The Builders or The Little House
Mollie left the white gate, which swung behind her with a sharp click,
and walked up the path towards Prudence. Laddie circled round with a
few inquiring sniffs, decided that the newcomer was harmless, and stood
blinking his eyes in the sunlight, his bushy tail waving slowly from
side to side. Prudence slid an arm through Mollie's.
"I'm so glad you've come," she said. "Hugh's little house is all but
finished, and he promised to let us up to-day. Let's go and sit beside
Grizzel till he calls."
Mollie's eyes followed the turn of Prue's head, and she saw a younger
child seated upon the golden floor beyond the flower-beds. This child
wore an overall of bright blue cotton, shaped like Prue's, and her head
was covered with short red curls, which shone in the sun like burnished
copper. Prudence frowned a little as she looked at her sister:
"How Grizzel can sit in the middle of that yellow, dressed in that
blue, with that red hair, I can't think," she said. "She calls herself
an artist, but it simply puts my teeth on edge. Did you ever see
anything so ugly?"
"Ugly!" Mollie repeated in surprise. "I think it is beautiful, just
like a picture in _Colour_. What is she doing?"
The child looked up at that moment and smiled at them. "Hullo, Mollie,"
she said in a friendly tone, as if she were quite well acquainted with
the new arrival, "come and see my dandelion-chain; it's nearly done."
Prudence jumped the flower-bed, followed by Mollie and the dog, and all
three made their way through the thickly growing dandelions, and seated
themselves beside Grizzel. She had filled her lap with dandelions, and
was busily occupied in linking them together as English children link a
daisy-chain.
"What are you doing?" Mollie asked again, as her eyes followed
Grizzel's chain, and she observed that it stretched far away out of
sight among the trees and bushes.
"I am laying a chain right round the garden," Grizzel replied. "When it
is finished it will be the longest dandelion-chain in the world."
"What are you going to do with it?" asked Mollie.
"Nothing," answered Grizzel.
"Then what's the good of making it?" asked Mollie.
"It isn't meant to be any good," answered Grizzel, "it's only meant to
be the longest dandelion-chain in the world."
"But there's nothing beautiful about longness," persisted Mollie. "You
wouldn't like to have the longest nose in the world."
"It would be rather nice," said Grizzel, working as steadily as the
Princess in Hans Andersen's tale of the "White Swans", "then I could
smell all the delicious smells there are. Mamma says a primrose-patch
in an English wood is delicious."
"Don't waste your breath trying to make Grizzel change her mind,"
Prudence interposed. "Papa says you might as well explain to a pigling
which way you want it to go. Let's help with her chain and get it
finished. I'm tired of it." She threw a handful of yellow bloom into
Mollie's lap as she spoke, and began herself to link some stalks
together in a somewhat dreamy and lazy fashion. Mollie followed her
example more briskly.
"It's a pity, you know," she said to Grizzel, "to leave the poor little
flowers withering all round the garden when they might have gone on
growing for days. They will soon be faded and forgotten."
"I'd rather fade in the longest chain in the world than be one of a
million dandelions growing on their roots," Grizzel said, pulling a
fresh handful and shifting her chain to make room for them.
Mollie shook her head but did not argue any more. She dropped her chain
and looked round the garden. Although the sun was so warm and bright
the flowers were those which grow in springtime in England. Daffodils,
narcissus, freesias, and violets grew thickly in the borders and under
the trees, which seemed to be mostly fruit-trees, though Mollie did not
recognize them all. Peach and apricot were in bloom; fig trees and
mulberry trees spread out their broad leaves; and an immense vividly
scarlet geranium dazzled even Mollie's modern eyes. It was a funny
mixture of seasons, she thought.
Suddenly Prudence jumped to her feet, letting all her dandelions drop
unheeded. "There's Hugh!" she exclaimed; "he is calling us. The house
must be finished. Come on, Grizzel, leave your old chain--come on,
Mollie."
Grizzel shook her head and set all the red curls bobbing; "I must
finish my chain first. You go. I won't be long."
Prudence and Mollie jumped the flower-beds again, Laddie, who had
fallen comfortably asleep among the dandelions, deciding after a few
lazy blinks to stay where he was. A slender boy in grey was waiting for
them in the veranda. He was like Prue, but fairer, and his eyes were
peculiarly clear and thoughtful.
"Come on," he said, "I'm ready for the furnishings now. What I want is:
first, a carpet; second, curtains; and third--third--a tin-opener; but
there is no great hurry for that. Where can I get a carpet?"
"Schoolroom hearthrug," Prudence suggested promptly. "No one will
notice, and it's pretty shabby since I dropped the red-hot poker and
you spilt the treacle-toffee."
"And the curtains?"
"You can have the striped blanket off my bed," said Prue, after a
moment's consideration, "we can cut it in halves."
"Good gracious!" exclaimed Mollie. "Cut a blanket in halves! What will
your mother say to that?"
"Mamma won't know," Prudence replied calmly. "She never looks at my
bed, and, if she did, she would forget it had ever had a striped
blanket on it. Come on, Mollie, we'll get the things and smuggle them
across while no one is looking."
Mollie felt shocked for a minute. Doing things behind backs was all
against Guide Law, and at home she would almost as soon think of
chopping up her own feet as of cutting up Mother's blankets to play
with. But, she reflected, different times have different ways; there
was no Guide Law in 1878, and perhaps Prue's mother was very extra
strict, in which case "all's fair in love and war", so she followed
Prue into the house. It was, to her eyes, an unusual sort of house, all
built on the ground floor, so that there was no staircase. The front
door opened into a square hall with doors on all sides. Prue pushed one
open and they passed through into a bedroom, very plainly furnished
with two little beds, two chests of drawers, a wash-stand, and a chair.
They pulled the white cover off one bed and hauled away a blanket,
cheerfully striped in scarlet, purple, yellow, and green, with a few
black and white lines thrown in here and there. Mollie thought it would
be rather a difficult blanket to forget about. Prue replaced the white
cover, spreading it smoothly and neatly, rolled up the blanket, and
made for the door again.
Hugh had disappeared. They walked down the veranda, passing several
open French windows through which Mollie caught a glimpse of
sitting-rooms, and crossed a paved courtyard, at the farther side of
which was a red brick house with a wooden porch in front of it.
"The schoolroom is here," Prudence explained, "because Mamma doesn't
like noise. It's a very good plan for us; we can do lots of things we
couldn't do if we were in the house. Miss Wilton is our governess; she
has gone home to-day to nurse a sister with bronchitis. I'm sorry for
the sister, but it's a treat for us, especially as Hugh has got a
half-holiday. Mamma is out, Bridget has taken Baby for a walk, and Mary
is talking to her sweetheart across the fence, so we'll get the
hearthrug without any questions."
As she talked, Prudence led the way into the schoolroom. It was plainly
furnished and not very tidy, but it had a homely look--in fact it
reminded Mollie of the nursery in North Kensington, so that, for one
very brief moment, she almost felt homesick. But Prudence gave her
little time to indulge in this luxurious sensation (because having a
home nice enough to be sick for is a luxury in its way), and Mollie had
merely taken in a general impression of books, toys, and shabbiness,
when Prudence called her to help with the hearthrug. It certainly was
shabby and by no means added to the beauty of the room. They rolled it
up with the blanket inside, and, carrying it between them, they left
the schoolroom, crossed the courtyard again, scrambled over a low stone
wall, and arrived at the foot of a tall tree.
It was a very large tree. Its trunk, grey, smooth, and absolutely
straight, rose from the ground for fourteen feet without a branch or
foothold of any description. At that height its thick boughs spread out
in a broad and even circumference, and across two of these boughs was
built a hut, perhaps five by seven feet in area, and high enough for a
child of ten to stand upright in. It had a floor, four walls, and a
roof, an opening for a door, and three smaller openings for windows. At
the door sat Hugh, waiting for the girls and their bundle. When they
came to a standstill below him he let down a rope.
"Tie the things on and I'll haul them up," he ordered; "and then you
two climb up and give me a hand. Better send Mollie up first, as the
ladder is a bit shaky till you know it, and Prue can hang on to it
below."
Mollie noticed then that a narrow green ladder leant up against the
smooth trunk; it looked as if an unwary step would send it flying, and
she put a reluctant foot on the lowest rung. The ground below was hard
and stony, most uninviting for a fall.
"You are quite safe so long as you push and don't pull," Prudence
assured her. "I am holding on here, and the ladder is firmer than it
looks."
Mollie mounted with gingerly tread, but reached the top safely and
crawled into the hut through the little door. She was quickly followed
by Prudence, and the two girls examined the interior with interest.
There was not very much room; two could sit down with comfort, three
would be slightly crowded, and four would be a tight fit but not
impossible.
"You won't be able to lay the carpet with all of us inside," said
Mollie, as she felt the big roll at her back.
"One of you had better stay out," said Hugh. "There are seats all over
the tree."
Mollie put her head out at the door and looked up into the branches.
They were very much forked, and upon every difficult branch Hugh had
nailed steps and made a railing. In some of the forks he had inserted
wooden seats, others he had left to nature. The topmost seat was almost
at the summit of the tree, and behind it was firmly lashed a flagpole,
with a Union Jack hanging limply in the still air, and a lantern with
green and red glass on two of its sides. Near the door of the little
house there hung from a stout branch a curious-looking canvas bag,
broadly tubular in shape, and with a small brass tap at the lower end.
The tree was thickly foliaged, but the leaves were delicate and lacy,
and, though they formed an admirable screen for the climbers, a good
view of the surrounding country was to be obtained between them, and
even through them in some places. Mollie decided to climb to the top
and look about.
"That's our look-out," Hugh explained. "We can see the enemy from there
a long time before the enemy can see us."
"'O Pip', is what _we_ call it," said Mollie. "Who is the enemy?"
"It all depends," Hugh replied evasively. "Now, Prue, look alive."
Mollie was a level-headed climber when she had something reasonably
solid beneath her feet; no one unfamiliar with the vagaries of the
green ladder could be expected to climb it with enthusiasm. She crawled
out of the house by the little door again, found her road to the
nearest staircase, and climbed this way and that among the leafy
branches till she reached the Look-out. There she settled herself
comfortably and examined her surroundings near and far, whilst the
other two laid the carpet and tacked up the blanket, now cut into three
strips by Prudence.
"She looks as if she were hemming sheets for missionaries," Mollie said
to herself, as she watched Prudence doing execution on the blanket with
a large pair of scissors. "It would be almost impossible for any girl
to be as good as Prue looks; it's her eyelashes, and the way she does
her hair."
After admiring the well-planned architecture of the tree Mollie turned
her attention to the scenery. At her feet lay the garden with the long,
vine-wreathed house and the red schoolroom at one side. It was a large
garden, stretching far behind the house, and, as Mollie surveyed the
rows of almond trees which outlined its boundaries, she felt some
respect for Grizzel's perseverance. "If she has laid a chain right
round that she knows how to stick to a thing," she thought, as she
caught sight of the little blue figure still sitting amongst the golden
dandelions. "It's a pity she doesn't do something more worth while. She
would make a good Guide." Looking beyond the garden, Mollie could see
the town of Adelaide. It was a white town among green trees, with many
slender spires and pointed steeples piercing the blue sky, many gardens
and meadows, and a silvery streak of river winding across it like a
twisted thread. A semicircle of softly swelling hills enclosed the town
upon two sides, some of them striped with vineyards, some wooded, and
some brilliantly yellow, for the dandelions seemed to be spread over
the country like a carpet. Mollie shook a wise head at such waste of
good land, for of what use are dandelions! In the far distance she
could see a straight white road leading from the town into the hills.
She thought she would like to follow that road and see what happened to
it in the end. "I had not the least idea," she murmured to herself,
"that Adelaide and Australia were like this; not the very least. There
must be a great deal of world outside England, when you come to think
of it. When I am grown-up--"
"Come down, Mollie," called Prue. "The house is beautiful now; come and
see it."
It certainly looked very snug, with the carpet, whose shabbiness was
not noticeable in the dim light, and the gaily striped curtains, which
had been tacked up and fastened back from the windows. They had added a
set of shelves made out of a box covered with American leather and
brass-headed nails. A few books lay upon one shelf, and on another
stood a collection of cups, saucers, and plates, cracked, perhaps, and
not all matching, but suggestive of convivial parties and good cheer.
In one corner lay a cushion embroidered in woolwork with magenta roses,
pea-green leaves, and orange-coloured daisies, all upon a background of
ultramarine blue. Mollie thought it gave an effective touch to the
somewhat scanty furnishing--in fact, it was the only furniture there
was, except the shelves.
"How perfectly _ripping_!" Mollie exclaimed enthusiastically. "If I had
this house I would live in it all the time. It is _much_ nicer than a
common house in a road. I do think Hugh is the cleverest boy I ever
met."
"This is nothing much," Hugh said modestly, "you should see my
raft--that _is_ worth seeing. I have invented a way of arranging corks
so that it will float in the severest storm. It could not sink if it
tried, unless, of course, it became waterlogged. But I can only work at
that when we are down at Brighton."
"I wish my brother Dick could be a Time-traveller and come here,"
sighed Mollie. "He would adore this tree, and the raft too."
"How old is Dick?" Hugh asked with interest.
"He is my twin; we are thirteen and a half," answered Mollie, quite
forgetting that in the year 1878 Dick was still minus twenty-nine. "We
do everything together in the holidays except football, and just now
there isn't any football, so Dick is rather bored at school. In
term-time we hardly see each other at all, we are both so horribly
busy. How do you find time to do all these things?"
"I don't find it, I steal it," Hugh answered. "If I waited to _find_
time I should never have enough to be useful. To-day is a half-holiday,
and I am supposed to be learning Roman history and writing out five
hundred lines. But I'm not," he added unnecessarily.
"Building is much more important than Roman history," said Mollie
decidedly, "and lines are absolutely rotten. I wonder why--"
"Hullo!" came a voice from below. "It's me. I have finished my chain at
last, and now I want to come up. Please come and hold the ladder, Prue."
Prudence crept out, tripped lightly down the ladder, and stood beside
her sister.
"Hold tight, Grizzel, and do remember to push and not pull; if you pull
I can't hold the ladder up."
"I wish Hugh would cut steps in the tree-trunk like the blacks,"
Grizzel complained, as she proceeded rather nervously to climb the
ladder. "I do hate this old tobbely old green old thing."
"I am going to make a rope-ladder and pull it up after me," Hugh said,
watching her from the door of his castle in the air. "I don't want
steps that everybody could climb. Look out, Griz, you are pulling--" he
stretched out a hand as he spoke, and held the top of the ladder, while
Prudence steadied it at the bottom, until Grizzel had safely negotiated
"the green passage", as Hugh called it, and crawled in at his little
front door.
"It is very, very, very, very nice," she said approvingly, "and it will
make a lovely place to come and hate in when everybody is horrid. You
can draw the curtains and shut the door, and light your lantern and sit
here hating as long as you like, for no one can get up when you have
your rope-ladder."
"It would be rather stuffy," Mollie said, looking at the thick blanket
curtains. "If he went on hating very long he would be suffocated. I'd
sooner have a tea-party myself, and pull all the tea up in baskets. The
water would be the hard part."
"The water is in that canvas bag," Hugh pointed out; "Papa gave it to
me; it's the boiling that bothers me, because I don't much like using a
spirit-lamp in here."
"Get an old biscuit-tin and fasten it up in the tree and put your
spirit-lamp in that," suggested Mollie the Guide. "Cut out the front;
then you will have a nice little cave all safe and sheltered."
"That's a jolly good idea," said Hugh; "I'll do it to-morrow and we'll
have a party."
A bell in the distance warned the children that it was time to go in
and tidy up for tea. Grizzel, however, was far too much enthralled by
the little house to want to come down so soon. "I don't want any
bread-and-butter tea," she announced; "bring me three oranges and
eleven biscuits, and the _Swiss Family Robinson_, and let me stay up
here."
Tea was laid in the dining-room, where they found Baby already seated
in her high chair. She was a very pretty baby, with large dark eyes,
silky golden hair, and a dear little mouth parting over two rows of
tiny pearly teeth. She gurgled melodiously to her family in the
intervals of dropping bits of jammy bread into her mug of milk, and
watching them bob about with absorbed interest.
"Good old Mary! She's made potato scones _and_ almond gingerbread."
Hugh remarked approvingly. "If you've never tasted real Irish potato
scones baked on a girdle, Mollie, you'd better chalk it up, as Bridget
says. You split them in two, pop in a lump of butter, shut them up, and
eat them. Too soon they are but a sweet dream of the past."
"They'll soon be a horrid dream of the future if you gobble them like
that," Prudence said warningly, "and you've forgotten Grizzel's
oranges; go and pull three fresh ones, and we'd better send her ginger
cake."
The gingerbread was baked in thin oblong squares frosted with white
sugar, each child's name being written on its own cake in pink letters.
They were most fascinating, and Mollie was charmed to see one with her
own name on it. The delightful part about this most unexpected visit,
she thought, was the way everyone had apparently expected her. She
could not help wondering how the invitation had been sent, but decided
that it was better not to ask too many questions.
Hugh departed with Grizzel's oranges, biscuits, and gingerbread,
elegantly arranged in a green-rush basket, the _Swiss Family Robinson_
forming the basis of the repast. He returned with a smile upon his face
which disclosed two most engaging dimples.
"I've sneaked the ladder," he said. "Won't Frizzy Grizzy be pleased
when she finds out! Ha ha! More scones, please."
"She won't mind," Prudence answered placidly, "she knows someone will
have to let her down before Mamma comes in. You've had enough jam, Baby
darling; let Prudence take off your bib now and wash your handy-pandys.
You can have half my gingerbread if you like, Hugh--hullo, there's
Papa!"
There was a sharp double knock at the front door, followed by the sound
of someone entering. Prudence set Baby on her feet and bolted
helter-skelter across the square hall, flinging herself into the arms
of a stout man with a brown beard, who returned her embrace so warmly
that Mollie wondered if he had been away from home for some time. He
removed his tall silk hat, showing a head as thickly covered with curls
as Grizzel's, but the hair was dark and slightly touched with grey.
"Well, my chick-a-biddies," he said, in a delightfully genial voice,
beaming upon them all with the kindest blue eyes Mollie had ever seen,
"and what has everybody been doing? And where is Grizzel?"
As he spoke he lifted Baby into his arms, ignoring the jammy little
fingers, laid a hand on Mollie's head, and looked round inquiringly for
his missing daughter.
"She's in my Nest," Hugh replied, "it's finished. Come and see it. You
can't climb into it yet, but it looks very nice from the outside. I
think I'll arrange a box to pull you and Mamma up in. The zinc-lined
box the piano came in would do."
"Thank you, my son," said Papa kindly, "thank you, thank you. At the
moment I am rather pressed for time. I have to meet Mamma at Mrs.
Taylor's at half-past five, and we are going to the town-hall to hear
this wonderful new telephone, as they call it. They say that someone
speaking from the post office at Glenelg will be perfectly audible in
the town-hall here, a distance of six and a half miles. It sounds
almost incredible. What will they discover next! Truly this is an
amazing age, and you children may live to see men flying yet."
Hugh had left his gingerbread, which lay forgotten on his plate, and
stood before his father flushed with excitement:
"Take me with you, _do_, Papa," he cried. "I'll learn reams of Latin
and get up at four o'clock and--"
"Well, get your hat and be quick then," Papa interrupted indulgently.
"Prue, my pet, look in my bag and you will find five parcels, one for
each young robber. Be fair and amiable, my children. Come, Hugh. Good
night, Papa's little angel." He kissed Baby, handed her over to
Prudence, put on his hat again, and was off down the wide path between
the cypress trees with Hugh hanging on his arm, in less than no time.
"Let's watch from the gate," said Prudence. "Bridget will take Baby.
Hurry up, Mollie."
They reached the foot of the garden just in time to see Papa's tall hat
disappear round the corner of the road. It was a lovely evening, and
the girls lingered by the gate; the scent of violets and freesias rose
from the flowerbed at their feet, and every now and again came a whiff
of something else--something exquisitely fragrant and delicate.
"What's that?" asked Mollie, with an unladylike sniff; "that lovely
smell?"
"It's wattle," Prudence answered. "It's in the fields over there. You
can smell it for miles sometimes, in the country; it's a nice smell.
Let's go and look at Papa's parcels. He went to see Mrs. Macfarline at
her toyshop to-day, and when he goes there he always brings something
home. It's a beautiful shop. Once I stayed with Lucy Macfarline from
Saturday till Monday, and her mamma allowed us to play in the shop on
Sunday; it was so funny, all dark and dim, and the dolls looking like
little ghosts. We played with the toys on the shelves and had a lovely
time. I love shops--oh, Mollie, we have forgotten Grizzel! She is up in
the tree all this time! We must run and get her down. I hope Hugh
hasn't hidden the ladder--I wish he wouldn't tease so."
"All brothers do," Mollie said philosophically. "Dick is simply the
limit sometimes, but I do wish we could get him over here, Prudence. Do
you think we could?"
"I'll think. But first we must find that ladder."
As they neared the tree Prudence called to her sister that they were
coming, but got no answer. They jumped the low wall and stood
underneath the tree, nearly dislocating their necks in their efforts to
see some sign of life in the little house. But Grizzel neither answered
nor showed herself, in spite of Prue's eloquent description of Papa's
parcels and denunciations of their brother.
"Perhaps she is having her evening hate," suggested Mollie.
"She does take awful fits of the sulks sometimes," Prudence allowed,
"but I don't think she would be sulky with _me_ just now; it wasn't me
that stole the ladder--oh _bother_ that Hugh! We had better go and look
for it as fast as we can. I wonder where he has hidden it?"
"It can't be far away, because he was only gone for a few minutes at
tea-time," Mollie remarked sensibly. "Very likely it is simply lying on
the ground behind the wall."
That was precisely where it was, and without much trouble the girls got
it into place again, and Prudence mounted quickly. She disappeared
through the little door, but in one moment appeared again with a
frightened face.
"She's not here, Mollie. She's gone."
"Gone!" Mollie exclaimed incredulously. "She can't be gone! How could
she get down without the ladder? She must be up in the tree."
"No, she isn't. I can see every branch from here; there is not a single
place where she could hide."
"But she _must_ be up there somewhere," Mollie persisted. "If she had
fallen out she would be lying round somewhere. There is no way she
_could_ get down without the ladder. She is so nervous. I'll come up
too and look."
"You may come, but you won't see anything," Prudence said, steadying
her end of the ladder while Mollie climbed.
The Nest was certainly empty. The little blue bird must have found
wings and flown, Mollie thought. She looked up and down and round
about, but not a vestige of Grizzel was there to be seen. Then she
called her Scouting lore to her aid, and set her wits to work.
"The basket has gone too, and there is no orange peel anywhere, but the
_Swiss Family Robinson_ is there on the book-shelf. So she did not go
in a great hurry, because she tidied up first. Let us go to the
Look-out and see if we can catch sight of her blue frock. She may be
hiding quite near and laughing at us all the time."
They climbed to the Look-out and anxiously scanned all the visible
parts of the garden, but nowhere was there a morsel of blue pinafore or
red curls to be seen.
"We had better get down," Prudence said, "and search the garden
properly; I'll ask Bridget to come and help us. What I can't understand
is how she got down at all, and, if she _was_ down, why she didn't come
to meet Papa. She always meets him; always, always. Whoever doesn't
meet him Grizzel always does."
Bridget laughed at their fears, but under her laugh Mollie could detect
a tone of anxiety, and when house and garden had been searched in vain,
Bridget and Prudence faced each other in silence. Then Prue spoke out
the fear which Mollie had not understood:
"The blacks have come to town; I saw their wurlies yesterday when we
left the Gardens."
"Away wid ye, Miss Prudence," Bridget scoffed. "An' what for wud the
blacks be touchin' Grizzel? Isn't yur Pa the kindest gintleman in the
whole wurrld to thim, dirrty things they be!"
"Old Sammy was angry because Mamma would not give him a new blanket
last time he came," Prudence answered, her face pale with anxiety and
tears not far away. "He just goes and sells them, that's what he does,
and buys whisky. He followed me all down the road one day when I was
alone, and jabbered away till his wife came and hauled him off."
There was a troubled silence while Bridget and Prue considered the next
step to take. Mollie felt that this problem was beyond her powers of
solving. Then a sudden thought struck her:
"Where's Laddie? We haven't seen him either."
"Praise be!" exclaimed Bridget. "The dog'll be wid Grizzel, an' that's
sure. Blessin's on ye for the thought, Miss Mollie, for it's scared I
was an' there's no use denyin'."
"Thank goodness! If the blacks had come Laddie would have barked,"
Prudence said, taking a long breath of relief. "How on earth did I not
miss him myself!"
"Your mind was so full of Grizzel you had no room for another thought,
but now--where is she, and how did she get down?"
"We _must_ find her before Mamma comes home. Mollie, you are clever;
think some more."
Mollie thought her hardest, but, as she explained, it was difficult to
make suggestions when she knew neither Grizzel nor the surroundings
very well. "She had no hat on; let us go and see if she has taken a
hat. Would she be likely to go out without one?"
No, they said, going out without a hat was unheard of. So a search was
instituted in the girl's room, and to their relief Grizzel's garden hat
was missing--somehow, even to Mollie, it seemed less alarming to be
missing with a hat than without one. In fact, if it had not been for
the mystery of the tree--which certainly _was_ very
inexplicable--Mollie would not have disturbed herself. Grizzel had gone
out, wearing her hat, carrying her basket, and accompanied by the large
and capable Laddie. Most likely she would come back presently with some
simple explanation to account for everything.
"I think she has gone for a walk. She got down somehow and ran off to
give Hugh a fright. Let's go and look for her along the road," was
Mollie's next proposal.
"If she has gone for a walk she will most likely come home by the lane,
unless she went over to the parklands--oh, I wish she would come back!
She never goes out alone in town, because she is frightened of meeting
Things. She says there are all sorts of Things in town. Once she got
lost in a big crowd, and I think it made her rather nervous. Besides,
Mamma will be angry if she is not home when they come in, and we'll get
such scoldings." Prudence sighed and looked longingly towards the white
gate, but there was no sign of the wanderer's return.
"Suppose we go to the Look-out and reconnoitre, and if we see her we
can go and meet her," said Mollie.
This seemed a good idea, so they climbed the ladder once more, and, one
behind the other, scrambled to the top of the tree. But twilight was
already creeping over the land--the brief Australian twilight which
turns to darkness so quickly. It was impossible to see any distance,
and the girls were turning their backs on the flagpole when Prudence
stopped with an exclamation:
"I think I will light the lantern. Grizzel will see it from a long way
off. Look in the house for matches, Mollie, while I turn the red
glasses both ways."
"But red means danger," Mollie objected, "and we aren't dangerous."
"Mamma is when we break rules," Prudence replied, "and it will remind
Grizzel to hurry up."
"Good gracious!" Mollie ejaculated, as she climbed down on her errand,
"I am glad we don't hang a red lantern out of the nursery window when
we see Mother coming along. How she would laugh if we did!"
"It won't burn long," Prue said, as she shut the lantern door, "but it
will do. Now we'll go down the lane; I am almost sure Grizzel will come
that way."
They crossed the garden and slipped into the lane through a narrow back
gate. It seemed to Mollie that the darkness fell like a curtain, so
quickly did it come dropping down. High up above the trees they could
see the red lantern shining in the dusk like a glowing ruby; the air
was growing chilly, and all the warm bright colours were fading into a
dull uniform grey, when suddenly out of the shadowy dimness there leapt
a dark form--a form with a bushy tail and a friendly bark.
"Laddie!" exclaimed Prudence, and a moment after Grizzel appeared,
running along and swinging her basket.
"Am I late?" she asked breathlessly. "I didn't mean to be so long; I
stopped to look at the shop windows."
"Oh, Grizzel, where _have_ you been?" Prue said, catching her sister by
the arm. "I have been so frightened. Come on quickly now, or we won't
be ready, and _then_ there will be a hullabuloo and goodness knows what
tomorrow."
They hurried back to the house, and were met by an anxious Bridget with
Baby in her arms. Bridget scolded, and Baby laughed, and they were all
so busy "getting ready" that it was not till three white muslin frocks
were spread primly over three green damask Victorian chairs that
Prudence found time to ask:
"How on earth did you get down from the tree?"
"I just got down," Grizzel answered, looking mysterious, "I invented a
secret way of getting down."
"Nonsense," Prudence said rather crossly; "there can't be a secret way
down."
"Well, find out for yourself," Grizzel retorted, her face taking on an
obstinate expression.
"But how _did_ you?" Mollie asked, with an ingratiating smile.
Grizzel shook her rebellious little red curls. "It's my secret," she
repeated; "I won't tell."
"When did you find out that the ladder was gone?" Prue asked, in a more
amiable voice.
"I just knew. It's part of the secret."
"You'll have to tell Hugh," Prudence said firmly; "you can't have
secret ways into other people's houses."
"I won't tell anyone. It's my mysterious secret and I shall keep it."
Prudence frowned and opened her mouth to speak again, but Mollie signed
to her to be silent. Mollie was not a Patrol Leader for nothing; she
had learned to be diplomatic, and now she turned the conversation:
"Where are those parcels?" she asked.
"The parcels! Goodness me, I forgot them! How _could_ I do such a
thing!" Prudence exclaimed, jumping up from the green chair and rushing
into the hall, followed by Mollie; Grizzel sat on in sulky dignity,
trying to look uninterested.
"Suppose Papa had come home and found we had not opened them, his
feelings would have been dreadfully hurt," Prudence said with
compunction. "It would have been murder outing. He always says murder
will out." Grizzel's dignity could not survive the sight of the
brown-paper packages, and the parcels were quickly undone and the
wrappings and string tidied away--"the evidences of our folly", Prue
said, as she bundled them out of sight. The contents were so charming
that everybody forgot their little difference of opinion. There was a
fine large kaleidoscope, the first she had ever seen, for Mollie; a
charming musical box, with a long list of tunes printed inside the lid
and a little gilt key to wind it up with, for Prudence; a Winsor and
Newton paint-box for Grizzel; _Five Weeks in a Balloon_, by Jules
Verne, for Hugh; and a Punchinello doll on a stick for Baby.
"I must say," Mollie remarked appreciatively, "your father _is_ a
peach. I have often wanted to see a proper kaleidoscope, but they seem
to have gone out of fashion."
The others were too busy admiring their own things to observe Mollie's
remarks. Grizzel was speechless with joy as she found all the paints
she had been longing for--the crimson lake, Prussian blue, Vandyke
brown, and the rest; Prue had wound up her box, and as Mollie turned
her kaleidoscope towards the light, and delighted herself with the
wonderful colours and designs it produced, she heard the delicate,
sweet tinkle of a faintly familiar tune--an old-fashioned sort of
tune....
While they were thus pleasantly occupied Professor and Mrs. Campbell
and Hugh returned, and Mollie was introduced to "Mamma" who after all
did not look in the least alarming. She was a fair, pretty woman, with
large clear eyes like Hugh's and a beautifully modulated voice. She
kissed Mollie and looked at her with rather a sad expression in her
eyes:
"You must tell me all about home this evening," she said in her musical
voice. "How nicely your hair is cut; I wonder if Prue's would look nice
like that."
"No, no," said Papa, laying his hand on Prue's curls, "I can't spare
one hair off my Prue's head. I must have my brown ringlets to play with
sometimes."
Hugh could talk of nothing but the wonderful telephone. "I believe I
could make one," he said later on. "I understood a good deal of what
the man said. I shall require a new magnet and some other things. I'll
begin tomorrow." He had forgotten all about such trifles as hidden
ladders and treed sisters, and the girls did not remind him.
But when Mollie found herself alone with Grizzel she began to talk
about the little house and described a beautiful plan she had concocted
for a house-warming, finishing up with the remark that it was a pity
that Grizzel could not come.
"Why can't I come?" demanded Grizzel. "Of course I'll come. I adore the
little house."
"It's Hugh's house, and I don't think he will let you come if you have
a mysterious secret way of getting up and down. He won't like it."
Grizzel was silent. "It's nothing very wonderful," she said at last. "I
was only paying Prudence out for forgetting me. She might have
remembered to let me down when Papa came home--" and Grizzel's eyes
filled with tears. Mollie's heart softened:
"He was in such a hurry that there was no time to get you, and it was
my fault afterwards just as much as Prue's."
"I'll tell you now if you like," Grizzel went on; "only you must
promise not to tell Prudence and Hugh."
"No," said Mollie, "I can't do that. Prudence was awfully frightened;
she got quite pale. We were frightened together and looked for you
together; it wouldn't be fair for you to tell me and not to tell her. I
hate things that are not fair."
Grizzel was silent again and then sighed. "Oh well, I suppose I'd
better tell. I'd have liked to keep one secret, but I can't bear not to
go to Hugh's party. It was very easy--I only--"
"Wait," said Mollie, "I'll call Prue."
[Illustration: I WISH I COULD MAKE SOMETHING THAT WOULD REACH FROM HERE
TO MY BROTHER]
"I saw Hugh take the ladder," Grizzel went on, after Prue joined them;
"of course I heard it scraping along; Hugh is a silly. So I watched him
hide it, and when the milkman came I called him, and he put it up and
helped me down and we hid it back again. That's all."
The others looked at each other, and then Mollie began to laugh, and
went on laughing till Prue and Grizzel laughed at her laughing. "Well,
I must say!" she exclaimed at last, "I _am_ a Sherlock Holmes and no
mistake! I was so busy being clever that I never even thought of a
milkman, which would have been Baden-Powell's first idea. Of all the
silly things! Why on earth didn't we think of it, Prue?"
Hugh, most reluctantly, went to school next morning, and Mamma kept the
girls busy with Italian, music, and needlework till lunch-time. After
that Grizzel departed with her paint-box, Bridget took Baby for a walk,
and Mollie and Prue settled themselves in the little house, with a
cushion apiece at their backs, a basket of freshly pulled oranges
between them, and a couple of books in case conversation should flag.
"Now, Prudence, tell me more about Time-travellers," Mollie said;
"somehow I can't seem to remember that I am one; in fact--" she paused.
"You can't believe it," Prudence finished for her. "I know. But it's
meant to be like that. If you didn't forget you would remember too
much, and then you would stop being a Time-traveller, because your mind
can't be in two places at once. So it is better _not_ to talk; or you
may have to go."
"I won't again, but just tell me two things. Can we travel forwards as
well as backwards?"
"A few people can, not everyone; but it is better not, Mollie. It is
far better not."
"But you came into my Time to fetch me."
"I didn't exactly come, you brought me; and I can only stay a moment."
"Well," Mollie said, after a short silence, "the other thing is: Can I
bring Dick? He would love this place and this Time--somehow you seem to
have more room than we have, and you are not so frightfully busy. We
never have _enough_ time; I think your hours must be longer than ours,"
she went on, with a sigh. "I simply cannot get all the things squeezed
in that I want to do. I often wish the days were thirty hours long."
"You weren't wishing that when I came," Prudence said, with a little
laugh. "I don't know about Dick; you can't bring him unless he wants to
come--of his own accord, I mean."
Mollie pondered a little, and then sighed again: "It will be rather
hard. He doesn't want anything frightfully except football, and there
isn't any just now. Perhaps we could make him want to come; couldn't
Hugh invent some way? It was only one chance in a hundred--in a
thousand, perhaps, that made me talk to your photograph. Let us ask
Hugh."
"We can ask," Prudence agreed, "but his head is going to be packed full
of telephone now, and he won't think or speak of anything else for
days. That's the way he is; we get rather tired of it sometimes,
especially when we have to help. Grizzel collected four hundred corks
for his raft. She grubbed in the ashpit, and among the empty
beer-bottles--" Prudence sighed in her turn.
The two girls met Hugh at the white gate on his return from school, and
Mollie seized the first opportunity to make her request.
"I don't know," Hugh answered thoughtfully; "there ought to be a way. I
believe there is a way _somewhere_ to do everything, if you can only
find it. It's mostly a question of looking long enough. And a thing is
always in the last place you look for it--naturally. I am going to make
a telephone; if I could make one long enough--" he paused.
They were strolling up the wide, cypress-bordered path as they talked,
and Mollie's wandering gaze fell upon a low mound at the foot of one of
the cypress trees.
"What's that?" she asked, coming to a standstill. "It looks like a
cat's grave."
It was a grave sure enough, and crowned with a bunch of pansies. A
small headstone had been made from the lid of an old soapbox, on which
was printed the following inscription:
HERE LITH
THE
LONGEST
DANDY LION CHANE
IN
THE WURLD
"It's Grizzel," said Prudence; "why on earth has she gone and buried
her beautiful chain?"
Grizzel joined the group and answered for herself:
"Mollie said the poor flowers would be forgotten. I should hate to be
forgotten, so I lifted them all up and buried them. I bought a yard of
lovely yellow muslin when I was out yesterday and made a beautiful
shroud. That cypress tree is rather big for such a little grave, but
it's the littlest in the garden."
No one smiled. "It was a wonderful chain," Mollie said, remembering her
view from the Look-out, "I wish I could make something that would reach
from here to my brother Dick. I wish we had wireless. I wonder if
'willing' would be any good. Have you ever played willing? We join
hands and will with all our might that Dick would come here."
"It sounds easy," said Hugh, always ready for a new experiment, "much
easier than making a telephone; we might as well try."
So they joined hands and wished. As they loosened hands again a shrill
cry above their heads made them all look up--it was a parrot flying low
across the garden, its brilliant plumage shining in the evening
sunlight like jewels. "It's my parrot!" Mollie exclaimed, "it met me by
the gate yesterday."
Mollie sat up. The rain was still splashing on the window-panes, but
Aunt Mary was drawing the curtains, and a cheerful little fire had been
lighted. There was a pleasant tinkle of china as tea-cups were settled
on the tray.
"Have I been asleep?" she asked incredulously. (It surely was not all a
_dream_!)
"A beautiful sleep," Aunt Mary answered; "and now tea, and after
tea--you shall see what you shall see."