"You—you know what I'm going to do when I grow up?" Inez said. "I shall have a flying machine of my own, and fly all over the world."
"You couldn't do it," said Chris. "You'd come a cropper. It wants a proper airman to-fly."
"I'd be a proper airwoman," said Inez obstinately. "Now we'll come down and have some shooting. I have some bows and arrows. I've just one friend, Dick Yorke: he's the boy at the west lodge, and he makes stunning bows and arrows. He and I have shooting matches."
She led them on to the old lawn, left them there whilst she raced off to a shed, and came back in a few minutes with half a dozen bows in one hand and a bundle of arrows in the other.
This sport proved very exciting. Chris enjoyed it as much as anyone. They aimed at big paper targets fixed on some tree-trunks at the bottom of the lawn, and Chris and Inez both reached the bull's-eye.
There was no lack of occupation that evening. They went all over the stables, saw the two white terriers, the rabbits, chickens and turkeys, pigs and goats. They visited the barns, and enjoyed the swing that Inez had got one of the men to put up for her, and then, to their dismay, the big clock in the stable-yard struck seven.
Mrs. Inglefield had told them that they must leave Inez at seven o'clock.
When Chris said they must go, Inez declared that they should not.
"Why, I don't go to bed till eight, and very often I run out and hide somewhere away from Julia, and don't come in till nearly nine. I haven't shown you half yet. I want to take you down to the pond where the fish are."
"We must go now," Chris said firmly. "I promised Mother we should be punctual."
"I don't think you're to be pitied at all, with all this," said Diana, waving her hands about. "I think you live in a lovely house, Inez; I should never, never be dull, and I should write stories about people being shut up in your castle, and soldiers outside trying to catch them."
"It's so dull being alone," said Inez with a pout. "I have nobody with me."
"You have two peoples always," said Noel, staring at her with big eyes.
"I've nobody I like."
"Don't you like God?"
"Oh, shut up, Noel!" said Chris. "And come on. We must not be late."
"Oh, what a good boy am I!" said Inez mockingly. "But I shan't let you go, so don't you think it. You can easily say you didn't know the time."
"But we do know the time, and we don't tell lies."
"I do whenever I want to. What does it matter?"
They were walking towards the house as they spoke, and Diana ran upstairs to get their gloves and scarves that they had taken off before tea.
When she had got them and was coming downstairs again, she heard a great noise in the hall.
It was Inez struggling and fighting with Julia.
She had inveigled Chris and Noel into the big library, and then had run out and turned the key of the door.
"Now I've got you!" she cried, dancing up and down. "And you'll have to be late going home, for I shan't let you go."
Chris and Noel battered at the door, and Julia appeared. Then ensued a struggle for the key. Inez fought and screamed and kicked, and even tried to bite, when Julia wrenched the key out of her grasp and unlocked the door. Diana looked on in horror. Inez seemed to have turned into a little tiger.
"Come on," she said to the boys, "let us get out of this." And then they hastily went out of the hall door.
Inez left Julia and darted after them.
"You are all milksops, and I don't care for one of you! You might have backed me up against that beast of a Julia!"
"I wouldn't fight women," said Chris scornfully.
"And now I suppose you'll go home and tell your mother how wicked I am, and she'll never let me come near you again!"
The children were silent for a moment, then Diana said steadily:
"We tell Mother everything, but she won't be angry, only sorry."
"And now I know who does always live in your house," said Noel in his eager, breathless way: "it's the Devil!"
This statement reduced Inez to silence.
Chris hurried his sister and brother down the drive, and Inez stopped still and gazed after them with tears in her eyes.
"Good-bye," Chris said, looking back and waving his cap, "and thank you for a very nice time."
Inez made no answer: she turned and walked back slowly to the house. Noel's strange words rang in her ears: "Julia says I'm a young devil," she said to herself slowly. "I wonder if it is the Devil that makes me get into such tempers. I don't like to think he lives in the house with me."
Meanwhile Chris was saying to Noel:
"I do wish you wouldn't talk so much about God and the Devil. People don't do it. It makes us quite ashamed of you."
"I don't care," said Noel, setting his lips in an obstinate line. "It was Satan that made her fight like that. I'll ask Mother if it wasn't!"
"She's awfully naughty," said Diana, "but I do like her. She thinks we're prigs, but we couldn't be expected to all begin to fight and kick and scream at poor Julia. I don't wonder she gets cross with Inez!"
"She ought to go to school," said Chris in his superior tone. "She'd soon get licked into shape."
"She told me when her father and mother come home they are going to send her to school, and she says she will like it."
"Oh, will she!" said Chris with a short laugh. "A boy came the other day to our school: his mother and nurse have spoilt him, and he began carrying on high jinks with some fellows. You should have seen how they dropped on him! I felt quite sorry for the kid!"
"What did they do to him?" asked Noel with interest.
"You'll see when you come there. You aren't much better than Inez sometimes, when you can't get your way, so don't preach so much."
"I don't preach. But I shall when I grow up. It's very good to preach."
Chris refused to argue the matter out.
When they reached home they found their mother waiting for them. She was soon taken into their confidence, but as Diana said, she did not feel angry with Inez, only very, very sorry for her.
"I'm not afraid of her doing you harm, for I hope you will do her good."
"But we don't like being prigs," said Chris.
"No. You need not be. Be your own happy bright little selves, and show her that you are happier doing right than when you are doing wrong. That is all."
The children said no more. Diana had been rather afraid that their acquaintance with Inez might be stopped, and she was looking forward to pouring out some of the imaginations in her brain to her. Now she felt quite happy.
"Mother always understands," she said to herself as she laid her head down on her pillow that night, "and if Inez had a mother like ours, I expect she'd be as good as gold!"
"Come on, you little duffer! You're only picking rubbish. We want to get to the wild strawberries!"
"I'm tarred, and moss isn't rubbish! I fink I shall put it round my Chris'mas tree."
Chris, Diana and Noel were taking a walk together. It was the following Saturday, and Mrs. Inglefield, who encouraged independence in Chris, assented gladly when he told her that the baker had told him of a field which contained wild strawberries and that they would all like to go and get them. Chris had never seen a wild strawberry in his life, but he imagined them to be pretty much like those he had seen in the London shops. It was rather a long walk for Noel, and he soon began to lag behind and stop to look in the hedges for spoils. Chris felt impatient; it was a hot afternoon in June, and the country lane was dusty and breathless. No friendly trees shaded them from the glaring sun. Diana trudged along with a smiling face. She was generally wrapt in dreams when she was out of doors, but Noel's plaintive voice roused her.
"Take my hand," she said; "I'll help you along. It isn't much farther now. It's that high field over there by the side of the wood, isn't it, Chris?"
"Yes, that's it. We can sit down when we get there and eat."
"But we must bring some back for Mother."
"I'm raining!" announced Noel; "raining quite fast like I did in India!"
Diana laughed.
"You do say such things!" she said. "Take your handkerchief out and wipe your face. We're all hot."
The lane along which they were walking was very narrow and winding. It was a by-lane, and by the grassy ruts in it showed that it was not much used.
As they rounded a corner they suddenly came upon a motor turned nearly upside down in a hedge, and by the side of it a lady sat reclining against a bank. She did not see them till they were right up to her, for her eyes were shut, and she was groaning in an unhappy sort of way.
The children stood still, and then, doffing his cap, Chris stepped up to her.
"Are you hurt, please? Can we help you?"
The lady started and looked up. Then she put her hand up to her head and pulled her hat straight. She had a very cheerful-looking face and seemed about the age of their mother.
"Thank goodness someone has come by at last! I thought in this benighted country that no one would come to my help! Of course you can help me, little boy, by fetching men from somewhere to right my car and put it into the middle of the road again. If I hadn't smashed or sprained my ankle, I could have walked back to the village and sent someone to bring it along."
"I'll go at once," Chris said cheerfully. "There must be some policemen about, and they'll see to everything."
The lady went into peals of laughter.
"Hark at him! A little Londoner, eh? The police may rescue people in distress in London, but they don't exist in the country, my boy. There's a single one here and there, but my experience is that never by any chance do they turn up when one wants them. You must think of someone better than a policeman. Get to the nearest farm. They'll send some men along."
"There's that farm we passed a little time ago," said Diana. "Run back there, Chris, and ask them to come."
"Of course they may be out in the fields working," said the lady; "but get someone—anyone—quickly, if you can! I seem to have been here hours, and have shouted myself hoarse."
Noel stepped up in front of her when Chris had run off. His eyes were big with thought and anxiety.
"The best person who can help in a naxident is God," he remarked, looking at her gravely; "I fink He's the Person to be asked to send the men you want. For He knows just where they are."
Then the lady threw back her head and laughed more heartily than she had done before.
"Oh, you delicious child!" she said. "I'm sure from your face and curls you must be a cherub just flown down from heaven. Now, aren't you? Confess you are."
"I don't know what a cherub is," said Noel, looking at her stolidly, "but I haven't been in heaven since I was a baby."
"Please excuse him," interrupted Diana. "He's always talking like that. We can't get him to be quiet about God."
She said the last word in a whisper.
"But," said the lady, "I shouldn't wonder if he were right. Could you ask God to help us, as you seem to know Him better than the rest of us?"
She turned to Noel as she spoke, and in a moment he was on his knees in the dusty lane.
"Please, God, send somebody very quickly to help this poor lady. For Jesus' sake. Amen."
Then he got up.
"That's all right," he said calmly. "God always hears when anyone wants help. Mums has told us so."
He looked a little defiantly at Diana as he spoke, for he knew she was thoroughly disapproving of him.
But Diana did not heed him. She had seen the lady make a wry face and clasp her foot with her hand.
"Can I bind my handkerchief round it?" she asked. "Or get some water to bathe it with?"
"You are a little dear to think of such a thing, but I can't get my shoe off, it hurts too much; and I was due to lunch with Lady Alice at two o'clock. It's past three now. What will she think? Do you know where her house is? I took a wrong turn, thinking I would make a short cut, and then ran myself into the hedge in this twisty, twirly lane! It's only the third time I've been out alone with my car. I suppose I was careless."
"I know where Lady Alice lives. Mums has been to tea with her and has shown us the house. It's over there. We can just see its chimneys."
"Well, now, that's splendid! May I send you off there to tell them where I am? They'll send their car for me. And leave the cherub to take care of me."
"I think I can go across the fields," said Diana, peeping over the hedge.
This was an adventure after her own heart. She found a gate into the field and sped away.
Noel heaved a sigh, then suddenly plumped down on the bank beside the stranger.
"I'm so tarred," he said; "we've walked miles. We were going to pick strawberries."
"Were you? How delightful! I hope the strawberries will wait for you. Talk away. Tell me who you are and all about yourself. It will cheer me up."
Noel began at once.
"I've comed from India. The other children haven't been there since they were babies. Mums likes us all alike, but I know her bester than the others, 'cause I've always, always been with her. And I've got a Chris'mas tree. I planted it myself. I'm very fond of him, and I talk to him a lot. He's rather sad now because the flowers are so pretty and he isn't pretty, and he doesn't smell like the roses. But by and by, when Chris'mas comes, he'll be beautiful, grand, and beautiful! And the flowers will be dead and buried. He's really much better than they are, because he lives longer. Chris and Dinah won't laugh at him when he's dressed with beautiful lights and presents, and when he's in the middle of the room and all of us dancing round him. I tell him about it when he feels a little unhappy. And he nods his head and unnerstands."
"I'm most awfully interested," said the lady as Noel came to a pause. "Go on. Tell me more."
Noel drew a long breath, and then he sprang to his feet. "Here's a man in a cart, and I believe it is God's man, and he's got here first of all."
Sure enough, a farm cart was coming round the corner, and the man who was driving got down at once when he saw there had been an accident.
"You'm best get in my cart, mum, and I'll drive 'ee to the Hall," he said when matters had been explained to him. "'Tisn't a one man's job to get that car out o' ditch."
The lady looked at the rough dirty cart which had been used for carting manure, and she smiled very sweetly:
"I think I'll wait, thank you. I've sent a little messenger to the Hall, and they'll be sending a car for me."
The man rubbed the back of his head and looked first at her and then at the car.
"Seems as if I be no use to ye."
"But you must be," Noel said, staring at him, "because God sent you. I asked Him to. Oh, do give a pull to the car and I'll help you."
The man laughed at the tiny boy's offer. The car was a very small one, but he set his shoulder to it, and after much vigorous effort he actually got it righted.
Noel clapped his hands in triumph, and danced round him excitedly:
"I knew you'd do it!"
The lady was very pleased. She presented the man with two half-crowns out of her purse, and then she tried to raise herself to her feet.
"If I could once get in!" she sighed. "But I'm afraid it is of no use. I shouldn't be able to manage the car with no feet, and it is my right one that is hurt. I am not a clever enough driver to do without it."
"Here's Chris coming with some other men," shouted Noel, "but we've done it without them!"
"I think I shall be very glad of their help to bring my car along after me," said the lady, who seemed willing to employ all who came up.
Chris seemed almost disappointed when he saw the car standing on its four wheels in the lane.
"I've brought Mr. Down and Mr. Gates," he said importantly. "They were working in the field and they came at once."
"But God's man got here first," said Noel.
For a moment there was silence; the men stared at each other, and then the lady had a brilliant idea.
"Take one of the cushions out of the car, or perhaps the thick rug would answer as well, two of you catch hold of each end, and I can then be carried off to the Hall, where they are expecting me to lunch."
This was immediately done. She waved her hand to the little boys from her improvised seat.
"Good-bye; you will have to come and see me. I have taken a house for the summer about four miles off, and I am ever so grateful for your help."
She seemed to have forgotten about Diana, and Chris asked Noel where she was.
"She's gone to Lady Alice's. I don't believe she'll ever come back; let's go on and get the strawberries."
After a little hesitation, Chris agreed to this.
"I like that lady," Noel announced as they went on their way. "She laughs so when she talks. And she liked me to talk to her. I told her all about my Chris'mas tree, and she said it was very interessing!"
"I bet she did!" Chris said with an unbelieving laugh.
Here Noel made a rush forwards. They had reached the top of the field, and there was some red amongst the grass along a bank there.
But when Chris reached the spot he was bitterly disappointed.
"They're so tiny, they're not proper strawberries!"
"They taste nice and sweet," said Noel, putting some of the little strawberries into his mouth. "Let's pick a lot of them."
They set to work. There were really a fine number on the bank, and Chris began to wish Diana was with them.
"She's so quick," he said. "She'd pick a lot in no time."
But Diana did not come. There was no sign of her. And by the time they had nearly filled their basket, Chris said they must go home.
On their way back, they passed the place where the accident had happened.
The car was gone, but Noel's quick eyes spied something in the hedge. He pounced upon it at once. It proved to be a small leather purse attached to a little gold chain.
"What shall we do with it, Chris?"
"Take it to her," cried Chris, joyfully pouncing upon it and putting it in his pocket. "Come on, Noel, hurry up! The Hall is ever so far off, but it will be fun going there. I shouldn't wonder if they haven't kept Dinah to tea."
"I found it," said Noel sulkily. "It's mine, it isn't yours."
"What does it matter who found it, you stupid! Why, you're beginning to cry! What a baby! I'll give it to you to give to her when we get there. Come on! What a slow coach you are!"
Noel struggled to keep up with his brother's quick pace, but at last he gave up, and again dissolved into tears.
"I'm tarred. I've walked ever so many miles. I wiss I was home!"
"Then you go home, and I'll go on to the Hall."
"It isn't fair. I found it, and I like that lady. She smiled at me!"
Poor Noel was divided between his longing to go on and the desire to rest his poor little legs. The afternoon had been very warm, and he was tired out. By the time they came to the signpost at the cross-roads which marked the way to the Hall, he had made up his mind to go home.
"We might take it to her to-morrow," he suggested.
"Oh, she must have it at once!" Chris said. "It has money in it. I can hear it jingle. You always give up money at once. Besides, she may be wanting to use it. You go on back to Mums and give her the strawberries, and tell her all about it."
Noel brightened up. To give his mother anything was always a treat, and he dearly liked telling her of any adventure that befell him.
So the little boys parted, and Noel reached home at last. His mother met him at the door.
"Why, my darling, how warm you are!"
"And I'm tarred and firsty," said Noel, "and I'm raining all over me—"
"Where are the others? Come into the dining-room and I will get you a glass of lemonade."
"Here are the strawberries, such tinies! But they taste very nice, Mums. Dinah and Chris have both gone off about a lady who's at Lady Alice's—"
Then he poured into his mother's ears the events of the afternoon. When he had drunk the lemonade and had had his hands and face washed, and was seated in his mother's lap in her boudoir, he began to feel better.
And then he suddenly put his arms round his mother's neck and hugged her.
"I do feel sorry for the poor little boys who can't get on their mothers' laps," he said.
"Ah!" said his mother with a sigh and a smile. "I'm afraid my children will soon get beyond their mother's lap."
"I never shall," said Noel determinedly. "Not when I'm a grown-up big man—"
"You're my baby-man now," said Mrs. Inglefield, laughing. "And I should like to keep you so."
It was not very long afterwards that Chris and Diana came home together. Diana had her story to tell first.
"I thought I should never get to Lady Alice's, it seemed such a long way, and when I knocked at the big door I felt quite frightened. I told the butler about the accident, and he took me into such a beautiful big drawing-room, and there were a lot of people there, and Lady Alice came up and kissed me, for she said she knew who I was, and then she ordered out her car at once, but the chauffeur couldn't be found, he had gone home to dinner, and so it all took time, and Lady Alice gave me a real ice and some cake, and then said I had better go in the car, and she sent her maid as well, and we were coming through the village and had got to the narrow lane when we met two men carrying the lady on a cushion, and so she was put very carefully in, and it hurt her and she gave a little scream, and then she said I must come back with her and tell her all about ourselves, for she wanted to be amused."
"But she wouldn't go to Lady Alice's; she said she must get straight home because of her foot. And she lives in such a pretty little house, Mums, and she has a dear old aunt who lives with her and is very small, not much taller than I am, but so pretty, and she made such a fuss when she heard about her foot. And she's called Constance—the old lady called her Connie, and then one of the servants was sent for a doctor, and old Miss Trent, that's the aunt's name, began to bathe the foot and bandage it, and she let me help, and Miss Constance laughed most of the time, though she called out too, and she said such funny things; she made up a rhyme about herself, about taking out her car, and roaming afar, and having a spill, and then being ill, and it ended up with:"
"'Having contracted a sprain,I won't drive again;I'll lie on my sofaAnd become a poor loafer.'"
"And then she said she must have visitors to amuse her, and she wants Noel to go to her on Monday."
Diana paused for breath. Noel clapped his hands, and cried out with delight.
"Well now, I'll tell the rest," said Chris. "I went off to the Hall, but when I got to the lodge the woman told me that Lady Alice had sent her car to take the lady home, and I asked where it was, and the woman told me it was called Ladywell Cottage, and was two miles off. I was pretty well done, but as it happened a baker's cart was going that way, and he took me up. It was fun driving along with him! I think bakers' men must have a jolly time of it! And then I went up and knocked at the door, and the doctor had just arrived, but the lady would see me and thanked me for the purse, and I told her that Noel had picked it up, but couldn't walk so far, so that's why she wants to see him next Monday. And then the doctor said he would drive Dinah and me back, for he was going to see Ted at the Rectory and it was all in his way. So we had a jolly drive back in the doctor's car, and here we are!"
"I think you've had a lot of adventures," said his mother, smiling, "but I am sorry for that poor girl's accident. I met her at the Hall the other day. She has come into this part to spend the summer here. Her name is Constance Trent. She lives with her brother, who is a Harley Street doctor, and is a cousin of Lady Alice's. I don't know how Noel will get to her, it is three miles from here."
"She said if her car was all right, she would send it for him. I wish she had asked us all," said Diana. "I liked her, she's such fun!"
Then the nursery bell rang for tea, and Mrs. Inglefield took the strawberries and put them upon a big plate and covered them with white sugar, and said she must have nursery tea with them so that she could enjoy the strawberries as well as they.
Nurse produced some cream, and the children thought they had never tasted any fruit more delicious.
"It was worth getting hot and tired for," said Diana, "especially as it helped us to rescue a lady in distress. I shall write my next story about it, only I shall make her a princess in disguise."
Miss Trent's car arrived at three o'clock on the following Monday afternoon. Noel was dressed in his best white sailor suit, and was immensely pleased to go off on his own. He sat back against the cushions of the car with such a proud self-satisfied look that his mother and Diana, who stood at the gate waving good-bye, both laughed together.
"He does think a lot of himself to-day!" said Diana.
"He's such a baby!" said her mother, almost apologetically.
"Miss Constance calls him the Cherub," said Diana. "I don't think he's a cherub when he screams and kicks for nothing."
"But he's getting better, isn't he? I don't hear so many rumpuses now."
"I think he's better since he saw Inez in one of her rages," said Diana gravely. "Oh, Mums, mayn't we have her to tea again?"
"The holidays will soon be here," her mother said, "then you can have her here every day if you like. We must get up some picnics. I should like that poor boy Ted to have a little fun."
"The week after next," sighed Diana; "it seems a long time. But let us talk about the picnics, Mums. I've never been to one, except when we had tea on the beach at Brighton."
Mrs. Inglefield began to describe a picnic in a shady wood where the dinner things could be washed up in a brook, and the tea boiled in a kettle over a real gipsy fire. Diana was enchanted at the sound of it; she had been feeling rather envious of Noel's treat, but now she forgot all about him, and only thought of the joys that were coming to them in the holidays.
Meanwhile Noel was being carried swiftly along through the country lanes, and it seemed that the end of his drive came almost too soon, for he was enjoying it so much. Ladywell Cottage stood in a garden of its own, well back from the road. It was a low thatched house with quaint gables and windows. The door had a deep porch to it in which there were seats; beehives lined a little path that led across the lawn to some apple trees. The hall door stood open, and as Noel came up a little shyly, wondering if he had better go in or ring the bell, he heard Miss Trent calling to him:
"Is that the Cherub? I heard the car. Come along in."
He took off his hat and stepped across the daintily furnished hall into a very pretty little sitting-room, where upon a chintz-covered couch by the open window lay his hostess.
She held out both hands to him.
"Come along. I have been such a dull dog to-day, and I want to be amused! Sit down on that small chair, and let me look at you. Now talk. You talk and I'll listen."
Noel felt absolutely dumb. What could he say?
"Well," she said, looking at him with a little laugh, "I'm sure you have never lost your tongue. And you do know such a lot that I don't. I want to be taught as well as amused."
"Grown-up people aren't taught," said Noel, looking at her in his stolid kind of way.
"Oh, aren't they, my little cherub! I'm learning every day of my life."
"I'm not a cherub," said Noel. "I'm a boy."
"Do you know what cherub means? In the Hebrew tongue, it means fullness of knowledge, and the cherubims have it. I think you know a lot that I don't know. I shan't tell you to be quiet about God. I like to hear you talk about Him."
"Reely?"
Noel couldn't quite make out this new friend, but his tongue was loosening.
"Chris says you can think about God, but boys don't talk about Him unless they're with their mothers alone; then they can."
"I wish I were your mother," said Miss Trent, looking at him with a sparkle in her eyes. "Can't you imagine I am?"
"Couldn't!" said Noel briefly.
Then after a moment's pause he said:
"Do you ever have the Devil in your house?"
Miss Trent checked her inclination to laugh. The small boy she saw was in dead earnest and could not stand ridicule.
"I hope I don't," she said gravely, "but I'm not sure. What does he come into houses for?"
"To get into your heart," Noel responded in a most cheerful tone. "He comes into mine ever so many times a day. Mums says if you're a good soldier you can keep him out, but he's too strong for me, unless I get behind Jesus Christ and fight him like that. We know a girl who doesn't know about fighting him. She lets him do what he likes with her."
"A great many people do that," said Miss Trent. "Go on, Cherub, tell me more."
"I don't make fren's with the Devil often," Noel went on gravely, "but when Chris gets me down on the ground and sits on me, I don't care nuffin about being good and pleasing God; I only wiss I could kill him, and of course Satan likes me to wiss that, for you know what I am then?"
"What?" asked Miss Trent, looking as if she were enjoying herself.
"A murderer!" said Noel, shaking his head solemnly. "And that's what Julia makes Inez feel. I b'lieve if nobody in'erfered with me I should be a quite good boy always."
"But as long as people are in the world, they will interfere with us, Cherub. I have suffered in that way, too."
"Have you ever had anyone sit upon your chest and twist your nose?"
"I've had a good many people sitting upon me, and trying to twist my poor will to suit them," said Miss Trent with a funny little laugh.
"Diana says I tell tales," said Noel. "She and Chris say that's an awful fing to do. So please forget I said Chris sat upon me. They've been learning me a lot of fings since I came to live with them. But I like them better than I did. Did you have any bruvvers and sisters when you were a little girl?"
"Only one brother," said Miss Trent. "I think he and I were better friends when we were small than we are now. He tries to manage me."
"Yes, that's what Chris and Diana do to me. I reely got on better wivout them, but Mums seems to like them very well. Does your bruvver insist on taking your hand when you can get on quite well alone, and then anover time run on and leave you ever so far behind?"
She nodded.
"Ah, Cherub! You and I understand each other very well. That's just what my brother does. He won't believe I can get on quite well alone, and as for going on and leaving me far behind, he and his books are always doing that. We quarrelled so badly one day that I ran away and left him, and that's why I'm down here, and I shall keep away till he is repentant."
"My dear child!"
It was little old Miss Trent who spoke. She had come quietly into the room, and had overheard her niece's speech.
"Well, isn't it true, Aunt Prissy?"
Miss Trent smiled and shook her head.
"I sometimes thank God that he is your brother only and not a husband."
"A husband! Horrors! Fancy living with a husband like Vincent!"
Then Miss Trent held out her hand to Noel, and drew him gently to her.
"I have an old-fashioned box of Chinese puzzles in my work-table over there: would you like to play with them? Tea will be coming in directly."
Noel was delighted with the little ivory box that was shown him. He sat on the window-seat, and was perfectly happy with it whilst the maid laid the table for tea. Then suddenly glancing out of the window he saw a man beginning to mow the lawn in front of the house. And when he saw him he sprang to his feet.
"There's God's man!" he exclaimed.
Constance Trent looked out of the window and smiled.
"Yes, I found out yesterday that he was out of work, and as I want some gardening done, he has come round to do it. Would you like to go and speak to him?"
Noel was out of the room and in the garden like a shot.
Running up to the man, he said:
"Good afternoon, God's man! I saw you frough the window. Do you like cutting grass?"
The man smiled.
"I like a job, little master. Why do you call me God's man?"
"Because you are. I prayed for a man, and God sent you."
"The Almighty God has no dealin's with me. Not for many a long year."
"But He did send you. I know He did, and you came along the lane just in proper time."
The man shook his head.
"I'm worse than nought in God's sight. Haven't been to church for nigh on twenty year—not since I buried my poor old mother."
"I s'pect God wants you back there, that's why He took hold of you yesterday and made you walk up the lane just when we wanted you. I'm having tea with the lady all by myself. I came in her car. There was only me in it."
"To think o' that, now!"
The man rested his mower and looked at Noel with a good-natured smile.
"Well, little master, if you brought me along that lane yesterday, you did me a good turn, for it give me five shilling and this job. I've a wife ill, and little enough to live on. Work is not to be had in these parts."
"I didn't bring you, God brought you!"
And then Noel was called indoors to tea.
Such a nice tea! A big currant cake, some sweet preserves, little iced biscuits, and hot sweet tea-cakes. Noel sat up on his best behaviour, and Constance and her aunt chatted and laughed with him until he felt thoroughly at home.
After tea Miss Trent took him round the garden and picked some beautiful ripe red cherries to take home to his mother. He had another talk with Constance before he left, and she said to him:
"Look here, little cherub, you seem to be on very friendly terms with God. Couldn't you ask Him to make my foot quite well? I want to get about. I wasn't made for lying still."
"I'll ask Him in my prayers to-night," Noel said promptly.
"And do you think He'll make my foot well to-morrow?"
Noel looked thoughtful.
"When I had the measles in India, Mums said God didn't want to take them away till I'd learnt to lie still and be a good boy—"
"Ah, perhaps I have got to lie here and be a good girl!"
"But you're a grown-up lady. Grown-up people always feel good, don't they?"
"I won't try to undeceive you, little cherub. You're a darling! I must see more of you. I hope I shan't be tempted to steal you away from your mother."
"You couldn't do that," said Noel as he lifted up his face to be kissed. "Nobody, not wild chariots and horses, could tear me away from Mums!"
Then he said good-bye. The car was there to take him home again. Miss Trent took him down the garden path and he waved to Constance, who was at the window looking after him.
"You must come again," she called out to him. "If I don't get well by next week, you must come to tea with me again!"
And Noel called out in reply:
"I will! I will! I'll come as often as you ask me."
He was very excited when he got home, telling his mother and Diana all about his visit, and rather troublesome with Nurse. She said his head was turned by the notice taken of him, and when he had defied her by coming to his supper with very dirty hands, and then screamed with anger when she dragged him off to the bathroom, Diana said very gravely:
"If Miss Trent saw you at home, she wouldn't say you were a cherub!"
"Why?" Noel demanded.
"Because cherubs never have dirty hands, and never scream like you!"
"Are cherubs angels?"
"Kind of angels. Little fat boys who look out of the clouds. I've seen them in pictures."
Noel was back in the nursery now eating his bread-and-milk. He turned his hands over and looked at them thoughtfully.
"It's weeding. I took up some grass weeds round my Chris'mas tree. What is the earth like in heaven?"
"I don't know, but it isn't dirty, I suppose. Everybody is always clean and good there."
"I don't think I'm a cherub," said Noel; "but if Miss Trent likes to call me it, I shall pretend I am."
"Then you'll have to try to be like one," said Diana.
Noel said no more, but when Nurse undressed him that evening and spoke to him sharply, he said rather plaintively:
"I wish I was a real cherub, then I shouldn't be managed."
"You're no more like a cherub than the black cat is!" said Nurse shortly. "Now get into bed, and try to be a good boy to-morrow. That's all that you need trouble your head about."
And Noel laid his head on his pillow and went fast asleep, to dream that Miss Trent and he were sailing through the sky on a fat soft white cloud, and then that they tumbled into a pond and "God's man" fished them out with his garden rake!
He went to tea with Miss Trent once more in the following week and enjoyed himself even more than before, for her foot was better and they had tea in the garden, and he played with a terrier puppy which had been given to Miss Trent the previous day.
The days were sunny and warm, and lessons were really a trial when everything out of doors was so delicious. But as every day passed, the holidays came nearer, and at last the eventful Wednesday came when Chris came home from school and Miss Morgan said good-bye to the children for six long weeks.
Then Mrs. Inglefield had her first picnic. And Inez and Ted both came to it. Ted was carried on a stretcher and laid on a light four-wheeled little carriage that the village carpenter had made for him. And Mr. Wargrave drew it gently along the roads, till they came to the wood where Mrs. Inglefield meant to have her picnic. He and Miss Constance Trent were both invited to the picnic. Miss Constance limped a little, but her foot was very nearly well.
Mrs. Inglefield took them all to the very spot in the woods where she had always picnicked as a little girl. There was a stream running by, and a smooth grassy place under some old beech trees. Diana was so lost in admiration of the scenery that she stood gazing round in silent awe. Inez laughed at her.
"What's the matter? Don't you feel inclined to dance like the fairies?"
"No; I only want to look and look," said Diana. "It's like the woods in the pantomimes, only you can't get inside them there, and now we're really in this."
Miss Constance overheard this. She turned to Diana and impulsively laid her hand on her shoulder.
"Don't you let anyone quench your love of beauty, dear," she said. "Fill your soul up with it whenever you get a chance, for you'll have the memory of it when you're an old woman. They've tried to quench me in London, but I've run away from them."
Diana looked at her gratefully.
"You understand?" she said. "You see, we've come away from London, too, and we're so glad we have. For there's nothing like this in the whole of London, not even in Buckingham Palace!"
"Indeed there isn't," Miss Constance responded.
Then the children ran off together. There were trees to climb, and rabbits' holes to explore, and flowers and berries to pick. The older people unpacked the luncheon baskets, and Ted lay on a rug looking up at the sky and green trees, with deep contentment in his heart.
Before long they were all sitting in a circle under the beech trees, enjoying cold veal pie and sandwiches, salad and cold chicken, followed by fruit tarts and cream. Chris and Diana had never enjoyed themselves so much before. The country was newer to them than to the others. Noel took everything that came to him in a matter-of-fact way. Inez was a little shy of the grown-up people.
After the lunch was over Chris and Diana helped their mother to wash up the dishes in the stream. Inez and Noel wandered off together.
Miss Constance sat down by Ted's side and talked to him. Mr. Wargrave helped Mrs. Inglefield in packing up the remains of the lunch.
Inez and Noel suddenly frightened a rabbit out of his hole, and then gave chase to it. Noel longed to catch it. They ran and ran along the narrow green paths that led through the wood.
When they were tired out they turned back. But they had lost their bearings, and were really wandering away from the picnic party, instead of towards them.
"I'm afraid we're lost," said Inez, suddenly stopping still.
She did not look afraid, her eyes were sparkling with excitement.
"I've often wished to lose myself," she said, "but I've never managed it. Every one meets with adventures when they're lost."
"But I don't like being lost," said Noel, puckering up his face. "I don't like it at all."
"It's jolly! Come on, it's no good standing still. We shall get out of this old wood if we walk long enough."
Noel trotted after her with an anxious face.
"We'd better ask God to find us the way back," he said at last.
"Oh, no, we won't do that. This is fun!"
"It isn't fun," said Noel crossly.
Then Inez took hold of his hand.
"Come on, I think I know the way. Look at the light through the trees over there. We're at the edge of the wood now."
But they were not, and after wandering on and on, Noel began to cry.
"I'm tarred. I'm going to ask God to find us."
"Oh, you're always talking about God!" said Inez impatiently. "God is in heaven, millions and billions of miles away from us. He won't hear you. You only think He does."
Then she dashed on in front and called to him excitedly:
"Come on, here's a fence and a field. We're out of the wood."
Noel scrambled after her. They climbed the fence. The country was strange to them. There was a river, and across the field an old disused mill-house.
Once out of the wood Noel recovered his spirits, and when Inez proposed that they should go across the field and see if anyone lived in the old house, he agreed to accompany her.
"And then we'll go back to the uvvers!" he said.
"There's generally someone living in ruined houses," said Inez. "In story-books it's gipsies or smugglers or misers. We'll go and see."
But when they came to the old house, it was quite deserted. The roof had partly fallen in; there was no glass in the windows.
Inez and Noel scrambled in at an old window and explored the house. Then they found a shut door which with difficulty Inez opened. This led into a small room with a window high above their reach. There was an old box in the corner turned upside down. By its side was a heap of ashes. Evidently a tramp had taken refuge there at some time. A gust of wind suddenly swept through the house, and the door which the children had left open, banged violently. As it shut upon them the vibration brought a torrent of mortar and stones down from the roof.
Noel was frightened and ran to open the door. He could not move it, and when Inez came to his help she found that it had jammed in some way, which made it impossible for her to open it.
"Oh, Noel," she screamed, "we're shut up here! We shall never be able to get out, and we shall be starved to death!"
Noel stared at Inez as if he could not believe her words. Then he kicked and banged at the door with all his might. But the door would not move an inch.
"Now we've got our adventure, and I hate it," said Inez. "Nobody knows we're here, and nobody will find us; it's away from the road, and we may stay here for days and days, and months after they'll find our skillingtons."
Noel began to cry, then he suddenly wiped his eyes.
"We're forgetting God!" he said. "God always takes care of me. Doesn't He take care of you?"
"I don't belong to Him," said Inez slowly. "You can pray to Him if you want to."
"But you must pray, too," said Noel.
"I don't know how to."
Noel knelt down in a corner and put his two hands together: "Please, God, send somebody to open the door. Send an angel if there's nobody else. We must get out. Please be very quick. For Jesus' sake. Amen."
Then he got up and waited. Inez climbed upon the box and tried to reach the window, but it was too high above her.
She banged at the door and screamed at the top of her voice.
Nobody came.
"God will send somebody!" said Noel confidently.
"I don't believe God hears us," said Inez. "You told me the Devil lives in my house. Perhaps he has come with us here, and means to keep us here."
"It's only when we're naughty that the Devil is near," said Noel. "I haven't had him near me to-day. I've been a good boy all along."
"I haven't been good," said Inez. "I fought with Julia when she was combing my hair. She pulls it on purpose, so I hit her with the hairbrush; and when we were running after the rabbit in the wood, I meant to run away and give the others the trouble of looking for us. I like giving people trouble. That's wicked, you know. As long as it doesn't get dark, I don't mind, but if it gets dark here, I dare say the Devil will come and frighten us, and then what shall we do?"
"God won't let him!" said Noel stoutly.
Nothing would shake his faith.
Inez began to admire him for it.
"I wish I belonged to God like you do," she said. "Do you think He'd love me if I did?"
"O' course He would."
"How do you do it? But then I couldn't possibly be good, so it's no use talking about it, and I like being in tempers with Julia. It frightens her."
"I s'pect God is punis'ing you for being in tempers, and I've come into it too because I'm with you."
Noel's eyes were big with awe. He remembered the story of Jonah well, how Jonah was punished, and why.
And then, sitting on the box in the sunlight, he began to tell Inez the story. She listened, for she had heard few Bible stories, and Noel told it graphically, waving his hands about and describing the storm with gusto.
They forgot they were shut into an empty room; the sun streamed through the window upon their heads, the coolness and shade was refreshing after their hot scramble through the wood.
Inez was impressed, as Noel had meant her to be.
"Do you think God sent the wind to bang the door?" she asked Noel. "And all because of me?"
"We'll ask Him to forgive you," said Noel cheerfully, "and then if you're sorry, He will. And God will easily open the door. God can do everyfing, you know." Inez was so subdued that she knelt down with Noel, and putting her hands together and shutting her eyes very tightly, she said nervously and quickly:
"O God, I'm very sorry. Please forgive me. I'm sorry. I'll try to be good. Please listen to us and forgive me. Amen."
Then they tried the door again, and they called and called, but there was no answer, and nobody came.
The time seemed endless. They wondered if the others were sitting down to tea. Noel began to cry a little.
"I do want to get out of this horrid room—I want Mums! I want my tea."
And then he began to say over and over again in a whispering tone, "Please, God, help us! Please, God, help us!"
"I'm sure God will send somebody. He sent a man very quick to Miss Constance when she tumbled out of her car." His tone was brave, and he wiped his tears away.
Inez had found a thick short stick and began battering at the door and calling out for help.
Suddenly, to their great delight, they heard a man's voice outside:
"Hallo! What's up? Who's here?"
"Open the door! It's us! We're shut in!"
Inez's voice was shrill and frantic.
Noel stood up smiling seraphically.
"It's another of God's men!" he said. "He's comed at last!"
The man outside came nearer them; then he seized hold of the door handle and tried to move it, and then he called out cheerily:
"Why, you're bricked in! There's nearly a ton of mortar and stones keeping you fast. Wait a bit, till I clear it away."
It seemed a very long time to the children before the doorway was cleared, but they were frightened no longer. And it was a happy moment when the door moved, opened, and they confronted a strange gentleman in fishing garb.
"Well, upon my word!" he ejaculated as he looked the children up and down. "How on earth did you get shut in there?"
They told him.
Noel, with shining eyes, concluded:
"And you're one of God's men, aren't you? He sent you. We asked Him to. I told Inez I was perfully sure God would send somebody."
The young man laughed.
"I have been fishing down the river and had just got to this old mill-house when I heard your cries. It's lucky I came this way; it was just a chance I didn't go up the other way!"
"God sent you!" said Noel stolidly.
"Did He now? How do you know that, little chap?"
"Oh, Noel believes God hears everything he says to Him," said Inez, "and I'm beginning to believe it, too. I'm going to start proper prayers when I get home. Not the silly things I was taught to say when I was a baby. I gave those up long ago."
"And where do you young people hail from?" asked their rescuer.
"We lost our way in the wood. We're all having a picnic there. Do take us back."
"But I don't know my way about. I'm only a stray loafer, staying at the Hall."
"But you can help us to find the uvvers," said Noel; "Mums will be so glad to see us. We've been lost for years!"
The young man laughed again, but he walked with them across the field towards the wood, and then in the distance they caught sight of the vicar. He gave a loud shout when he saw them, and when they came up to him he said:
"Oh, you truants! We've been scouring the wood for you. Come along. Why, Captain Melton, are you the one who has found them?"
"He's God's man!" said Noel eagerly: "the second God's man I've seen lately. God sent him to us."
Mr. Wargrave took hold of Noel's hand and smiled at him understandingly. Captain Melton gave his explanation of the children's plight, and then Mr. Wargrave begged him to join their party.
"We shall all be having tea. I know you and Miss Trent are old friends, and I believe you have met Mrs. Inglefield before—this little chap's mother."
So Captain Melton walked on, and before very long they came to the clearing under the trees where only poor Ted lay alone in his glory. All the others were hunting for the wanderers. Mr. Wargrave sounded a hunting-horn which he had brought with him.
"I always find this so useful in village excursions and treats," he said. "They'll soon return when they hear my horn."
And very soon they did. Mrs. Inglefield was the first to arrive, and very relieved she was to find her youngest child safe and sound. Then came Miss Trent, and Chris and Diana followed close behind them. Inez and Noel told their story, and everybody said what a lucky thing it was that Captain Melton had been fishing near the mill.
"We should never have dreamt of looking there," said Mrs. Inglefield, "and the children might have been there all night!"
Both she and Miss Constance were pleased to see Captain Melton, and they all very soon sat down to tea. A fire had already been made and the kettle was boiling upon it.
Diana seated herself close beside Inez.
"I wish I'd been with you," she said; "I should like to have been shut up in that old house. It's like a story-book. Didn't you look about till you could find an underground passage? There might be one to cross the river underneath, like they have in London."
"No, it was too miserable to think of underground passages," said Inez. "We spent our time in saying prayers to God. At least, Noel did. What a good boy he is!"
Diana looked doubtful.
"He thinks he is," she said, "but Chris and I think he's too cocky!"
"Well, I think I shall try and get God to love me, if He will. He answers Noel's prayers, so He'll answer mine."
"Noel talks too much," Diana said.
"I like the way he talks."
Inez stood up for Noel. His real trust in God had made a deep impression on her.
When the picnic was over, and she was walking across the fields, she had a few quiet words with Mrs. Inglefield.
"You aren't angry with me because I got lost with Noel, are you?" she asked.
"No, dear, you could not help it, but I'm very thankful you were found."
"Well, I've tried to be good all day, but I did run away from you because I thought it would be fun for you all to be looking for us. But it wasn't fun when we were shut up in that room. Mrs. Inglefield, God always hears Noel's prayers. Will he hear mine?"
"Always, darling. God is never far away from you, and He has told you that He wants you to tell Him all your troubles."
"How has He told me?"
"In the Bible."
"Would He let me join myself on to Him? I don't quite know how to do it, but Noel loves Him and God loves Noel. I should like to be like that. How can I do it?"
"Dear Inez, God has loved you all your life. He sent His Son Jesus Christ down here to tell everybody so, and Jesus died for you. He died for your sins, so that God could forgive you, and that heaven's gates might be opened for you. Kneel down and ask your Saviour to come into your little heart. He will make you happy and good. Give yourself to Him, and trust Him. He will do all the rest."
"Would He be able to turn me from a wicked girl into a good girl?" asked Inez.
"Indeed He will, though it may not be done all at once. He will love to do it. That is a prayer that will most certainly be answered."
"I wish I lived with you," said poor Inez with a little sigh.
There was no opportunity for further talk. The turning came for Inez to part with her friends, but as she ran home her heart was singing inside her.
"I'll do it, and then I'll have somebody who really loves me, and I'll try to love Jesus Christ with all my heart and soul!"
Meanwhile Miss Constance and Captain Melton walked together with Noel between them.
"I'm grateful to you, Harry, for rescuing my cherub. He comes to cheer me up when I'm in the blues. And I'm grateful to him for producing you. I was getting very dull in the country here. Will you take me out fishing with you to-morrow?"
"How many fish would I get if I did?" asked Captain Melton with a smile.
"You could come and fiss with Chris and me," put in Noel. "We go to the bridge across the stream at the back of our house, and we catch sticky bats."
"Thank you, Cherub, but two's company and three is none."
"P'r'aps," Noel said, turning to the Captain—"p'r'aps, God's man, you'd like to come and see my Chris'mas tree?"
"My dear fellow," said the Captain, "I don't like that nickname you've given me. Choose another!"
"Oh," said Miss Constance, laughing, "you are number two! Remember—"
Then her face softened and she spoke gravely and in almost a whisper, "You were an answer to prayer—"
"Yes," said Noel cheerfully, "that's just what he was. God sent him because we wanted to be let out."
"It's the first time in my life that I've been told that I'm a messenger from God," said Captain Melton.
"Well, it needn't be the last," said Miss Constance. And then they were silent, for they had reached the spot where Miss Constance's car was waiting for her.
Captain Melton was going part of the way with her, so Noel said good-bye to them and ran on to join his mother, who had just parted with Inez.
Chris and Diana were accompanying Ted home.
"Oh, Mums," said Noel, putting his hand in hers, "I wiss I understood grown-ups. They talk so funny, and laugh when I'm grave."
"They don't understand you as your mother does," said Mrs. Inglefield, giving his hand a little squeeze.
"I fink I like you best," said Noel, looking up at her with grave considerate eyes.
"I'm glad to hear that. Did you enjoy your picnic?"
"Little bits of it, but a wood is like the jungle in India. It tears your legs and trips you up, and scratches you all over."
But this was not Chris's and Diana's verdict when they got home.
"It has been perfectly lovely, Mums."
"Yes, only spoilt by Noel and Inez at the last."
"Hush! We won't think of that. We'll remember the sunshine and the trees and flowers, and all the pleasant sights we saw."
"I shall never forget it," said Diana in her rapt tone. This was only the first of the holiday treats. Mrs. Inglefield gave herself up to her children. She took them one day in a car to the top of a moor a long way off, Inez accompanying them.
And then suddenly one day everything seemed to come to an end.
The postman brought bad news. Granny was very ill in London, and Mrs. Inglefield said she must go to her immediately. Unfortunately Nurse had gone away for her holiday. Mrs. Tubbs was quite equal to the occasion. She said that she and Cassy would look after the children and that Mrs. Inglefield need not have an anxious thought.
Mrs. Inglefield went to her room to pack, and called Chris to her.
"My boy, you are the eldest, and I want you to help me. I don't like leaving you with Nurse away, but I hope she will soon be returning. And in any case, whether she is here or not, I want you to be my deputy while I am away. Do you know what a deputy is?"
"I leave you in charge of Diana and Noel. Diana is dreamy, and wants to be roused sometimes. Noel is very small and still ignorant of English ways. I don't want accidents to happen to any of you through mischief or carelessness. I should like to think that everything will go on just the same as if I am here. Will you do your best to let it be so?"
"I will, Mums!"
Chris spoke solemnly. He was pleased at his mother's confidence in him. He vowed that she should not be disappointed in him.
Then he asked her:
"And what about Inez? Is she to come here when you're away?"
"I don't think you could prevent it," said Mrs. Inglefield, smiling. "She's a poor lonely little girl. If you get into any trouble, Chris, you have Mr. Wargrave close at hand."
"Oh," said Chris quickly, "we shall manage quite well alone, Mums! And if I hear from George Burke that he's in this part, may I ask him to tea?"
"Yes, dear, certainly. I may not be long away: I hope not."
George Burke was Chris's great chum at school. He was devoted to him, and was looking forward to seeing him in the holidays, as he was going to stay at an uncle's, about ten miles away.
Then Mrs. Inglefield had some last words with the other two children.
To Diana she said:
"Di, darling, you are so quick and clever with your pen. Will you write me a little scrap every day to tell me what you're all doing? Don't post every day. Every three days will be often enough, but write me a little diary. I shall love to read it, for I shall be thinking of you all so much!"
Diana was transported with delight. Nothing could have pleased her better.
Then Noel was addressed:
"Noel dearest, you'll promise me to be a good boy till I come back? And do what Chris tells you?"
Noel's face fell.
"S'posing Chris tells me to put my hand into a bonfire, must I do it? S'posing he tells me to be hurt?"
"Oh, Chris wouldn't be unkind, darling!"
"But he is. He told me to take hold of the stinging-nettle, and it stung me just like a snake."
"Mums, I only told him to do what Nurse said could be done. If you pinch it tightly, it doesn't sting. But he was frightened of it!"
"I don't like to be—er—managed," said Noel, shutting up his lips in obstinate fashion.
"I won't manage you," Chris cried, seeing an anxious look come into his mother's eyes. "We're all going to be most awfully good when Mums is away, just to make her feel easy about us."
"Yes, I'll be good," assented Noel, "if you're good, Chris."
And so Mrs. Inglefield had to leave it. She was very hurried in her departure, and when a taxi came to take her to the station, there were tears in Diana's and Noel's eyes. Chris stood with white face and clenched hands. He was a schoolboy and had learnt to control his feelings, but when his mother's car was out of sight, he felt as if the sunshine had gone out of his sky.