Such a steeple-chase it was! They cleared the farmyard at a single bound, and went flying down the road, and across the ploughed field, and into the wood. Then out into the open country, and by-and-by into a dark, muddy lane--and oh! how muddy Devonshire lanes can be sometimes!
"Let"s go into the water to wash ourselves," said Brownie, and coaxed Jess into a deep stream, which she swam as bravely as possible--she had not had such a frolic since she left her native Shetland Isles. Up the bank she scrambled, her long hair dripping as if she had been a water-dog instead of a pony. Brownie, too, shook himself like a rat or a beaver, throwing a shower round him in all directions.
"Never mind; at it again, my la.s.s!" and he urged Jess into the water once more. Out she came, wetter and brisker than ever, and went back home again through the lane, and the wood, and the ploughed field, galloping like the wind, and tossing back her ears and mane and tail, perfectly frantic with enjoyment.
But when she reached her stable, the plight she was in would have driven any respectable groom frantic too. Her sides were white with foam, and the mud was sticking all over her like a plaster. As for her beautiful long hair, it was all caked together in a tangle, as if all the combs in the world would never make it smooth again. Her mane especially was plaited into knots, which people in Devonshire call elf-locks, and say, when they find them on their horses, that it is because the fairies have been riding them.
Certainly, poor Jess had been pretty well ridden that night. When just as the dawn began to break, Gardener got up and looked into the farmyard, his sharp eye caught sight of the stable-door wide open.
"Well done, Bill," shouted he, "up early at last. One hour before breakfast is worth three after."
But no Bill was there; only Jess, trembling and shaking, all in a foam, and muddy from head to foot, but looking perfectly cheerful in her mind.
And out from under her fore legs ran a small creature which Gardener mistook for Tiny, only Tiny was gray, and this dog was brown, of course!
I should not like to tell you all that was said to Bill when, an hour after breakfast-time, he came skulking up to the farm. In fact, words failing, Gardener took a good stick and laid it about Bill"s shoulders, saying he would either do this, or tell the mistress of him, and how he had left the stable-door open all night, and some bad fellow had stolen Jess, and galloped her all across the country, till, if she hadn"t been the cleverest pony in the world, she never could have got back again.
Bill durst not contradict this explanation of the story, especially as the key was found hanging up in its proper place by the kitchen door.
And when he went to fetch it, he heard the most extraordinary sound in the coal-cellar close by--like somebody snoring or laughing. Bill took to his heels, and did not come back for a whole hour.
But when he did come back, he made himself as busy as possible. He cleaned Jess, which was half a day"s work at least. Then he took the little people a ride, and afterward put his stable in the most beautiful order, and altogether was such a changed Bill, that Gardener told him he must have left himself at home and brought back somebody else: whether or not, the boy certainly improved, so that there was less occasion to find fault with him afterward.
Jess lived to be quite an old pony, and carried a great many people--little people always, for she herself never grew any bigger. But I don"t think she ever carried a Brownie again.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
[Ill.u.s.tration]
ADVENTURE THE FIFTH
BROWNIE ON THE ICE
WINTER was a grand time with the six little children especially when they had frost and snow. This happened seldom enough for it to be the greatest possible treat when it did happen; and it never lasted very long, for the winters are warm in Devonshire.
There was a little lake three fields off, which made the most splendid sliding-place imaginable. No skaters went near it--it was not large enough; and besides, there was n.o.body to skate, the neighborhood being lonely. The lake itself looked the loneliest place imaginable. It was not very deep--not deep enough to drown a man--but it had a gravelly bottom, and was always very clear. Also, the trees round it grew so thick that they sheltered it completely from the wind, so, when it did freeze, it generally froze as smooth as a sheet of gla.s.s.
"The lake bears!" was such a grand event, and so rare, that when it did occur, the news came at once to the farm, and the children carried it as quickly to their mother. For she had promised them that, if such a thing did happen this year--it did not happen every year--lessons should be stopped entirely, and they should all go down to the lake and slide, if they liked, all day long.
So one morning, just before Christmas, the eldest boy ran in with a countenance of great delight.
"Mother, mother, the lake bears!" (It was rather a compliment to call it a lake, it being only about twenty yards across and forty long.) "The lake really bears!"
"Who says so?"
"Bill. Bill has been on it for an hour this morning, and has made us two such beautiful slides, he says--an upslide and a down-slide. May we go directly?"
The mother hesitated.
"You promised, you know," pleaded the children.
"Very well, then; only be careful."
"And may we slide all day long, and never come home for dinner or any thing?"
"Yes, if you like. Only Gardener must go with you, and stay all day."
This they did not like at all; nor, when Gardener was spoken to, did he.
"You bothering children! I wish you may all get a good ducking in the lake! Serve you right for making me lose a day"s work, just to look after you little monkeys. I"ve a great mind to tell your mother I won"t do it."
But he did not, being fond of his mistress. He was also fond of his work, but he had no notion of play. I think the saying of, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy," must have been applied to him, for Gardener, whatever he had been as a boy, was certainly a dull and melancholy man. The children used to say that if he and idle Bill could have been kneaded into one, and baked in the oven--a very warm oven--they would have come out rather a pleasant person.
As it was, Gardener was any thing but a pleasant person; above all, to spend a long day with, and on the ice, where one needs all one"s cheerfulness and good-humor to bear pinched fingers and numbed toes, and trips and tumbles, and various uncomfortablenesses.
"He"ll growl at us all day long--he"ll be a regular spoil-sport!"
lamented the children. "Oh! mother, mightn"t we go alone?"
"No!" said the mother; and her "No" meant no, though she was always very kind. They argued the point no more, but started off, rather downhearted. But soon they regained their spirits, for it was a bright, clear, frosty day--the sun shining, though not enough to melt the ice, and just sufficient to lie like a thin sprinkling over the gra.s.s, and turn the brown branches into white ones. The little people danced along to keep themselves warm, carrying between them a basket which held their lunch. A very harmless lunch it was--just a large brown loaf and a lump of cheese, and a knife to cut it with. Tossing the basket about in their fun, they managed to tumble the knife out, and were having a search for it in the long gra.s.s, when Gardener came up, grumpily enough.
"To think of trusting you children with one of the table-knives and a basket! what a fool Cook must be! I"ll tell her so; and if they"re lost she"ll blame me: give me the things."
He put the knife angrily in one pocket. "Perhaps it will cut a hole in it," said one of the children, in rather a pleased tone than otherwise; then he turned the lunch all out on the gra.s.s and crammed it in the other pocket, hiding the basket behind a hedge.
"I"m sure I"ll not be at the trouble of carrying it," said he, when the children cried out at this; "and you shan"t carry it either, for you"ll knock it about and spoil it. And as for your lunch getting warm in my pocket, why, so much the better this cold day."
It was not a lively joke, and they knew the pocket was very dirty; indeed, the little girls had seen him stuff a dead rat into it only the day before. They looked ready to cry; but there was no help for them, except going back and complaining to their mother, and they did not like to do that. Besides, they knew that, though Gardener was cross, he was trustworthy, and she would never let them go down to the lake without him.
So they followed him, trying to be as good as they could--though it was difficult work. One of them proposed pelting him with s...o...b..a.l.l.s, as they pelted each other. But at the first--which fell in his neck--he turned round so furiously, that they never sent a second, but walked behind him as meek as mice.
As they went, they heard little steps pattering after them.
"Perhaps it is the Brownie to play with us--I wish he would," whispered the youngest girl to the eldest boy, whose hand she generally held; and then the little pattering steps sounded again, traveling through the snow, but they saw n.o.body--so they said nothing.
The children would have liked to go straight to the ice; but Gardener insisted on taking them a mile round, to look at an extraordinary animal which a farmer there had just got--sent by his brother in Australia. The two old men stood gossiping so long that the children wearied extremely. Every minute seemed an hour till they got on the ice.
At last one of them pulled Gardener"s coat-tails, and whispered that they were quite ready to go.
"Then I"m not," and he waited ever so much longer, and got a drink of hot cider, which made him quite lively for a little while.
But by the time they reached the lake, he was as cross as ever. He struck the ice with his stick, but made no attempt to see if it really did bear--though he would not allow the children to go one step upon it till he had tried.
"I know it doesn"t bear, and you"ll just have to go home again--a good thing too--saves me from losing a day"s work."
"Try, only try; Bill said it bore," implored the boys, and looked wistfully at the two beautiful slides--just as Bill said, one up and one down--stretching all across the lake; "of course it bears, or Bill could not have made these slides."
"Bill"s an a.s.s!" said the Gardener, and put his heavy foot cautiously on the ice. Just then there was seen jumping across it a creature which certainly had never been seen on ice before. It made the most extraordinary bounds on its long hind legs, with its little fore legs tucked up in front of it as if it wanted to carry a m.u.f.f; and its long, stiff tail sticking out straight behind, to balance it itself with apparently. The children at first started with surprise, and then burst out laughing, for it was the funniest creature, and had the funniest way of getting along, that they had ever seen in their lives.