Peterkin

"That was very thoughtful of you," said mamma, approvingly, which made James get very red.

We three boys skurried upstairs after that. At least I did. Clement came more slowly, but as his legs were long enough to take two steps at a time, he got to the top nearly as soon as I did, and Peterkin came puffing after us. I was rather surprised that Blanche and Elf had been content to stay quietly in the nursery, considering all the excitement that had been going on downstairs, and I think it was very good of Blanche, for she told me afterwards that she had only done it to keep Elvira from getting into one of her endless crying fits. They always say Elf is such a nervous child that she can"t help it, but _I_ think it"s a good bit of it cross temper too.

Still she is rather growing out of it, and, after all, that night there was something to cry about, and there might have been worse, as nurse said. She had been telling the girls stories of people who got lost, though she was sensible enough to make them turn up all right at the end. She can tell very interesting stories sometimes, but she keeps the _best_ ones to amuse us when we are ill, or when mamma"s gone away on a visit, or something horrid like that has happened.

They all three flew at Peterkin, of course, and hugged him as if he"d been shipwrecked, or putting out a fire, or something grand like that.

And he took it as coolly as anything, and asked for his tea, as if he deserved all the petting and fussing.

That was another of his little "ways," I suppose.

Then, as we were waiting for the kettle to boil up again to make fresh tea, if you please, for his lordship--though Clem and I were to have some too, of course, and we did deserve it--all the story had to be told over for the third or fourth time, of the parrot, and old Mrs.

Wylie meeting Pete as she came in, and his thinking he"d only been there about five minutes, and all the rest of it.

"And what did the Polly parrot talk about?" asked Elf. She had a picture of a parrot in one of her books, and some rhymes about it.

"Oh," answered Peterkin," he said, "How d"ye do?" and "Pretty Poll," and things like that."

"He said queerer things than that; you know he--" I began. I saw Pete didn"t want to tell about the parrot copying the mysterious child that Mrs. Wylie had spoken of, so I thought I"d tease him a bit by reminding him of it. I felt sure he had got some of his funny ideas out of his fairy stories in his head; that the little girl--for Mrs. Wylie had spoken of a "her"--was an enchanted princess or something like that, and I wasn"t far wrong, as you will see. But I didn"t finish my sentence, for Peterkin, who was sitting next me, gave me a sort of little kick, not to hurt, of course, and whispered, "I"ll tell you afterwards." So I felt it would be ill-natured to tease him, and I didn"t say any more, and luckily the others hadn"t noticed what I had begun. Blanchie was on her knees in front of the fire toasting for us, and Elf was putting lumps of sugar into the cups, to be ready.

Pete was as hungry as a hunter, and our sharp walk had given Clem and me a fresh appet.i.te, so we ate all the toast and a lot of plum-cake as well, and felt none the worse for it.

And soon after that, it was time to be tidied up to go down to the drawing-room to mamma. Peterkin and Elvira only stayed half-an-hour or so, but after they had gone to bed we three big ones went into the library to finish our lessons while papa and mamma were at dinner.

Sometimes we went into the dining-room to dessert, and sometimes we worked on till mamma called us into the drawing-room: it all depended on how many lessons we"d got to do, or how fast we had got on with them.

Clement and Blanche were awfully good about that sort of thing, and went at it steadily, much better than I, I"m afraid, though I could learn pretty quickly if I chose. But I did not like lessons, especially the ones we had to do at home, for in these days Clem and I only went to a day-school and had to bring books and things back with us every afternoon. And besides these lessons we had to do at home for school, we had a little extra once or twice a week, as we had French conversation and reading on half-holidays with Blanche"s teachers, and they sometimes gave us poetry to learn by heart or to translate. We were not exactly _obliged_ to do it, but of course we didn"t want Blanche, who was only a girl, to get ahead of us, as she would very likely have done, for she did grind at her lessons awfully. I think most girls do.

It sounds as if we were rather hard-worked, but I really don"t think we were, though I must allow that we worked better in those days, and learnt more in comparison, than we do now at--I won"t give the name of the big school we are at. Clement says it is better not--people who write books never do give the real names, he says, and I fancy he"s right. It is an awfully jolly school, and we are as happy as sand-boys, whatever that means, but I can"t say that we work as Blanche does, though she does it all at home with governesses.

That part of the evening--when we went back to the drawing-room to mamma, I mean--was one of the times I shall always like to remember about. It is very jolly now, of course, to be at home for the holidays, but there was then the sort of "treat" feeling of having got our lessons done, and the little ones comfortably off to bed, and the grown-up-ness.

Mamma looked so pretty, as she was always nicely dressed, though I liked some of her dresses much better than others--I don"t like her in black ones at all; and the drawing-room was pretty, and then there was mamma"s music. Her playing was nice, but her singing was still better, and she used to let us choose our favourite songs, each in turn. Blanche plays the violin now, very well, they say, and mamma declares she is really far cleverer at music than she herself ever was; but for all that, I shall never care for her fiddle anything like mamma"s singing; if I live to be a hundred, I shall never forget it.

It is a great thing to have really jolly times like those evenings to think of when you begin to get older, and are a lot away from home, and likely to be still less and less there.

But I must not forget that this story is supposed to be princ.i.p.ally about Peterkin and his adventures, so I"ll go on again about the night after he"d been lost.

He and I had a room together, and he was nearly always fast asleep, like a fat dormouse, when I went up to bed. He had a way of curling himself round, like a ball, that really did remind you of a dormouse. I believe it kept him from growing; I really do, though I did my best to pull him out straight. He didn"t like that, ungrateful chap, and used to growl at me for it, and I believe he often pretended to be asleep when he wasn"t, just to stop me doing it; for one night, nurse had come in to know what the row was about, and though she agreed with me that it was much better for him to lie properly stretched at his full length, she said I wasn"t to wake him up because of it.

But if he was generally fast asleep at night when I came to bed, he certainly made up for it by waking in the morning. I never knew anything like him for that. I believe he woke long before the birds, winter as well as summer, and then was his time for talking and telling me his stories and fancies. Once I myself was well awake I didn"t mind, as it was generally rather interesting; but I couldn"t stand the being awakened ages before the time. So we made an agreement, that if I didn"t wake him up at night, he"d not bother me in the morning till I gave a sign that I was on the way to waking of myself. The sign was a sort of snort that"s easy to make, even while you"re still pretty drowsy, and it did very well, as I could lie quiet in a dreamy way listening to him.

He didn"t want me to speak, only to snort a little now and then till I got quite lively, as I generally did in a few minutes, as his stories grew more exciting, and there came something that I wanted him to alter in them.

That night, however, when I went up to bed there was no need to think of our bargain, for Peterkin was as wide awake as I was.

"Haven"t you been to sleep yet?" I asked him.

"Not exactly," he said. "Just a sort of half. I"m glad you"ve come, Gilley, for I"ve got a lot of things in my head."

"You generally have," I said, "but _I"m_ sleepy, if you"re not. That scamper in the cold after you, my good boy, was rather tiring, I can tell you."

"I"m very sorry," said he, in a penitent tone of voice, "but you know, Giles, I never meant to----"

"Oh, stop that!" I exclaimed; "you"ve said it twenty times too often already. Better tell me a bit of the things in your head. Then you can go to sleep, and dream them out, and have an interesting story ready for me in the morning."

"Oh, but--" objected Pete, sitting up in bed and clasping his hands round his knees, his face very red, and his eyes very blue and bright, "they"re not dreamy kind of things at all. There"s really something very misterist--what is the proper word, Gilley?"

""Mysterious," I suppose you mean," I said.

"Yes, misterous," repeated he, "about what the parrot said, and I"m pretty sure that old lady thinks so too."

"Didn"t she explain about it, at all?" I asked him. I began to think there _was_ something queer, perhaps, for Peterkin"s manner impressed me.

"Well, she did a little," he replied. "But I"d better tell you all, Gilley; just what I first heard, before she came up and spoke to me, you know, and----"

Just then, however, there came an interruption.

Mamma put her head in at the door.

"Boys," she said, "not asleep yet? At least _you_ should be, Peterkin.

You didn"t wake him, I hope, Giles?"

I had no time for an indignant "No; of course, not," before Pete came to my defence.

"No, no, mummy! I was awake all of myself. I wanted him to come very much, to talk a little."

"Well, you must both be rather tired with all the excitement there has been," mamma said. "So go to sleep, now, and do your talking in the morning. Promise,--both of you--eh?"

"Yes," we answered; "word of honour, mamma," and she went away, quite sure that we would keep our promise, which was sealed by a kiss from her.

Dear little mother! She did not often come up to see us in bed, for fear of rousing us out of our "beauty" sleep, but to-night she had felt as if she must make sure we were all right after the fuss of Peterkin"s being lost, you see.

And of course we were as good as our word, and only just said "Good-night!" to each other; Pete adding, "I"ll begin at the beginning, and tell you everything, as soon as I hear your first snort in the morning, Giles."

"You"d better wait for my second or third," I replied. "I"m never very clear-headed at the first, and I want to give my attention, as it"s something real, and not one of your make-ups," I said. "So, good-night!"

It is awfully jolly to know that you are trusted, isn"t it?

CHAPTER III

AN INVITATION

I SLEPT on rather later than usual next morning. I suppose I really was tired. And when I began to awake, and gradually remembered all that had happened the night before, I heartily wished I hadn"t promised Peterkin to snort at all.

I took care not to open my eyes for a good bit, but I couldn"t carry on humbugging that I was still asleep for very long. Something made me open my eyes, and as soon as I did so I knew what it was. There was Pete--bolt upright--as wide awake as if he had never been asleep, staring at me with all his might, his eyes as round and blue as could be. You know the feeling that some one is looking at you, even when you don"t see them. I had not given one snort, and I could not help feeling rather cross with Peterkin, even when he exclaimed--

"Oh, I am so glad you"re awake!"