But there was no answer. Griselda held her breath to listen, but there was nothing to be heard.
"Unkind cuckoo!" she exclaimed. "He is tricking me, I do believe; and to-day too, just when I was so dull and lonely."
The tears came into her eyes, and she was beginning to think herself very badly used, when suddenly a rustling in the bushes beside her made her turn round, more than half expecting to see the cuckoo himself. But it was not he. The rustling went on for a minute or two without anything making its appearance, for the bushes were pretty thick just there, and any one scrambling up from the pine-wood below would have had rather hard work to get through, and indeed for a very big person such a feat would have been altogether impossible.
It was not a very big person, however, who was causing all the rustling, and crunching of branches, and general commotion, which now absorbed Griselda"s attention. She sat watching for another minute in perfect stillness, afraid of startling by the slightest movement the squirrel or rabbit or creature of some kind which she expected to see. At last--was that a squirrel or rabbit--that rosy, round face, with s.h.a.ggy, fair hair falling over the eager blue eyes, and a general look of breathlessness and over-heatedness and determination?
A squirrel or a rabbit! No, indeed, but a very st.u.r.dy, very merry, very ragged little boy.
"Where are that cuckoo? Does _you_ know?" were the first words he uttered, as soon as he had fairly shaken himself, though not by any means all his clothes, free of the bushes (for ever so many pieces of jacket and knickerbockers, not to speak of one boot and half his hat, had been left behind on the way), and found breath to say something.
Griselda stared at him for a moment without speaking, she was so astonished. It was months since she had spoken to a child, almost since she had seen one, and about children younger than herself she knew very little at any time, being the baby of the family at home, you see, and having only big brothers older than herself for play-fellows.
"Who are you?" she said at last. "What"s your name, and what do you want?"
"My name"s Master Phil, and I want that cuckoo," answered the little boy. "He camed up this way. I"m sure he did, for he called me all the way."
"He"s not here," said Griselda, shaking her head; "and this is my aunts"
garden. No one is allowed to come here but friends of theirs. You had better go home; and you have torn your clothes so."
"This aren"t a garden," replied the little fellow undauntedly, looking round him; "this are a wood. There are blue-bells and primroses here, and that shows it aren"t a garden--not anybody"s garden, I mean, with walls round, for n.o.body to come in."
"But it _is_," said Griselda, getting rather vexed. "If it isn"t a garden it"s _grounds_, private grounds, and n.o.body should come without leave. This path leads down to the wood, and there"s a door in the wall at the bottom to get into the lane. You may go down that way, little boy. No one comes scrambling up the way you did."
"But I want to find the cuckoo," said the little boy. "I do so want to find the cuckoo."
His voice sounded almost as if he were going to cry, and his pretty, hot, flushed face puckered up. Griselda"s heart smote her; she looked at him more carefully. He was such a very little boy, after all; she did not like to be cross to him.
"How old are you?" she asked.
"Five and a bit. I had a birthday after the summer, and if I"m good, nurse says perhaps I"ll have one after next summer too. Do you ever have birthdays?" he went on, peering up at Griselda. "Nurse says she used to when she was young, but she never has any now."
"_Have_ you a nurse?" asked Griselda, rather surprised; for, to tell the truth, from "Master Phil"s" appearance, she had not felt at all sure what _sort_ of little boy he was, or rather what sort of people he belonged to.
"Of course I have a nurse, and a mother too," said the little boy, opening wide his eyes in surprise at the question. "Haven"t you? Perhaps you"re too big, though. People leave off having nurses and mothers when they"re big, don"t they? Just like birthdays. But _I_ won"t. I won"t never leave off having a mother, any way. I don"t care so much about nurse and birthdays, not _kite_ so much. Did you care when you had to leave off, when you got too big?"
"I hadn"t to leave off because I got big," said Griselda sadly. "I left off when I was much littler than you," she went on, unconsciously speaking as Phil would best understand her. "My mother died."
"I"m werry sorry," said Phil; and the way in which he said it quite overcame Griselda"s unfriendliness. "But perhaps you"ve a nice nurse. My nurse is rather nice; but she _will_ "cold me to-day, won"t she?" he added, laughing, pointing to the terrible rents in his garments. "These are my very oldestest things; that"s a good thing, isn"t it? Nurse says I don"t look like Master Phil in these, but when I have on my blue welpet, then I look like Master Phil. I shall have my blue welpet when mother comes."
"Is your mother away?" said Griselda.
"Oh yes, she"s been away a long time; so nurse came here to take care of me at the farm-house, you know. Mother was ill, but she"s better now, and some day she"ll come too."
"Do you like being at the farm-house? Have you anybody to play with?"
said Griselda.
Phil shook his curly head. "I never have anybody to play with," he said.
"I"d like to play with you if you"re not too big. And do you think you could help me to find the cuckoo?" he added insinuatingly.
"What do you know about the cuckoo?" said Griselda.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "BUT I MAY SEE YOU AGAIN," SAID PHIL]
"He called me," said Phil, "he called me lots of times; and to-day nurse was busy, so I thought I"d come. And do you know," he added mysteriously, "I do believe the cuckoo"s a fairy, and when I find him I"m going to ask him to show me the way to fairyland."
"He says we must all find the way ourselves," said Griselda, quite forgetting to whom she was speaking.
"_Does_ he?" cried Phil, in great excitement. "Do you know him, then?
and have you asked him? Oh, do tell me."
Griselda recollected herself. "You couldn"t understand," she said. "Some day perhaps I"ll tell you--I mean if ever I see you again."
"But I may see you again," said Phil, settling himself down comfortably beside Griselda on her mossy stone. "You"ll let me come, won"t you? I like to talk about fairies, and nurse doesn"t understand. And if the cuckoo knows you, perhaps that"s why he called me to come to play with you."
"How did he call you?" asked Griselda.
"First," said Phil gravely, "it was in the night. I was asleep, and I had been wishing I had somebody to play with, and then I d"eamed of the cuckoo--such a nice d"eam. And when I woke up I heard him calling me, and I wasn"t d"eaming then. And then when I was in the field he called me, but I _couldn"t_ find him, and nurse said "Nonsense." And to-day he called me again, so I camed up through the bushes. And mayn"t I come again? Perhaps if we both tried together we could find the way to fairyland. Do you think we could?"
"I don"t know," said Griselda, dreamily. "There"s a great deal to learn first, the cuckoo says."
"Have you learnt a great deal?" (he called it "a gate deal") asked Phil, looking up at Griselda with increased respect. "_I_ don"t know scarcely nothing. Mother was ill such a long time before she went away, but I know she wanted me to learn to read books. But nurse is too old to teach me."
"Shall I teach you?" said Griselda. "I can bring some of my old books and teach you here after I have done my own lessons."
"And then mother _would_ be surprised when she comes back," said Master Phil, clapping his hands. "Oh, _do_. And when I"ve learnt to read a great deal, do you think the cuckoo would show us the way to fairyland?"
"I don"t think it was that sort of learning he meant," said Griselda.
"But I dare say that would help. I _think_," she went on, lowering her voice a little, and looking down gravely into Phil"s earnest eyes, "I _think_ he means mostly learning to be very good--very, _very_ good, you know."
"Gooder than you?" said Phil.
"Oh dear, yes; lots and lots gooder than me," replied Griselda.
"_I_ think you"re very good," observed Phil, in a parenthesis. Then he went on with his cross-questioning.
"Gooder than mother?"
"I don"t know your mother, so how can I tell how good she is?" said Griselda.
"_I_ can tell you," said Phil, importantly. "She is just as good as--as good as--as good as _good_. That"s what she is."
"You mean she couldn"t be better," said Griselda, smiling.
"Yes, that"ll do, if you like. Would that be good enough for us to be, do you think?"
"We must ask the cuckoo," said Griselda. "But I"m sure it would be a good thing for you to learn to read. You must ask your nurse to let you come here every afternoon that it"s fine, and I"ll ask my aunt."
"I needn"t ask nurse," said Phil composedly; "she"ll never know where I am, and I needn"t tell her. She doesn"t care what I do, except tearing my clothes; and when she scolds me, _I_ don"t care."