"Children should not leave aboutAnything that's small and bright;Lest the fairies spy it out,And fly off with it at night."Poems written for a child.
"Children should not leave aboutAnything that's small and bright;Lest the fairies spy it out,And fly off with it at night."
"Children should not leave aboutAnything that's small and bright;Lest the fairies spy it out,And fly off with it at night."
Poems written for a child.
Therewas no buzzy sound in Mrs. White's garden this afternoon. It was far too early in the year for that, indeed it was beginning to feel quite chilly and cold, as the afternoons often do of fine days in early spring, and by the time Floss and Carrots had eaten their cake, and examined all the rose bushes to see if they could find any buds, and wished it were summer, so that there would be some strawberries hiding under the glossy green leaves, they began to wonder why nurse was so long—and to feel rather cold and tired of waiting.
"Just run to the door, Carrots, dear," said Floss, "and peep in to see if nurse is coming."
She did not like to go herself, for she knew that nurse and Mrs. White were fond of a comfortable talk together and might not like to be interrupted by her. But Carrots they would not mind.
Carrots set off obediently, but before he got to the door he met nurse coming out. She was followed by Mrs. White and both were talking rather earnestly.
"You'll let me know, if so be as you find it, Mrs. Hooper; you won't forget?" Mrs. White was saying—Hooper was nurse's name—"for I feel quite uneasy—I do that, for you."
"I'll let you know, and thank you, Mrs. White," said nurse. "I'm glad I happened to bring some of my own money with me too, for I should have been sorry to put you to any ill-convenience by my carelessness—though how I could have been so careless as to mislay it, I'm sure it's more than I can say."
"It is, indeed, and you so careful," said Mrs. White sympathisingly.
Just then nurse caught sight of Carrots.
"Come along, Master Carrots," she said, "I was just going to look for you. Wherever's Miss Floss? We must be quick; it's quite time we were home."
"I'll tell Floss," said Carrots, disappearing again down the path, and in another moment Floss and he ran back to nurse.
Though they had been very quick, nurse seemed to think they had been slow. She even scolded Floss a very little as if she had been kept waiting by her and Carrots, when she was in a hurry to go, and both Floss and Carrots felt that this was very hard when the fact was that they had been waiting for nurse till they were both tired and cold.
"It wasn't Floss's fault. Floss wantedyouto come quick, and she sended me to see," said Carrots indignantly.
"Hold your tongue, Master Carrots," said nurse sharply.
Carrots' face got very red, he gave nurse one reproachful look, but did not speak. He took Floss's hand and pulled her on in front. But Floss would not go; she drew her hand away.
"No, Carrots, dear," she said in a low voice, "it wouldn't be kind to leave nurse all alone when she is sorry about something."
"Is she sorry about something?" said Carrots.
"Yes," replied Floss, "I am sure she is. You run on for a minute. I want to speak to nurse."
Carrots ran on and Floss stayed behind.
"Nurse," she said softly, slipping her hand through nurse's arm, which, by stretching up on tip-toe, she was just able to do, "nurse, dear, what's the matter?"
"Nothing much, Miss Flossie," replied nurse, patting the kind little hand, "nothing much, but I'm growing an old woman and easy put out—and such a stupid like thing for me to have done!"
"What have you done? What is stupid?" inquired Floss, growing curious as well as sympathising.
"I have lost a half-sovereign—a ten-shilling piece in gold, Miss Flossie," replied nurse.
"Out of your pocket—dropped it, do you mean?" said Floss.
"Oh no—I had it in my purse—at least I thought I had," said nurse. "It was a half-sovereign of your mamma's that she gave me to pay Mrs. White with for Master Jack's things and part of last week that was left over, and I wrapped it up with a shilling and a sixpence—it came to eleven and six, altogether—in a piece of paper, and put it in my drawer in the nursery, and before I came out I put the packet in my purse. And when I opened it at Mrs. White's no half-sovereign was there! Only the shilling and the sixpence!"
"You didn't drop it at Mrs. White's, did you? Should we go back and look?" said Floss, standing still, as if ready to run off that moment.
"No, no, my dear. It's not at Mrs. White's. She and I searched all over, and she's as honest a body as could be," replied nurse. "No, there's just the chance of its being in the drawer at home. I feel all in a fever till I get there to look. But don't you say anything about it, Miss Flossie; it's my own fault, and no one must be troubled about it but myself."
"Poor nursie," said Floss, "I'm so sorry. But you're sure to find it in your drawer. Let's go home very fast. Carrots," she called out to the little figure obediently trotting on in front, "Carrots, come and walk with nursie and me now. Nurse isn't vexed."
Carrots turned back, looking up wistfully in nurse's face.
"Poor darlings," said the old woman to herself,"such a shame of me to have spoilt their walk!"
And all the way home, "to make up," she was even kinder than usual.
But her hopes of finding the lost piece of money were disappointed. She searched all through the drawer in vain; there was no half-sovereign to be seen. Suddenly it struck her that Carrots had been busy "tidying" for Floss that morning.
"Master Carrots, my dear," she said, "when you were busy at Miss Floss's drawer to-day, you didn't open mine, did you, and touch anything in it?"
"Oh, no," said Carrots, at once, "I'm quite, quitesureI didn't, nursie."
"You're sure you didn't touch nurse's purse, or a little tiny packet of white paper, in her drawer?" inquired Floss, with an instinct that the circumstantial details might possibly recall some forgotten remembrance to his mind.
"Quitesure," said Carrots, looking straight up intheir faces with a thoughtful, but not uncertain expression in his brown eyes.
"Because nurse has lost something out of her drawer, you see, Carrots dear, and she is very sorry about it," continued Floss.
"What has she lost? But I'msure," repeated Carrots, "I didn't touch nurse's drawer, nor nucken in it. What has nurse lost?"
"A half-sovereign—" began Floss, but nurse interrupted her.
"Don't tease him any more about it," she said; "it's plain he doesn't know, and I wouldn't like the other servants to hear. Just forget about it, Master Carrots, my dear, perhaps nurse will find it some day."
So Carrots, literally obedient, asked no more questions. He only said to himself, with a puzzled look on his face, "A half sovereign! I didn't know nurse had any sovereigns—I thought only Floss had—and I never saw any broken in halfs!"
But as no more was said in his hearing about the matter, it passed from his innocent mind.
Nurse thought it right to tell the children's mother of her loss, and the girls and Maurice heard of it too. They all were very sorry for nurse, for she took her own carelessness rather sorely to heart. But by her wish, nothing was said of it to the two other servants, one of whom had only lately come, though the other had been with them many years.
"I'd rather by far bear the loss," said nurse, "than cause any ill-feeling about it, ma'am."
And her mistress gave in to her. "Though certainlyyoumust not bear the loss, nurse," she said, kindly; "for in all these years you have saved me too many half-sovereigns and whole ones too for me to mind much about the loss of one. And you've asked Carrots, you say; you're sure he knows nothing about it?"
"Quite sure, ma'am," said nurse, unhesitatingly.
And several days went on, and nothing more wassaid or heard about the half-sovereign. Only all this time the little yellow sixpenny lay safely hidden away in Carrots' paint-box.
In a sense he had forgotten about it. He knew it was safe there, and he had almost fixed in his mind not to tell Floss about it till the day they should be going to the toy-shop to buy their hoops. Once or twice he had been on the point of showing it to her, but had stopped short, thinking how much more delightful it would be to "surprise" her. He had quite left off puzzling his head as to where the little coin had come from; he had found it in Floss's drawer, that was quite enough. If he had any thoughts about its history, they were that either Floss had had "the sixpenny" a long time ago and had forgotten it, or that the fairies had brought it; and on the whole he inclined to the latter explanation, for you see there was something different about this sixpenny to any he had ever seen before.
Very likely "fairies' sixpennies" are always that pretty yellow colour, he thought.
One day, about a week after the loss of the half-sovereign, Maurice happened to come into the nursery just at the little ones' tea-time. It was a half-holiday, and he had been out a long walk with some of his companions, for he still went to school at Sandyshore, and now he had come in tremendously hungry and thirsty.
"I say, nurse," he exclaimed, seating himself unceremoniously at the table, "I'm awfully hungry, and mamma's out, and we shan't have tea for two hours yet. And Carrots, young man, I want your paint-box; mine's all gone to smash, and Cecil won't lend me hers, and I want to paint flags with stars and stripes for my new boat."
"Tars and tipes," repeated Carrots, "what's tars and tipes?"
"What's that to you?" replied Mott, politely. "Bless me, I am so thirsty. Give me your tea,Carrots, and nurse will make you some more. What awful weak stuff! But I'm too thirsty to wait."
He seized Carrots' mug and drank off its contents at one draught. But when he put the mug down he made averywry face.
"What horrible stuff!" he exclaimed. "Nurse, you've forgotten to put in any sugar."
"No, she hasn't," said Carrots, bluntly.
Nurse smiled, but said nothing, and Floss looked fidgety.
"What do you mean?" said Mott. "Don't you like sugar—eh, young 'un?"
"Yes, I do like it," replied Carrots, but he would say no more.
Floss grew more and more uneasy.
"Oh, Mott," she burst out, "please don't tease Carrots. It's nothing wrong; it's only something we've planned ourselves."
Mott's curiosity was by this time thoroughly aroused.
"A secret, is it?" he exclaimed, pricking up his ears; "you'd best tell it me. I'm a duffer at keeping secrets. Out with it."
Floss looked ready to cry, and Carrots shut his mouth tight, as if determined not to give in. Nurse thought it time to interfere.
"Master Maurice," she said, appealingly, "don't tease the poor little things, there's a good boy. If it is a secret, there's no harm in it, you may be sure."
"Tease!" repeated Mott, virtuously, "I'm not teasing. I only want to know what the mystery is—why shouldn't I? I won't interfere."
Now Mott was just at the age when the spirit of mischief is most apt to get thorough hold of a boy; and once thisisthe case, who can say where or at what a boy will stop? Every opposition or contradiction only adds fuel to the flames, and not seldom a tiny spark may thus end in a great fire. Nurse knew something of boys in general, and ofMott in particular; and knowing what she did, she decided in her own mind that she had better take the bull by the horns without delay.
"Miss Floss," she said seriously, "and Master Carrots, I think you had better tell your brother your secret. He'll be very kind about it, you'll see, and he won't tell anybody."
"Won't you, Mott?" said Floss, jumping up and down on her chair in her anxiety. "Promise."
"Honour bright," said Mott.
Carrots opened his mouth as if about to speak, but shut it down again.
"What wereyougoing to say?" said Mott.
"Nucken," replied Carrots.
"People don't open their mouths like that, if they've 'nucken' to say," said Mott, as if he didn't believe Carrots.
"I didn't mean that I wasn'tgoingto say nucken," said Carrots, "I mean I haven't nucken to say now."
"And what were you going to say?" persisted Mott.
Carrots looked frightened.
"I was only sinking if you knowed, and nurse knowed, and Floss knowed, and I knowed, it wouldn't be a secret."
Mott burst out laughing.
"What a precious goose you are," he exclaimed. "Well, secret or no secret, I'm going to hear it; so tell me."
Floss looked at nurse despairingly.
"You tell, nurse, please," she said.
So nurse told, and Maurice looked more amused than ever. "What an idea!" he exclaimed. "I don't believe Carrots'll hold out for a month, whatever Floss may do, unless he has a precious lump of ac—ac—what is it the head people call it?—acquisitiveness for his age. But you needn't have made such a fuss about your precious secret. Here, nurse, give us some tea, and you may putin all the sugar Floss and Carrots have saved by now."
Floss and Carrots looked ready to cry, but nurse reassured them.
"Never you fear," she said; "he shall have what's proper, but no more. Never was such a boy for sweet things as you, Master Mott."
"It shows in my temper, doesn't it?" he said saucily. And then he was so pleased with his own wit that for a few minutes he forgot to tease, occupying himself by eating lots of bread and butter instead, so that tea went on peaceably.
"But bitter while they flow, are childish tears."
"But bitter while they flow, are childish tears."
"But bitter while they flow, are childish tears."
"NowCarrots," said Mott, when he had eaten what he considered might possibly support him for the next two hours, "now Carrots, let's have the paint-box. You needn't disturb yourself," he continued, for Carrots was preparing to descend from his high chair, "I know where you keep it; it's in your drawer, isn't it. Which is his drawer, nurse? It'll be a good opportunity for me to see if he keeps it tidy."
"No, no, let me get it myself," cried Carrots, tumbling himself off his chair anyhow in his eagerness. "Nurse, nurse, don't tell him which is mine;don't let him take my paint-box, let me get it my own self."
Nurse looked at him with some surprise; it was seldom the little boy so excited himself.
"Master Mott won't hurt your drawer, my dear," she said; "you don't mind his having your paint-box, I'm sure. But do let him get it out himself, if he wants, Master Maurice, there's a dear boy," she continued, for Maurice was by this time ferreting in Floss's drawer with great gusto, and in another moment would have been at Carrots'! But Carrots was at it before him. He pulled it open as far as he could, for in consequence of Mott's investigations in the upper storey, he could not easily penetrate to his own quarters. But he knew exactly where the paint-box lay, and managed to slip it out, without Maurice's noticing what he was doing. His triumph was short-lived, however; before he could open the box, Mott was after him.
"Hi, you young sneak!" he cried, "what are youafter now? Give me the box; I believe you want to take the best paints out before you lend it to me," and he wrenched the paint-box out of his little brother's hands.
"I don't, I don't," sobbed Carrots, sitting down on the floor and crying bitterly; "you may have all the paints, Mott, but it's my secret, oh, my secret!"
"What are you talking about?" said Mott roughly, pulling out the lid as he spoke. The box had been all tumbled about in the struggle, and the paints came rattling out, the paints and the brushes, and the little saucers, and with them came rolling down on to the floor, children, you know what—the "fairies' sixpenny," the little bright shining yellow half-sovereign!
A strange change came over Mott's face.
"Nurse," he cried, "do you see that? What does that mean?"
Nurse hastened up to where he was standing;she stared for a moment in puzzled astonishment at the spot on the carpet to which the toe of Maurice's boot was pointing, then she stooped down slowly and picked up the coin, still without speaking.
"Well, nurse," said Maurice, impatiently, "what do you think of that?"
"My half-sovereign," said nurse, as if hardly believing what she saw.
"Of course it's your half-sovereign," said Mott, "it's as plain as a pike-staff. But how did it come there, that's the question?"
Nurse looked at Carrots with puzzled perplexity. "He couldn't have known," she said in a low voice, too low for Carrots to hear. He was still sitting on the floor sobbing, and through his sobs was to be heard now and then the melancholy cry, "My secret, oh, my poor secret."
"You hear what he says," said Maurice; "what does his 'secret' mean but that he sneaked intoyour drawer and took the half-sovereign, and now doesn't like being found out. I'm ashamed to have him for my brother, that I am, the little cad!"
"But he couldn't have understood," said nurse, at a loss how otherwise to defend her little boy. "I'm not even sure that he rightly knew of my losing it, and he might have taken it, meaning no harm, not knowing what it was, indeed, very likely."
"Rubbish," said Maurice. "A child that is going without sugar to get money instead, must be old enough to understand something about what money is."
"But that wasmyplan; it wasn't Carrots that thought of it at all," said Floss, who all this time had stood by, frightened and distressed, not knowing what to say.
"Hold your tongue, Floss," said Maurice, roughly; and Floss subsided. "Carrots," he continued, turning to his brother, "leave off crying thisminute, and listen to me. Who put this piece of money into your paint-box?"
"I did my own self," said Carrots.
"What for?"
"To keep it a secret for Floss," sobbed Carrots.
Maurice turned triumphantly to nurse.
"There," he said, "you see! And," he continued to Carrots again, "you took it out of nurse's drawer—out of a little paper packet?"
"No," said Carrots, "I didn't. I didn't know it was nurse's."
"You didn't know nurse had lost a half-sovereign!" exclaimed Mott, "Carrots, how dare you say so?"
"Yes," said Carrots, looking so puzzled, that for a moment or two he forgot to sob, "I did know, Floss told me."
"Then howcanyou say you didn't know this was nurse's?" said Mott.
"Oh, I don't know—I didn't know—I can'tunder'tand," cried Carrots, relapsing into fresh sobs.
"I wish your mamma were in, that I do," said nurse, looking ready to cry too; by this time Floss's tears were flowing freely.
"She isn't in, so it's no good wishing she were," said Maurice; "but papa is," he went on importantly, "and I'll just take Carrots to him and see whathe'llsay to all this."
"Oh, no, Master Mott, don't do that, I beg and pray of you," said nurse, all but wringing her hands in entreaty. "Your papa doesn't understand about the little ones; do wait till your mamma comes in."
"No, indeed, nurse; it's a thing papashouldbe told," said Mott, in his innermost heart half inclined to yield, but working himself up to imagine he was acting very heroically. And notwithstanding nurse's distress, and Floss's tears, off he marched his unfortunate little brother to the study.
"Papa," he said, knocking at the door, "may I come in? There's something I must speak to you about immediately."
"Come in, then," was the reply. "Well, and what's the matter now? Has Carrots hurt himself?" asked his father, naturally enough, for his red-haired little son looked pitiable in the extreme as he crept into the room after Maurice, frightened, bewildered, and, so far as his gentle disposition was capable of such a feeling, indignant also, all at once.
"No," replied Maurice, pushing Carrots forward, "he's not hurt himself; it's worse than that. Papa," he continued excitedly, "you whipped me once, when I was a little fellow, for telling a story. I am very sorry to trouble you, but I think it's right you should know; I am afraid you will have to punish Carrots more severely than you punished me, for he's done worse than tell a story." Maurice stopped to take breath, and looked at his father to see the effect of his words. Carrots had stoppedcrying to listen to what Maurice was saying, and there he stood, staring up with his large brown eyes, two or three tears still struggling down his cheeks, his face smeared and red and looking very miserable. Yet he did not seem to be in the least ashamed of himself, and this somehow provoked Mott and hardened him against him.
"What's he been doing?" said their father, looking at the two boys with more amusement than anxiety, and then glancing regretfully at the newspaper which he had been comfortably reading when Mott's knock came to the door.
"He's done much worse than tell a story," repeated Maurice, "though for that matter he's told two or three stories too. But, papa, you know about nurse losing a half-sovereign? Well,Carrotshad got it all the time; he took it out of nurse's purse, and hid it away in his paint-box, without telling anybody. He can't deny it, though he tried to."
"Carrots," said his father sternly, "is this true?"
Carrots looked up in his father's face; that face, generally so kind and merry, was now all gloom and displeasure—why?—Carrots could not understand, and he was too frightened and miserable to collect his little wits together to try to do so. He just gave a sort of little tremble and began to cry again.
"Carrots," repeated his father, "is this true?"
"I don't know," sobbed Carrots.
Now Captain Desart, Carrots' father, was, as I think I have told you, a sailor. If any of you children have a sailor for your father, you must not think I mean to teach you to be disrespectful when I say that sailorsare, there is no doubt, inclined to be hot-tempered and hasty. And I do not think on the whole that they understand much about children, though they are often very fond of them and very kind. All this was the case with Carrots' father. He had been so much away from hischildren while they were little, that he really hardly knew how they had been brought up or trained or anything about their childish ways—he had left them entirely to his wife, and scarcely considered them as in any way "hisbusiness," till they were quite big boys and girls.
But once he did begin to notice them, though very kind, he was very strict. He had most decided opinions about the only way of checking their faults whenever these were serious enough to attract his attention, and he could not and would not be troubled with arguing, or what he called "splitting hairs," about such matters. A fault was a fault; telling a falsehood was telling a falsehood; and he made no allowance for the excuses or "palliating circumstances" there might be to consider. One child, according to his ideas, was to be treated exactly like another; why the same offence should deserve severer punishment with a self-willed, self-confident, bold, matter-of-fact lad, suchas Maurice, than with a timid, fanciful, baby-like creature as was his little Fabian, he could not have understood had he tried.
Nurse knew all this by long experience; no wonder, kind though she knew her master to be, that she trembled when Mott announced his intention of laying the whole affair before his father.
But poor Carrots did not know anything about it. "Papa" had never been "cross" to him before, and he was far from clearly understanding why he was "cross" to him now. So he just sobbed and said "I don't know," which was about the worst thing he could possibly have said in his own defence, though literally the truth.
"No or yes, sir," said Captain Desart, his voice growing louder and sterner—I think he really forgot that it was a poor little shrimp of six years old he was speaking to—"no nonsense of 'don't knows.' Did you or did you not take nurse's half-sovereignout of her drawer and keep it for your own?"
"No," said Carrots, "I never took nucken out of nurse's drawer. I never did, papa, and I didn't know nurse had any sovereigns."
"Didn't you know nurse hadlosta half-sovereign? Carrots, how can you say so?" interrupted Mott.
"Yes, Floss told me," said Carrots.
"And Floss hid it away in your paint-box, I suppose?" said Mott, sarcastically.
"No, Floss didn't. I hided the sixpenny my own self," said Carrots, looking more and more puzzled.
"Hold your tongue, Maurice," said his father, angrily. "Go and fetch the money and the tomfool paint-box thing that you say he had it in."
Mott did as he was told. He ran to the nursery and back as fast as he could; but, unobserved by him, Floss managed to run after him and crept into the study so quietly that her father never noticed her.
Maurice laid the old paint-box and the half-sovereign down on the table in front of his father; Captain Desart held up the little coin between his finger and thumb.
"Now," he said, "Carrots, look at this. Did you or did you not take this piece of money out of nurse's drawer and hide it away in your paint-box?"
Carrots stared hard at the half-sovereign.
"I did put it in my paint-box," he said, and then he stopped.
"What for?" said his father.
"I wanted to keep it for a secret," he replied. "I wanted to—to—"
"What?" thundered Captain Desart.
"To buy something at the toy-shop with it," sobbed Carrots.
Captain Desart sat down and looked at Mott for sympathy.
"Upon my soul," he said, "one could hardlybelieve it. A child that one would think scarcely knew the value of money! Where can he have learnt such cunning; you say you are sure he was told of nurse's having lost a half-sovereign?"
"Oh, yes," said Mott; "he confesses to that much himself."
"Floss told me," said Carrots.
"Then how can you pretend you didn't know this was nurse's—taking it out of her drawer, too," said his father.
"I don't know. I didn't take it out of her drawer; it was 'aside Floss's doll," said Carrots.
"He's trying to equivocate," said his father. Then he turned to the child again, looking more determined than ever.
"Carrots," he said, "I must whip you for this. Do you know that I am ashamed to think you are my son? If you were a poor boy you might be put in prison for this."
Carrots looked too bewildered to understand. "Inprison," he repeated. "Would the prison-man take me?"
"What does he mean?" said Captain Desart.
Floss, who had been waiting unobserved in her corner all this time, thought this a good opportunity for coming forward.
"He means the policeman," she said. "Oh, papa," she went on, running up to her little brother and throwing her arms round him, the tears streaming down her face, "oh, papa, poor little Carrots! hedoesn'tunderstand."
"Where didyoucome from?" said her father, gruffly but not unkindly, for Floss was rather a favourite of his. "What do you mean about his not understanding? Did you know about this business, Floss?"
"Oh no, papa," said Floss, her face flushing; "I'm too big not to understand."
"Of course you are," said Captain Desart; "and Carrots is big enough, too, to understand the veryplain rule that he is not to touch what does not belong to him. He was told, too, that nurse had lost a half-sovereign, and he might then have owned to having taken it and given it back, and then things would not have looked so bad. Take him up to my dressing-room, Maurice, and leave him there till I come."
"May I go with him, papa?" said Floss very timidly.
"No," said her father, "you may not."
So Mott led off poor weeping Carrots, and all the way upstairs he kept sobbing to himself, "I never touched nurse's sovereigns. I never did. I didn't know she had any sovereigns."
"Hold your tongue," said Mott; "what is the use of telling more stories about it?"
"I didn't tell stories. I said I hided the sixpenny my own self, but I never touched nurse's sovereigns; I never did."
"I believe you're more than half an idiot," saidMott, angry and yet sorry—angry with himself, too, somehow.
Floss, left alone with her father, ventured on another appeal.
"You won't whip Carrots till mamma comes in, will you, papa?" she said softly.
"Why not? Do you think I want her to help me to whip him?" said Captain Desart.
"Oh no—but—I think perhaps mamma would understand better how it was, for, oh papa, dear, Carrotsisn'ta naughty boy; he never, never tells stories."
"Well, we'll see," replied her father; "and in the meantime it will do him no harm to think things over by himself in my dressing-room for a little."
"Oh, poor Carrots!" murmured Floss to herself; "it'll be getting dark, and he's all alone. Iwishmamma would come in!"
"When next the summer breeze comes by,And waves the bush, the flower is dry."Walter Scott.
"When next the summer breeze comes by,And waves the bush, the flower is dry."
"When next the summer breeze comes by,And waves the bush, the flower is dry."
Walter Scott.
Flosscrept upstairs to the dressing-room door. It was locked. Though the key was in the lock, she knew she must not turn it; and even had it been open she would not have dared to go in, after her father's forbidding it. But she thought she might venture to speak to Carrots, to comfort him a little, through the door. She was dreadfully afraid that he might feel frightened in there alone if it got dark before he was released, for sometimes he was afraid of the dark—he was such a little boy, remember.
Floss tapped at the door.
"Carrots," she said, "are you there?"
Floss tapped at the door. "Carrots," she said, "are you there?"To face page78.
To face page78.
"Yes," said Carrots; "but you can't come in, Floss. Mott has locked me in."
"I know," said Floss; "what are you doing, Carrots? Are you very unhappy?"
"Not so very. I'm crying—I'm crying a great lot, Floss, but I don't think I'm so very unhappy—not now you've come to the door."
"Poor Carrots," said Floss, "I'll stay by the door, if you like. I'll just run down to the front door now and then, to see if mamma is coming, and then I'll come straight back to you."
"All right," said Carrots. Whenever he wanted to seem very brave, and rather a big boy, he used to say "all right," and just now he was trying very hard to be like a big boy.
There was silence for a minute or two... Then Carrots called out again.
"Floss," he said, "are you there?"
"Yes, dear," replied faithful Floss.
"I want just to tell youonething," he said."Floss, I never did touch nurse's sovereigns. I never knowed she had any."
"It wasn't a sovereign; it was ahalf-sovereign," corrected Floss.
"I don't under'tand how itcouldbe a half-sovereign," said Carrots. "But I never touched nurse's drawer, nor nucken in it."
"Then wheredidyou find the half-sovereign?" began Floss, "and why—oh, Carrots," she broke off, "I do believe that's the front door bell. It'll be mamma coming. I must run down."
"All right," called out Carrots again. "Don't be long, Floss; but please tell mamma all about it. Idon'tunder'tand."
He gave a little sigh of perplexity, and lay down on the floor near the window, where the room was lightest, for the darkness was now beginning to creep in, and he felt very lonely.
Poor Mrs. Desart hardly knew what to think or say, when, almost before she had got into the house,she was seized upon by Maurice and Floss, each eager to tell their own story.Carrotsnaughty,Carrotsin disgrace, was such an extraordinary idea!
"Nurse," she exclaimed, perceiving her at the end of the passage, whence she had been watching as anxiously as the children for her mistress's return, "nurse, what is the meaning of it all?"
"Indeed, ma'am," nurse was beginning, but she was interrupted. "Come in here, Lucy," said Captain Desart to his wife, opening the study door, "come in here before you go upstairs."
And Mrs. Desart did as he asked, but Floss again managed to creep in too, almost hidden in the folds of her mother's dress.
"I can't believe that Carrots is greedy, or cunning, or obstinate," said his mother, when she had heard all. "I cannot think that he understood what he was doing when he took the half-sovereign."
"But the hiding it," said Captain Desart, "thehiding it, and yet to my face persisting that he had never touched nurse's half-sovereign. I can't make the child out."
"He says he didn't know nurse had any sovereigns," put in Floss.
"Are you there again, you ubiquitous child?" said her father.
Floss looked rather frightened—such a long word as ubiquitous must surely mean something very naughty; but her father's voice was not angry, so she took courage.
"Does he know what a sovereign means?" said Mrs. Desart. "Perhaps there is some confusion in his mind which makes him seem obstinate when he isn't so really."
"He said he knewIhad sovereigns," said Floss, "and I couldn't think what he meant. Oh, mamma," she went on suddenly, "I do believe I know what he was thinking of. It was my kings and queens."
And before her father or mother could stop her,she had darted off to the nursery. In two minutes she was back again, holding out to her mother a round wooden box—the sort of box one often used to see with picture alphabets for little children, but instead of an alphabet, Floss's box contained a set of round cards, each about the size of the top of a wine-glass, with the heads of all the English kings and queens, from William the Conqueror down to Victoria!
"'Sovereigns of England,' mamma, you see," she exclaimed, pointing to the words on the lid, and quite out of breath with hurry and excitement, "and I very often call them my sovereigns; and of course Carrots didn't understand how there could be ahalfone of them, nor how nurse could have any."
"It must be so," said Mrs. Desart to her husband; "the poor child really didnotunderstand."
"But still the taking the money at all, and hiding it?" said Captain Desart. "I don't see that it would be right not to punish him."
"He has been punished already—pretty severely for him, I fancy," said Floss's mother, with a rather sad smile. "You will leave him to me now, won't you, Frank?" she asked her husband. "I will go up and see him, and try to make him thoroughly understand. Give me the sovereigns, Floss dear, I'll take them with me."
Somewhat slowly, Carrots' mother made her way upstairs. She was tired and rather troubled. She did not believe that her poor little boy had really done wrong wilfully, but it seemed difficult to manage well among so many children; she was grieved also, at Maurice's hastiness and want of tender feeling, and she saw, too, how little fitted Carrots was to make his way in this rough-and-ready world.
"How would it be without me! My poor children," she thought with a sigh.
But a little hand was slipped into hers.
"Mamma, dear, I'msoglad you thought of the sovereigns. I'msureCarrots didn't mean to benaughty. Mamma dear, though heisso little, Carrots always means to be good; I don't think he could even be frightened into doing anything that he understood was naughty, though he is so easily frightened other ways."
"My good little Floss, my comforter," said her mother, patting Floss's hand, and then they together made their way to the dressing-room.
It was almost dark. The key was in the lock, and Mrs. Desart felt for it and turned it. But when she opened the door it was too dark in the room to distinguish anything.
"Carrots," she said, but there was no answer. "Where can he be?" she said rather anxiously. "Floss, run and get a light."
Floss ran off: she was back again in a minute, for she had met nurse on the stairs with a candle in her hand. But even with the light they could not all at once find Carrots, and though they called to him there was no answer.
"Can he have got out of the window?" Mrs. Desart was beginning to say, when Floss interrupted her.
"Here he is, mamma," she exclaimed. "Oh, poor little Carrots! mamma, nursie, do look."
There he was indeed—fast, fast asleep! Extra fast sleep, for his troubles and his tears had worn him out. He was lying in a corner of a large closet opening out of the dressing-room. In this closet Captain Desart hung up his coats and dressing-gowns, and doubtless Carrots had crept into it when the room began to get dark, feeling as if in the hanging garments there was some comfort and protection; and there he lay, looking so fair and innocent, prettier than when he was awake, for his cheeks had more colour, and his long eye-lashes, reddy-brown like his hair, showed clearly on his fair skin.
"Poor little fellow, how sweet he looks," said Mrs. Desart. "Nurse, lift him up and try to puthim to bed without waking him. We must wait to disentangle the confusion in his mind till to-morrow morning."
And very tenderly nurse lifted him up and carried him off.
"My bonnie wee man," she murmured; for though it was many and many a day since she had seen her native land, and she had journeyed with her master and mistress to strange countries "far over the sea," she was apt when her feelings were stirred to fall back into her own childish tongue.
So no more was said to or about Carrots that evening; but Floss went to bed quite happy and satisfied that "mamma" would put it all right in the morning. I don't think Mott went to bed in so comfortable a mood; yet his mother had said nothing to him!
Cecil and Louise had, though. Cecil told him right out that he was a horrid tell-tale, and Louise said she only wishedhehad red hair instead ofCarrots; which expressions of feeling on the part of such very grown-up young ladies meant a good deal, for it was not often they troubled themselves much about nursery matters. Cecil, that is to say, for Louise, who was fair haired and soft and gentle, and played very nicely on the piano, was just a shadow of Cecil, and if Cecil had proposed that they should stay in bed all day and get up all night, would have thought it a very good idea!
And the next morning Mrs. Desart had a long talk with Carrots. It was all explained and made clear, and the difference between the two kinds of "sovereigns" shown to him. And he told his mother all—all, that is to say, except the "plan" for saving sugar and getting money instead, which had first put it into his head to keep the half-sovereign to get a new doll for Floss. He began to tell about the plan, but stopped when he remembered that it was Floss's secret as well as his own; and when he told his mother this, she said he wasquite right not to tell without Floss's leave, and that as nurse knew about it, they might still keep it for their secret, if they liked, which Carrots was very glad to hear.
He told his mother about his thinking perhaps the fairies had brought the "sixpenny," and she explained to him that now-a-days, alas! that was hardly likely to be the case, though she seemed quite to understand his fancying it, and did not laugh at him at all. But she spoke very gravely to him, too, aboutnevertaking anything that was not his; and after listening and thinking with all his might, Carrots said he thought he "kite under'tood."
"I am never, never to take nucken that I'm not sure is mine," he said slowly. "And if ever I'm not sure I'm to ask somebody, you, or nursie, or Floss—orsometimes, perhaps, Cecil. But I don't think I'd better ask Mott, for perhaps he wouldn't under'tand."
But Mott's mother took care that before the day was over Mottshould"under'tand" something of where and how he had been in fault; that there are sometimes ways of doingrightwhich turn it into "wrong;" and that want of pity and tenderness for the wrongdoernever, never can be right.