'NEARLY DROWNED.'
The winter was nearly over when a sudden sharp frost set in. Bobby and
True were delighted to see the snow fall, and walk out when the
pavements and roads were slippery with ice; and, when their father took
them to the Serpentine to see the skating on the ice they were
enchanted. Then, as the frost continued, he got them each a pair of
skates, and gave them their first lessons in the art. He himself was a
beautiful skater, as he had done a great deal of such sport in America;
and then one Saturday he announced to them at breakfast that he should
take them by train to a large piece of water in the country, and they
should stay there the whole day.
'We will have a winter picnic; Margot must pack us up some sandwiches,
and we shall not come back till dark.'
It was the first time he had proposed a whole day out, and the children
were of course delighted.
As they were starting Mr. Allonby looked at his little son, who had
skates in one hand, Nobbles in the other.
'I think you had better leave Nobbles at home, my boy; he will be in
your way.'
'Oh, please let me take him! He would be so 'normously disappointed if
I left him behind; he does love the country.'
Mr. Allonby laughed.
'Have your own way then.'
They set off in high spirits. Every bit of the day was a keen pleasure
to them--the train journey, the walk from the station to the old
country house belonging to Mr. Allonby's friend, and then the
adjournment to the artificial lake in the park, where a large number of
skaters were assembled. There were other children there who at once
made friends with Bobby and True, and, when luncheon time came, they
were asked to come up to the house. This, however, Mr. Allonby
declined, and a few others besides themselves preferred to lunch on the
banks of the bit of water.
'I like this much the best,' said Bobby, snuggling close to his father;
'it's as hot as fire, isn't it?'
His father looked at his rosy cheeks with content.
'I wish I could give you children an out-of-door country life,' he
said; 'that's what you ought to have.'
'Yes,' said True; 'I don't like houses at all. I should like to be a
gipsy!'
'When we grows up, father, we'll come over the sea with you, won't we?
And couldn't we go to the North Pole and skate? Miss Robsart was
telling us yesterday about the poor little fat Eskims--I forgets the
name of them--who're in the dark so much. I should like to see them
and the whales.'
'I should like the hot places best,' said True, 'where you lie in the
sun, and monkeys and parrots swing in the trees above you, and you eat
cocoanuts and dates!'
'Yes,' said Mr. Allonby; 'we'll do some travels together later if we're
spared. But the North Pole would be a big order, Bobby; it has never
been found yet.'
'I espec's God has got hold of it in His hand, and twists the world
round with it,' said Bobby with knitted brows.
His father laughed.
'Finish your lunch, sonny, and we'll be moving; your theories are quite
beyond me.'
So they took to the ice again, and Bobby flew here and there on his
skates, one of the jolliest little figures to be seen.
Later in the afternoon a certain piece of the ice was roped off as
being unsafe. Mr. Allonby warned the children not to go near it; and
then, only a short time afterwards, a cry and a crash startled everyone
near. A daring schoolboy had ventured beyond the rope and crashed
through the ice into deep water. Mr. Allonby was close by with Bobby;
in an instant he had dashed forwards, and after a breathless minute or
two to Bobby, and before others had hardly taken in what was happening,
he had dragged the boy safely up again. But, to Bobby's horror, as his
father was coming back, the ice gave way in a fresh place under his
feet, and he disappeared.
The child raised an agonising cry.
'Father's drowing! Father's drowing!'
Then ensued wild confusion. Ladies shrieked and rushed to the banks,
there were loud cries for a ladder or a rope, but, as is often the case
in private places, none were forthcoming in the spot in which they were
required. In an instant one little figure went to the rescue, strong
in his own willingness to save. He reached his father first. Holding
out Nobbles to him, he cried:
'Catch hold, quick, quick, father! I'll pull you out! Oh, catch hold!'
Mr. Allonby was struggling to raise himself, but the ice kept breaking
under his grip.
'Go back!' he shouted to Bobby. 'Go back!
But for once the child disobeyed.
When he saw his father sink before his eyes he raised a most piercing
cry. In the distance they were bringing a ladder. Men were rushing
frantically back to get it.
'Father! Father! Don't sink! Oh, do catch hold of Nobbles!'
'Hi, you little chap, you'll be going in yourself! Come back! Give me
your stick! Here, Allonby, catch hold!'
Mr. Allonby's head appeared above the surface again, and in an instant
the man behind Bobby had placed Nobbles across the hole in the ice.
Exhausted as he was, Mr. Allonby gripped it, keeping himself afloat
till a few men and boys formed a human ladder, and he was slowly drawn
out of his perilous position. Bobby meanwhile was struggling madly in
the grip of a youth.
'You little fool, keep still! Do you want to drown yourself! You were
within an ace of it a minute ago! Your father will be all right in a
minute. See--that's--the way. Hurrah, Selwyn--he's got him. Now pull
together--hurrah! He's out, and none the worse, I bet!'
Bobby was screaming frantically: 'I wants to save him. Me and Nobbles
can save him!' but when he saw his father rescued he stopped his
screams and struggled to get to him. His little face was white to the
lips. His father stooped to reassure him.
'I'm all right, sonny. Here's your stick! Come along up to the house
with me! I'm too wet to stand about. They'll give me a change.'
He took hold of Bobby's hand and led him to the bank whilst they took
off their skates together, and then they walked through the park, young
Alan Daubeney, the son of the house, accompanying them.
'It was that little brute, Jim Carlton, he always disobey orders if he
can! I'm thankful you were on the spot, Allonby, though it would have
been a near case for you if we hadn't got at you when we did. Father
will be furious with the gardeners. They were told to have ladders as
a precaution, but it seems they left them at the other end.'
'Well, no harm's done. I don't think much of a sousing. I dare say
you'll give me a change.'
'Of course.'
Then young Daubeney looked at Bobby.
'Your stick proved useful, youngster; a good thing you were by.'
'Yes,' said Mr. Allonby, with a little smile, 'it was all the support I
needed. I should have gone entirely under if I had not had it at that
identical minute.'
Bobby did not answer, but he tried to smile. It had been more of a
shock to him than to his father, and it was not till he and True were
in the train coming home that he ventured to speak of it.
'Father, you were nearly drownded!'
'I suppose I was, sonny, or I might have been.'
'Oh, what should I've done! what should I've done! That awful crackly
ice!'
'I wish I'd seen it,' said True; 'a lady had such tight hold of my
hand, she wouldn't let me go, and I never knewed it was dad tumbled in.
I saw a boy come along dripping wet, and he looked awful frightened.
If I'd known it was dad I'd have screamed!'
'Nobbles saved father,' said Bobby in an awestruck whisper. 'I believe
he reely did!'
'I think he really did, my boy,' said Mr. Allonby, putting his arm
round Bobby and drawing him to him; 'he and you together. We little
thought this morning, when I told you to leave him at home, what he
would be the means of doing.'
A slow smile spread over Bobby's face. The joy of this discovery quite
wiped out the horror of the scene from his mind. He laid his curly
head against his father's strong arm in infinite content.
'Me and Nobbles is 'stremely happy,' he said.
And then Mr. Allonby stooped and kissed him.
'Oh, Bobby, what a pity it is that lessons must separate us.'
But Bobby was too absorbed in his happiness to heed what his father
said.
When they reached home Margot had to be told the whole story, and the
next morning it was poured into Miss Robsart's ears, and then an
expedition was made to Curly's crossing to tell him about it.
'For acourse you ought to know,' said Bobby, 'for you saved Nobble's
life, and he saved father's, so it's got to do with you as well as me.'
And then True suggested that Lady Isobel should be written and told
about it.
'And we'll make it up like a story, Bobby, for it's quite fit for a
book, and I'll help you write it.'
Three afternoon's hard work in the sitting-room produced the following
epistle, which went down to the country and greeted Lady Isobel one
morning at breakfast:
'MY VERY DERE ANT ISBEL,--
'Father says you are my ant now. A wunderfull day hapend. Father and
True and me and Nobbles went on our skats to skat in the cuntry. It
was a very big pond, and a lot of pepul, and we went in the trane.
Nobbles kam with us. The ice began to brake when a boy went on it
where he was told not, and he went thro. It was an orful moment. And
father and me saw him do it. Father gumped in the water and kort him
and lifted him up, and he krawled out, and Father kam out too, and
there was anuther crack, and Father went down and onley his head
remaned and sum fingers. Me and Nobbles nerely burst with terrerr, but
we went up very quik, and I held Nobbles out to dere father, and we was
going to pull him out, but it was orfull, and sum men came up, and
Nobbles was tuk and lade on his chest flat across the hole in the ice.
Father's head had gorn down twice for the ice crakkeled in his fingers,
but he tuk hold of Nobbles, and Nobbles smild and held him fast for hes
so strong, and then a man lade down on his chest flat and held out his
hand to Father and anuther man pulled hold of his legs, and anuther man
pulled him, and I was pushed away for I wanted to pull too, but I did
not cry but I was 'normusly fritend, and at larst Father was pulled out
safe, but they saide if Nobbles had not been there he wood have
drownded, so dont you think that me and Nobbles saved Father's life?
He saide we did, and I am so glad for I luv him the best in the wurld,
him and God in Heaven. It was an orful excedent, and Margot says we
were nerely orfans, and me and Nobbles dremes of it nerely every night,
so Nobbles is a herro, wich True says is anybuddy who saves life, and I
helped him to do it. Plese rite to me soon.
Your luving little
BOBBY.'
Lady Isobel handed this letter to her husband.
'Oh, Mortimer! we must have him here. I simply ache to have him every
time I go up to his nursery.'
'Patience, my lady!' said her husband, laughing as he read Bobby's
quaint production.
'"All things come to him who waits," and a bride of two months'
standing ought not to ache for anyone but her husband!'
Bobby got a long and loving letter back from his new aunt, and he
showed it to his father with great pride.
Lady Isobel's last sentence in her letter was, 'Ask father to tell you
my plan that I talked to you about the day before I was married.'
'What is it, father?' asked Bobby.
I'll tell you this evening,' his father responded. 'True and you and I
will have a confab over it.'
These confabs were a delight to the children. They had many of them on
the hearthrug in the firelight, their father leaning back in his chair
and smoking his pipe whilst he listened and talked.
'A plan is sure to be nice,' said True, 'and Lady Isobel's will be much
better than the ones we make up, Bobby.'
So all that day they puzzled their heads over what it could be. And
when at last the happy moment arrived they sat in rapt anticipation of
their father's disclosure.
'I hope to sail away from England about the middle of May,' Mr. Allonby
said, looking at the children gravely.
Bobby's lower lip began to quiver at once.
'I knewed that drefful day would be coming,' he said; 'but me and
Nobbles tries to forget it.'
'This plan has to do with that day,' his father said cheerfully. 'What
is going to become of you when I go off, do you think?'
'Oh,' said True, 'we've plans for that. Miss Robsart is coming to live
with us, and she and Margot will look after us till you come back.'
Mr. Allonby shook his head.
'No, that won't work,' he said.
'Shall we be sented to school?' asked Bobby in a trembling voice.
'Now, listen! Your Uncle Mortimer and Aunt Isobel have said they will
take care of you and True whilst I am away. Your Aunt wants you back
in the old house, Bobby, and Miss Robsart is to go down there too, and
go on teaching you till you've mastered your Latin declensions, and are
ready for school.'
True clapped her hands delightedly, and a smile broke over Bobby's
serious face.
'And will Miss Robsart's sick sister come too? She always said if she
got into the country she could paint again.'
'I believe the idea is that she should go too. Your uncle has a
cottage near that he is going to let them have. Margot will take
charge of you still in the nursery, and I shall feel that you are being
looked after well whilst I'm away. Do you think the plan will work?'
'Yes,' the children cried simultaneously; for Bobby had outgrown his
dread of the silent house now, and the idea of going back there, and
showing True all his old haunts filled him with delight.
'I wish,' said Bobby slowly, 'as we're all going there, that Curly
could come too. Do you think, father dear, we could make a confab
about him?'
'Go ahead, then. From your account he is quite a reformed character;
but I don't see how he could form one of your party.'
'He's so very clean now,' continued Bobby earnestly; 'and Miss Robsart
has got him into a shop. He dusts and sweeps and runs errands, but he
told me yesterday he wants a run into the country awful bad. He would
like to come with us.'
'Yes, he might black our boots and work in the garden,' said True.
'Will Lady Is'bel ask him, do you think, father?'
'No, I think she is doing quite enough if she takes charge of you two
young pickles.'
'I shan't like leaving my friend behind,' said Bobby solemnly. 'You
see, he saved Nobbles' life. He deserves me to remember him, and not
go away and forget him.'
'You send him one of your letters,' said his father smiling, 'or a
present. You needn't forget him because you're away from him. Is that
what you are going to do with me?'
A look from Bobby was sufficient reply to this. Then, lapsing into his
worst grammar, in his excitement he said, 'I never forgetted you one
day since I was borned! It's like a bit of my puzzle map,' went on
Bobby after a pause. 'It's a plan with a piece left out, and it isn't
finished till it's putted in. Curly must be in our plan, father dear.'
'He may be in yours, but not in Lady Isobel's, I think,' said Mr.
Allonby.
'We'll make a confab with Lady Is'bel about him when we get to her
house,' suggested True. 'I believe she'll find a way to have him.'
Bobby cheered up at once.
'I believe she will. We'll ask her.'
And then, dismissing the one flaw in the delightful plan, they talked
of Bobby's old home with enthusiasm till Margot came to take them to
bed.