"They"re cleaning the pa.s.sages," St. George went on; "and Sarah told me they meant to finish the mistletoe, and have everything cleaned up by supper-time. They don"t want us, I know. Look here; we will go real mumming, instead. That will be fun!"
The Valiant Slasher grinned with delight.
"But will mamma let us?" he inquired.
"Oh, it will be all right if we are back by supper-time," said St.
George, hastily. "Only, of course, we must take care not to catch cold.
Come and help me to get some wraps."
The old oak chest in which spare shawls, rugs, and coats were kept was soon ransacked, and the mummers" gay dresses hidden by motley wrappers.
But no sooner did Darkie and Pax behold the coats, etc., than they at once began to leap and bark, as it was their custom to do when they saw any one dressing to go out.
Robin was sorely afraid that this would betray them; but, though the Captain and his wife heard the barking, they did not guess the cause.
So, the front door being very gently opened and closed, the nursery mummers stole away.
VII.
It was a very fine night. The snow was well trodden on the drive, so that it did not wet their feet, but on the trees and shrubs it hung soft and white.
"It"s much jollier being out at night than in the daytime," said Robin.
"Much," responded Nicholas, with intense feeling.
"We"ll go a wa.s.sailing next week," said Robin. "I know all about it; and perhaps we shall get a good lot of money, and then we"ll buy tin swords with scabbards for next year. I don"t like these sticks. Oh, dear, I wish it wasn"t so long between one Christmas and another."
"Where shall we go first?" asked Nicholas, as they turned into the high-road. But before Robin could reply, Dora clung to Nicholas, crying, "Oh, look at those men!"
The boys looked up the road, down which three men were coming in a very unsteady fashion, and shouting as they rolled from side to side.
"They"re drunk," said Nicholas; "and they"re shouting at us."
"Oh, run, run!" cried Dora; and down the road they ran, the men shouting and following them. They had not run far, when Hector caught his foot in the Captain"s great-coat which he was wearing, and came down headlong in the road. They were close by a gate, and when Nicholas had set Hector on his legs, St. George hastily opened it.
"This is the first house," he said. "We"ll act here;" and all, even the Valiant Slasher, pressed in as quickly as possible. Once safe within the grounds, they shouldered their sticks and resumed their composure.
"You"re going to the front door," said Nicholas. "Mummers ought to go to the back."
"We don"t know where it is," said Robin, and he rang the front-door bell. There was a pause. Then lights shone, steps were heard, and at last a sound of much unbarring, unbolting, and unlocking. It might have been a prison. Then the door was opened by an elderly, timid-looking woman, who held a tallow candle above her head.
"Who"s there," she said, "at this time of night?"
"We"re Christmas mummers," said Robin, stoutly; "we didn"t know the way to the back door, but----"
"And don"t you know better than to come here?" said the woman. "Be off with you, as fast as you can!"
"You"re only the servant," said Robin. "Go and ask your master and mistress if they wouldn"t like to see us act. We do it very well."
"You impudent boy, be off with you!" repeated the woman. "Master"d no more let you nor any other such rubbish set foot in this house----"
"Woman!" shouted a voice close behind her, which made her start as if she had been shot, "who authorizes you to say what your master will or will not do, before you ask him? The boy is right. You are the servant, and it is not your business to choose for me whom I shall or shall not see."
"I meant no harm, sir, I"m sure," said the house-keeper; "but I thought you"d never----"
"My good woman," said her master, "if I had wanted somebody to think for me, you"re the last person I should have employed. I hire you to obey orders, not to think."
"I"m sure, sir," said the house-keeper, whose only form of argument was reiteration, "I never thought you would have seen them----"
"Then you were wrong," shouted her master. "I will see them. Bring them in."
He was a tall, gaunt old man, and Robin stared at him for some minutes, wondering where he could have seen somebody very like him. At last he remembered. It was the old gentleman of the blue cloak.
The children threw off their wraps, the house-keeper helping them, and chatting ceaselessly, from sheer nervousness.
"Well, to be sure," said she, "their dresses are pretty, too, and they seem quite a better sort of children; they talk quite genteel. I might ha" knowed they weren"t like common mummers, but I was so fl.u.s.tered hearing the bell go so late, and----"
"Are they ready?" said the old man, who had stood like a ghost in the dim light of the flaring tallow candle, grimly watching the proceedings.
"Yes, sir. Shall I take them to the kitchen sir----"
"For you and the other idle hussies to gape and grin at? No. Bring them to the library," he snapped, and then he stalked off, leading the way.
The house-keeper accordingly led them to the library and then withdrew, nearly falling on her face as she left the room by stumbling over Darkie, who clipped in last like a black shadow.
The old man was seated in a carved oak chair by the fire.
"I never said the dogs were to come in," he said.
"But we can"t do without them, please," said Robin, boldly. "You see, there are eight people in "The Peace Egg," and there are only five of us; and so Darkie has to be the Black Prince, and Pax has to be the Fool, and so we have to have them."
"Five and two make seven," said the old man, with a grim smile; "what do you do for the eighth?"
"Oh, that"s the little one at the end," said Robin, confidentially.
"Mamma said we weren"t to mention him, but I think that"s because we"re children. You"re grown up, you know, so I"ll show you the book, and you can see for yourself," he went on, drawing "The Peace Egg" from his pocket. "There, that"s the picture of him on the last page; black, with horns and a tail."
The old man"s stern face relaxed into a broad smile as he examined the grotesque wood-cut; but, when he turned to the first page, the smile vanished in a deep frown, and his eyes shone like hot coals, with anger. He had seen Robin"s name.
"Who sent you here?" he asked, in a hoa.r.s.e voice. "Speak, and speak the truth! Did your mother send you here?"
Robin thought the old man was angry with them for playing truant. He said slowly, "N--no. She didn"t exactly send us; but I don"t think she"ll mind our having come if we get back in time for supper. Mamma never forbid our going mumming, you know."
"I don"t suppose she ever thought of it," Nicholas said, candidly, wagging his curly head from side to side.
"She knows we"re mummers," said Robin, "for she helped us. When we were abroad, you know, she used to tell us about the mummers acting at Christmas when she was a little girl. And so we acted to papa and mamma, and so we thought we"d act to the maids, but they were cleaning the pa.s.sages, and so we thought we"d really go mumming; and we"ve got several other houses to go to before supper-time. We"d better begin, I think," said Robin, and without more ado he began to march round and round, raising his sword and shouting,--
"I am St. George, who from Old England sprung, My famous name throughout the world hath rung."
And the performance went off quite as creditably as before.