"Dear me, what a pity!" cried the nurse. "I do so love sailors."
"If you"ll only say the word, miss, I"ll go to sea again to-morrow then!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Jupp eagerly.
"Oh no!" laughed the nurse; "why, then I shouldn"t see any more of you; but I was telling you about Master Teddy. Parson Vernon, as you call him, has four children in all--three of them girls, and Master Teddy is the only boy and the youngest of the lot."
"And I s"pose he"s pretty well sp"ilt?" suggested Jupp.
"You may well say that," replied the other. "He was his mother"s pet, and she, poor lady, died last year of consumption, so he"s been made all the more of since by his little sisters, and the grandmother when she comes down, as she did at Christmas. You"d hardly believe it, small as he looks he almost rules the house; for his father never interferes, save some terrible row is up and he hears him crying--and he can make a noise when he likes, can Master Teddy!"
"Ess," said the mite at this, thinking his testimony was appealed to, and nodding his head affirmatively.
"And he comed all that way from t"other side o" the village by hisself?"
asked Jupp by way of putting a stop to sundry other endearments the fascinating young woman was recklessly lavishing on the little chap.
"Why, it"s more nor a mile!"
"Aye, that he has. Just look at him," said she, giving the mite another shake, although this time it was of a different description to the one she had first administered.
He certainly was not much to look at in respect of stature, being barely three feet high; but he was a fine little fellow for all that, with good strong, st.u.r.dy limbs and a frank, fearless face, which his bright blue eyes and curling locks of brown hair ornamented to the best advantage.
As before mentioned, he had evidently not been prepared for a journey when he made his unexpected appearance at the station, being without a hat on his head and having a slightly soiled pinafore over his other garments; while his little feet were encased in thin house shoes, or slippers, that were ill adapted for walking through the mud and snow.
Now that the slight differences that had arisen between himself and the nurse had been amicably settled, he was in the best of spirits, with his little face puckered in smiles and his blue eyes twinkling with fun as he looked up at the two observing him.
"He is a jolly little chap!" exclaimed Jupp, bending down and lifting him up in his strong arms, the mite the while playfully pulling at his black beard; "and I tell you what, miss, I think he"s got a very good nurse to look after him!"
"Do you?" said she, adding a moment afterwards as she caught Jupp"s look of admiration, "Ah, that"s only what you say now. You didn"t think so when I first came in here after him; for you asked me not to beat him-- as if I would!"
"Lor", I never dreamt of such a thing!" cried he with much emphasis, the occasion seeming to require it. "I only said that to coax you like, miss. I didn"t think as you"d hurt a hair of his head."
"Well, let it be then," replied she, accepting this amende and setting to work gathering together the mite"s goods and chattels that were still lying on the floor of the waiting-room--with the exception of the kitten, which he had himself again a.s.sumed the proprietorship of and now held tightly in his arms, even as he was clasped by Jupp and elevated above the porter"s shoulder. "I must see about taking him home again."
"Shall I carry him for you, miss?" asked Jupp. "The down-train ain"t due for near an hour yet, and I dessay I can get my mate to look out for me while I walks with you up the village."
"You are very kind," said she; "but, I hardly like to trouble you?"
"No trouble at all, miss," replied Jupp heartily. "Why, the little gentleman"s only a featherweight."
"That"s because you"re such a fine strong man. I find him heavy enough, I can tell you."
Jupp positively blushed at her implied compliment. "I ain"t much to boast of ag"in a delicate young "ooman as you," he said at last; "but, sartenly, I can carry a little shaver like this; and, besides, look how the snow"s a coming down."
"Well, if you will be so good, I"d be obliged to you," interposed the nurse hurriedly as if to stop any further explanations on Jupp"s part, he having impulsively stepped nearer to her at that moment.
"All right then!" cried he, his jolly face beaming with delight at the permission to escort her. "Here, Grigson!"
"That"s me!" shouted another porter appearing mysteriously from the back of the office, in answer to Jupp"s stentorian hail.
"Just look out for the down-train, "case I ain"t back in time. I"m just agoin" to take some luggage for this young woman up to the village."
"Aye, just so," replied the other with a sly wink, which, luckily for himself, perhaps, Jupp did not see, as, holding the mite tenderly in his arms, with his jacket thrown over him to protect him from the snow, he sallied out from the little wayside station in company with the nurse, the latter carrying all Master Teddy"s valuables, which she had re- collected and tied up again carefully within the folds of the red pocket-handkerchief bundle wherein their proprietor had originally brought them thither.
Strange to say, the mite did not exhibit the slightest reluctance in returning home, as might have been expected from the interruption of his projected plan of going to London to see his "d"an"ma."
On the contrary, his meeting with Jupp and introduction to him as a new and estimable acquaintance, as well as the settlement of all outstanding grievances between himself and his nurse, appeared to have quite changed his views as to his previously-cherished expedition; so that he was now as content and cheerful as possible, looking anything but like a disappointed truant.
Indeed, he more resembled a successful conqueror making a triumphal entry into his capital than a foiled strategist defeated in the very moment of victory!
"I like oo," he said, pulling at Jupp"s black beard in high glee and chuckling out aloud in great delight as they proceeded towards the village, the nurse clinging to the porter"s other and unoccupied arm to a.s.sist her progress through the snow-covered lane, down which the wind rushed every now and then in sudden scurrying gusts, whirling the white flakes round in the air and blinding the wayfarers as they plodded painfully along.
"I don"t know what I should have done without your help," she observed fervently after a long silence between the two, only broken by Master Teddy"s shouts of joy when a snow-flake penetrating beneath Jupp"s jacket made the kitten sneeze. "I"m sure I should never have got home to master"s with the boy!"
"Don"t name it," whispered Jupp hoa.r.s.ely beneath his beard, which the snow had grizzled, lending it a patriarchal air. "I"m only too proud, miss, to be here!" and he somehow or other managed to squeeze her arm closer against his side with his, making the nurse think how nice it was to be tall and strong and manly like the porter!
"They"ll be in a rare state about Master Teddy at the vicarage!" she said after they had plodded on another hundred yards, making but slow headway against the drifting snow and boisterous wind. "I made him angry by taking away his kitten, I suppose, and so he determined to make off to his gran"ma; for we missed him soon after the children"s dinner.
I thought he was in the study with Mr Vernon; but when I came to look he wasn"t there, and so we all turned out to search for him. Master made sure we"d find him in the village; but I said I thought he"d gone to the station, far off though it was, and you see I was right!"
"You"re a sensible young woman," said Jupp. "I"d have thought the same."
"Go on with your nonsense; get along!" cried she mockingly, in apparent disbelief of Jupp"s encomiums, and pretending to wrench her arm out of his so as to give point to her words.
"I"ll take my davy, then," he began earnestly; but, ere he could say any more, a voice called out in front of them, amid the eddying flakes:
"Hullo, Mary! Is that you?"
"That"s my master," she whispered to Jupp; and then answered aloud, "Yes, sir, and I"ve found Master Teddy."
"Is Mary your name?" said Jupp to her softly in the interlude, while scrunching footsteps could be heard approaching them, although no one yet could be perceived through the rifts of snow. "I think it the prettiest girl"s name in the world!"
"Go "long!" cried she again; but she sidled up to him and held on to his arm once more as she spoke, the blasts of the storm at the moment being especially boisterous.
"Is that you, Mary?" repeated the voice in front, now much nearer, her answer not having been heard apparently, on account of the wind blowing from the speaker towards them.
"Yes, sir," she screamed out. "I"ve found Master Teddy, and he"s all right."
She was heard this time.
"Thank G.o.d!" returned the voice in trembling accents, nearer still; and then a thin, haggard, careworn-looking man in clergyman"s dress rushed up to them.
He was quite breathless, and his face pale with emotion.
"Padie! Padie!" exclaimed the mite, raising himself up on Jupp"s shoulder and stretching out one of his little hands to the new-comer while the other grasped the kitten. "I"se turn back, I"se turn back to oo!"
"My boy, my little lamb! G.o.d be praised for his mercy!" cried the other; and the next instant Teddy was locked in his father"s arms in a close embrace, kitten and all.
"Say, Miss Mary," whispered Jupp, taking advantage of the opportunity while Mr Vernon"s back was turned.
"What?" she asked, looking up into his face demurely.
"This ought to be pa.s.sed round."