But nothing of the sort did happen. And time went on, till it grew to be nearly three weeks that our dear dog had been with us.
One evening papa came to us in the yard when we were saying good-night to Bruno.
"I suppose you"re getting to think him quite your own," he said. "It certainly does not seem as if he were going to be owned. But what will mamma say to taking him home with us--eh, little people?"
"I don"t think she"ll mind," said Persis. "She loves him too--awfully.
And Archie and I are full of plans about how to manage him in London."
"Ah, indeed," said papa. "Well, one of the first things to be done, it seems to me," he went on, "is to get him a collar," and he drew a yard measure out of his pocket and measured Bruno"s neck. "I am going up to town to-morrow for two nights," he then told us. "You two can come to meet me at the station when I come back, with Eliza, of course, and this fellow, and you shall see what I can get in the way of a collar. I"ll tell mamma the train, and you can all drive home with me."
We thanked papa--it was very kind of him, and we said we"d like to go to meet him very much. But things seldom turn out as one expects. The day papa was to come mamma had to go to the little town near the station herself--something about a washerwoman it was--so she ordered a carriage, and we drove over with her. We were all at the station together to meet papa, and when he came he had brought the loveliest collar for Bruno--with his name on, and ours, and our address in London!
"_We_ won"t risk losing him," papa said.
Then he asked us if we wouldn"t rather walk home, and we said we should, as we had driven there, and mamma didn"t mind going back alone. So we set off, us two and papa. And we were so happy and so sure now of Bruno being ours, that we didn"t notice that papa took the way down the lane that we had been once before.
We never noticed it, till we were close to the gate of the farm--the very farm where we had got milk--the very gate where----
And, just as we got up to it, it opened, and a girl, a lady, _the very one_, came out, not running and jumping, but walking quite quietly. But when she caught sight of us, of Bruno, and when he caught sight of her!
Oh! He rushed at her, and she threw her arms round him.
"Oh, my Rollo, my own dear naughty Rollo," she called out, and I believe she was crying. "Have you come back to me at last? Where _have_ you been?"
And Bruno--_our_ Bruno--went on wagging his tail and rubbing his nose on her, and pawing at her, just as he had done to us, only _more_!
Persis and I stood stock-still, feeling as if we _couldn"t_ bear it.
CHAPTER IV
PAPA was the first to speak. The young lady went on hugging at Bruno, and taking no notice of any of us. Papa looked very grave. I think he thought it rather rude of her, even if she was so pleased to find her dog again, for she might have seen how well he had been taken care of, and what a beautiful new collar he had. Papa waited a minute or two, and then he said, rather grandly, you know----
"Excuse me, madam, for interrupting you. I should be glad of some explanation about the dog. Is he your dog?"
"_My_ dog," said the girl, half sitting up and shaking her hair back. It had got messy with all her hugging at Bruno. "I should rather think so.
I have nothing to explain. What do you mean?"
"I beg your pardon," said papa. "I have had the dog nearly a month, and during that time I have advertised him regularly. I have sent all about the neighbourhood to ask if any one had lost a dog, and altogether I have had a good deal of trouble and expense."
The girl got rather red.
"I see," she said, "I didn"t think of that. I was only so glad to find my dear dog. I"m very much obliged to you, I"m sure. I can tell you why your advertis.e.m.e.nts were never answered. We"ve been away for nearly a month, and the people here whom we lodge with have been very stupid about it. They missed Rollo as soon as we left, and took for granted we"d taken him with us after all. And we never knew till we came back two days ago that he was lost. He was lonely, you see, when he found I had gone, and I suppose he set out to look for me."
"Yes," said papa. "Then I suppose there is nothing more to be said. My children must bear the disappointment; they had naturally come to look upon him as their own."
Persis and I had turned away, so she couldn"t see we were crying. We didn"t want her to see; we didn"t like her.
"I--I can"t offer to pay you anything of what he"s cost you, I suppose?"
she said, getting redder still.
"Certainly not. Good-morning," and papa lifted his hat. And we all went off.
"My poor Persis and Archie," said papa very kindly. And when he said that, we felt as if we couldn"t keep it in any longer. We both burst out crying--loud.
Just then we heard steps behind us. It was the girl running with the lovely new collar in her hand.
"This at least is yours," she said, holding it out to papa. He smiled a little.
"You will please us by keeping it," he said. "It fits him; you can easily have the engraving altered."
"Thank you," she said; "thank you very much. I am very sorry indeed for the children," she went on, for she couldn"t have helped seeing how we were crying; and a nice look came into her eyes, which made us like her better. She was very pretty. I forget if I said so. "Shall I--shall I bring Rollo some day to see you?"
But we shook our heads.
"No, thank you," Persis managed to get out.
"Ah," she said, "I"m sorry; but I understand."
And then we liked her _quite_.
We trotted on beside papa, none of us speaking. At last Persis touched me.
"Archie," she said, "I think it"s for a punishment. May I tell?"
I just nodded my head.
Then Persis went close up to papa and put her hand through his arm.
"Papa," she said, "we"ve something to tell you. We"re not crying _only_ for Bruno, we"re unhappy because--because we"ve not been good."
"We"ve not been _honest_," I said. That word "honest" had been sticking in my throat ever since the day papa had said it when he was speaking about it being right to advertise the dog. And now, when _I_ said it, I felt as if I was going to choke. It felt so awful, you don"t know.
Papa looked very grave, but he held out his other hand to me, and I was glad of that.
"Tell me all about it," he said; and then we told him everything--all about how in our real hearts we had known, or _almost_ known, where Bruno came from, but how we had tried to pretend to ourselves--separately, I mean; Persis to herself and me to myself--that we didn"t know, so that we wouldn"t even say it to each other, and how it did seem now as if this had come for a punishment.
Papa was very kind, so kind that we went on to tell him how great the temptation had been, how _dreadfully_ we had longed for a dog, and how it had seemed that our only chance of ever having one would be one coming of itself, like Bruno had done.
"Why did you not tell mamma or me how very, very much you wished for one?" asked papa. "It would have been better than bottling it up so between yourselves. You have made yourselves think you wished for one even more than you really did."
But we couldn"t quite agree with that.
"We did speak of it sometimes," we said, "but we knew mamma didn"t want to have a dog--not in London. And----" but there we stopped. We really didn"t quite know why we hadn"t said more about it. I think children often keep their fancies to themselves without quite knowing why. But we didn"t think it had been a fancy only, after all. "We _couldn"t_ have loved him more," we said. "The real of it turned out quite as nice as the fancy."
Then papa spoke to us very seriously. I daresay you can tell of yourselves--all of you who have nice fathers and mothers--the sort of way he spoke. About being quite, _quite_ true and honest even in thinkings, and about how dangerous it is to try to deceive _ourselves_, for that the self we try to deceive is the best part of us, the voice of G.o.d in our hearts, and it can never _really_ be deceived, only, if we don"t listen to it, after a while we can"t hear it any more.
"Yes," said Persis, "I did know I was shamming to my good self all the time."