JOCK'S one need at the moment was to be alone—quite alone that he might
think over the wonderful news. Only to imagine that mother herself
would soon be with him, her dear arms around him, her sweet face at his
side—it seemed beyond belief. So often he had thought of this, as a
thing to happen at some distant day, and now it was near, almost close.
He fled to a tiny copse at the farther end of the kitchen-garden, thus
far not wanting even Mousie. Presently he would have to tell her, but
not yet.
Nobody was within sight, and Jock flung himself flat on the grass, with
his face down on his arms. A big lump had risen in his throat, just
because he felt so wildly happy.
This wouldn't do. What would Dad say, if he knew that his boy was
crying, to think of his mother's return? No, not crying, Jock
protested, as he sat up and laughed, not proper crying! It was only
that everything seemed changed; everything in one moment had become so
splendidly different, and his whole world was flooded with sunshine.
He rolled over on his back, and lay gazing up through slender branches
and interlacing twigs at the blue sky beyond, and he kept repeating to
himself—"Mummie is coming! Mummie is coming!" That said all.
But before long, though how long he had not the least notion, he found
that he really must tell somebody. He could not any longer keep such
glorious news to himself. He wanted someone else to be glad with him,
someone to whom he could say how happy he was. He would find Mousie;
and how pleased she would be! Almost as much as Jock himself. Not
quite, of course, for that would be impossible.
In another instant he was tearing through the kitchen-garden and the
shrubbery into Mrs. Baynes' small orchard, shouting at the pitch of his
voice as he went, for now he had come to the stage when he simply had
to shout. Keeping silence was out of the question.
On the low-curving bough of an old apple-tree Mousie was swinging
lazily to and fro. She had grown into the habit of running freely, when
so disposed, into the Baynes' grounds, and nobody seemed to object.
"Oh, Jock, come here," she cried, and he swung himself up by her side.