"You mean carving," said Christine; "you shouldn"t call it cutting. Yes, I"ve always thought it must be lovely work, but you would need to be awfully clever to do it."
"I"d like to try," said the boy. "When my sofa"s put up a little higher at the back, the way Mr. Stern lets it be now, I can use my hands quite well. You needn"t be afraid I"d cut myself. Oh, it _would_ be jolly to cut out birds, and stags" heads, and things like that!"
"Stags" heads would be awfully difficult," said Christine, "because of the sticking-out horns--they"re just like branches with lots of twigs on them. What is it you call them, Miss Lilly?"
"Antlers, isn"t that what you mean?" Miss Lilly replied. "Yes, they would be very difficult. You would have to begin with something much simpler, Ferdy."
"I suppose I thought of stags because the Swiss boys in the story cut out stags" heads," said Ferdy. "I think I"d try a swallow"s head. When I shut my eyes I can see one quite plain. Miss Lilly, don"t you think I might try to _draw_ one? If I had a piece of paper and a nice pencil--"
Just then the door opened and his mother came in. Her face brightened up as soon as she caught sight of Ferdy"s cheerful expression and heard his eager tone--it was always so now. Since the accident Mrs. Ross seemed a kind of mirror of her boy; if he was happy and comfortable her anxious face grew smooth and peaceful; if he had had a bad night, or was tired, or in pain, she looked ten years older.
And Miss Lilly, who, though still quite young herself, was very thoughtful and sensible, saw this with anxiety.
"It will never do for things to go on like this," she said to herself, "the strain will break down poor Mrs. Ross. And if Ferdy is never to be quite well again, or even if it takes a long time for him to recover, it will get worse and worse. We must try to find something for him to do that will take him out of himself, as people say,--something that will make him feel himself of use, poor dear, as he would like to be. I wonder if my grandfather could speak to Mrs. Ross and make her see that she should try not to be always so terribly anxious."
For old Dr. Lilly was a very wise man. In his long life he had acquired a great deal of knowledge besides "book-learning"; he had learnt to read human beings too.
But just now Miss Lilly"s thoughtful face brightened up also as Ferdy"s mother came in.
"We are talking about wood-carving," she said. "I am going to ask my grandfather about it. And Ferdy would like to prepare for it by drawing a little again--he was getting on nicely just before he was ill."
"I"d like a slate," said Ferdy, "because I could rub out so easily; only drawings on a slate never look pretty--white on black isn"t right."
"_I_ know what," exclaimed Christine. "Mamma, do let us get Ferdy one of those beautiful white china slates--a big one, the same as your little one that lies on the hall table for messages."
Ferdy"s eyes sparkled with pleasure.
"That would do lovelily," he said.
So it was arranged that Christine should drive with her mother that afternoon to the nearest town--not Whittingham, but a smaller town in another direction, called Freston, in quest of a good-sized white china slate.
CHAPTER VII
AN UNEXPECTED PIG"S HEAD
Miss Lilly and Ferdy spent a quiet hour or two together after Christine and her mother had set off. Then, as it was really a half-holiday, and Miss Lilly usually went home immediately after luncheon on half-holidays, she said good-bye to Ferdy, after seeing him comfortably settled and Flowers within hail, and started on her own way home.
She was anxious to have a talk with her grandfather and ask his advice as to the best way of helping the little boy and his mother, and keeping off the dangers to both which she saw in the future.
It was a lovely day--quite a summer day now--for it was some way on in June, and this year the weather had been remarkably beautiful--never before quite so beautiful since she had come to live in the neighbourhood, thought the young girl to herself, and she sighed a little as she pictured in her own mind what happy days she and her two little pupils might have had in the woods and fields round about Evercombe.
"Poor Ferdy," she thought, "I wonder if he really ever will get well again. That is, in a way, the hardest part of it all--the not knowing.
It makes it so difficult to judge how to treat him in so many little ways."
She was not very far from her own home by this time, and looking up along the sunny road, she saw coming towards her a familiar figure.
"I do believe it is Jesse Piggot," she said to herself. "How curious, just when I"d been thinking about him the last day or two!"
Jesse stopped as he came up to her, and it seemed to Miss Lilly that his face grew a little red, though bashfulness was certainly not one of Jesse"s weak points.
"Why, Jesse!" she exclaimed, "so you"ve got back again. How did you get on while you were away?"
Jesse"s answer to this question was rather indistinct. He murmured something that sounded like "All right, thank you, miss," but added almost immediately in a brighter tone, "How is Master Ferdy, please?"
"Pretty well," Miss Lilly replied; "that is to say, he doesn"t suffer now, and we do all we can to cheer him up."
Jesse"s face grew concerned and half puzzled.
"Ain"t he all right again by this time?" he asked. "I thought he"d have been running about same as before, and a-riding on his new pony."
Miss Lilly shook her head rather sadly.
"Oh no," she said, "there"s no chance of anything like that for a long time"--"if ever," she added to herself. "The kind of accident that happened to Master Ferdy," she went on, "is almost the worst of any to cure--worse than a broken leg, or a broken head even."
Jesse said nothing for a moment or two, but something in his manner showed the young lady that his silence did not come from indifference.
He had something in his hand, a stick of some kind, and as Miss Lilly"s eyes fell on it, she saw that he had been whittling it with a rough pocket-knife.
"What is that, Jesse?" she said. "Are you making something?"
The boy"s face grew distinctly redder now.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "I"VE DONE "EM BEFORE FROM ONE OF THE OLD SQUEAKERS UP AT THE FARM."]
""Tis nothing, miss," he said, looking very ashamed, "only a bit o"
nonsense as I thought"d make Master Ferdy laugh. I"ve done "em before from one of the old squeakers up at the farm."
And he half-reluctantly allowed Miss Lilly to take out of his hand a small stick, the top of which he had chipped into a rough, but unmistakable likeness to a pig"s head.
Miss Lilly almost started. It seemed such a curious coincidence that just as she was going to consult her grandfather about some new interest and occupation for Ferdy, and just, too, as the idea of her little pupil"s being of use to this poor waif and stray of a boy had been put into her mind by Ferdy himself, Jesse should turn up again, and in the new character of a possible art! For though not an artist of any kind herself, she had quick perceptions and a good eye, and in the queer, grotesque carving that the boy held in his hand she felt almost sure that she detected signs of something--well, of _talent_, however uncultivated, to say the least.
Jesse did not understand her start of surprise and the moment"s silence that followed it. He thought she was shocked, and he grew still redder as he hastily tried to hide the poor piggy in his hand.
"I didn"t think as any one "ud see it till I met Master Ferdy hisself some time; he"s partial to pigs, is Master Ferdy, though no one can say as they"re pretty. But I thought it"d make him laugh."
"My dear boy," exclaimed the young girl eagerly, "don"t hide away the stick. You don"t understand. I am very pleased with your pig--very pleased indeed. Have you done other things like it? I should like to--"
but then she stopped for a moment. She must not say anything to put it into Jesse"s scatter-brained head that he was a genius, and might make his fortune by wood-carving. Of all things, as she knew by what she had heard of him, it was important that he should learn to stick to his work and work hard. So she went on quietly, "I am sure Master Ferdy will like the pig very much, and he will think it very kind of you to have thought of pleasing him. Let me look at it again," and she took it out of Jesse"s rather unwilling hands.
"It is not quite finished yet, I see," she said, "but I think it is going to be a very nice, comical pig."
And, indeed, the grotesque expression of the ears and snout--of the whole, indeed--was excellent. You could scarcely help smiling when you looked at it.
Jesse"s red face grew brighter.
"Oh no, miss," he said, "it bain"t finished. I"m going to black the eyes a bit--just a touch, you know, with a pencil. And there"s a lot more to do to the jowl. I"m going to have a good look at old Jerry--that"s the oldest porker at the farm--when he"s havin" his supper to-night; you can see his side face beautiful then," and Jesse"s eyes twinkled with fun.