + +"Mother," he said, "when we go away in the 'normous boat, won't we +p'raps go to the country where the shiny jugs is made? And if him takes +all the money in him's money-box, couldn't him buy some for you?" + +"They wouldn't be the same ones," said Fritz. + +Baby's face fell. Mother tried to comfort him. + +"Never mind about the jugs any more just now," she said. "Some day, +perhaps, when you are a big man you will get me some others quite as +pretty, that I shall like for your sake. What will please me more than +new jugs just now, Baby, is for you to promise me not to try to do +things like that without telling any one. Just think how very badly hurt +you might have been. If only you had waited to ask me about the little +box all would have been right, and my pretty jugs would not have been +broken." + +"And mother told us that last night, you know, dear," said Fritz, in his +proper big brother tone. "Don't you remember in the story about her when +she was little? It all came of her not waiting for her big sister to see +about the trunk." + +Baby gave a deep sigh. + +"If God hadn't put so much 'sinking into him's head, it would have been +much better," he said. "Him 'sinks and 'sinks, and zen him can't help +wanting to do 'sings zat moment minute." + +"Then 'him' must learn what _patience_ means," said mother with a little +smile. "But I'll tell you what _I've_ been thinking--that if we don't +take care somebody else may be hurting themselves with the broken glass +on the pantry floor." + +"P'raps the cat," said Baby, starting up, "oh _poor_ pussy, if her was +to cut her dear little foots. Shall him go downstairs again, mother, to +shut the door? Why, him's foot's still _zather_ bleedy," he added, +drawing out the wounded foot, which had a handkerchief wrapped round it +above the plaster. + +"No," said his mother, "it will be better for me to tell the servants +myself," so she rang the bell, and as it was now about the time that +Denny had thought it when Baby first woke up, in a few minutes her maid +appeared, looking rather astonished. She looked still more astonished, +and a little afraid too, when she caught sight of the two curly heads, +one dark and one light, on mother's pillow. + +"Is there anything wrong with the young gentlemen?" she said. "Shall I +call Lisa, my lady?" + +"No, not quite yet," said mother. "I rang to tell you to warn James and +the others that there is some broken glass on the pantry floor, and they +must be careful not to tread on it, and it must be swept up." + +"Broken glass, ma'am," repeated the maid, who was rather what Denny +called "'quisitive." "Was it the cat? I did think I heard a noise early +this morning." + +"No, it wasn't the cat," said mother. "It was an accident. James will +see what is broken." + +The light curly head had disappeared by this time under the clothes, for +Baby had ducked out of sight, feeling ashamed of its being known that +_he_ had been the cat. But as soon as the maid had left the room he came +up again to the surface like a little fish, and a warm feeling of thanks +to his mother went through his heart. + +"You won't tell the servants it were him, will you?" he whispered, +stretching up for another kiss. + +"No, not if 'him' promises never to try to do things like reaching down +boxes for himself. Herr Baby must ask mother about things like that, +mustn't he?" she said. + +Mother often called him "Herr Baby" for fun. The name had taken her +fancy when he was a very tiny child, and Lisa had first come to be his +nurse. For Lisa was _very_ polite; she would not have thought it at all +proper to call him "Baby" all by itself. + +Herr Baby kissed mother a third time, which, as he was not a very +kissing person, was a great deal in one morning. + +"Ses," he said, "him will always aks mother. Mother is so sweet," he +added coaxingly. + +"He calls everything he likes 'sweet,'" said Fritz. "Mother and the cat +and the tiny trunk--they're all sweet.'" + +But mother smiled, so Baby didn't mind. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +GOING AWAY + + "She did not say to the sun good-night, + As she watched him there like a ball of light, + For she knew he had God's time to keep + All over the world, and never could sleep." + + +How, I can't tell, but, after all, _some_how the packing got done, and +everything was ready. They left a _few_ things behind that Herr Baby +would certainly have taken had he had the settling of it. They didn't +take the horses, _nor_ the fireplaces, and, of course, as the horses +weren't to go, Thomas and Jones had to be left behind too to take care +of them, which troubled Baby a good deal. And no doubt Thomas and Jones +would have been _very_ unhappy if it hadn't been for the nice way Baby +spoke to them about coming back soon, and the letters he would send them +on their birthdays, and that he would never like any other Thomases and +Joneses as much as them. It was really quite nice to hear him, and +Jones had to turn his head away a little--Baby was afraid it was to hide +that he was crying. + +It was a very busy time, and Baby was the busiest of any. There was so +much to think of. The rabbits too had to be left behind, which was very +sad, for one couldn't write letters to _them_ on their birthdays; +neither Denny, whom he asked about it, nor Baby himself, could tell when +the rabbits' birthdays were, and besides, as Baby said, "what would be +the good of writing them letters if they couldn't read them?" The only +thing to do was to get the little girl at the lodge to _promise_ to take +them fresh cabbages every morning--that was one of the things Herr Baby +had to see about, himself. Lisa lost him one morning, and found him at +the lodge, after a great hunt, talking very gravely to the little girl +about it. + + [Illustration: "Zou will p'omise, Betsy, p'omise certain sure, _nebber_ + to forget."--P. 61.] + +"Zou will p'omise, Betsy, p'omise certain sure, _nebber_ to forget," he +was saying, and poor Betsy looked quite frightened, Herr Baby was so +very solemn. Fritz wanted to make her kiss her mother's old Testament, +the way he had seen men do sometimes in his grandfather's study when +they came to tell about things, and to promise they would speak the +truth; but Betsy, though she was ready enough to _promise_, didn't like +the other idea at all. She might be had up to the court for such like +doings, she said, and as neither Fritz nor Baby had any idea what sort +of place the court was, though they fancied it was some kind of prison +for people who didn't keep their word, they thought it better to leave +it. + +The "calanies" and the "Bully" were to go, that was a comfort, and +Peepy-Snoozle and Tim, the two dormice, also, another comfort. Baby's +own packing was a serious matter, but, on the whole, I think mother and +Lisa and everybody were rather glad he had it to do, as it gave other +people a chance of getting _theirs_ done without the little feet +pattering along the passage or up the stairs, and the little shrill +voice asking what was going to be put into _this_ trunk or into _that_ +carpet-bag. He gave up thinking so much about the other packing after a +while, for he found his own took all his time and attention. Mother had +found him a box after all. Not _the_ box of course--that was left empty, +by Baby's wish, till some day when he was a big man, he should go to the +country of the fairy glass and buy mother some new jugs--but a very nice +little box, and she gave him cotton wool and crushy paper too, and +everything was as neat as possible, and the box quite packed and ready, +the first evening. But it was very queer that _every_ day after that +Herr Baby found something or other he had forgotten, or something that +Denny and he decided in their early morning talks, that it would be +silly to take. Or else it came into his head in the night that his best +Bible would be better in the _other_ corner, and the scenty purse on the +top of it instead of at one side. Any way it always happened that the +box had to be unpacked and packed again, and the very last evening there +was Herr Baby on his knees before it on the floor, giving the finishing +touches, long after he should have been in bed. + +"And we have to be up so early to-morrow morning," said mother, "my dear +little boy, you really _should_ have been fast asleep by this time." + +"And he wakes me _so_ early in the morning," said Denny, who was +standing before the fire giving herself little cross shakes every time +poor Lisa, who was combing out her long fair hair, came to a tuggy bit. +"_Lisa_, you're _hurting_ me; _Lisa_, do take care," she added +snappishly. + +"My dear Denny, how very impatient you are!" said her mother. "I don't +know how you will bear all the little discomforts of a long journey if +you can't bear to have your hair combed." + +On this, Denny, as Fritz would have said, "shut up." She could not bear +it to be thought that she was babyish or "silly." Her great, great wish +was to be considered quite a big girl. You could get her to do anything +by telling her it would be babyish not to do it, or that doing it would +be like big people, which, of course, showed that she _was_ rather +babyish in reality, as sensible children understand that they cannot be +like big people in everything, and that they wouldn't be at all nice if +they were. + +Baby always felt sorry for Denny or any of them when mother found fault +with them. He jumped up from the floor--at least he _got_ up, his legs +were too short for him to spring either up or down very actively--and +trotted across to his sister. + +"Poor Denny," he said, reaching up to kiss her, "him won't wake her up +so early to-mollow morning." + +"But we'll _have_ to wake early to-morrow," said Denny, rather crossly +still, "it's no use you beginning good ways about not waking me now, +just when everything's changed." + +Baby looked rather sad. + +"Is your box quite ready now, dear?" said his mother. "Well then, let +Lisa get you ready for bed as quick as she can, and you and Denny must +go to sleep without any talking, and wake fresh in the morning." + +But Baby still looked sad; his face began working and twisting, and at +last he ran to mother and hid it in her lap, bursting into tears. + +"Denny makes him so unhappy," he said. "Him doesn't like everysing to be +changed like Denny says. Him is so sorry to go away and to leave him's +house and Thomas and Jones, and oh! him is _so_ sorry to leave the +labbits!" + +"And him's a tired little boy. I think it's because he's so tired that +he's so sad about going away," said mother. "Think, dear, how nice it is +that we're all going _together_, not Celia or Fritz or anybody left +behind. For you know Thomas has his old mother he wouldn't like to +leave, and Jones has his wife and children. And if the rabbits could +talk, I'm quite sure they would tell you that they'd far rather stay +here in their own nice little house, with plenty of cabbages, than be +bundled into a box and taken away in the railway ever so far, without +being able to run about for ever so many days." + +Baby's face cleared a little. + +"Betsy has p'omised," he said to himself. Then he added, "_Him_ won't +like the railway neither if it's like that." + +"But _him's_ not going to be put in a box or a basket," said mother, +laughing. "Him will have a nice little corner all to himself in a +cushioned railway carriage, only just now he really _must_ go to bed." + +So she kissed him for good-night, and Denny too, who, by this time, had +recovered her good-humour in the interest of listening to the +conversation between her mother and Herr Baby, and soon both little +sister and brother were fast asleep in their cots, dreaming about the +journey before them I daresay, or perhaps forgetting all about it in the +much queerer and stranger journeys that small people are apt to fly away +upon at night, when their tired little bodies _seem_ to be lying quite +still and motionless in bed. + +It was strange enough--_almost_ as strange as a dream--the next morning +when, long before it was light, they had all to get up and be dressed at +once in their going-out things--that is to say their thick boots and +gaiters, and woollen under-jackets (for it was very cold, though not yet +far on in November), while their ulsters and comforters and caps, and +the girls' sealskin coats and muffs and hats, were all laid out in four +little heaps by Lisa, so that they should be ready to put on the moment +breakfast was over. + +What a funny breakfast! Candles on the table, for it was not, of course, +worth while to light the lamp, and everything looking more like a sort +of "muddley tea," Fritz said, than their usual trim nursery breakfast. + +"I can't eat," said Fritz, throwing down his bread and butter; "it's no +use." + +"And there's eggs!" said Denny, who was comfortably at work at hers, +looking across at Fritz as if it wouldn't be very difficult to eat up +his egg too. "I think it's very kind of cook to have got up so early and +made us eggs 'cos we were going away, and----" + +"'Twasn't cook, 'twas Abigail," said Fritz. "I saw her coming up with +the eggs all in a pan with hot water, so that they shouldn't get cold, +she said to Lisa." + +"Well then it was very kind of Abigail, and----" said Denny. + +"'Twasn't Abigail that made the eggs," said Baby, "'twas the hens zat +laid them. Denny should say the _hens_ was werry kind." + +"Oh bother," said Denny, "I wish you'd not interrupt me. I don't care +who it was. I only want to say it's very stupid of Fritz not to eat his +egg, when _somebody_ made them for us, extra you know, because we're +going away, and I think Fritz is very stupid." + +"Come, Herr Fritz," said Lisa, encouragingly, "try and eat. You will be +so hungry." + +"I can't," said Fritz, "I've got a horrid feeling just like when mother +took me to have that big tooth out. I feel all shaky and cruddley." + +"Yes, _I_ know," said Denny, going on with _her_ breakfast all the same, +"but eating's the best thing to make it go away. I felt just that way +the day I broke grandfather's hotness measure, and mother said I must +tell him myself. I couldn't eat a bit of dinner, and I sat on the stair +all _screwged_ up, waiting for him to go to the study." + +"How dedful!" said Baby, with great feeling. But neither Fritz nor Celia +seemed to think much of Denny's sufferings. No one had ever seen her +nerves disturbed, and they did not therefore much believe in her having +any. + +"Grandfather's _what_ did you say?" asked Celia. + +"His hotness measure--the little glass pipe thing with a blob that goes +up and down. He's got another now, you know." + +"You mean his thermometer; you really should learn the proper names of +things," said Celia, "you're quite big enough." + +Denny would probably not have taken this in good part, though the "quite +big enough" at the end was very much to her taste, but there was no time +_this_ morning for squabbling. + +"Quick, quick, mine children," said Lisa, "the cart with the luggage is +'way, and the Herr Grandpapa is buttoning his coat." + +"And Fritz hasn't eaten his egg!" said Denny, eyeing it dolefully, as +Lisa was fastening her jacket. + +"I _couldn't_," said Fritz. "There'll be sandwiches or something in the +train--sure to be. Now come on; let's see what have I got to look after. +Only Tim and Peepy-Snoozle. I _couldn't_ lose my satchel, you see, for +its strapped on me. Much more sensible than _girls_, who have to carry +their bags over their arms." + +And Fritz, in a new ulster, very long and rather stiff, and feeling, to +tell the truth, a little uncomfortable at first, as new things generally +do, stalked off--I don't think he _could_ have run!--with the air of a +very big man indeed. + +Celia and Denny had a slight dispute as to which was which of the +bird's cages. For it had been settled that, for the journey at least, +the canaries were to be Celia's charge and the "Bully" Denny's, though, +hitherto, these three little birds had belonged to all the children +together. + +"You've got my cage, Denny," said Celia, sharply. + +"I haven't," said Denny, holding hers the more tightly. It was not very +easy to see, for both were covered up with dark blue stuff wrappers, to +keep the birds warm, "and to make them think it's night all the way," +said Baby. + +"I haven't," repeated Denny, "there, don't you see _two_ yellow tails in +yours? Peep through." + +And Denny proved to be right, so Celia had to give in. + +And at last they were off! The drive to the station safely over without +any misadventures, the luggage all locked up in the van, the children +and the dormice and the birds--far more important things, of course, +than the big people!--all comfortably settled at one end of the nice big +saloon carriage, which grandfather had had sent down on purpose from +London. + +"Dear me," said Denny, jigging up and down on her seat, "so we're really +off! How nice and springy these cushions are! And this carriage is as +big as a little house. I could _never_ be tired of travelling in a +carriage like this." + +"Him zought we'd _nebber_ get away," said Baby, with his usual +solemnity. "Dear, dear, what dedful lots of boxes there is! Him's box is +'aside the 'normous big straw one; did zou know, Denny?" + +"Poor grandfather," said Celia, "_what_ a lot of times he said over, +'three black portmanteaux, four, no five canvas-covered, four carpet +bags, one--fourteen in all. Is _that_ right, Helen? Grandfather's +something like Baby, he thinks no one can do anything right but himself; +and there's Peters come on purpose to bother about these things." +(Peters was grandfather's own servant.) "I wish grandfather wouldn't +fuss so. I hate people to think he's a fussy old man, something like Mr. +Briggs in Punch. As if he had never travelled before!" + +As may be imagined, these remarks of Celia's were made in a low voice, +for, of course, they were intended for the nursery party alone. Fritz +flew up in grandfather's defence. + +"Very fine, Miss Celia," he said. "You may laugh at grandfather for +fussing, but _suppose_ he didn't, and _suppose_ that when we get to--oh, +bother, I can't say those French names--wherever it is we're going to, +_suppose_ that Madamazelle Celia's trunk was lost, and Madamazelle Celia +hadn't any best frocks or flounces, or Sunday hats, how would +Madamazelle Celia look _then_? Perhaps she'd wish then that grandfather +had fussed a little." + +Celia turned to look for her bag, and having found it, she took out the +book which she had brought with her to read on the way. + +"You're too silly to speak to, Fritz," she said; "I'm going to read." + +"So am I," said Denny, who had likewise armed herself with a book, +though she was rather a dunce for her age, and couldn't read "runningly" +as French people say. But _big_ people always had books to read in the +railway--that was enough for Denny, of course, to try to do so too. + +"_I'm_ going to take a nap, then," said Fritz, who was really looking +rather white and tired. He had been wakened out of a very sound sleep +this morning, and had not been able to eat any breakfast. Lisa thought +that taking a nap was the best thing he could do, so she got down a +bundle of the rugs to make him a pillow, and helped him to tuck up his +legs comfortably, and Fritz settled himself for his little sleep, making +Lisa promise to waken him when they came to a big station. + +So everybody seemed inclined to be quiet. Herr Baby's corner was by the +window. He looked about him. Celia and Denny were buried in their books, +Fritz seemed asleep already; of the big people at the other end, +grandfather's face was quite hidden in his newspaper, which he had kept +over from last night on purpose to have something to read in the train, +knowing that they would start before the postman came in the morning, +and mother and auntie were talking together, softly, not to disturb him. + +"Should you like the window more open?" said grandfather, suddenly +looking up. + +"No, thank you," said auntie. "I think that little chink is enough. It +is really very cold this morning." + +"How good the children are!" said mother. She spoke in a lower voice +than auntie; but Baby heard her, for he had quick ears. "One could +almost fancy they were all asleep." + +"Yes," said auntie, "if it would last all the way to Santino, or even to +Paris!" + +"Or even to London!" said mother. "But they'll all be jumping about like +grasshoppers before long." + +Then they went on talking softly again about other things; and Baby +didn't hear, and didn't care to hear. Besides, he had already been +taught a lesson that boys and girls cannot learn too young, which is, +that to listen to things you are not meant to hear is a _sort_ of +cheating, for it is like taking something not meant for you. Of course, +while auntie and mother were talking in a louder voice he could not help +hearing, and it was no harm to listen, as if they had minded his hearing +they would have spoken more in a whisper. + +Baby turned to his window to amuse himself by looking out. First he +tried to count the telegraph wires, but he could never be sure if there +were eight or nine--he had not yet learnt to count higher than ten--for +the top ones were so tiresome, they danced away out of sight, and all of +a sudden danced down again, and sometimes they seemed to join together, +so that he could not tell if they were one or two. He wondered what made +them wave up and down so; whether there were men down in the ground +that pulled them, and what they did it for; he had heard of "sending +telegrams," and Denny had told him it meant sending messages on wires, +but he did not know that these were the wires used for that. He fancied +these wires must have something to do with the railway; perhaps they +were to show the people living in the fields that the trains were +coming, so that they shouldn't get in the way and be "runned over." +This made Baby begin to think of the people living in the fields; they +were just then passing a little cottage standing all by itself. It +looked a nice cottage, and it had a sort of little garden round it, and +some cocks and hens were picking about. Baby looked back at the little +cottage as long as he could see it; he wondered who lived in it, if +there were any little boys and girls, and what they did all day. He +wondered if they went to school, or if perhaps they sometimes went +messages for their mother, and if they weren't frightened if they had +to pass through the wood, which by this time the train was running +along the edge of. Could this be Red Riding Hood's wood, perhaps? Baby +shuddered as this idea came into his mind. Or it might be the wood that +Hop-o'-my-thumb and his six brothers had to make their way through, +where the birds _would_ pick the crumbs they dropped to show the path. +It would be very "dedful" for seven little boys to be lost in a wood +like that, and still worse for one little boy all alone. Baby was very +glad that when little boys had to go through woods _now_ it was in nice +railway carriages with mothers and aunties and everybodies with them. +But even in this way the wood made him feel a _very_ little frightened; +just then it got so much darker. He looked up to see if they were all +still reading or asleep; he _almost_ thought he would ask Lisa to take +him on her knee a little, when, all of a sudden, the "railway," as he +called it, screamed out something very sharp and loud, the rattle and +the noise got "bummier" and yet sharper; Baby could see no trees, no +fields, "no nothing." What could it be? It was worse than the wood. + +"Oh, Lisa," cried poor Herr Baby, "the railway horses must have runned +the wrong way. We's going down into the cellars of the world." + +Lisa caught him up in her arms and comforted him as well as she could. +It was only a tunnel, she told him, and she explained to him what a +tunnel was, just a sort of passage through a hill, and that there was +nothing to be frightened at. And she persuaded him to look up and see +what a nice little lamp there was at the top of the carriage, on purpose +to light them up while they were in the dark. Baby was quite pleased +when he saw the little lamp. + +"Who put it 'zere?" he said. "Were it God?" + +He was rather disappointed when Lisa told him that it was the railway +men who put it up, but then he thought again that it was very kind of +the railway men, and that it must have been God who taught them to be +so kind, which Lisa quite agreed in. But even though the little lamp +was very nice, Baby was very pleased to get out of the tunnel, and out +of the rumbly, rattly noise, into the open daylight again, with the +beautiful sun shining down at them out of the sky. For the day was +growing brighter as it went on, and the air was a little frosty, which +made everything look clear and fresh. + +"Nice sun," said Baby, glancing up at his old friend in the sky, "that's +the bestest lamp of all, isn't it? and it _were_ God put it up there." + +After that he must, I think, have taken a little nap in Lisa's arms +almost without knowing it, for he didn't seem to hear anything more or +to think where he was or anything, till all of a sudden he heard +mother's voice speaking. + +"Won't Baby have a sandwich, Lisa? And Denny, why, have you been asleep +too, Denny?" + +And sitting up on Lisa's knee, all rosy and dimpled with sleeping, his +fair curls in a pretty tumble about his eyes, Baby saw Denny, looking +very sleepy too, but trying hard to hide it. + +"Oh," she said, smoothing down her hair and sitting up very straight, +"I've been reading such a long time that my eyes got quite tired; that +was why I shut them." + +"Oh indeed!" said mother, but Baby could see that she was smiling at +Denny, though she didn't laugh right out like Fritz and Celia. + +They were all very happy, however, with their sandwiches and buns, and +after they had eaten as much as they wanted, auntie taught them a sort +of guessing game, which helped to pass the time, for already Denny and +Fritz were beginning to think even the big saloon carriage rather a +small room to spend a whole day in. + +They passed two or three big stations, and then they were allowed to get +out and walk up and down the platform a little, which was a nice change. +But Baby was so dreadfully afraid of any of them being left behind that +he could hardly be persuaded to get out at all, and once when he and +Lisa were waiting alone in the carriage while the others walked about, +and the train moved on a little way to another part, he screamed so +loudly-- + +"Oh, mother, oh, auntie, oh, ganfather, and Celia, and Fritz, and Denny! +All, all is left behind!"--that there was quite a commotion in the +station, and when the train moved back again, and they all got in, he +was obliged to kiss and hug each one separately, several times over, +before he could feel quite sure he had them all safe and sound, and +that "not nobody" was missing. + +It seemed a long time after it got dark, even though the little lamp was +still lighted. But it was not light enough to see to read, and "the big +lamp up in the sky," as Baby said, "was _kite_ goned away." It puzzled +him very much how the sun could go away every night and come back every +morning, and the queerest thing of all was what Celia had told him--that +"away there," in the far-off country where they were going, there would +still be the same sun, the _very_ same sun, that they had seen every +morning peeping up behind the kitchen-garden wall, and whose red face +they had said good-night to on the winter evenings, as he slipped away +to bed down below the old elms in the avenue, where the rooks had their +nests. Somehow as Baby sat in his corner, staring out now and then at +the darkness through which they were whizzing, blinking up sometimes at +the little lamp shining faintly in the roof, there came before his mind +the pictures of all they had left behind; he seemed to see the garden +and the trees _so_ plain, and he thought how very, very quiet and lonely +it must seem there now, and Baby's little heart grew sad. He felt so +sorry for all the things they had left--the rabbits and the pussy most +of all, of course, but even for the dear old trees, and the sweet, +"denkle" flowers in the garden; even for the tables and chairs in the +house he felt sorry. + +"Him's poor little bed will be so cold and lonely," he said to himself. +"Him sinks going away is _werry_ sad." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +BY LAND AND SEA + + "So the wind blew softly, + And the sun shone bright." + + +Grandfather had fixed that it would be best to go straight through at +once to the seaport, where, the next morning, they would find the +'normous boat waiting to take them over the sea. They had to pass +through London on the way, and, by the time they got to the big London +station, Baby was very tired--so white and quiet that mother was a +little frightened. + +"I almost wish," she said, "that we had fixed to stay all night in +London. Baby has never had a long railway journey before, since he was a +_real_ Baby, you know, and he is not very strong." + +She was speaking to auntie. It was just when they were getting near the +big London station. Auntie looked at Baby. He was lying on Lisa's knee +with his eyes shut, as if he were asleep, but he wasn't. He heard what +they said, and he was rather pleased at them talking about him. In +_some_ ways he was very fond of being made a fuss about. + +"He does look a little white shrimp," said auntie. "But then you know, +May, he is so fair. He looks more quickly white if he is tired than +other children. And he has been such a good little man all day--not one +bit of trouble. He is really a capital traveller--_ever_ so much quieter +than the others." + +She said these last few words in a low tone, not caring for the other +children to hear; but if she had spoken quite loud I don't think they +would have heard, and, indeed, it seemed as if they wanted to show that +auntie's words were true; for just at that moment there came such a +scream from Denny that everybody started up in a fright. + +What _could_ be the matter? everybody asked. + +"It's all Denny," said Fritz, in a great fuss. + +"It's not; it's all Fritz and Celia," said Denny. + +"It's both of them," said Celia. "Mother, I wish you wouldn't let them +be near each other. Denny put her hand into the dormice's cage when +Fritz wasn't looking, and she poked out Tim, who was just beginning to +come awake for the night, and she as nearly as _could_ be got his tail +pulled off, and then, when Fritz caught her, she screamed." + +"Fritz snipped my hand in the little door of the cage," sobbed Denny. +"And Celia always takes Fritz's part." + +Celia was beginning; to "answer back," when auntie stopped her by a +look--the children were sometimes rather afraid of auntie's "looks." + +"Dear me, young people," said grandfather from his end of the carriage, +"you might be peaceable for five minutes, and then we shall be in +London, and you shall have a good tea before we go on again." + +The children all grew quiet. They were glad to hear of tea, and they +were a little ashamed of themselves. Auntie moved over to their end of +the carriage. + +"Him would like some tea too, p'ease," said Baby, as she passed him, and +auntie patted his head. + +"They are all tired, I suppose," said mother; "but it really is too +silly, the way they quarrel about nothing." + +"Auntie," said Celia softly, "I think it was partly my fault. Denny and +Fritz asked me to tell them a story, and I wouldn't. It would have kept +them quiet." + +"Well, never mind now," said auntie. "You must all try and be very good +to-morrow. This is only the first day, you know. You can't be expected +to be very clever travellers yet. And the very first lesson to learn in +travelling is--do you know what?" + +"Not to lose your things?" said Celia. + +"To be ready in time?" said Fritz. + +"To sit still in the railway?" said Denny, rather meekly. + +"All those are very good things," said auntie; "but they're not _the_ +thing I was thinking of. It was _to keep your temper_." + +The children got rather red, but I don't think any one noticed, for +already the train was slackening, and in another minute or two they all +got out and were standing together on the bustling platform, dimly +lighted up by the gas lamps, which looked yellow and strange in the +foggy air of a London November evening. + +"Is zit London?" said Baby, and when Celia said "yes," he added rather +mournfully, "Him doesn't sink London's pitty at all." + + [Illustration: Poor little boys, for after all, Fritz himself wasn't + very big! They stood together hand in hand on the station platform, + looking, and feeling, rather desolate.--P. 84.] + +Poor little boys, for, after all, Fritz himself wasn't very big! They +stood together hand in hand on the station platform, looking, and +feeling, rather desolate. Lisa was busy helping with the rugs and +bags that had been in the carriage; mother and auntie, as well as +grandfather and Peters and the maid, were all busy about the luggage. + +"Stay there a moment, children," said somebody; but Denny had no idea of +staying anywhere. Off she trotted to have a look at the luggage too, and +Celia was half inclined to follow her, when her glance fell on her two +little brothers. + +"Celia," said Baby, catching hold of her, "don't go away too. Fritz is +taking care of him, but we _might_ be lostened." + +He spoke rather timidly, and Celia's heart was touched. She was a good +deal older than the others--nearly twelve--Fritz and Denny were very +near in age, and sometimes Celia was a little cross at mother for not +making difference enough, as she thought, and for keeping her still a +good deal in the nursery. Mother had her own good reasons, and it is not +always wise for big people to tell children their reasons, as Celia got +to know when she grew wiser and bigger herself. She sometimes spoke +rather crossly to the younger ones, and it made them a very little +afraid of her, but in her heart she was kind. Just now she stooped down +to kiss Baby. + +"Don't be frightened, poor old man," she said, "you won't be lost. Fritz +wouldn't let you be lost, would you, Fritz?" + +Fritz brightened up at that, as Celia had meant he should. He, too, had +been feeling a little strange and queer--the long journey and the +sleeping in the day, all so different from their life at home, had +rather upset him--but he would not have liked to say so! And now he was +quite pleased at Celia telling Baby that, of course, Fritz was big +enough to take care of him. It is so easy for children--bigger ones +above all--to please each other and give nice feelings, when they really +try to feel _with_ each other and _for_ each other. + +The little boys looked much happier a few minutes later, when they were +seated at tea in a comfortable corner of the refreshment room. +Grandfather had sent Peters on, as soon as they had got the luggage all +safe, to see that a table was placed for them by themselves. He, +himself, went off to get some real dinner, for, of course, it was not to +be expected that a gentleman, and especially an _old_ gentleman, would +be contented with tea, and bread and butter, and buns, however nice, +but, to the children's great pleasure, mother and auntie said _they_ +would far rather stay and have tea with the little people. + +"It is a good thing, isn't it, for them to stay with us?" said Fritz to +Celia, confidentially, "for we are none of us _very_ big, are we? And +you know we _might_ get lost somehow, as Baby says, though I wouldn't +say so to him for fear of frightening him, you know." + +"No, of course not," said Celia, and looking up she was pleased to see +mother smiling at her. Mother saw that Celia was trying to be kind and +helpful, and she did so like to see the way the little ones clung to +Celia when she was gentle. Mother must have been something like Baby in +her mind, I think, for when she looked at the boys sitting there in the +strange, big station-room, their little faces grave and rather tired +looking, a sort of sorry feeling came over _her_ too, as she thought of +the snug, cosy nursery at home, and the neat nursery tea, with the +pretty pink and white cups she had chosen, and the canaries and "Bully" +twittering in the window. Poor "calanies" and poor Bully! they didn't +know where they had got to! They had slept nearly all day, thinking, as +they were meant to think, that it was night, I suppose, but now they +must have given up thinking so, for they were fidgeting about in their +cages in an unhappy, restless sort of way. They had plenty of seed, and +Celia and Lisa took care that they should have fresh water, but still, +poor little things, they were not very happy. + +"Going away from their own home is really a trial for children," thought +mother. She was a little tired herself, and being tired makes +_everything_ seem the wrong way. + +But there was no help for it. They had all to make the best of things, +and to set off again in another train and be rattled away to the sea. It +was quite dark by now, of course, and it seemed very queer to start on +another journey with so little rest between. I think, however, once they +were all settled in the railway carriage, that the children slept the +most of the way; Baby, at any rate, knew nothing more till he woke up to +find himself in Lisa's arms, with a cold, fresh air--the air of the +sea--blowing in his face, and making him lift up his head and look about +him. + +"Where is him?" he said. "Is him in the 'normous boat?" + +"Not so, Herr Baby," said Lisa. "He shall first be undressed and have a +nice sleep all night in bed, to rest him well. Lie still, mine child, +and Lisa will keep you warm." + +"Him likes the wind," said Baby. "It blowed his eyes open; him is quite +awake now," and he tried to sit straight up in Lisa's arms. + +"Oh, Herr Baby, I cannot hold you so," said Lisa. + +"There is such a little way to go," said his mother, who was just +behind, "lie still, dear, as Lisa tells you." + +"Him would like to walk, him's legs is so 'tiff," said Baby. "P'ease let +him walk if it's such a little way!" + +His voice was so piteous that mother told Lisa to let him walk; they +were going from the station to the hotel, a very little way, as mother +had said. Lisa put Baby down on the ground; at first he really tumbled +over, his legs felt so funny, but with Lisa's hand he soon got his +balance again. It was a very dark night; they could not have seen their +way but for the lights of the station and the town. + +"What a dark countly zit is!" said Herr Baby. "Is there no moon in zit +countly? Denny says in her hymn 'the moon to shine by night,' is there +no moon 'cept in him's own countly?" + +"What are you chattering about, little man?" said auntie. + +"He's asking about the moon, auntie; he wants to know if there isn't +any moon here. He thinks we've left it behind at home," said Denny. + +A sort of roar from poor Baby interrupted her. + +"Oh, Denny, don't, _don't_ say that," he cried, "it makes him sink of +the labbits, and Thomas, and Jones, and the trees, and the flowers, and +him's dear little bed, and all the sings we'se leaved behind. Him +doesn't like you to speak of leaved behind." + +"_Poor_ Baby," said Denny, "I'm so sorry." She stooped down to kiss him, +but it was so dark it wasn't easy to find his mouth, and she only +managed to kiss the tip of his nose, which was as cold as a little +dog's. This made Herr Baby begin laughing, which was a good thing, +wasn't it? And he was so taken up in explaining to Lisa how funny it +felt when Denny kissed his nose, that he had not time to think of his +sorrows again till they were at the foot of the large flight of steps +leading up to the big hotel where they were to sleep. + +"Nice big house," said Baby, looking round; and as he caught sight of +some of the waiters running about, he asked Lisa if "them was new +servants instead of Thomas and Jones." + +"Him likes Thomas and Jones best," he went on, the corners of his mouth +going down again, so that Lisa was obliged to assure him the servants +were not going to be _instead_ of Thomas and Jones, they were all only +just going to stay one night at this big house, and to-morrow they would +set off in the great ship to cross the sea. + +The mention of the ship fortunately gave a new turn to Baby's thoughts; +and he allowed Lisa to take him upstairs and warm him well before a good +fire before she undressed him and put him to bed. The other children +thought it great fun to sleep in strange rooms, in beds quite unlike +those they had at home, and to have to hunt for their nightgowns and +brushes and sponges in two or three _wrong_ carpet bags before they came +to the right one; but Baby's spirits were rather depressed, and it was +not easy to keep him from crying in the sad little way he had when his +feelings were touched. + +"He is tired, poor little chap," said auntie, as she kissed him for +good-night. "It is ever so much later than he has ever been up before. +It is nearly ten." + +"Him _were_ up till ten o'clock on Kissmass," said Herr Baby, +brightening up. "Him were up _dedful_ late, till, till, p'raps till near +twenty o'clock." + +Auntie would have liked to laugh, but she took care not, for when Baby +was in this sort of humour there was no telling whether other people's +laughing might not make him take to crying, so she just said, + +"Indeed! That must have been _very_ late; well, go to sleep now, and +sleep till twenty o'clock to-morrow morning, if you like. We don't need +to start early," she added, turning to Lisa; and I think poor Lisa was +not sorry to hear it! + +If I were to go on telling you, bit by bit, all about the journey, and +everything that happened big and little, it would take a good while, and +I don't know that you would find it very interesting. Perhaps it is +better to take a jump, as people do in real big story books, and to go +on with Herr Baby's adventures a few days later, when he, and Denny, and +Fritz, and Celia, and Lisa, and mother, and auntie, and grandfather, and +the "bully," and the "calanies," and Tim, and Peepy-Snoozle, and Linley, +mother's maid, and Peters, grandfather's man, and I forget if there was +any one else, but I think not; and all the boxes and carpet-bags, and +railway-rugs, were safely arrived at Santino, the pretty little town +with mountains on one side and the sea on the other, where they were all +going to spend the winter. I must not forget to tell you one thing, +however, which, I daresay, some of you who may have crossed "over the +sea," and _not_ found it very delightful, may be anxious to know about. +I mean about the voyage in the 'normous boat, which Baby had been so +looking forward to, poor little fellow. + +Well, wasn't it lucky, he was not at all disappointed? They had the +loveliest day that ever was seen, and Baby thought 'normous boats far +the nicest way of travelling, and he couldn't understand why grandfather +couldn't make them go all the way to Santino in the nice boat, and when +they explained to him that it couldn't be, because there was no sea for +boats to go on all the way, he thought there must have been some great +mistake in the way the world was made. And when they got to Santino, and +the first thing he saw _was_ the sea, blue and beautiful like a fairy +dream, Baby was quite startled. + +"Mother, auntie!" he said, reproachfully, "you toldened him there +weren't no sea." + +"We didn't mean that, Baby, dear," said mother; "we meant that there was +no sea to come the shortest way; we would have had to come all round the +land, and it would have been much longer. Look, it is like this," and +mother traced with her parasol a sort of map on the sand, to show Baby +that they had come a much nearer way. For they were standing by the +sea-shore at the time. + +"Yes," said Herr Baby, after looking on without speaking for a minute or +two, "him under'tands now." + +"So you've had your first lesson in geography," said auntie. + +Baby stared up at her. + +"Are _that_ jography?" he said. "Him thought jography were awful, dedful +difficult. Denny is so _werry_ c'oss when her has jography to learn." + +"Oh, because, of course, you know," said Denny, getting rather red, +"_my_ jography is _real_ jography, with books and maps and ever so long +rows of names to learn. Baby's so stupid--he always takes up things so; +he'll be thinking now that if he makes marks on the sand, he'll be +learning jography." + +Denny turned away with a very superior air. Baby looked much hurt. + + [Illustration: "Are _that_ jography?" he said.--P. 94.] + +"Him's not stupid, _are_ him?" he said; and in a moment Celia and Fritz +were hugging him and calling Denny a naughty, unkind girl to tease him. +Mother and auntie had walked on a little, so things _might_ have gone on +to a quarrel if Lisa hadn't stopped it. + +"Mine children," she said, "it is too pity to be not friendly together. +See what one beautifullest place this is--sky so blue and sea so blue, +and all so bright and sunny. One should be nothing but happy here." + +"Yes," said Celia, looking round, "it is an awfully pretty place." + +Celia, you see, was just beginning to be old enough to notice really +beautiful things in a way that when children are _very_ little, they +cannot quite understand, though some do much more than others. + +"It is a _very_ pretty place," she said again, as if she were speaking +to herself, for Fritz and Denny had taken it into their heads to run +races, of which Lisa was very glad, and Celia stood still by herself, +looking round at the lovely sea and sky, and the little white town +perched up above, with the mountains rising behind. Suddenly a little +hand was slipped into hers. + +"Him would like to live here everways," said Baby's voice; "it _are_ so +pitty--somefin like Heaven, p'raps." + +"I don't know," said Celia, "I suppose Heaven must be prettier than +anything we could fancy." + +"There's gold streets in Heaven, Lisa says," said Baby; "him sinks blue +sky streets would be much pittier." + +"So do I," said Celia. + +Then they walked on a little, watching Fritz and Denny, already like two +black specks in front--they had run on so far--and, somehow, in the +_very_ bright sunshine, one seemed to see less clearly. Mother and +auntie were in front too, and when Fritz and Denny raced back again, +quite hot and out of breath, mother said it was time for them all to go +in; it was still rather too hot to be out much near the middle of the +day, though it was already some way on in November, and next month would +be the month that Christmas comes in! + +"How funny it seems," said Celia. "Why, when we left home it was quite +winter. Just think how we were wrapped up when we started on the +journey, and now we're quite warm enough with nothing at all over our +frocks." + +"It may be cold enough before long," said mother, who was more +accustomed to hot climates than the children; "sometimes the cold +hereabouts comes quite suddenly, and it even seems colder from having +been so warm before. I daresay you will be glad of your thick clothes +before Christmas. But we must get on a little quicker, or else +grandfather will be in a hurry for his breakfast." + +"Ganfather's werry lazy not to have had him's breakfast yet," said +Baby. "_Him's_ had _him's_ breakfast ever so long ago, hundreds of years +ago." + +"Oh, Baby," said Denny, "how you do 'saggerate! It _couldn't_ have been +hundreds of years ago, because, you know, you weren't born then." + +"Stupid girl!" said Baby, "how does you know? you wasn't there." + +"Well, _you_ weren't there," said Denny again. + +"Children, don't contradict each other. It's not nice," said auntie. + +"Him didn't begin," said Baby, "t'were Denny beginned." + +"I didn't. I only said _once_ that Baby wasn't born hundreds of years +ago," said Denny, "and then he----" + +"Onst is as wurst as twicet," said Baby. + +Mother turned round at this. There was a funny look on her face, but +still she spoke rather gravely. + +"Baby, I don't know what's coming over you," she said. "It isn't like +you to speak like that." + +Baby's face grew red, and he turned his head away. + +"Him didn't mean _zeally_ that ganfather were lazy," he said, in a low +voice. + +"It wasn't _that_ I was vexed with you for," said mother. "I know you +were joking when you said that. I meant what you said to Denny." + +"Him's werry sorry," said Baby, on the point of tears. + +"Never mind. Don't cry about it," said mother, who really wanted the +children to be very good and happy this first day. And she was a little +afraid of Baby's beginning to cry, for, _sometimes_, once he had begun, +it was not very easy to stop him. + +"You don't understand about grandfather and his breakfast," said auntie. +"Here nobody has big breakfast when they first get up except you +children, who have the same that you have at home." + +"No we don't," said Denny. "At home we have bread and milk every day +except Sunday--on Sunday we have bacon or heggs, because that's the +nothing-for-breakfast day." + +Auntie stared at Denny. + +"Really, Denny," she said, "it is sometimes a little difficult to be +sure that you have got all your senses. How can you have 'nothing for +breakfast' when you have bacon, and--who in the world ever taught you to +say 'heggs'?" + +"I meant to say 'neggs,'" said Denny very humbly. "Grandfather laughed +at me because I didn't say 'hippotamus' right--I called it a +'nippotamus,' and he made me say 'hi-hi-hip,' and that's got me into the +way of saying it to everything, like calling a negg, a hegg." + +"A _negg_," repeated auntie slowly. "Can't you hear any difference +between 'a negg,' and 'an egg'? Spell, a-n an, e-g-g egg." + +Denny repeated it. + +"What dedful jography Denny's having," observed Baby; "I can say _a +negg, quite_ right." + +"And so you too call 'a negg' nothing for breakfast?" said auntie. + +"Neggs and bacon is nothing for breakfast," answered Baby. + +"Auntie," said Fritz, "you don't understand. We call it nothing for +breakfast when there's not bread-and-milk, you know, for on +bread-and-milk days we have just one little cup of tea and a bit of +bread-and-butter after the bread-and-milk. But on Sundays, and +birthdays, there's nothing for the _first_, and so we get better things, +more like big people, and tea, and whatever there is, as soon as we +begin. That's why we like 'nothing for breakfast,' do you see, auntie?" + +"I see," said auntie, "but I certainly couldn't have guessed. I hope +there's _something_ for breakfast to-day for us, for I'm very hungry, +and look, there's grandfather coming out to meet us, which looks as if +he were hungry too. And what have you to say to it, old man?" she added, +as Herr Baby came up the steps, one foot at a time, of course, "aren't +you hungry after your walk?" + +"Him's hungry for him's _dinner_, but not for him's _breakfast_; in +course not," said Baby, with great dignity. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +AN OLD SHOP AND AN OGRE + + "Innocent face with the sad sweet eyes, + Smiling on us through the centuries." + + +Baby and Fritz went out a walk that afternoon in the town with auntie +and Lisa. Celia and Denny had gone for a drive with mother and +grandfather, which the big people thought would make a good division. +Grandfather was very fond of children, but in a carriage, he used to +say, _two_ small people were enough of a good thing. So Celia and Denny +worried Lisa to get out their best hats and jackets--which were not +unpacked, as grandfather had not yet decided whether they should stay at +the hotel or get a house for themselves--and set off in great spirits on +the back seat of the carriage. + +Fritz and Baby were in very good spirits too. Fritz wanted to walk along +the sort of front street of the town which faced the sea, for he was +never tired of looking at boats and ships. Baby liked them too, but what +he most wanted to see was the shops. Baby was very fond of shops. He was +fond of buying things, but before he bought anything he used to like to +be quite sure which was the best shop to get it at--I mean to say at +which shop he could get it best--and he often asked the price two or +three times before he fixed. And he had never before seen so many shops +or such pretty and curious ones as there were at Santino, so he was +quite delighted, though if you hadn't known him well you would hardly +have guessed it, for he trotted along as grave as a little judge, only +staring about him with all his eyes. + +And indeed there were plenty of things to stare at. Fritz's tongue went +very fast. He wanted auntie to stop every minute to look at something +wonderful. The carts drawn by oxen pleased him and Baby very much. + +"That's the working cows they told us about," said Fritz. "They're very +nice, but I think I like horses best, don't you, Baby?" + +"No, him likes cows best," said Baby, "when him's a man him will have a +calliage wif hundreds of cows to pull it along, and wif lots and lots of +gold bells all tinkling. Won't that be lubly?" + +"Not half so nice as a lot of ponies, all with bells," said Fritz, +"they'd make ever so much more jingling, 'cos they go so fast. Isn't it +funny to see all the women with handkerchers on their heads and no +bonnets, Baby?" + +"When him's a man," said Baby again--he was growing more talkative +now--"when him's a man, him's going to have auntie and Lisa," auntie and +Lisa came first, of course, because they happened to be in his sight, +"and mother, and Celia, and Denny _all_ for his wifes, and them shall +all wear most bootly hankerwifs on them's heads, red and blue and pink +and every colour, and gold--lots of gold." + +"Thank you," said auntie, "but by that time my hair, for one, will be +quite gray; I shall be quite an old woman. I don't think such splendid +trappings would suit me." + +"Him said _handkerwifs_, not traps--him doesn't know what traps is," +said Baby. "And him will be werry kind to you when you're old. Him will +always let you come in and warm yourself, and give you halfpennies." + +"Thank you, dear, I'm sure you will," said auntie. But she and Fritz +looked at each other. That was one of Herr Baby's ideas, and they +couldn't get him to understand, so mother settled it was better to +leave it and he'd understand of himself when he grew bigger. He thought +that _everybody_, however rich and well off they might be, had to grow +quite, quite poor, and to beg for pennies in the streets before they +died. Wasn't it a funny fancy? It was not till a good while afterwards +that mother found out that what had made him think so was the word +"old." He couldn't understand that growing old could mean only growing +old in years--he thought it meant as well, poor and worn-out, like his +own little old shoes. Just now it would have been no good trying to +explain, even if mother had quite understood what was in his mind, which +she didn't till he told her himself long after. For it only made him cry +when people tried to explain and _he_ couldn't explain what he meant. +There was nothing vexed him so much! And I think there was something +rather nice mixed up with this funny idea about getting old. It made +Baby wish to be so kind to all poor old people. He would look at any +poor old beggar in such a strange sad way, and he always _begged_ to be +allowed to give them a penny. And, though no one knew of it, in his own +mind he was thinking that his dear little mother or his kind auntie +would be like that some day, and he would like rich little boys to be +kind to them then, just as he was now to other poor old people. Of +course, he said to himself, "If _him_ sees dear little mother and auntie +when they get old, _him_ will take care of them and let them rest at his +house every time they come past, but _p'raps_ him might be far away +then." + +And sometimes, when grandfather spoke about getting old and how white +his hair was growing, Baby would look at him very gravely, for in his +own mind he was wondering if the time was very soon coming for poor +grandfather to be an old beggar-man. Baby thought it _had_ to be, you +see, he thought it was just what must come to everybody. + +Just as auntie and he had finished talking about getting old they turned +a corner and went down a street which led them away from the view of the +sea. This street had shops at both sides, and some of them were very +pretty, but they were not the kind of shops that the little boys cared +much for--they were mostly dressmakers' and milliners' and shawl shops. +Lots of grand dresses and hats and bonnets were to be seen, which would +have pleased Celia and Denny perhaps, but which Fritz said were very +stupid. Auntie did not seem to care for them either--she was in a hurry +to go to an office where she was going to ask about a house that might +do for them. So she walked on quickly, as quickly at least as Baby's +short legs could go, for she held him by the hand, and Fritz and Lisa +came behind. They left this street in a minute and crossed through two +or three others before auntie could find the one she wanted. Suddenly +Baby gave her a tug. + +"Oh auntie," he said, "p'ease 'top one minute. Him sees shiny glass jugs +like dear little mother's. Oh, do 'top." + +Auntie stopped. They were passing what is called an old curiosity shop; +it was a funny looking place, seeming very crowded even though it was a +large shop, for it was so very full of all sorts of queer things. Some +among them were more queer than pretty, but some were very pretty too, +and in one corner of the window there were several jugs, and cups, and +bottles, and such things, of very fine glass, with the same sort of +soft-coloured shine on it that Baby remembered in the two jugs that he +had pulled down in the tiny trunk. Baby's eyes had spied them out at +once. + + [Illustration: "Oh, auntie," he said, "p'ease 'top one minute. + Him sees shiny glass jugs like dear little mother's. Oh, do + 'top."--P. 106.] + +"Look, look, auntie," he said, again gently tugging her. + +"Yes, Baby dear, very pretty," said auntie, but without paying much +attention to the glass, for she was not thinking of Baby's adventure in +the pantry at the moment, and did not know what jugs of his mother's he +meant. + +"There is two _just_ like mother's," said Baby, but he spoke lower now, +almost as if he were speaking to himself. An idea had come into his mind +which he had hardly yet understood himself, and he did not want to speak +of it to any one else. He just stood at the window staring in, his two +eyes fixed on the glass jugs, and the great question he was saying to +himself was, "How many pennies would they cost?" + +"Them's a little smaller, him sinks," he murmured, "but p'raps mother +wouldn't mind." + +It was a mistake of his that they were smaller; they were really a +little larger than the broken ones. Besides Baby had never seen the +broken ones till they _were_ broken. One of them had been much less +smashed than the other, and mother had examined it to see if it could +possibly be mended so as to look pretty as an ornament, even though it +would never do to hold water, and, when she found nothing could be done, +she had told Thomas to keep the top part of it as a sort of pattern, in +case she ever had a chance of getting the same. I think I forgot to +explain this to you before, and you may have wondered how Baby knew so +well what the jugs had been like. + +"Them is a little smaller," he said again to himself. He did not +understand that things often look smaller when they are among a great +many others of the same kind, and though there was not a very great deal +of the shiny glass in the shop window, there was enough to make it +rather a wonder that such a little boy as Baby had caught sight of the +two jugs at all, for they were behind the rest. He had time to look at +them well, for, though auntie had been rather in a hurry, she, too, +stood still in front of the shop, for something had caught her eyes too. + +"How _very_ pretty, how sweet!" she said to herself, "I wish I could +copy it. It seems to me beautifully done," and when Fritz, who had not +found the shop so interesting as the others had done, in his turn gave +her a tug and said, "Auntie, aren't you coming?" she pointed out to him +what it was she was so pleased with. + +"Isn't it sweet, Fritz?" said auntie. + +"Yes," said Fritz, "but it's rather dirty, auntie, isn't it?" + +Fritz was very, what is called, _practical_. The "it" that auntie was +speaking about was an old picture, hanging up on the wall at the side of +the door. It was the portrait of a little girl, a very little girl, of +not more than three or four years old. She had a dear little face, sweet +and bright, and yet somehow a very little sad, or else it was the +long-ago make of the dress, and the faded look of the picture itself, +beside the baby-like face that made it _seem_ sad. You couldn't help +thinking the moment you saw it, "Dear me, that little girl must be a +very old woman by now or most likely she must be dead!" I think it was +that that made one feel sad on first looking at the picture, for, after +all, the face _was_ bright and happy-looking: the rosy, roguish, little +mouth was smiling, the soft blue eyes had a sort of twinkling fun in +them, though they were so soft, and the fair hair, so fair that it +almost seemed white, drawn up rather tight in an old-fashioned way, fell +back again on one side as if little Blue-eyes had just been having a +good run. And one fat, dimpled shoulder was poked out of the prim white +frock in a way that, I daresay, had rather shocked the little girl's +mother when the painter first showed her his work, for our little, old, +great-great-grandfathers' and great-great-grandmothers', children, must +have had to sit very, very still in their very best and stiffest frocks +and suits when their pictures were painted, poor little things! They +were not so lucky as you are nowadays, who have only to go to the +photograph man's for half an hour, and keep your merry faces still for a +quarter of a minute, if your mothers want to have a picture of you! + +But Blue-eyes must have had some fun when _her_ picture was painted, I +think, or else that little shoulder wouldn't have got leave to poke +itself out of its sleeve, and there wouldn't have been that mischievous +look about the comers of her mouth. + +"_Isn't_ it a little dirty, auntie?" said Fritz. + +"Wouldn't your face look a little dirty if it had been hanging up in a +frame for over a hundred years?" said auntie, laughing, at which Fritz +looked rather puzzled. + +Then auntie's eyes went back to the picture again. + +"It _is_ sweet," she said, "very, very sweet, and so perfectly natural." + +All this time, as I told you, Herr Baby's whole mind had been given to +the shiny glasses. Suddenly the sound of his aunt's voice caught his +ear, and he looked up. + +"What is it that is so 'weet, auntie?" he said. + +"The picture over there, dear. Hanging up by the door. The little girl." + +Baby looked up, and in a moment his eyes brightened. + +"Oh, what a _dear_ little baby!" he said. "Oh, her _is_ 'weet! Auntie, +him would so like to kiss her." + +"You darling!" said auntie, her glance turning from the sweet picture +face above to the sweet living face beside her. "I wonder if you will +ever learn to paint like that, Baby. _I_ should very much like to copy +it if I could have the loan of it. It would be sure to be very dear to +buy," she added to herself. "But we must hurry, my little boys," she +went on. "I was tempted to waste time admiring the picture, but we must +be quick." + +Fritz and Lisa turned away with auntie, but Baby waited one moment +behind. He pressed his face close against the shop window and whispered +softly, + +"Pitty little girl, him would like to kiss you. Him will come a 'nother +day. P'ease, pitty little girl, don't let nobody take away the shiny +glasses, for him wants to buy them for mother." + +Then, quite satisfied, he trotted down the street after the others, who +were waiting for him a few doors off. + +"Were you saying good-bye to the picture, Baby?" said auntie, smiling. + +"Yes," said Baby gravely. + +Auntie soon found the office where she was to hear about the house they +were thinking of taking. The little boys stood beside her and listened +gravely while she asked questions about it, though they couldn't +understand what was said. + +"Him wishes the people in this countly wouldn't talk lubbish talk," said +Herr Baby to Fritz with a sigh. "Him would so like to know what them +says." + +"_I_ want to know if we're going to have a house with a garden," said +Fritz. "That's all _I_ care about," and as soon as they were out in the +street again, he asked auntie if "the man" had said there was a garden +to the house. + +"There are several houses that I have to tell your grandfather about," +said auntie. "Some have gardens and some haven't, but the one we like +the best has a garden, though not a very big one." + +"Not as big as the one at home?" said Fritz. + +"Oh dear no, of course not," said auntie. "It is quite different here +from at home. People only come to stay a short time, they wouldn't care +to be troubled with big gardens." + +"I don't mind," said Fritz amiably, "if only it's big enough for us to +have a corner to dig in, and somewhere to play in when Lisa's in a fussy +humour." + +"Mine child," said Lisa mildly. Poor Lisa, she was not a very fussy +person! Indeed she was rather too easy for such lively young people as +Fritz and Denny. + +"And do you want a garden, too, very much, Baby?" said auntie. + +Baby had hardly heard what they were saying. His mind was still running +on the shiny jugs and the blue-eyed little girl. + +"Him wants gate lots of pennies," he said, which didn't seem much of an +answer to auntie's question. + +"Lots of pennies, my little man," said auntie. "What do you want lots of +pennies for?" + +But Baby would not tell. + +Just then they saw coming towards them in the street two very funny +looking men. They had no hats or caps on their heads, so the children +could see that they had no hair either, at least none on the top, where +it was shaved quite off, and only a sort of fringe all round left. Then +they had queer loose brown coats, with big capes, something like +grandfather's Inverness cloak, Fritz thought, and silver chains hanging +down at their sides, and, queerest of all, no stockings or proper boots +or shoes, only things like the _soles_ of shoes strapped on to their +bare feet. These were called sandals, auntie said, and she told the boys +that these funny looking men were monks, "Franciscans," she said they +were called. They all lived together, and they never kept any money, and +people said--but auntie thought that was not quite true--that they never +washed themselves. + +"Nasty dirty men," said Fritz, making a face. "I shouldn't like to be a +Franciscan." + +"Not in winter, Fritz?" said Baby. "Him wouldn't mind in winter when the +water _are_ so cold. Lisa," he went on, turning round to his nurse, +"'member--when the _werry_ cold mornings comes, him's going to be a +Frantisker--will you 'member, Lisa?" + +"But what about the pennies?" said auntie, laughing. "If you are a +Frantisker, Baby, you won't have any pennies, and you said just now you +wanted a great lot of pennies." + +Baby looked very grave. + +"Then him won't be a Frantisker," he said decidedly. + +After that he spoke very little all the way home. He had a great deal on +his mind, you see. And his last thought that night as he was falling +asleep was, "Him are so glad him asked the little pitty girl to take +care of the shiny jugs." + +Funny little Herr Baby! How much was fancy, how much was earnest in his +busy baby mind, who can tell? + +A few days after this, they all moved from the Hotel to the pretty house +with a garden which auntie had gone to ask about. It _was_ a pretty +house. I wish I could show it to you, children! It had not only a garden +but a terrace, and this terrace overlooked the sea, the blue sunny sea +of the south. And from one side, or from a little farther down in the +garden, one could see the white-capped mountains, rising, rising up into +the sky, with sometimes a soft mist about their heads which made them +seem even higher than they were, "high enough to peep into heaven," said +Baby; and sometimes, on very clear days, standing out sharply against +the blue behind, so that one could hardly believe it would take more +than a few minutes to run to the top and down again. + +There were many interesting things in this garden--things that the +children had not had in the old garden at home, nice though it was. It +was not so beautifully neat as the flower part of the garden at home, +but I do not think the children liked it any the less for that. The +trees and bushes grew so thickly that down at the lower end it was +really like a wilderness, a most lovely place for hide-and-seek. Then +there was a fountain, a real fountain, where the water actually danced +and fell all day long; and all round the windows of the house and the +trellised balcony there were the most lovely red shaded leaves, such as +one never sees in such quantities in the north. And in among the stones +of the terrace there lived lizards--the most delightful lizards. One in +particular grew so friendly that he used to come out at meal-times to +drink a little milk which the children spilt for him on purpose; for the +day nursery, or school-room, as Celia liked it to be called, opened on +to the terrace too, though at the other end from the two drawing-rooms +and grandfather's "study," and the windows were long and low, opening +like doors, so that Lisa had hard work to keep the children quiet at +table the first few days, for every minute they were jumping up to see +some new wonder that they caught sight of. Altogether it was a very +pretty home to spend the winter in, and every one seemed very happy. +Bully and the "calanies" were as merry as larks, if it is true that +larks are merrier than other birds, and Peepy-Snoozle and Tim, +mistaking the bright warm sunshine for another summer, I suppose, got in +the habit of being quite lively about the middle of the day as well as +in the middle of the night, instead of spending all the daylight hours +curled up like two very sleepy fairy babies with brown fur coats on, in +their nice white cotton-wool nests. + +There was so much to do and to think of the first few days that I think +Baby forgot a little about what he had seen in the old curiosity shop. +Auntie, too, was too busy to give any thought to the picture which had +so taken her fancy, though neither she nor Baby _really_ forgot the dear +little face with its loving, half-merry, half-sad blue eyes. But auntie +had to help mother to get everything settled; and of course there was a +good deal to explain to the strange servants, for neither Peters nor +Linley the maid knew "lubbish talk," as Baby _would_ call it, at all, +and it was very funny indeed to hear Peters trying to make the cook +understand how grandfather liked his cutlets, or Linley "pounding" at +the housemaid, as Fritz called it, to get it into her head that _she_ +didn't call it _cleaning_ a room to sweep all the dirt into a corner +where it couldn't be seen! Peters was more patient than Linley. When +Linley couldn't make herself understood she used to shout louder and +louder, as if that would make the others know what she meant, and then +she used to say to Celia that it really was "a _very_ hodd thing that +the people of this country seemed not to have all their senses." And +however Celia explained to her, she _couldn't_ be got to see that she +must seem just as stupid to them as they seemed to her! Peters was less +put about. He had been in India with grandfather, so he said he was used +to "furriners." He seemed to think everybody that wasn't English could +be put together as "furriners"; but he had brought a dictionary and a +book of little sentences in four languages, and he would sit on the +kitchen table patiently trying one language after another on the poor +cook, just as when one can't open a lock, one tries all the keys one can +find, to see if by chance one will fit. The cook was a very mild, gentle +man; he had a nice wife and two little children in the town, and he was +inclined to be very fond of Herr Baby, and to pet him if ever he got a +chance. But that wasn't for a good while, for Baby was at first terribly +frightened of him. He had a black moustache and whiskers and very black +eyes, and they looked blacker under his square white cook's cap, and the +first time Baby saw him through the kitchen window, the cook happened +to be standing with a large carving-knife in one hand, and a chicken +which he was holding up by the legs, in the other. Off flew Herr Baby. A +little way down the garden he ran against Denny, who was also busy +examining their new quarters. + +"Oh, Denny, Denny!" he cried, "this is a dedful place--there's a' ogre, +a real tellable ogre in the house. Him's seen him in one of the windows +under the dimey-room. Oh, Denny, Denny, p'raps him'll eaten us up." + +Denny for the first moment was, to tell the truth, a little bit +frightened herself. Common sense told her there _were_ no such things as +ogres, not now-a-days any way, at least not in England, their own +country. But a dreadful idea struck her that this was _not_ England; +this might be one of the countries where ogres, like wolves and bears, +were still occasionally to be found. There was no telling, certainly; +but not for a good deal would Miss Denise Aylmer, a young lady of nine +years old _past_, have owned to being frightened as long as she could +possibly help it. + +She caught Baby by the hand. + +"What sall we do?" he said; "sall we go and tell mother?" + +Denny considered. + +"We'd better go and see again," she said very bravely. "You must have +made a mistake, I think, Baby dear. I don't _think_ there can be any +ogres here." + +Baby was much struck by Denny's courage. His hand slipped back a very +little out of hers. + +"Will _you_ go and see, Denny?" he said. "Him will stay here till you +comes back." + +"Oh, no, you'd better come with me," said Denny, who felt that even Baby +was better than nobody. "I shouldn't know where you saw the ogre," and +she kept tight hold of his hand. "Which window was it?" + +"It were at a tiny window _really_ under the ground. Him was peeping to +see if there was f'owers 'side of the wall," said Baby. "Him'll show +you, Denny; him _are_ so glad you isn't f'ightened." + +They set off down the path, making their way rather cautiously as they +got near the house. Suddenly Denny felt Baby squeeze her hand more +tightly, and with a sort of scream he turned round and hid his face +against her. + +"There! There!" he cried. "Him sees the ogre coming." + + [Illustration: Baby ventured to peep round. The little black-eyed, + white-capped man came towards them smiling.--P. 121.] + +Denny looked up. She saw a rather little man with a white apron and a +white cap, carrying a couple of cackling hens or chickens in his arms, +coming across the garden from the house. He was on his way to a little +sort of poultry-yard, where he had fastened up half-a-dozen live +chickens he had bought at the market that morning, meaning to kill two +of them for dinner, but finding them not so fat as he had expected, he +was putting them back among their friends for a day or two. Very like a +_real_ ogre, if Denny and Baby had understood all about it, which they +didn't. Denny herself, for a minute or two, felt puzzled as to who this +odd-looking man could be. But he was no _ogre_, that was certain, any +way. + +"Don't be frightened, Baby, it's not a' ogre," she said. "Look up, he's +far too little." + +Baby ventured to peep round. The little black-eyed, white-capped man +came towards them smiling. + +"Bon jour, Mademoiselle, bon jour, Monsieur Bebe," he said, looking +quite pleased. And then he stroked down the ruffled feathers of the poor +chickens, and held them out to the two children, chattering away at a +great rate in Baby's "lubbish talk," hardly a word of which they +understood. + +"Can he be wanting to sell the chickens?" said Denny. + +The cook, who had before this lived with families from England, +understood the children's language better than they did his, which, +however, is not saying a great deal. + +"Yes, Mees, pairfectly," he said. "Me sell zem at ze marche the morning. +Fine poulets, goot poulets, not yet strong--wait one, two, 'ree days--be +strong for one grand dinner for Madame." + +"Who are you? What's your name, please?" said Denny, still a little +alarmed. + +"Jean-Georges, Mademoiselle," said the little man, with a bow. +"Jean-Georges compose charming plates for Mademoiselle and Monsieur +Bebe. Jean-Georges loves little messieurs and little 'demoiselles. +Madame permit Monsieur and Mademoiselle visit Jean-Georges in his +cuisine one day." + +Denny caught the word "cuisine," which, of course, children, you will +know means "kitchen." + +"He's the cook, Baby," she said, with great relief; "don't you remember +grandfather said he must have a man cook? Good morning, Mr. Cook, we'll +ask mother to let us go and see you one day in your kitchen, and you +must make us very nice things to eat, please Mr. Cook." + +"Pairfectly, Mademoiselle," said Jean-Georges, with as magnificent a +bow as he could manage, considering the two chickens in his arms, and +then he walked away. + +"What a _very_ nice man!" said Denny, feeling very proud of herself, and +quite forgetting that she, too, had not been without some fears. "You +see, Baby dear, how foolish it is to be frightened. I _told_ you there +couldn't be any ogres here." + +Herr Baby did not answer for a moment. He had certainly very much +admired Denny's courage, but still he wasn't quite sure that she had not +been a _very_ little afraid, just for a minute, when he had called out +"There he is!" + +"What would you have done if there _had_ been a' ogre, Denny?" he said. + +"Oh, bother," said Denny, "what's the good of talking about things that +_couldn't_ be? Talk of something sensible, Baby." + +Baby grew silent again. They walked on slowly down the garden path. + +"Denny," said Baby, in a minute or two, "didn't the little man say +somefin about mother having a party?" + +Denny pricked up her ears at this. Parties of all kinds pleased her very +much. + +"Did he?" she said, "I didn't notice. He said something about Madame's +dinner, but I didn't think he meant a dinner-_party_. Perhaps he did +though. We'll ask. I'd like mother to have some parties; it seems quite +a long time since I had one of my best frocks on to come down to the +drawing-room before dinner, the way we did at home. And I know mother +and auntie have friends here. I heard that stupid little footman asking +Linley what day 'Miladi' would 'receive,' that means have visitors, +Baby." + +Denny's tongue had run on so fast, that it had left Baby's wits some way +behind. They had stopped short at the first idea of a party. + +"Mother likes to make _werry_ pitty dinners when she has parties," he +said. "Mother told him that were why she were so solly when him breaked +her's pitty glasses." + +"I don't know what you're talking about, Baby," said Denny. "Let's have +a race. I'll give you a start." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +BABY'S SECRET + + "'Pussy, only you I'll tell, + For you can keep secrets well; + Promise, pussy, not a word.' + Pussy reared her tail and purred." + + +There was a cat at the Villa Desiree, Baby's, and Denny's, and "all of +them's house," as Baby would have called it. Where the cat came from I +don't know--whether it belonged to the villa and let itself out with it +every winter, like the furniture, or whether it was really the cat of +Madame Jean-Georges, and had followed Monsieur Jean-Georges back one +evening when he had been home to see his "good friend" (that was what he +called his wife), and his two "bebes," is what I cannot tell. I only +know the cat was there, and that when Baby could get a chance of playing +with it he was very pleased. He didn't often have a chance, in his own +room, for "Mademoiselle," as Celia was always called by the new +servants, a title which she thought much nicer than "Miss Aylmer," or +"Miss Celia," _Mademoiselle_, said "the stupid little footman," had +given strict orders that "Minet" was not to be allowed upstairs for fear +of the "pets," the "calanies," and the Bully, and Peepy-Snoozle, and +Tim, all of whom would have been very much to Minet's taste, I fear. It +was very funny to see the way the little footman went "shoo-ing" at the +poor cat the moment Celia appeared, for Celia had rather grand manners +for her age, and the servants thought her very "distinguished," +especially the stupid little footman. But Herr Baby was very sorry for +poor Minet; he had no particular pet of his own here, nothing to make up +for his "labbits," and so he took a great fancy to the pussy. + +"Poor little 'weet darling," he would call it; "Celia's a c'uel girl to +d'ive Minet away, _Minet_ wouldn't hurt the calanies, or the Bully, or +the sleepy-mouses; Minet is far too good." + +"Pray, how do _you_ know, Baby?" Celia would say. "Cats are cats all the +world over, every one knows that." + +"_Minet_ aren't," Baby would have it, "Minet has suts a kind heart. Him +asked Minet if her would hurt the calanies and the sleepy-mouses, and +her said 'no, sairtingly not.'" + +"Baby!" said Denny, "what stories! Cats can't talk. You shouldn't tell +stories." + +"Minet can talk," said Baby. "When him asks for somefin, her says +'proo-proo-oo,' and that means 'yes,' and if her means 'no,' her humps +up her back and s'akes her tail. When him asked Minet if her would like +to hurt the calanies, her humped up her back _never_ so high, and sook +and _sook_ her tail, for no, _no_, NO!" + +Celia could not find an answer to this. Baby went on stroking Minet with +great satisfaction, as if there was nothing more to be said. + +"All the same," said Celia at last, "I don't want Minet to come +upstairs. She's quite as happy downstairs, and, you see, it would +_frighten_ the birds and the dormice if they saw her, for _they_ +mightn't understand that she wouldn't, on any account, hurt them." + +"Werry well," said Baby, and he went on playing with his new pet. + +"Herr Baby," said Lisa coming into the room a moment or two later; "mine +child, how is it that your coat is so dirty? All green, Herr Baby, as if +you had rubbed it on the wet grass." + +"It's with his poking in among the bushes by the kitchen window," said +Denny of the ready tongue; "yesterday, you know, Baby, when you +thought----" + +"Hush," said Baby, "don't talk to me. You distairb me and the cat--we'se +busy." + +Denny and Lisa looked at each other and smiled. + +"Pussy, pitty pussy, dear Minet," went on Baby, who wanted to stop +Denny's account of his fears. + +"We're going out, Herr Baby," said Lisa. "There are commissions for your +lady mamma. We are to go to the patissier and----" + +"Who are the pattyser?" said Baby. + +"The cumfectioner," said Denny. + +Baby pricked up his ears. + +"We are to go to the patissier," said Lisa, "to order some cakes for +Miladi for to-morrow, when Miladi's friends come to dine; and perhaps we +will buy some little cake for Herr Baby's tea. Come, mine child, leave +Minet, and come." + +Herr Baby got up from the corner of the room where he had been embracing +the cat; there was a grave look on his face, but he did not say anything +till he was out on the road with Lisa. Denny was not with them; she had +got leave to go a walk with Celia and the lady who came every day to +give her French lessons, which Denny thought much more grand than going +out with Baby and Lisa. + +"Lisa," said Baby, after a few minutes, "are mother going to have a +party?" + +"Not one very big party," said Lisa, "just some Miladis and some +Herren--some genkelmen--to dine." + +"Will it look very pitty?" asked Baby. + +"Not so pretty as at _home_," said Lisa, who, now that she was away from +it, of course looked upon The Manor--that was the name of "home"--as the +most lovely place in the world; "there's no nice glass, no nice pretty +dishes here. And Francois, he is so dumm--how you say 'dumm,' Herr +Baby?" + +"Dumm," repeated Baby, exactly copying Lisa's voice, staring up in her +face. + +"No, mine child, how you say it of English? Ah--I knows--_stupid_. +Francois, he is too stupid. Peters and I, we will make the table so +pretty as might be. Lisa will command some bon-bons." + +"Mother will want the shiny jugs," thought poor Baby. "Him _s'ould_ have +brought him's pennies. Him would like to know if him has 'nuff pennies; +perhaps him could go to the little girl's shop when Lisa is at the +pattyser's." + +But he said nothing aloud. How it was that he kept his thoughts to +himself, why he had such a dislike to any one knowing what was in his +mind, I cannot exactly tell; but so it was, and so it often is with very +little children, even though quite frank and open by nature. Baby had, I +think, a fear that mother might not like him to spend all his pennies on +the shiny jugs, perhaps she might say she would pay them herself, and +that would not have pleased him at all. Deep down in his honest little +heart was the feeling that _he_ had broken the glasses and _he_ should +pay for the new ones. But he said nothing to Lisa--he had never spoken +of the jugs to her--mother had been "so kind," never to tell any one +about what a silly little boy he had been, for mother knew that he +didn't like being laughed at. _Perhaps_ "they" would laugh at him now if +he told about wanting to buy the shiny jugs--he wouldn't mind so much if +he _had_ bought them, but "'appose they wouldn't let him go to the shop +to get them?" Poor little mother! She wouldn't have her pitty glasses +then for the party--no, it was much best to settle it all his own self. +Whom he meant by "they" I don't think Baby quite knew, he had a sort of +picture in his mind of grandfather and auntie and mother all talking +together, and Celia and Fritz and Denny all joining in, and saying that +"Baby was far too little to go to shops to buy things." And by the time +he had thought this all over, Herr Baby glancing up--for till now he had +been walking along with Lisa's hand, seeing and noticing nothing--found +that they were already in the street of the town where the biggest shops +were, and that Lisa was looking about to find the shop where she was to +give the orders for his mother. + +It was a very pretty shop indeed--Baby had never seen such a pretty +shop. The cakes and bon-bons were laid out so nicely on the tables round +the wall, and they were all of such pretty colours. Baby walked round +and round admiring, and, I think, considering he was such a very little +boy, that it was very good of him not to think of touching any of the +tempting dainties. In a few minutes Lisa had ordered all she +wanted--then she chose some nice biscuits and a very few little +chocolate bon-bons, which she had put up in two paper parcels, and when +they came out of the shop she told Herr Baby that they were for him, his +mother had told her to get him something nice. Baby looked pleased, but +still he seemed very grave, and Lisa began wondering what he was +thinking of. + +"Are you tired, mine child?" she said. + +No, Herr Baby was not at all tired. He wanted to walk down the street to +the other end to see all the shops, he wanted to see _all_ the streets +and _all_ the shops before they went home. Lisa was rather amused. She +had not known Herr Baby was so _very_ fond of shops, she said, and it +would take far too long to see them _all_. But she went to the end of +that street with him, and then back again down the opposite side, and +then he begged her to turn down the other street they had crossed on +their way to the confectioner's, and they had gone quite to the end of +_it_, Baby staring in at all the shop windows in a way that really made +Lisa smile, for he looked so grave and solemn, when all of a sudden, +just as Lisa was thinking of saying they must go home, Baby gave a sort +of little scream and almost jumped across the street. + +"Him sees it, him sees it," he cried, and when Lisa asked him what he +meant, all he would say was, + +"That's the little street we went down with auntie the 'nother day," and +Lisa, who had forgotten all about the old shop window with the shiny +glass and the blue-eyed picture, wondered why he was so eager about it. + +"Is that the way we came?" she said, "I am not sure. I not quite +remember." + +But "him wants to go home that way," persisted Baby, and he tugged Lisa +along. They passed at the other side, but Baby did not mind that. He +could see across quite plainly, for the street was narrow, and there +were still the glasses in the corner and the sweet baby-girl face up on +the wall, looking down on them. + +And after that he was quite satisfied to go quietly home; he did not +speak much on the way, but Lisa was accustomed to his grave fits, and +did not pay much attention to them. He only asked her one question--just +as they were getting close to the Villa. + +"Is it to-morrow mother's going to have all the pitty things for +dinner?" he said. + +"Yes, Herr Baby, and Lisa will be busy, to show Francois how Miladi +likes everything. Herr Baby and Fraeulein Denny will be goot and play +peacefully in the garden to-morrow, so she can be busy," said Lisa, who +was very proud of being of so much consequence. + +"Yes," said Herr Baby, "him won't want you to take care of him." + +After tea he got out his money-box. This he often did. He was such a +careful little boy that mother let him keep his money himself, and it +was a great pleasure to him to count over the different kinds of +"pennies;" he called them all "pennies," brown, white, and even yellow +pennies, for Baby had a pound and a ten shilling piece that had been +given him on his last birthday, and that he had never been able to make +up his mind how to spend. He looked at them now with great satisfaction. + +"See, Denny," he said, "him has two yellow pennies, a big and a little, +and free white pennies, a big and a little and a littler, and five brown +pennies. Him knows there's five, for him can count up to five, 'cos +five's just as old as him is going to be. See, Denny, isn't there a lot? +And the yellow pennies could be turned into lots and lots of white +pennies Lisa says, and the white pennies could be turned into lots of +brown pennies, isn't it funny? Isn't him werry rich, Denny?" + +"Yes, I suppose so," said Denny, "I really don't know. I wish you +wouldn't chatter so, Baby. I can't learn my lessons." + +Poor Baby! It was not often he was to blame for "chattering so." But he +looked with great respect at Denny for having lessons to do, and was +not at all offended. Denny was proud of being with Celia and the new +governess, but I think her pleasure was a little spoilt by finding that +the new governess had no idea of taking care of a little girl who didn't +do any lessons, and this evening she was rather cross at a row of French +words which she had to learn to say the next morning. Baby went quietly +off into the corner with his money-box, but finding it rather dull to +have no one to show his pennies to, he went out of the room, which you +remember was downstairs, and, opening a door which led to the kitchen, +peeped about in hopes of seeing his friend Minet. He had not long to +wait--Minet had a corner of her own by the kitchen wall, on the other +side of which was the stove, and where she found herself almost as warm +as in the kitchen, when Monsieur Jean-Georges objected to her company. +She was curled up in this corner when she heard Baby's soft voice +calling her--"Minet, Minet, pussy, pussy," and up she got, slowly and +lazily, as cats do when they are half asleep, but still willingly +enough, for she dearly loved Herr Baby. + +"Minet," said Baby, when she appeared, and coming up to him rubbed her +furry coat against his little bare legs, "Minet, dear, come and sit wif +him on the 'teps going down to the garden, and him'll tell you about +his money." + +But Lisa, coming by just then, said it was too cold now to sit on stone +steps; for warm as it was in the day at Santino the evenings got quickly +chilly. + +"Us can't go back to the 'coolroom," said Baby; "Denny won't let dear +Minet come there, and him must stay wif Minet, 'cos her waked up when +him called her." + +"Miss Denny must let you stay in the school-room," said Lisa. "There is +no little birds there for Minet to touch." + +She opened the door, and Denny was too busy with her lessons to scold. + +"You will be very quiet, Herr Baby," said Lisa. So Baby and Minet went +off into a corner with the money-box. + +"Minet, dear," said Baby, in a low voice, "see what lots of pennies him +has. Yellow pennies, and white pennies, and brown pennies." + +Minet purred, naturally, for Baby was stroking her softly with one hand +all the time he was holding up his pennies with the other. + +"Dear Minet," said Baby, much gratified, "you is pleased that him has so +many pennies. Now, Minet, him will tell you a secret, a _gate, gate_ +secret, about what him's going to do wif all him's pennies." + +Here Minet purred again. Baby looked round. There was no one listening. +Lisa was going backwards and forwards, putting away the tea-things; +Denny was still groaning and grumbling over her row of words; Baby might +safely tell Minet his secret. Still he lowered his voice _so_ low that +certainly no one but Minet could hear. And when he left off speaking, +Minet purred more than ever. Only Baby thought it just as well to say to +her, before Lisa took him away up to bed, "Minet, dear, you'll be _sure_ +not to tell nobody;" and I suppose Minet promised, for Baby seemed quite +pleased. + +He woke in the morning with his head quite full of his great idea. They +were not to go a regular walk that day, Lisa told him, for in the +afternoon she would be busy, and Herr Baby would be good and play +quietly in the garden, would he not? + +"All alone?" asked Baby. + +"Perhaps Miss Denny will stay, too, if Herr Baby wishes," said Lisa; +"she was going again with Miss Celia, but----" + +"Oh no," said Baby, "him would rather be alone, kite alone, 'cept Minet. +Fritz is very good to him, but Fritz will be at school. Fritz is never +at home now 'cept Thursdays." + +"No," said Lisa; "but Herr Fritz is very happy at school, and when Herr +Baby is big he will go too." + +"Yes," said Baby; but he didn't seem to think much what he was saying. +Lisa thought he was dull about Fritz being at school--I forgot to tell +you that Fritz went every day now to a very nice school in the town, +where there were a few boys about his own age--but Lisa was mistaken. + +That afternoon, any one passing the low hedge which at one side was all +that divided the Villa garden from the road, would have seen a pretty +little picture. There was Baby, seated on the grass, one arm fondly +clasping Minet's neck, while with the other he firmly held the famous +money-box. He was dressed in his garden blouse only, but for some reason +he had his best hat on. And he kept looking about him, first towards the +house and then towards the garden gate, in a funny considering sort of +way. + +At last he seemed to have made up his mind. + +"Minet," he said to the cat, "him thinks we'll go now. 'Amember, Minet, +you've _p'omised_ to go wif him. If you get werry tired, Minet, him'll +try to carry you. If you could carry the money-box, and him could carry +you, then it would be _kite_ easy. What a pity you haven't got two more +paws, that would do for hands, Minet!" + +Minet purred. + +"Yes, poor Minet. Nebber mind, dear; but we must be going." And closely +followed by the cat, who had no idea, poor thing, of what was before +her, Baby made his way down the path to the garden gate. It was open, at +least not latched. Baby easily pushed it wide enough for his little self +to go through, and stood, with Minet and the money-box, triumphant on +the highroad. + +"It were the best way, thit way," he said to himself. For there was +another gate to the Villa, leading out to the upper road. But this gate +was guarded by a lodge, and the "concierge," as they called the +lodge-keeper, came out to open it for every one who went in and out. And +"p'raps," thought Baby, "the concierge mightn't have let him through, +'cos, of course, her didn't know why him was going out alone with +Minet." + +So Minet and he and the money-box found themselves out on the road on +their own account. + +All the family was scattered that afternoon. Celia and Denny had gone a +long walk with their governess, Fritz was at school, mother and auntie +had driven to see some friends a good way off, meaning to call for Fritz +at his school on their way home. The servants, too, were all more busy +than usual on account of the ladies and gentlemen coming to dinner. Lisa +and Linley and Peters were all trying to make the strange servants +understand just how they were used to have the table at home, and giving +themselves a great deal more trouble than grandfather or mother would +have wished had they known about it. Lisa was very clever at arranging +flowers prettily, and she was so sure of Baby's quiet ways when he was +left to himself, that she never gave a thought to him once she saw him +safely settled in the garden with Minet. It was such a safe garden. +There really was no part of it where a child could get into any trouble, +for though there was a little water in the basin from which rose the +fountain, it was so little, that not even Minet could have wetted much +more than her paws in it. So Lisa went on quite comfortably doing the +flowers and arranging the dessert in the pantry, by way of giving +Francois a lesson, and now and then she would glance out of the window +which looked on to the garden, and, seeing Baby there with Minet, she +felt quite easy. She did once say to herself, + +"I wonder why Herr Baby begged so to have his best hat to-day--but he is +one good child, one should please him sometimes." + +I am afraid the truth was that Lisa spoilt her dear Baby a little! + +After a while she looked out again. She did not see Herr Baby this time, +but she did not think anything of it. + +"They will have gone to play among the bushes," she said to herself, +meaning by "they" Baby and Minet of course, and she went on with what +she was doing, and got so interested in helping Peters to explain to +Francois that in England people always changed the wine glasses at the +end of dinner, and put clean ones for dessert, that the time went on +without it ever entering her head to say to herself, "What can have +become of Herr Baby?" + +Mother and auntie were later than they had expected of returning from +their drive. They had gone a long way, and coming back it was mostly +up-hill. + +"Fritz will be thinking we have forgotten him," said mother, looking at +her watch, "but I told him to be sure to wait till we came. He is too +little to go home alone yet, at least till he knows his way quite well +or can speak enough to ask." + +"We might have told Celia and Denny to call for him, as they are out +with Mademoiselle," said auntie. + +Just then in turning a corner, for they were quite in the town now, +auntie's eyes caught sight of the narrow street where the old curiosity +shop was. + +"By the by," she said, "I should so like to ask about that picture. I +told you about it, you remember, May?"--May, you know, was the +children's mother's name--"have we time to go that way?" + +"I'm afraid not; we are late already," said mother. "I'm so sorry." + +"Oh, never mind, another day will do quite well," said auntie, +cheerfully. + +So they drove home, quickly, just stopping a moment to pick up Fritz, +who was waiting for them at the gate of his school. + +If they _had_ happened to go round by the old curiosity shop, how +surprised they would have been; but what a great deal of trouble it +would have saved them, as you shall hear. + +Lisa met them as they got home, with a long story about the table and +the flowers and the stupidness of Francois, which mother and auntie +could hardly help laughing at. + +"Never mind, Lisa," said mother; "it will do very well, I am sure. Where +are the children?" + +"Upstairs, Miladi, taking off their things. They have just come in," +said Lisa, never thinking, somehow, as mother said the "children," but +that she was talking of Celia and Denny. For, somehow, in this +family--in every family there are little habits of the kind--Baby was +not often spoken of among "the children." They had all got so used to +the name of Herr Baby, which Lisa had called him by since he was quite a +wee baby, that he was seldom spoken of by any other, and often Baby +himself would talk gravely about "the children," without any one seeming +to think it odd. + +"Upstairs, are they?" said mother. "Well, run off, Fritz, dear, and try +and get some of your lessons done before tea. Mademoiselle will help you +a little, I daresay, before she goes." + +Off ran Fritz. He was a very good boy about his lessons, and anxious to +get on well. More to please Lisa and the others than that they cared, +mother and auntie went into the dining-room. They were standing looking +at the pretty flowers and leaves, when suddenly Fritz put his head in at +the door again. + +"Lisa," he said, "where's Baby? He's not upstairs, and he's not in the +garden. Linley said you told him to play there this afternoon, but he's +_not_ there." + +Lisa started, and her face grew white. + +"Mine child!" she cried. "Ah, but he must be in the garden, Master +Fritz! I saw him there so happy, with the cat, just--ah, how long ago +was it? Have I forgotten him for so long? He must be hiding--to play, +to--how do you say?" for Lisa's English was very apt to fly away when +she got frightened or upset. "Ach, where can he be?" and off darted poor +Lisa. + +Mother and auntie and Fritz looked at each other. + +"Can he be _lost_?" said Fritz, with a very frightened face. + +"Oh no, no," said auntie. "Lisa is so easily startled. But still----" + +"Let us all go and look for him at once," said mother. "What a good +thing poor grandfather isn't back yet!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +FOUND + + ----"he was not there: + We searched the house, the grounds--in vain; + We searched the green in our despair, + And then we searched the house again." + + +It _was_ a good thing grandfather was out, for--and this was what mother +was thinking of--poor grandfather, though he looked such a fine, tall, +gray-haired old gentleman, was not really very strong or well. It was a +great deal for him that they had all come abroad this winter, and the +doctors had told mother and auntie that anything to startle or distress +him might make him very ill indeed. Poor grandfather! I can't tell you +what a kind, good man he was. He had stayed a great many years in India, +though he would have liked dreadfully to come home, because it was "his +duty" he said, and this had made him seem older than he really was, for +a hot country is very wearing out to people who are not born to it. +And, though he was so fond of his grandchildren, I think if he _had_ a +pet among them, it was little Herr Baby. The mere idea of his tiny +Raymond--Baby was named Raymond after grandfather--being lost, even for +an hour or two, would have troubled him dreadfully, and thinking of +this, auntie, too, repeated after mother, + +"Yes, indeed, what a good thing grandfather isn't in. We _mustn't_ let +him know, May, till Baby's found." + +They didn't stay to say anything more. Off they all set into the garden, +for, though Fritz said he had looked all over, they couldn't feel sure +that they might not find Baby in some corner, hiding, perhaps, for fun, +even. But when they had all been round and round the garden in every +direction--mother, and auntie, and Celia, and Denny, and Fritz, and +Mademoiselle Lucie, and Lisa, and Linley, and Peters, and Francois, and, +even at the end I believe, Monsieur Jean-Georges himself, and the rest +of the French servants--when they had all looked, and peeped, and +shouted, and whistled, and begged, and prayed Baby to come out if he was +hiding, and there was no answer, then they gave it up. It was impossible +that the little man could be in the garden. + +Where could he be? + +Fortunately there was nowhere in the garden where he could have hurt +himself--no pit or pond into which he could have fallen. And it was +surely impossible that any one could have come into the garden and +stolen him away, as Celia, with a pale face, whispered to auntie. Where +could he be, and what should they do? + +Time was passing--the friends who were coming to dinner would be at the +villa before long; grandfather was _sure_ to appear in a few minutes. +What could they do? + +"We must not tell grandfather, that is certain," said auntie. "May, +dear, it is very hard on you, I know, but I'll tell you how it must be. +You must stay here quietly and be ready for the friends who are coming, +and I will go off at once and do all, everything I can think of. +Mademoiselle Lucie, you know the town, and you can tell me all about the +police, and where to go to _in case_ we don't find our darling at once, +though I quite think we shall. I can't take you, Peters," for Peters was +eagerly coming forward, "Sir Raymond would miss you, nor you, Lisa, for +you must take care of the other children," at which Lisa all but broke +out crying; "It was too good of Mademoiselle Helene to trust her; she +didn't deserve it." "And Francois would be no good. You and I, +Mademoiselle Lucie, will go at once. And you must tell grandfather that +I was obliged to go out, for an hour or two, unexpectedly." + +"I am afraid he will think it very strange," said mother, "but I will do +my best." + +Mother spoke quietly, but her face was very white. + +"Do go, Nelly," she said, "as quick as you can." + +And Celia and Denny, who had been thinking of bursting into tears, took +example by her and auntie, and tried to look cheerful. + +"Auntie," said Celia, running after her to the gate, "I'll be very good +and try to comfort mother. And we'll not let grandfather think there's +anything wrong. But oh, auntie dear, I _hope_ you'll soon bring dear +Baby safe home." + +"So do I, darling," said auntie, stooping to kiss her, even though she +was so hurried, and, for the first time, there was a little quiver in +her voice, and Celia ran back to the others, thinking even more than +before how good and brave auntie was. + +They hastened down the road, auntie and little Mademoiselle Lucie, I +mean. But when they had gone some little way, auntie stopped short. + +"He may have gone by the other road, and we may miss him that way;" for, +without thinking, auntie had hurried out by the little gate opening on +to the lower road. + +"I think not," said Mademoiselle Lucie, "at least the concierge would +have been sure to see him, and we did ask her, and she had not seen him +at all." + +"To be sure," said auntie, "I forgot about the concierge." + +"Besides," Mademoiselle Lucie continued, "to get to the town he must +pass the way we are going, a little farther on where the two roads run +together." + +"To be sure," said auntie, again. + +"It is to the town we are going?" asked Mademoiselle Lucie. + +"Yes," said auntie, "I have an idea, but I did not like to say it to my +sister for fear it should lead to nothing. There is a shop in the town +where there is a picture that Baby took a great fancy to the other day. +At least it was I that noticed it first, and he was so pleased with it. +There was something else in the shop that he was looking at--I don't +remember what--when we noticed the picture." + +"Do you know where the shop is? Can we easily find it?" + +"I think so; yes, I am sure I can find it," said auntie. "It is a shop +of curiosities, a shop at a corner, the street is narrow." + +"I know it," said Mademoiselle Lucie, "though it is not very well known. +There are grander shops of curiosities which are more visited, but I +know that shop, as I often pass it." + +She told auntie the name of the owner of the shop, and of the street, +and then auntie fixed, as they were now near the town, that she would go +on alone to the shop, while Mademoiselle Lucie went to her brother, who, +she hoped, would be at home at this hour, and get him to go with her to +the police office, so that no time should be lost. + +Auntie hurried on by herself, but though she went so fast that the +easy-going peasants driving their sleepy bullocks, whom she met, looked +after her in surprise, she did not, for one moment, leave off looking +about her on every side, to see if by any chance she could discover the +well-known little figure it would have given her such joy to see. But +no. Once or twice a child in the distance made her heart beat a little +quicker, but, as soon as she got near enough to see it clearly, her +hopes sank again. There were very few houses on the country road leading +from the villa till one was quite in the town. So auntie thought it not +worth while to ask, for, in a street of houses and shops standing close +together, and people constantly passing, it was much less likely that +any one would have noticed a little tot like Herr Baby making his way. + +"No," said auntie to herself, "it is no use stopping to ask. The best +thing I can do is to find the shop at once, and if they can tell me +nothing there, to follow Mademoiselle Lucie to the police office." + +And, with a deep sigh, for, somehow, every step she took farther without +seeing anything of the little truant, made auntie's heart feel +heavier--she hurried on again. + +She soon found the wide street--the street with the dressmakers' and +milliners' shops, which Fritz had not cared to look at--then she turned +one corner and went on a little farther, then another, and--yes, there +was the little old shop, looking just the same as the day they had all +stood there so happily. Auntie had been walking very quickly, almost +running, but when she saw the shop just before her she stood still--she +felt _so_ anxious--what should she do if she could hear nothing of Baby? + +When she got to the door she stopped and looked in; there seemed to be +no one in the shop. Auntie glanced up to the side of the door where the +little portrait had hung. It was gone! Could that have anything to do +with Baby? auntie asked herself in a sort of puzzled way. Could Baby +have thought of buying it? how much money had he? But it was stupid and +foolish to stand there puzzling and wondering, instead of boldly going +in to ask. Auntie took her courage in her two hands, as the saying is, +and went in. + +No one there; where could the owner of the shop be? The last time he had +come forward at once when they were only looking in--a little-dried up +old man, just the sort of person one would expect to find in such a +shop, sitting in a dark corner like an old spider, watching to see what +flies were passing his way. Auntie went right in without seeing any one, +but she heard voices not far off, and, in her anxiety, she went forward +to a door slightly open, leading into rooms behind the shop. She +knocked--but for a moment no one took any notice. They were talking so +eagerly inside that she had to knock again, and in the moment or two +that had passed without them hearing her, she heard one or two words +that made her eager to hear more. + +"No, no," some one was saying, "much better go at once to the office. We +may get into trouble." + +"He seems so sensible," said another voice. "_I_ say, better go with him +and carry the things, and we shall soon see if he knows his way, +and----" + +Auntie _could_ not wait any more. She pushed open the door and went in. +There was, however, no Herr Baby to be seen, as she had almost expected +there would be. There was the old man that she remembered having seen +before, looking like a very startled spider this time, as he raised his +two shrivelled old arms in surprise at her appearance, and beside him +was a very pleasant, bright-faced, young woman, with a baby in her arms, +talking, or at least looking as if she had just been talking very +eagerly. + +"Is he here?" said auntie, quite breathless, "my little boy, my little +nephew, I mean. Is Baby here?" + +The young woman looked at the old man with a sort of little nod of +triumph. + +"You see," she said quickly, "I said there was no need to frighten the +poor darling by taking him to the police office." "Yes, Madame," she +went on, turning to auntie, "the dear bebe is here--that is to say, he +cannot but be the one you are looking for. I sent him out into the +little garden with his cat and my little girl, while my grandfather and +I talked about what to do. I would have sent him home, I mean we would +have tried to find his home, if my husband had been here, but he is +away." + +"And I am too feeble, Madame, as you see, to walk far," said the old +man, who seemed now anxious to be very amiable. + +"But you talked of taking him to the police office," said the young +woman, in a low voice, "the idea! to frighten a bebe like that." + +"Hush, hush," said the old man, "all was to be done for the best. You +shall see him, your dear child, Madame," he went on, bustling about. + +"But tell me first--a moment----" said auntie, "What did he come for? +Did he buy the picture?" + +"The picture," repeated the old man, "no, surely. It was the glass jugs, +the little gentleman wanted, and he had his money all right--I took but +the just price, Madame--I would not deceive any one." + +"They are very dear to _my_ mind," said the young woman, "but there--I +know nothing about old things. This is not our shop, Madame--I look in +in passing, to see the grandfather sometimes, that is all." + + [Illustration: Auntie stood still a moment to listen.--P. 155.] + +"And Baby came to buy some _jugs_, you say," repeated auntie. There +was a confused remembrance in her mind of something Baby had said about +jugs, something he had asked her to look at the day they had stood at +the shop window, but which she had since forgotten. Her only idea in +coming to the little old shop had been the picture. "You said he came to +buy some jugs?" she said again. + +"Yes, Madame," said the old man "two glass jugs--Venetian glass." + +"Ah!" said auntie, and then she remembered it all--about the glass jugs +that Baby had broken at home, and what he had said to her about those in +the shop window being like them. "And the picture?" she said, "is it no +longer there? But first, let me have my little boy. He is in the garden, +you say?" + +She looked round, for there was no sign of a garden. The window of the +little room in which they were, looked out only on to a blank wall. + +"This way, Madame," said the young woman, opening a door at the side. It +led into a little dark passage, and, at the end of it, there was another +door, standing open, and through this door came the sound of children's +voices. + +Auntie stood still a moment to listen--the first words made her smile. + +"Him wants to go home now," said the well-known voice. "Little girl, why +_won't_ you listen? Him wants to go home, and so does Minet. Doesn't you +hear?" + +The little girl must have been very much puzzled, for auntie heard her +trying her best, in her baby talk, to make this queer little stranger +understand that they were to stay out in the garden till her mother +called them in. + +"Him wants to go _home_, and so does Minet," repeated poor Baby, and his +voice began to quiver and shake, as if he were going to cry. Auntie +could stand it no longer. She hurried out into the little garden. + +"You shall go home now, Baby dear," she said. "Auntie has come to fetch +you." + +Baby looked up eagerly at the sound of a well-known voice. He ran to her +and held up his little face for a kiss. He looked very pleased, but not +at all surprised. It was one of Herr Baby's funny ways, that he almost +never seemed surprised. + +"Him is so glad you's come," he said. "You'll help him to carry home the +shiny jugs, for Minet's _raver_ tired, and him might have to carry her +and the money-box. But you won't tell mother about the jugs, will you? +You'll let him run in wif them him's self, won't you, auntie? _Won't_ +mother be pleased?" + +"But you must tell me all about it, dear," said auntie; "did you come +off all alone to get the glasses? Why didn't you ask some one to come +with you?" + +Baby looked a little troubled. + +"Him didn't come _alone_," he said. "Him told Minet, and Minet comed +too, only her's werry tired. And it were for the party, auntie," he +added, looking up wistfully, "Lisa said mother had no pitty jugs for +her's party. And oh, auntie, p'ease do be kick, 'fear we shall be too +late." + +Auntie took his hand and led him back into the shop, where the old man +was wrapping up the jugs with a great show of soft paper, that auntie +should see how careful he was. + +"Has my little boy paid you?" she asked. + +"Oh yes," said Herr Baby, understanding, though she did not speak +English. "See in him's money-box;" he held out the money-box with some +difficulty for, having Minet under the other arm, it was not easy for +him to get his hands free; "him had two yellow pennies, one big and one +little, him gived the big one for the shiny jugs." + +"Was that the price of the jugs?" auntie asked the man. + +"No, Madame, I have the change to give the little gentleman. See here," +and he held out two large silver coins, the size of crowns, which auntie +took. + +"I don't think the jugs are dear," she said, with a smile, turning to +the young woman, who looked pleased. "And some day," she went on, "we +will come to see you, and bring you some little thing for your little +girl, as you have been so kind to my little boy. Come now, Baby dear, we +must get home as quick as we can." + +"But the little girl, the pitty little girl," said Herr Baby, "him must +say good-bye to _her_." + +"There she is beside you," said auntie, thinking, of course, that he +meant the young woman's little girl, "say good-bye to her." + +"No, no," said Baby, "him doesn't mean her. Him means the pitcher little +girl, _her_," he went on, pointing to the young woman, "her gottened her +down for him to see, 'cos him were trying to reach up to kiss her." + +That was why the picture was no longer in the window then? Where was it? +Auntie turned round as she felt Baby pulling her. + +"Her's there," he said, pointing to a chair on which the picture had +been set down hurriedly with the face the other way. Auntie turned it +round. Dear little face! It smiled at her again with the pretty half +wistful, half wise expression, which had so taken her fancy. Now it +seemed to her to be saying-- + +"I am so glad you have found him. I knew where he was. I am so glad to +have helped you to find him;" and when Baby lifted his little face to +kiss, with his rosy living lips, the picture of the child, who had once +been living and loving like him, I can hardly tell you the strange +feeling that went through auntie's heart. + +"She must have been a dear good little girl, whoever she was," she +thought to herself. "It would be nice to leave a sweet feeling behind +one in the world long after one is dead, such as that little face gives. +I should like to have that picture. I must see about it." + +But to-day there was no time to be wasted. + +Auntie took Baby by the hand, persuading him to let her carry the +precious jugs, as Minet and the money-box were already more than enough +for him. And, even with her help, it was not so easy to manage at all, +and auntie was very glad to meet Mademoiselle Lucie a little way down +the street, and get her to carry part. + +Mademoiselle Lucie was delighted, as you can fancy, to see Herr Baby +again. She had been coming back in great trouble to look for auntie; for +very unluckily, as she thought, she had found that her brother was out, +and she had not therefore gone to the police office. + +"A very good thing, after all," said auntie; "it would only have been +giving trouble for nothing, as we have found him." + +But she said to Mademoiselle Lucie, in a low voice, to say nothing about +the police before Herr Baby, as it might frighten him. + +"Would it not, perhaps, be a good thing to frighten him a little?" said +Mademoiselle Lucie; "he would not run off again." + +Auntie shook her head. + +"Not in that way," she said. "We will make him understand how he has +frightened _us_. That will be the best way." + +"How did he mean to get home alone, I wonder," said Mademoiselle Lucie; +"how could he have carried all he had, and Minet too?" + +"I don't know, I'm sure," said auntie. "How did you mean to carry +everything home, Baby dear?" + +Baby looked puzzled. + +"Him doesn't know," he said. "P'r'aps him thought Minet would carry +some," he added, with a smile. + +Auntie smiled too. Mademoiselle Lucie looked up for auntie to explain to +her, for she did not understand Baby's talk any better than he did hers. + +Suddenly another idea struck auntie. + +"How did you manage to tell the old man in the shop what you wanted to +buy?" she said. + +Baby considered. + +"Him sawed the pitty little girl," he said; "her was looking at the +shiny glasses--_always_--her was keeping them for him. Him asked her to. +Then him touched them; him climbed up on a chair in the shop and touched +them, and then him showed all him's pennies to the old man; but the lady +wif the baby knowed the best what him wanted. Her were very nice, but +the pitty little girl were the goodest, weren't her?" + +Auntie listened quietly, for Baby spoke quite gravely. + +"It would be nice to have that pretty picture, wouldn't it, Baby?" + +"Yes," said Baby; but he didn't look _quite_ pleased. "Auntie," he said, +"him doesn't like you to call her a _pitcher_. Him thinks her's a _zeal_ +little girl, a zeal fairy little girl. Her tookened care of the shiny +glasses so nice for him, didn't her?" + +And auntie smiled again. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +"EAST OR WEST, HAME IS BEST" + + "But home is home wherever it is, + When we're all together and nothing amiss." + _Irish Ballad._ + + +By this time, of course, it was quite dark. It had been quite light when +auntie and Mademoiselle Lucie set off, but at Santino the darkness comes +on very quickly. Poor Baby, he _would_ have been in trouble if auntie +had not come to look, for him--- that is to say if the old man and the +young woman had allowed him to set off on his journey home alone. I +don't think he would ever have got there, for in the dark he could not +have found his way, and he certainly could never have got the shiny jugs +and Minet and the money-box all home in safety! + +The ladies and gentlemen who were coming to dine at the Villa had all +arrived. Mother was sitting in the drawing-room talking to them, and +trying her best to look as if there was nothing the matter, to prevent +grandfather finding out that there was. Poor mother, it was not very +easy for her, was it? Grandfather was a good deal put out, as it was, at +auntie's being so late. He, too, tried not to look cross, poor old +gentleman, but any one who knew him at all well could not help seeing as +he moved about the room, sometimes giving a poke to the wood fire which +was burning quite brightly as it was, sometimes sharply pulling open one +of the window-shutters and looking out, as if he could see anything with +the light inside and the dark out of doors!--any one could see that he +_was_ very much put out. He sat down now and then for a minute or two +and spoke very politely--for grandfather was a _very_ polite old +gentleman--to one or other of the stranger ladies, but even to them he +could not help showing what was in his mind. + +"It is very strange, really most exceedingly strange, of my eldest +daughter," he said, "not to be in before this. I really feel quite +ashamed of it, my dear Madam." + +"But you are not uneasy, I hope," said the lady, kindly. "There cannot +be anything the matter with Miss Leonard?" ("Miss Leonard" was what +Fritz called auntie's "stuck-up name," and "Lady Aylmer" was mother's.) +"You don't feel uneasy about her?" + +(This lady did not know there _was_ anything the matter, for she was +quite at the other end of the room from mother. Mother had whispered to +the lady beside her, who was an old and dear friend, how frightened she +was about Herr Baby, and the old lady, who was very kind and nice, was +talking and smiling as much as she could to help poor mother.) + +"Uneasy," said grandfather, rather sharply, and not _quite_ so politely +as he generally spoke, "oh no, of course I'm not _uneasy_. My daughter +Helen can take care of herself. I am only very much surprised at her +doing such an extraordinary thing as forgetting the hour like this." + +But in his heart I fancy what the lady said did make grandfather begin +to think there might be something to be uneasy about, and this made him +still crosser. She was not such a sensible lady as old Mrs. Bryan in the +arm-chair opposite, who chattered the more the more she saw +grandfather's worried look grow worse, and the pain grew plainer on poor +mother's white face. + +"May," he called out at last, "I think it is nonsense waiting dinner +any longer. Tell one of the children to ring and order it up at once. +Why, they're not here! Why are none of the children down, May? +Everything seems at sixes and sevens." + +"We are not waiting for Nelly, father dear," said mother. "I don't know +why dinner isn't ready yet, but I think it can't be long. I will hurry +them," and she got up to ring herself. + +"But the children--why aren't they down?" said grandfather again. + +Mother hesitated-- + +"It is rather late for them," she said. "The girls have been a long walk +and are tired." + +She did not know what to say, poor thing. She had not dared to let the +three children come into the drawing-room, for fear their white faces +and red eyes should make grandfather find out that there _was_ something +wrong, and indeed neither Celia, nor Denny, nor Fritz, would have been +able to stay still in the room for five minutes. They were peeping out +of the nursery every few seconds, running along to the end of the +balcony, and straining their eyes and ears in trying to see or hear +anything coming in the shape of good news. + +Long, long afterwards they used to speak in the nursery, with deep +breaths, of "that _terrible_ evening when Herr Baby was lost." + +But it was, of course, the worst for poor mother. It was bad enough in +the nursery, where the tea, that nobody had cared to touch, was set out +as neatly as usual on the table; the chairs drawn round, the one that +Baby always had with a footstool on it--to make up for there being no +high chair at the Villa--in its place, though the well-known, funny +little figure was not perched on it. And Lisa, with a face swollen so +that no one would have known her, fussing away to have the kettle +boiling, so that her darling should have some hot tea as soon as ever he +came in--for she wouldn't allow but that he would soon come in, though +sad little stories kept running through Celia's and Denny's heads about +children that had been lost and never found, or found only when it was +no longer they themselves but only their poor little bodies, drowned, +perhaps, or "choked in the snow," as Denny said. And she got rather +cross when Celia reminded her that there was no snow, so it couldn't be +_that_, any way. + +All this was bad enough, but still they were free to talk about their +fears, and to cry if they felt inclined, and to keep running to the +window or the door. But for poor mother, as you can fancy, it was _much_ +worse. There she had to sit smiling and talking as if everything were +quite nice and comfortable, not only for the sake of the friends who had +come to dine with them, but still more for poor grandfather's sake, who +kept growing more and more fidgety and put out, and at the bottom of his +heart, though he would not own it even to himself, really frightened and +anxious. + +At last his patience was exhausted. + +"May," he said, speaking across the fireplace to mother. She was talking +to the lady beside her, and did not at first hear him. "_May_," said +grandfather again, and if the children had been in the room I think his +voice would have made them jump, "it is using our friends very badly to +keep them waiting so long for dinner. Be so good as to ring again and +tell the servants we will _not_ wait any longer." + +Poor mother--she looked up--it was all she could do not to burst into +tears! + +"Yes," she said, "I will tell them." + +She was half rising from her seat, whispering to the lady beside her +(the lady who _did_ know all about it), "I don't know _how_ I shall get +through dinner," when--what was it?--no bell had rung, there was no +sound that any one else heard, what could it have been that _mother_ +heard? I don't know what it was, and I daresay mother herself could not +have told, but something she did hear. For she stopped short, and a sort +of eager look came into her eyes and a flush into her cheeks. And then +the other people in the room seemed to catch the infection, and +everybody else looked up to see what was coming, and in the silence a +sort of fumbling was heard at the door. It only lasted a second or two, +then somehow the handle turned, much more quickly than was usually the +case when it was Baby's small hands that were stretching up to reach +it--I rather think some one must have been behind to help him--the door +opened and--oh such a funny little figure came in! You know who it was +of course, but it would be very difficult to tell you exactly what he +looked like. He was dressed just as he had been for playing in the +garden--a little short thick jacket over his holland blouse, which was +no longer very clean; his short scarlet socks and oldest boots on his +legs, the bare part of which looked very red and cold, and what had been +his best straw hat with part of the brim dangling down, on his curly +head. But he seemed quite pleased with himself--that was another of +Herr Baby's "ways"; he always did seem quite pleased with himself, best +of all, I think, when he had his oldest clothes on--he trotted into the +room just as he would have trotted into the garden, even though there +were a good many rather finely-dressed ladies and gentlemen sitting +round--for his whole mind was filled with the thoughts of two big paper +parcels which he carried in his arms. They could not have been as heavy +as they were big, or else he could not possibly have carried them! And +close at his heels, making him look still funnier, came Minet, very +pleased, I am sure, to find herself again in sight of a fire. + +Herr Baby looked round him for a moment, only for a moment, for though +the lights in the room and the number of people dazzled and puzzled him +a little, _he_ did not need to look round for which was mother. +Forgetting all about everything, except that her baby was found, up +jumped mother, a rosy flush coming over her face which had looked so +white and sad, pretty mother with her silvery silky dress and her sweet +eyes filled with tears, and rushing over to Baby caught him up in her +arms, poor little cold, tired, red-legged Herr Baby, and for a minute or +so, greatly to grandfather's surprise, she hid her face somehow among +the wee man's curls without speaking. + + [Illustration: Forgetting all about everything, except that her baby + was found, up jumped mother.--P. 170.] + +Grandfather was surprised but not alarmed, for just behind in the open +doorway stood auntie, who came quietly forward and explained to him that +Baby had gone out on his own account and they had been afraid of his +losing his way, that was what had kept her out so late, and she was _so_ +sorry. Auntie had such a nice clear simple way of speaking, +grandfather's vexation seemed to melt away as he listened. He glanced at +the little figure still clasped in mother's arms, and a queer look came +into his eyes. + +"Poor children!" he said, "poor children! May, you should have told me." + +But he knew why they hadn't told him. The ladies and gentlemen came +round auntie to hear what she was saying. They were all very kind and +very sorry and very glad. But it was difficult not to smile when a +little voice was heard saying, + +"Mother, p'ease put him down. Him's got somesing _so_ pitty, but him's +afraid of breaking them." + +And sliding down to the ground, he managed somehow to set the two +parcels safely on the floor, and began undoing them. They all watched +him, but he didn't care, and he would let nobody help him. He got one +out at last, and held it up with a beautiful happiness in his little +face. + +"See, mother!" he cried, "shiny jugs! Him's got them all himself wif +him's own pennies. Two! Them's for you, mother, 'cos him boked you's +'nother ones. Him founded them himself in a shop. Him's been as quick as +him could, 'cos of mother's party, to make the table pitty." + +"My darling," said mother, hugging him again, and when she looked up +half smiling, half crying, and tried to say to the ladies and gentlemen +that she hoped they would not think her silly, there were tears in some +other eyes besides in hers. + +But Herr Baby was quite himself. + +"You _is_ p'eased," he said contentedly. "Then him'll go to tea, for +him's raver hungry. But p'ease put the shiny jugs on the table to make +it pitty." + +He held up his face for another kiss. Then grandfather came forward and +in his turn lifted the little truant into his arms. + +"He is tired, the poor little man," he said, looking round: "you are so +kind; I should ask you to forgive our want of politeness, but I am sure +you will. I will be back in a moment." + +And it was grandfather himself who carried off Herr Baby and gave him +over to Lisa, weeping for joy now, as she caught her darling in her +arms. + +There _was_ a happy tea in the nursery that night after all. Baby was +very tired, but so exceedingly pleased with himself that his face grew +rosy and his eyes bright, as if he had only just wakened up in the +morning, as he sat at the table answering all the questions of Celia and +Denny and Fritz and Lisa about his adventures. How had he found his way? +How had he made the old man understand what he wanted? Hadn't he been +frightened? Had he been pleased to see auntie? Had he carried Minet all +the way? Oh, there were more questions than I could tell you--almost +more than Herr Baby could answer; and Minet, too, came in for a share of +the petting. + +When they had got most of their questions answered, they all found out +they were very hungry, and they set to work at their tea, and for a +while there was silence in the nursery. Suddenly Baby leant his two +elbows on the table and looked round. + +"It were all the pitty little girl that keeped the shiny glasses for +him. Her _are_ so pitty." + +"What little girl?" said the children, all together. + +"Do you mean the young woman's little girl in the shop?" + +"No," said Herr Baby, "not that kind of little girl. Him means a little +girl up on the wall--a _pitcher_ girl; but him thinks her are a +_fairy_." + +And having thus given his opinion, Baby looked round again with great +satisfaction, and Celia and Denny whispered to each other that really +Baby sometimes said very funny things for such a little boy! + +They were all dressed as usual, and Denny and Baby went in to dessert, +while Celia and Fritz waited, as became such _big_ young people, in the +drawing-room. Everybody was very kind to the children, and Baby, had he +been any one else _but_ Herr Baby, would have been spoilt by all the +petting the ladies wanted to give him. But his eyes were fixed on one +thing, or rather on two things, on the table, one in front of mother at +one end, one in front of grandfather at the other, there they stood, two +queerly-shaped glass jugs, sparkling and shining with many colours like +a rainbow, filled with the brightest and clearest water which might have +been drawn at a fairy well. And what pleasure shone in Baby's face as he +looked at them. + +"You _is_ p'eased?" he said again to mother, as he bade her good-night. + +It was a little difficult for mother to have to make "him" understand +that much as she loved him for remembering how sorry she had been to +have the first jugs broken, and how sweet she thought it of him to have +got her new ones, that still he must never again think of doing such +things by himself and without telling or asking any one. + +She did not say anything to him that night; she could not bear to spoil +his pretty pleasure, but the next day she made him understand; and Baby +"p'omised" he would never again set off on his own account, or settle +any plan without asking mother or auntie, or perhaps Celia, about it. + +And so the end of the story of the broken jugs was quite a happy one. + + * * * * * + +Herr Baby's birthday came in the late spring. They were all back in +England by then. The old garden was no longer "lonely," for the +children's voices were heard all over it, and the sunlight through the +leaves flickered on to their curly heads as they ran about in delight, +seeking for all their old favourite corners. The "labbits" were well and +happy; Jones and Thomas had come to meet them at the railway station +with broad smiles on their honest faces; all the house looked bright +and smiling, too, it had been so well rubbed up to receive +them--altogether Herr Baby thought "coming back" was a very nice and +happy thing, though he had enjoyed himself so much at Santino that he +told Lisa he didn't think he would much mind if they _did_ go there +again next winter, when it began to get cold at home, as was already +spoken of, as Santino had done grandfather so much good this time. + +So, as I was saying, it was a very happy little man, indeed, that woke +up in his "own dear little bed,"--which, wonderful to say, had not grown +too small for him all the months they had been away,--on the morning of +Herr Baby's fifth birthday. He could hardly stand still to be dressed, +so eager was he to run off to mother's room to get her birthday kiss, +and to see the presents which he knew would not have been forgotten. +They turned out even prettier than he had expected; indeed, it would +take me too long were I to tell you all about the beautiful box of +bricks, big enough to build real houses almost, Baby thought, from +grandfather, and the lovely pair of toy horses with _real_ hair, in a +stable, from mother, and the coachman's whip to crack at them from +Fritz, and the pair of slippers Celia and Denny had worked for him, one +foot each, and the birthday cake all snowed over with sugar, and with +his name on in pink, from grandfather and mother together, "'asides +their other presents." It quite took Herr Baby's breath away to think +all these lovely things were for him; he sat at the nursery table quite +unable to eat his breakfast, something like Fritz the morning they were +starting on their journey, do you remember? till Lisa persuaded him to +eat, by telling him if he didn't, he would be so tired that he wouldn't +enjoy his birthday at all, which made him set to work at his bread and +milk. Lisa, too, had remembered the day, for she had made him the +prettiest little penny purse you ever saw, knitted in bright-coloured +silk, so that now he was very well off, indeed, with his "scented" purse +for his gold and silver, and Lisa's one for pennies and halfpennies, and +his money-box to store up the rest in when the purses were full. He had +all his presents set out in a row, so that he could see them while he +was eating, and just when he was at nearly the last spoonful, he was +quite startled by a voice beside him, saying, "And what about _my_ +present, Baby, dear? Did you think I had forgotten your birthday?" + +It was auntie. She had come in so quietly that Herr Baby had not heard +her. She leant over his chair, and he put his arms round her neck and +kissed her. + +"Him is so happy, auntie dear," he said; "him has such lots of p'esents, +him never thought about your p'esent." + +"Didn't you, dear?" said auntie, smiling. "Well, _I_ didn't forget +it--indeed, I thought of it a long time ago, as you will see. Come with +me, for I see you have finished your breakfast." + +Auntie took him by the hand. Baby wondered where she was going to, and +he was rather surprised when she led him to his own room--that is to +say, to the pretty nursery where he and Denny had their two little white +beds side by side. + +"Look up, Baby," said auntie. + +And looking up, what do you think he saw? On the wall, at the side of +his own little bed, where his eyes could see it the first thing in the +morning, and the last at night, hung the picture of the blue-eyed little +girl, the dear little girl of long ago, with her sweet rosy face, and +queer old-fashioned white frock, smiling down at him, with the sort of +wise, loving look, just as she had smiled down at him in the old shop at +Santino. + +"Oh, auntie, auntie!" cried Baby. But then he seemed as if he could say +no more. He just stared up at the sweet little face, clasping his hands, +as if he was _too_ pleased to speak. Then, at last, he turned to auntie +and _hugged_ her. + +"Oh, auntie!" he said again. "Oh, him _is_ so p'eased to have him's own +pitty little girl always smiling at him. Him will _always_ have her, +won't him, auntie?" + +"I hope so, dear. She is your very own." + +"Him will keep her till him is _kite_ old. Him will show her to him's +children and him's g'anchildren, won't him?" went on Baby solemnly. + +"I hope so, dear," said auntie again, smiling at his flushed little +face. + +"Her _is_ so pitty," said Baby. "Her is as sweet as a fairy. Auntie, him +would _so_ like to hear all the story about her. Couldn't you find it +out, auntie?" + +"Perhaps," said auntie, "or, what would be still better, perhaps the +little girl will whisper it to you some night when you are asleep." + +"That _would_ be nice," said Baby. Then another thought struck him. +"Auntie," he said, "will you ask mother to let him bring up the shiny +jugs to show them to the pitty little girl? Her would like to see them +so nice, and not brokened at all wif the packing. Oh, auntie, what a +bootiful birfday--him are _so_ happy!" + + +THE END. + +_Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, _Edinburgh._ + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF HERR BABY*** + + +******* This file should be named 29380.txt or 29380.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/9/3/8/29380 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. 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