"But it is rather nice to fancy that the swallows know about us, and that it"s the same ones who come back every year. It makes them seem like friends."
"Yes," said Ferdy, "it is nice. I wonder," he went on, "what sort of things they meant me to look at out of the window. It did rather sound, Chrissie, as if they thought I"d have to stay a long time here in bed, didn"t it?"
Chrissie laughed, though a little nervously.
"How funny you are, Ferdy," she said. "How could the _swallows_ know, even if it had been real and not a dream? Still, we may a little fancy it is true. We could almost make a story of the window--of all the things to be seen, and all the people pa.s.sing. When you are able to be on the sofa, Ferdy, it might stand so that you would see all ways--it would really be like a watch tower."
Ferdy raised himself a _very_ little on one elbow.
"Yes," he said eagerly, "I see how you mean. I do hope I may soon be on the sofa. I think I would make a plan of looking out of one side part of the day, and then out of the other side. I don"t think it would be so bad to be ill if you could make plans. It"s the lying all day just the same that must get so dreadfully dull."
"Well, you need never do that," said his sister, "not even now. When Miss Lilly comes I"m to do a little lessons first, and then I daresay she"ll come in here and read aloud to us, and when I go a walk mamma will sit with you. Things will soon get into plans."
"If I could do some of my work," said Ferdy, "cutting out or painting things for my sc.r.a.pbook."
"I daresay you soon can," said Chrissie hopefully. She was pleased that he had not questioned her more closely as to what the doctors had said, for fortunately her cheerful talking had made him partly forget that he had made up his mind the night before to find out exactly everything she could tell him.
Suddenly Chrissie, who was standing in the window, gave a little cry.
"There is Miss Lilly," she exclaimed. "I am so glad. Now she has stopped to talk to somebody. Who can it be? Oh, I see, it"s that naughty Jesse Piggot! I wonder why he isn"t at school? She seems talking to him quite nicely. Now she"s coming on again and Jesse is touching his cap. He _can_ be very polite when he likes. Shall I run and meet Miss Lilly, and bring her straight up here? No, I can"t, for there"s mamma going down the drive towards her. She must have seen her coming from the drawing-room window."
"Go on," said Ferdy. "Tell me what they are doing. Are they shaking hands and talking to each other? I daresay they"re talking about _me_.
Does Miss Lilly look sorry? P"r"aps mamma is explaining that I can"t have any lessons to-day."
"N--no," said Chrissie, "she"s talking quite--like always, but--she"s holding mamma"s hand."
"Oh," said Ferdy with satisfaction, "that does mean she"s sorry, I"m sure. It would be nice, Chrissie, if I was lying more in the window. I could see all those int"resting things myself. I could see a good deal now if I was sitting up more," and for a moment he startled his sister by moving as if he were going to try to raise himself in bed.
"Oh, Ferdy, you mustn"t," she cried, darting towards him.
But poor Ferdy was already quite flat on his pillow again.
"I _can"t_," he said with a sigh, "I can"t sit up the least little bit,"
and tears came into his eyes.
"Well, don"t look so unhappy," said Chrissie, returning to her post at the window, "for they are coming in now, and mamma won"t be pleased if she thinks I"ve let you get dull. There now, I hear them coming upstairs."
"All right," said Ferdy manfully, "I"m not going to look unhappy."
And it was quite a cheerful little face which met his mother"s anxious glance as she opened the door to usher in Miss Lilly.
CHAPTER V
JESSE PIGGOT
Miss Lilly"s face was cheerful too. At least so it seemed to Ferdy, for she was smiling, and immediately began speaking in a bright, quick way.
But Chrissie looked at her once or twice and "understood." She saw faint traces of tears having been very lately in her governess"s kind eyes, and she heard a little tremble in the voice below the cheeriness. "My dear Ferdy," Miss Lilly was saying, "see what comes of holidays! Much better have lessons than accidents, but it"s an ill wind that blows no good. We shall have famous time now for your _favourite_ lessons--sums and--"
"Now, Miss Lilly, you"re joking--you know you are," said Ferdy, looking up in her face with his sweet blue eyes--eyes that to the young girl"s fancy looked very wistful that morning. He had stretched out his arms, and was clasping them round her neck. Ferdy was very fond of Miss Lilly. "_Aren"t_ you joking?" He wasn"t quite, quite sure if she was, for sums were one of the few crooks in Ferdy"s lot, and rather a sore subject.
Something in the tone of his voice made Miss Lilly kiss him again as she replied, "Of course I"m joking, my dear little matter-of-fact. No, your mamma says you are only to do your _really_ favourite lessons for a week or two, and not those if they tire you. We are all going to spoil you, I"m afraid, my boy."
"I don"t want to be spoilt," said Ferdy. "Chrissie and I have been talking. I want to make plans and be--be useful or some good to somebody, even if I have to stay in bed a good bit. What I most want to get out of bed for is to lie on the sofa and have the end of it pulled into the window, so that I can see along the roads all ways. Oh, Chrissie, you must tell Miss Lilly about the swallows, and--and--what was it I wanted to ask you?" He looked round, as if he were rather puzzled.
"Are you not talking too much?" said Miss Lilly, for the little fellow"s eyes were very bright--too bright, she feared. "Chrissie dear, perhaps you can remember what Ferdy wanted to ask me about."
"Oh, I know," said Ferdy; "it was about Jesse Piggot. Chrissie, you ask."
"We saw you talking to him--at least I did--out of the window, and we wondered what it was about. They all say he"s a very naughty boy, Miss Lilly."
"I know," Miss Lilly replied. "He"s a Draymoor boy"--Draymoor was the name of the mining village that Ferdy had been thinking about on his birthday morning--"or rather he used to be, till his uncle there died."
"And now he lives at Farmer Meare"s, where he works, but he"s still naughty," said Chrissie, as if it was rather surprising that the having left off living at the black village had not made Jesse good at once.
Miss Lilly smiled.
"I don"t think everybody at Draymoor is naughty," she said. "I think Jesse would have been a difficult boy to manage anywhere, though Draymoor isn"t a place with much in the way of good example certainly.
But I hope it"s getting a little better. If one could get hold of the children." She sat silent for a moment or two, her eyes looking as if they saw scenes not there. "I know several of the miners" families who live nearer us than Draymoor--at Bollins, and there are some such nice children among them."
Bollins was a small hamlet on the Draymoor road, and the little house where Miss Lilly lived with her grandfather, an elderly man who had once been a doctor, was just at the Evercombe side of Bollins.
"But you haven"t told us what you were saying to Jesse," said Chrissie.
"Oh no," said Miss Lilly. "Poor boy, it was nice of him. He was asking how Master Ferdy was."
Ferdy looked pleased.
"Did you tell him I was better?" he asked.
"I said I hoped so, but that I had not seen you yet. And then he asked if he might send you his "respexs" and "Was there any birds" eggs you"d a fancy for?""
"Poor Jesse," said Ferdy. "But birds" eggs are one of the things he"s been so naughty about--taking them all and selling them to somebody at Freston. Papa"s almost sure--at least Ferguson is--that he took some thrushes" eggs out of our garden. Fancy, Miss Lilly!"
"And then for him to offer to get Ferdy any," said Chrissie.
"He knows I c"lect them," said Ferdy; "but papa told me long ago, when I was quite little, never to take all the eggs, and _I"ve_ never taken more than one. If you see Jesse again will you tell him he must never take more than one, Miss Lilly?"
"I think in this case," she replied, "it is better to tell him not to take any at all--the temptation would be too great if he knows he can always sell them. I told him I would give you his message, but that I did not think you wanted any eggs that he could get you, and I advised him to leave bird"s-nesting alone, as it had already got him into trouble."
"What did he say?" asked Christine.
"He looked rather foolish and said he "had nought to do of an evening, that was what got him into mischief; it wasn"t as if he had a home of his own," though as far as that goes, I see plenty of boys who _have_ homes of their own idling about in the evenings. It doesn"t matter in the summer, but in the winter grandfather and I often feel sorry for them, and wish we could do something to amuse them. But now, Chrissie dear, we had better go to the schoolroom; your mamma is coming to sit with Ferdy for an hour or so."
"Good-bye, darling," said Chrissie, as she stooped to kiss Ferdy"s pale little face--it had grown very pale again since the excitement of seeing Miss Lilly had faded away. "We shall be back soon--won"t we, Miss Lilly?" she went on, turning to her governess as they left the room together.