"Cats and dogs, Miss Earnshaw?" she repeated.
"Oh, bless you, my dear, it"s only a way of speaking," said the dressmaker, a little impatiently, for she was not very much accustomed to children. "It just means raining _very_ hard."
Peggy went to the window to look out for herself. Yes indeed it was raining very hard. The little girl could not help sighing a little as she gazed at the thick even gray of the clouds, hiding like a curtain every trace of the distant hills she was so fond of.
"I won"t put out the little red shoes to-day," she said to herself, "there"s nothing for them to see."
Then other thoughts crept into her mind.
"I wonder if it"s raining at the white cottage too," she said to herself. And aloud she asked a question.
"Miss Earnshaw, pelease, does it ever rain in the country?" she said.
"Rain in the country! I should rather think it did. Worse than in town, you might say--that"s to say, where there"s less shelter, you"ll get wetter and dirtier in the country, only of course it"s not the same kind of really black sooty rain. But as for mud in country lanes! I shall see something of it this afternoon, I expect."
"Oh, I"m so sorry," said Peggy. "I thought it never rained in the country. I thought it was always quite pretty and lovely," and she sighed deeply. "I wonder what people who live in little cottages in the country do all day when it rains," she said.
"Why, my dear, much the same as other folk, I should say. They have their rooms to clean, and their dinner to cook, and their children to look after. Still I daresay it"d be a bit drearier in the country of a right-down wet day like this, even than in town. I"ve never lived there myself, except for a week at a time at most, but mother was all her young days in the country."
"Everybody"s fathers and mothers lived there," said Peggy, rather petulantly. "Why don"t peoples let their children live there now?"
Miss Earnshaw laughed a little. Peggy did not like her to laugh in that way, and she gave herself a little wriggle, though poor Miss Earnshaw certainly did not mean to vex her.
"There are plenty of children in the country too, Miss Peggy," she said.
"Mother"s youngest sister has twelve."
"Twelve," repeated Peggy, "_how_ nice! at least if there"s lots of sisters among them, and no very little babies. Do they live over in that country?" she went on, pointing in the direction of the invisible hills, "that country called Brack---- You know the name."
"Brackenshire," said Miss Earnshaw, "no, my mother comes from much farther off. A very pretty place it must be by what she says. Not but what Brackenshire"s a pretty country too. I"ve been there several times with the Sunday school for a treat."
"And did you see the hills and the white cottages?" asked Peggy breathlessly.
"Oh yes, the hills are beautiful, and there"s lots of cottages of all kinds. They look pretty among the trees, even though they"re only poor little places, most of them."
"The white ones is the prettiest," said Peggy, as if she knew all about it.
"Yes, I daresay," said Miss Earnshaw, without paying much attention; she had got to rather a difficult part of the sleeve she was making.
"Did you ever walk all the way there when you was a little girl?" Peggy went on.
"Oh yes, of course," Miss Earnshaw replied, without the least idea of what she was answering.
"Really!" said Peggy, "how nice!" Then seeing that the dressmaker was absorbed in her work: "Miss Earnshaw," she said, "I"m going for the pipes now. It isn"t raining _quite_ so fast, and I"ll not be long."
"Very well, my dear," Miss Earnshaw replied, and Peggy went off to fetch her pennies from the drawer in the other nursery where she kept them.
She had a new idea in her head, an idea which Miss Earnshaw"s careless words had helped to put there, little as she knew it.
"If I see the Smileys," thought Peggy, "I"ll tell them what she said."
She glanced out of the window, dear me, how lucky! There stood Brown Smiley looking out at the door, as if she were hesitating before making a plunge into the dripping wet street. It did seem at the back as if it were raining faster than in front. Peggy opened the cupboard and took out her little cloak which was hanging there.
"I won"t put on my hat," she thought, ""cos nurse says the rain spoils the feavers. I"ll get a numbrella downstairs, and then I _can"t_ get wet, and here"s my pennies all right in my pocket. I do hope Brown Smiley will wait till I get down."
She made all the haste she could, and found, as she expected, an umbrella in the stand downstairs. It was not very easy to open, but she succeeded at last, then came, however, another difficulty, she could not get herself and the umbrella through the back door together.
"Dear me," thought Peggy, "I wonder how people does with their numbrellas. They _must_ open them in the house, else they"d get wet standing outside while they"re doing it. I never looked to see how nurse does, but then we almost never go out when it"s rainy. I "appose it"s one of the hard things big peoples has to learn. Oh, dear! _won"t_ it come through?"
No, she couldn"t manage it, at least not with herself under it. At last a brilliant idea struck Peggy; anything was better than closing the tiresome thing now she _had_ got it opened--she would send it first and follow after herself. So the umbrella was pa.s.sed through, and went slipping down the two or three steps that led into the yard, where it lay gaping up reproachfully at Peggy, who felt inclined to call out "Never mind, poor thing, I"m coming d"reckly."
And as "d"reckly" as possible she did come, carefully closing the door behind her, for fear the rain should get into the house, which, together with the picking up of the umbrella, far too big and heavy a one for a tiny girl, took so long that I am afraid a good many drops had time to fall on the fair uncovered head before it got under shelter again.
But little cared Peggy. She felt as proud as a peac.o.c.k, the umbrella representing the tail, you understand, when she found herself outside the yard door, which behaved very amiably, fairly under weigh for her voyage across the street. She could see nothing before her; fortunately, however, no carriages or carts ever came down the narrow back way.
Half-way over Peggy stopped short--she had forgotten to look if Brown Smiley was still standing there. It was not easy to get a peep from under the umbrella, without tilting it and herself backwards on to the muddy road, but with great care Peggy managed it. Ah dear, what a disappointment! There was no little girl in front of the cobbler"s window, but glancing to one side, Peggy caught sight of the small figure with a shawl of "mother"s" quaintly drawn over the head, trotting away down the street. With a cry Peggy dashed after her.
"Oh, Brown Smiley," she called out, "do come back. I"m too frightened to go to buy the pipes alone," for what with her struggles and her excitement, the little damsel"s nerves were rather upset. "Oh, Brown Smiley--no--no, that"s not her name, oh what _is_ your name, Brown Smiley?" and on along the rough pavement behind the little messenger she rushed, if indeed poor Peggy"s toddling, flopping from one side to another progress, could possibly be called "rushing."
[Ill.u.s.tration: "But an umbrella rolling itself about on the pavement, an umbrella from which proceeds most piteous wails, an umbrella from underneath which, when you get close to it, you see two little feet sticking out, and by degrees two neat black legs, and then a muddle of short skirts, which by rights should be draping the legs, but have somehow got all turned upside down like a bird"s feathers ruffled up the wrong way--_such_ an umbrella, or perhaps I should say an umbrella in such circ.u.mstances, may certainly be called a strange sight, may it not?"
P. 127]
It came to an end quickly--the paving-stones were rough and uneven, the small feet had only "my noldest house-shoes" to protect them, and the "numbrella" was sadly in the way; there came suddenly a sharp cry, so piercing and distressful that even Matilda-Jane, accustomed as she was to childish sounds of woe of every kind and pitch, was startled enough to turn round and look behind her.
"Can it be Halfred come a-runnin" after me?" she said to herself. But the sight that met her eyes puzzled her so, that at the risk of Mother Whelan"s scoldings for being so long, she could not resist running back to examine for herself the strange object. This was nothing more nor less than an umbrella, and an umbrella in itself is not an uncommon sight. But an umbrella rolling itself about on the pavement, an umbrella from which proceeds most piteous wails, an umbrella from underneath which, when you get close to it, you see two little feet sticking out and by degrees two neat black legs, and then a muddle of short skirts, which by rights should be draping the legs, but have somehow got all turned upside down like a bird"s feathers ruffled up the wrong way--_such_ an umbrella, or perhaps I should say an umbrella in such circ.u.mstances, certainly may be called a strange sight, may it not?
Matilda-Jane Simpkins, for that was Brown Smiley"s whole long name, thought so any way, for she stood stock still, staring, and the only thing she could collect herself enough to say was, "Lor"!"
But her state of stupefaction only lasted half a moment. She was a practical and business-like little person; before there was time for another cry for help, she had disentangled the umbrella and its owner, and set the latter on her feet again, sobbing piteously, and dreadfully dirty and muddy, but otherwise not much the worse.
Then Matilda-Jane gave vent to another exclamation.
"Bless me, missy, it"s _you_!" she cried. "Whatever are you a-doing of to be out in the rain all alone, with no "at and a humbrella four sizes too big for the likes of you, and them paper-soled things on yer feet?
and, oh my! ain"t yer frock muddy? What"ll your folk say to you? Or is they all away and left you and the cat to keep "ouse?"
"I was running after you, Brown Smiley," sobbed Peggy. She could not quite make out if Matilda-Jane was making fun of her or not, and, indeed, to do Matilda justice, she had no such intention. "I was running after _you_," Peggy repeated, "and you _wouldn"t_ stop, and I couldn"t run fast "cos of the numbrella, and so I felled down."
"Never mind, missy dear, you"ll be none the worse, you"ll see. Only, will they give it you when you go home for dirtying of your frock?"
"Give it me?" repeated Peggy.
"Yes, give it you; will you get it--will you catch it?" said Matilda, impatiently.
"I don"t know what you mean," Peggy replied.
Matilda wasted no more words on her. She took her by the arm, umbrella and all, and trotted her down the street again till they had reached the Smiley mansion. Then she drew Peggy inside the doorway of the pa.s.sage, whence a stair led up to Mrs. Whelan"s, and to the Simpkins"s own rooms above that again, and having shut up the umbrella with such perfect ease that Peggy gazed at her in admiration, she tried to explain her meaning.
"Look "ere now, miss;" she said, "which"ll you do--go straight over-the-way "ome, just as you are, or come in along of _huz_ and get yerself cleaned up a bit?"
"Oh, I"ll go in with you, pelease," sobbed Peggy.