Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
Teddy: The story of a Little Pickle
by John Conran Hutcheson
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This short book is probably of more interest to ten or eleven
year olds, rather than any other age group, for much of the book
is taken up with describing sundry very juvenile misdemeanours.
It is well written, but my personal opinion is that it is quite
inconsequential.
Still, it was quite amusing to scan it, OCR it, and edit it. N.H.
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TEDDY: THE STORY OF A LITTLE PICKLE
BY JOHN CONRAN HUTCHESON.
CHAPTER ONE.
AN INDEPENDENT YOUNG GENTLEMAN.
"I want do d'an'ma!"
This sudden and unexpected exclamation, uttered as it was in a shrill
little voice like that of a piping bullfinch, and coming from nowhere in
particular, as far as he could make out, for he had fancied himself all
alone on the platform, made the tall railway porter almost jump out of
his skin, as he expressed it, startling him out of his seven senses.
He was a stalwart, good-natured, black-bearded giant of a man, clad in a
suit of dunduckety-mud-coloured velveteens, rather the worse for wear,
and smeary with oil and engine-grease, which gave them a sort of highly-
burnished appearance resembling that of a newly-polished black-leaded
stove.
Doing nothing, and thinking of nothing specially, for the three-forty
up-train had gone through the station, and it was a good hour yet before
the five-ten down express was due, he had been lazily leaning in a half-
dreamy and almost dozing state against the side of the booking-office.
From this coign of vantage, he was, as well as his blinking eyes would
allow, gazing out over the rails at the fast-falling flakes of feathery
snow that were quickly covering up the metals and permanent way with a
mantle of white; when, all at once, without a "by your leave," or seeing
or hearing anyone approach, his attention was summarily brought back to
the present by the strange announcement of the shrill little voice,
while, at the same time, he felt the clutch of tiny fingers twitching at
one of the legs of his shiny velveteen trousers, evidently as a further
means of attracting his notice.
The touch made the porter look downwards, when, perceiving that his
unknown interlocutor was a small mite barely reaching up to his knees,
he became more reassured; and, bending his big body so as to bring his
face somewhat on a level with the young person, he proceeded to
interrogate him in familiar fashion.
"Well, my little man," he said, desiring to learn how he might be of
service, for he was a genial willing fellow, and always anxious to
oblige people when he knew how--"what's the matter?"
"I want do d'an'ma!" repeated the small mite in the same piping tones as
before, speaking with the utmost assurance and in the most matter-of-
fact way.
It seemed as if, having now explicitly notified his wants and wishes, he
confidently looked forward, in all the innocent trust of childhood, to
their being instantly acted upon and carried out without any demur or
hesitation.
Jupp, the porter, was quite flabbergasted by the little chap's sang-
froid; so, in order the better to collect his ideas and enable him to
judge what was best to be done under the circumstances, he took off his
flat-peaked uniform cap with one hand and scratched his head
reflectively with the fingers of the other, as is frequently the wont of
those possessed of thick skulls and wits that are apt to go wool-
gathering.
The operation appeared to have the effect desired; for, after indulging
in this species of mental and physical cogitation for a moment or two,
Jupp ventured upon asking the mite another question which had
brilliantly suggested itself to him as opportune.
"Where is your grandma, sir?" he inquired with more deference than he
had used before.
"Don-don," replied the small person nonchalantly, as if the point was
quite immaterial, looking the porter calmly and straight in the eyes
unflinchingly, without turning a hair as the saying goes.
Jupp had never come across such a self-possessed young mannikin in his
life before. Why, he might have been the station-master or traffic-
manager, he appeared so much at his ease!
But, he was a little gentleman all the same, Jupp could readily see, in
spite of the fact that his costume was not quite suited for travelling,
the mite being attired in a very prominent and dirty pinafore, while his
chubby face was tear-stained, and he had the look of having come out in
a hurry and being perhaps unprepared for the journey he contemplated;
although, mind you, he had his luggage with him all right--a small
bundle tied up in a large pocket-handkerchief of a bright-red colour,
which he held tightly clasped to his little stomach as if afraid of its
being taken from him.
Jupp hardly knew off-hand how to deal with the case, it being of a more
perplexing nature than had previously come within range of his own
personal experience; still, he had his suspicions, and thought it best
to entertain the young person in conversation for a bit, until he should
be able to find out something about his belongings and where he came
from.
"London's a large place, sir," he therefore observed tentatively, by way
of drawing the mite out and getting some clue towards his identity.
The little chap, however, was quite equal to the occasion.
"Don't tare," he said defiantly, checking the porter's artful attempt at
cross-examination. "I want do d'an'ma!"
Certainly, he was a most independent young gentleman.
Jupp was at a nonplus again; however, he tried to temporise with the
mite, the more especially from his noticing that his little legs were
quite mottled and his tiny fingers blue with cold.
"Well, come in here, sir, at all events, and warm yourself, and then we
can talk the matter over comfortably together," he said, throwing open
the door of the waiting-room as he spoke, and politely motioning the
little chap to enter.
The mite made no reply to the invitation, but he tacitly accepted it by
following the porter into the apartment he had indicated, and the two
were presently seated before a glowing fire, on which Jupp immediately
emptied the scuttleful of coals, there being no stint of the fuel by
reason of the company standing all expense.
Thawed by the genial warmth, rendered all the more enjoyable by the
wintry scene outside, where the snow was now swirling down faster and
faster as the afternoon advanced, the little chap began to get more
communicative, egged on by Jupp in a series of apparently innocent
questions.
"Nussy bad ooman," he blurted out after a long silence, looking up at
Jupp and putting his hand on his knee confidingly.
"Indeed, sir?" said the other cautiously, leading him on.
"Ess, man," continued the mite. "See want take way my kitty."
"You don't mean that, sir!" exclaimed Jupp with well-feigned horror at
such unprincipled behaviour on the part of the accused nurse.
"Ess, man, see did," replied the little chap, nodding his small curly
head with great importance; but the next instant his little roguish blue
eyes twinkled with suppressed intelligence, and his red rosebud of a
mouth expanded into a happy smile as he added, with much satisfaction in
his tones, "but I dot kitty all wite now!"
"Have you really, sir?" said Jupp, pretending to be much surprised at
the information, the little chap evidently expecting him to be so.
"Ess, man," cried the mite with a triumphant shout; "I'se dot po' 'ittle
kitty here!"
"Never, sir!" ejaculated Jupp with trembling eagerness, as if his life
depended on the solution of the doubt.
The little chap became completely overcome with merriment at having so
successfully concealed his treasured secret, as he thought, that the
porter had not even guessed it.
"Kitty's in dundle!" he exclaimed gleefully, hugging his handkerchief
parcel tighter to his little stomach as he spoke. "I dot kitty here,
all wite!"
"You don't mean that, sir--not in that bundle o' yours surely, sir?"
repeated Jupp with deep fictitious interest, appearing still not quite
convinced on the point and as if wishing to have the difficulty cleared
up.
This diplomatic course of procedure on the part of the porter removed
any lingering scruples the mite had in respect of his good faith.
"Ess, man. I dot kitty here in dundle all wite," he repeated earnestly
in his very impressive little way. "Oo musn't tell nobody and I'll so
her to 'oo!"
"I won't breathe a word of it to a soul, sir," protested Jupp as
solemnly and gravely as if he were making his last dying deposition;
whereupon the mite, quite convinced of the porter's trustworthiness and
abandoning all further attempt at concealment, deposited his little
bundle tenderly on the floor in front of the fireplace, and began to
open it with much deliberation.
The little fellow appeared so very serious about the matter, that Jupp
could not help trying to be serious too; but it required the exercise of
all the self-command he possessed to refrain from laughing when the
motley contents of the red handkerchief were disclosed.
Before the last knot of the bundle was untied by the mite's busy fingers
there crawled out a tiny tortoise-shell kitten, with its diminutive
little tail erect like a young bottle-brush, which gave vent to a "phiz-
phit," as if indignant at its long confinement, and then proceeded to
rub itself against Jupp's leg, with a purring mew on recognising a
friend.
"So that's kitty," said Jupp, holding the little thing up on his knee
and stroking it affectionately, the animal signifying its satisfaction
by licking the back of his hand with its furry little red tongue, and
straightening its tiny tail again as stiff as a small poker.
"Ess, man. Dat's kitty," murmured the mite, too much occupied undoing
the last knots of the bundle to waste time in further speech for the
moment, struggling as he was at the job with might and main.
In another second, however, he had accomplished his task; and, lifting
up the corners of the red handkerchief, he rolled out the whole stock of
his valued possessions on to the floor.
"Dere!" he exclaimed with much complacency, looking up into Jupp's face
in expectation of his admiring surprise.
The porter was again forced to act a part, and pretend that he could not
guess anything.
"Dear me!" he said; "you have brought a lot of things! Going to take
'em with you to London, sir?"
"Ess. Da'n'ma tate tare of zem."
"No doubt, sir," replied Jupp, who then went on to inspect gingerly the
different articles of the collection, which was very varied in
character.
They consisted, in addition to the tortoise-shell kitten fore-mentioned,
of a musical snuff-box, a toy model of a ship, a small Noah's ark, a
half-consumed slice of bread and butter, an apple with a good-sized bite
taken out of one side, a thick lump of toffee, and a darkish-brown
substance like gingerbread, which close association in the bundle,
combined with pressure, had welded together in one almost
indistinguishable mass.
"I suppose, sir," observed Jupp inquiringly, picking up all the eatables
and putting them together apart on the seat next the little man--"I
suppose as how them's your provisions for the journey?"
"Ess. I ate dindin; an', dat's tea."
"Indeed, sir! and very nice things for tea too," said Jupp, beaming with
admiration and good-humoured fun.
"I touldn't det any milk, or I'd bought dat too," continued the mite,
explaining the absence of all liquid refreshment.
"Ah! that's a pity," rejoined the porter, thinking how well half a pint
of milk would have mixed up with the other contents of the bundle; "but,
perhaps, sir, the kitty would have lapped it up and there would have
been none left. Would you like a cup of tea now, sir? I'm just agoing
to have mine; and if you'd jine me, I'd feel that proud you wouldn't
know me again!"
"Dank 'oo, I'm so dirsty," lisped the little man in affable
acquiescence; and, the next moment, Jupp had spirited out a rough basket
from under the seat in the corner, when extracting a tin can with a cork
stopper therefrom, he put it on the fire to warm up.
From a brown-paper parcel he also turned out some thick slices of bread
that quite put in the shade the half-eaten one belonging to the mite;
and as soon as the tea began to simmer in the tin over the coals, he
poured out some in a pannikin, and handed it to his small guest.
"Now, sir, we'll have a regular picnic," he said hospitably.
"All wite, dat's jolly!" shouted the other in great glee; and the two
were enjoying themselves in the highest camaraderie, when, suddenly, the
door of the waiting-room was opened from without, and the face of a
buxom young woman peered in.
"My good gracious!" exclaimed the apparition, panting out the words as
if suffering from short breath, or from the effects of more rapid
exertion than her physique usually permitted. "If there isn't the young
imp as comfortably as you please; and me a hunting and a wild-goose
chasing on him all over the place! Master Teddy, Master Teddy, you'll
be the death of me some day, that you will!"
Jupp jumped up at once, rightly imagining that this lady's unexpected
appearance would, as he mentally expressed it, "put a stopper" on the
mite's contemplated expedition, and so relieve him of any further
personal anxiety on his behalf, he having been puzzling his brains
vainly for the last half hour how to discover his whereabouts and get
him home to his people again; but, as for the little man himself, he did
not seem in the least put out by the interruption of his plans.
"Dat nussy," was all he said, clutching hold of Jupp's trouser leg, as
at first, in an appealing way: "Don't 'et her, man, tate away poor
kitty!"
"I won't sir, I promise you," whispered Jupp to comfort him; however,
before he could say any more, the panting female had drawn nearer from
the doorway and come up close to the fireplace, the flickering red light
from which made her somewhat rubicund countenance appear all the
ruddier.
CHAPTER TWO.
TELLS ALL ABOUT HIM.
"Pray, don't 'ee be angry wi' him, mum," said Jupp appealingly, as the
somewhat flustered female advanced towards the mite, laying hands on his
collar with apparently hostile intentions.
"I ain't a going to be angry," she replied a trifle crossly, as perhaps
was excusable under the circumstances, carrying out the while, however,
what had evidently been her original idea of giving the mite "a good
shaking," and thereby causing his small person to oscillate violently to
and fro as if he were crossing the Bay of Biscay in a Dutch trawler with
a choppy sea running. "I ain't angry to speak of; but he's that
tormenting sometimes as to drive a poor creature a'most out of her mind!
Didn't I tell 'ee," she continued, turning round abruptly to the object
of her wrath and administering an extra shake by way of calling him to
attention. "Didn't I tell 'ee as you weren't to go outdoors in all the
slop and slush--didn't I tell 'ee now?"
But in answer the mite only harked back to his old refrain.
"I want do d'an'ma," he said with stolid defiance, unmoved alike by his
shaking or the nurse's expostulation.
"There, that's jest it," cried she, addressing Jupp the porter again,
seeing that he was a fine handsome fellow and well-proportioned out of
the corner of her eye without looking at him directly, in that
unconscious and highly diplomatic way in which women folk are able to
reckon up each other on the sly and take mental stock of mankind.
"Ain't he aggravating? It's all that granma of his that spoils him; and
I wish she'd never come nigh the place! When Master Teddy doesn't see
her he's as good as gold, that he is, the little man!"
She then, with the natural inconsequence and variability of her sex,
immediately proceeded to hug and kiss the mite as affectionately as she
had been shaking and vituperating him the moment before, he putting up
with the new form of treatment as calmly and indifferently as he had
received the previous scolding.
"He's a fine little chap," said Jupp affably, conceiving a better
opinion of the nurse from her change of manner as well as from noticing,
now that her temporary excitement had evaporated, that she was a young
and comely woman with a very kindly face. "He told me as how he were
going to Lun'non."
"Did he now?" she exclaimed admiringly.
"He's the most owdacious young gen'leman as ever was, I think; for he's
capable, young as he is, not long turned four year old, of doin' a'most
anything. Look now at all them things of his as he's brought from
home!"
"That were his luggage like," observed Jupp, smiling and showing his
white teeth, which contrasted well with his black beard, making him
appear very nice-looking really, the nurse thought.
"The little rogue!" said she enthusiastically, hugging the mite again
with such effusion that Jupp wished he could change places with him, he
being unmarried and "an orphan man," as he described himself, "without
chick or child to care for him."
"He ought to be a good 'un with you a looking after him," he remarked
with a meaning glance, which, although the nurse noticed, she did not
pretend to see.
"So he is--sometimes, eh, Master Teddy?" she said, bending down again
over the mite to hide a sudden flush which had made her face somehow or
other crimson again.
"Ess," replied the hero of the occasion, who, soothed by all these
social amenities passing around him, quickly put aside his stolid
demeanour and became his little prattling self again.
However, such was his deep foresight that he did not forget to grasp so
favourable an opportunity for settling the initial difficulty between
himself and nurse in the matter of the kitten, which had led up
logically to all that had happened, and so prevent any misunderstanding
on the point in future.
"Oo won't tate way kitty?" he asked pleadingly, holding up with both
hands the struggling little animal, which Jupp had incontinently dropped
from his knee when he rose up, on the door of the waiting-room being
suddenly opened and the impromptu picnic organised by the mite and
himself brought to an abrupt termination, by the unexpected advent of
the nurse on the scene.
"No, Master Teddy, I promise you I won't," she replied emphatically.
"You can bathe the poor little brute in the basin and then put it all
wet in your bed afterwards, as you did this morning, or anything else
you like. Bless you, you can eat it if it so please you, and I shan't
interfere!"
"All wite, den; we frens 'dain," lisped the mite, putting up his little
rosebud mouth so prettily for a kiss, in token of peace and forgiveness
on his part, that the nurse could not help giving him another hug.
This display of affection had unfortunately the same effect on Jupp as
before, causing the miserable porter to feel acute pangs of envy;
although, by rights, he had no direct interest in the transaction, and
was only an outside observer, so to speak!
By way of concealing his feelings, therefore, he turned the
conversation.
"And have you come far arter him, miss, if I may make so bold as to ax
the question?" he said hesitatingly, being somewhat puzzled in his mind
as to whether "miss" or "mum" was the correct form in which to address
such a pleasant young woman, who might or might not be a matron for all
he could tell.
He evidently hit upon the right thing this time; for, she answered him
all the more pleasantly, with a bright smile on her face.
"Why, ever so far!" she exclaimed. "Don't you know that large red brick
house t'other side of the village, where Mr Vernon lives--a sort of
old-fashioned place, half covered with ivy, and with a big garden?"
"Parson Vernon's, eh?"
"Yes, Master Teddy's his little son."
"Lor', I thought he were a single man, lone and lorn like myself, and
didn't have no children," said Jupp.
"That's all you know about it," retorted the nurse. "You must be a
stranger in these parts; and, now I come to think on it, I don't believe
as I ever saw you here before."
"No, miss, I was only shifted here last week from the Junction, and
hardly knows nobody," said Jupp apologetically. "For the rights o'
that, I ain't been long in the railway line at all, having sarved ten
years o' my time aboard a man-o'-war, and left it thinking I'd like to
see what a shore billet was like; and so I got made a porter, miss, my
karacter being good on my discharge."
"Dear me, what a pity!" cried the nurse. "I do so love sailors."
"If you'll only say the word, miss, I'll go to sea again to-morrow
then!" ejaculated Jupp eagerly.
"Oh no!" laughed the nurse; "why, then I shouldn't see any more of you;
but I was telling you about Master Teddy. Parson Vernon, as you call
him, has four children in all--three of them girls, and Master Teddy is
the only boy and the youngest of the lot."
"And I s'pose he's pretty well sp'ilt?" suggested Jupp.
"You may well say that," replied the other. "He was his mother's pet,
and she, poor lady, died last year of consumption, so he's been made all
the more of since by his little sisters, and the grandmother when she
comes down, as she did at Christmas. You'd hardly believe it, small as
he looks he almost rules the house; for his father never interferes,
save some terrible row is up and he hears him crying--and he can make a
noise when he likes, can Master Teddy!"
"Ess," said the mite at this, thinking his testimony was appealed to,
and nodding his head affirmatively.
"And he comed all that way from t'other side o' the village by hisself?"
asked Jupp by way of putting a stop to sundry other endearments the
fascinating young woman was recklessly lavishing on the little chap.
"Why, it's more nor a mile!"
"Aye, that he has. Just look at him," said she, giving the mite another
shake, although this time it was of a different description to the one
she had first administered.
He certainly was not much to look at in respect of stature, being barely
three feet high; but he was a fine little fellow for all that, with good
strong, sturdy limbs and a frank, fearless face, which his bright blue
eyes and curling locks of brown hair ornamented to the best advantage.
As before mentioned, he had evidently not been prepared for a journey
when he made his unexpected appearance at the station, being without a
hat on his head and having a slightly soiled pinafore over his other
garments; while his little feet were encased in thin house shoes, or
slippers, that were ill adapted for walking through the mud and snow.
Now that the slight differences that had arisen between himself and the
nurse had been amicably settled, he was in the best of spirits, with his
little face puckered in smiles and his blue eyes twinkling with fun as
he looked up at the two observing him.
"He is a jolly little chap!" exclaimed Jupp, bending down and lifting
him up in his strong arms, the mite the while playfully pulling at his
black beard; "and I tell you what, miss, I think he's got a very good
nurse to look after him!"
"Do you?" said she, adding a moment afterwards as she caught Jupp's look
of admiration, "Ah, that's only what you say now. You didn't think so
when I first came in here after him; for you asked me not to beat him--
as if I would!"
"Lor', I never dreamt of such a thing!" cried he with much emphasis, the
occasion seeming to require it. "I only said that to coax you like,
miss. I didn't think as you'd hurt a hair of his head."
"Well, let it be then," replied she, accepting this amende and setting
to work gathering together the mite's goods and chattels that were still
lying on the floor of the waiting-room--with the exception of the
kitten, which he had himself again assumed the proprietorship of and now
held tightly in his arms, even as he was clasped by Jupp and elevated
above the porter's shoulder. "I must see about taking him home again."
"Shall I carry him for you, miss?" asked Jupp. "The down-train ain't
due for near an hour yet, and I dessay I can get my mate to look out for
me while I walks with you up the village."
"You are very kind," said she; "but, I hardly like to trouble you?"
"No trouble at all, miss," replied Jupp heartily. "Why, the little
gentleman's only a featherweight."
"That's because you're such a fine strong man. I find him heavy enough,
I can tell you."
Jupp positively blushed at her implied compliment. "I ain't much to
boast of ag'in a delicate young 'ooman as you," he said at last; "but,
sartenly, I can carry a little shaver like this; and, besides, look how
the snow's a coming down."
"Well, if you will be so good, I'd be obliged to you," interposed the
nurse hurriedly as if to stop any further explanations on Jupp's part,
he having impulsively stepped nearer to her at that moment.
"All right then!" cried he, his jolly face beaming with delight at the
permission to escort her. "Here, Grigson!"
"That's me!" shouted another porter appearing mysteriously from the back
of the office, in answer to Jupp's stentorian hail.
"Just look out for the down-train, 'case I ain't back in time. I'm just
agoin' to take some luggage for this young woman up to the village."
"Aye, just so," replied the other with a sly wink, which, luckily for
himself, perhaps, Jupp did not see, as, holding the mite tenderly in his
arms, with his jacket thrown over him to protect him from the snow, he
sallied out from the little wayside station in company with the nurse,
the latter carrying all Master Teddy's valuables, which she had re-
collected and tied up again carefully within the folds of the red
pocket-handkerchief bundle wherein their proprietor had originally
brought them thither.
Strange to say, the mite did not exhibit the slightest reluctance in
returning home, as might have been expected from the interruption of his
projected plan of going to London to see his "d'an'ma."
On the contrary, his meeting with Jupp and introduction to him as a new
and estimable acquaintance, as well as the settlement of all outstanding
grievances between himself and his nurse, appeared to have quite changed
his views as to his previously-cherished expedition; so that he was now
as content and cheerful as possible, looking anything but like a
disappointed truant.
Indeed, he more resembled a successful conqueror making a triumphal
entry into his capital than a foiled strategist defeated in the very
moment of victory!
"I like oo," he said, pulling at Jupp's black beard in high glee and
chuckling out aloud in great delight as they proceeded towards the
village, the nurse clinging to the porter's other and unoccupied arm to
assist her progress through the snow-covered lane, down which the wind
rushed every now and then in sudden scurrying gusts, whirling the white
flakes round in the air and blinding the wayfarers as they plodded
painfully along.
"I don't know what I should have done without your help," she observed
fervently after a long silence between the two, only broken by Master
Teddy's shouts of joy when a snow-flake penetrating beneath Jupp's
jacket made the kitten sneeze. "I'm sure I should never have got home
to master's with the boy!"
"Don't name it," whispered Jupp hoarsely beneath his beard, which the
snow had grizzled, lending it a patriarchal air. "I'm only too proud,
miss, to be here!" and he somehow or other managed to squeeze her arm
closer against his side with his, making the nurse think how nice it was
to be tall and strong and manly like the porter!
"They'll be in a rare state about Master Teddy at the vicarage!" she
said after they had plodded on another hundred yards, making but slow
headway against the drifting snow and boisterous wind. "I made him
angry by taking away his kitten, I suppose, and so he determined to make
off to his gran'ma; for we missed him soon after the children's dinner.
I thought he was in the study with Mr Vernon; but when I came to look
he wasn't there, and so we all turned out to search for him. Master
made sure we'd find him in the village; but I said I thought he'd gone
to the station, far off though it was, and you see I was right!"
"You're a sensible young woman," said Jupp. "I'd have thought the
same."
"Go on with your nonsense; get along!" cried she mockingly, in apparent
disbelief of Jupp's encomiums, and pretending to wrench her arm out of
his so as to give point to her words.
"I'll take my davy, then," he began earnestly; but, ere he could say any
more, a voice called out in front of them, amid the eddying flakes:
"Hullo, Mary! Is that you?"
"That's my master," she whispered to Jupp; and then answered aloud,
"Yes, sir, and I've found Master Teddy."
"Is Mary your name?" said Jupp to her softly in the interlude, while
scrunching footsteps could be heard approaching them, although no one
yet could be perceived through the rifts of snow. "I think it the
prettiest girl's name in the world!"
"Go 'long!" cried she again; but she sidled up to him and held on to his
arm once more as she spoke, the blasts of the storm at the moment being
especially boisterous.
"Is that you, Mary?" repeated the voice in front, now much nearer, her
answer not having been heard apparently, on account of the wind blowing
from the speaker towards them.
"Yes, sir," she screamed out. "I've found Master Teddy, and he's all
right."
She was heard this time.
"Thank God!" returned the voice in trembling accents, nearer still; and
then a thin, haggard, careworn-looking man in clergyman's dress rushed
up to them.
He was quite breathless, and his face pale with emotion.
"Padie! Padie!" exclaimed the mite, raising himself up on Jupp's
shoulder and stretching out one of his little hands to the new-comer
while the other grasped the kitten. "I'se turn back, I'se turn back to
oo!"
"My boy, my little lamb! God be praised for his mercy!" cried the
other; and the next instant Teddy was locked in his father's arms in a
close embrace, kitten and all.
"Say, Miss Mary," whispered Jupp, taking advantage of the opportunity
while Mr Vernon's back was turned.
"What?" she asked, looking up into his face demurely.
"This ought to be passed round."
"Go 'long!" she replied; but, she didn't budge an inch when Jupp put his
arm round her, and nobody knows what happened before Mr Vernon had
composed himself and turned round again!
CHAPTER THREE.
AT THE VICARAGE.
Three little girls were flattening their respective little noses against
the panes of glass as they stood by one of the low French windows of the
old red brick house at the corner of the lane commanding the approach
from the village; and three little pairs of eager eyes, now big with
expectation, were peering anxiously across the snow-covered lawn through
the gathering evening gloom towards the entrance gate beyond--the only
gap in the thick and well-nigh impenetrable laurel hedge, some six feet
high and evenly cropped all round at the top and square at the sides,
which encircled the vicarage garden, shutting it in with a wall of
greenery from the curious ken of all passers-by without.
With eager attention the little girls were watching to see who would be
the first of the trio to herald the return of the missing Master Teddy
and those who had gone forth in search of him; but, really, seekers and
sought alike had been so long absent that it seemed as if they were all
lost together and never coming back!
The little girls were weary almost of waiting, and being thus kept in
suspense with hope deferred.
Besides that, they were overcome with a sense of loneliness and
desertion, everyone in the house but old Molly the cook and themselves
having started off early in the afternoon in different directions in
quest of the truant Teddy; so, as the time flew by and day drew to a
close, without a sight or sound in the distance to cheer their drooping
spirits, their little hearts grew heavy within them.
Presently, too, their whilom bright eyes got so dimmed with unshed tears
which would well up, that they were unable to see clearly had there been
anything or anyone for them to see; while their little putty noses, when
they removed them occasionally from close contact with the glass, bore a
suspiciously red appearance that was not entirely due to previous
pressure against the window panes.
Nor were their surroundings of a sufficiently enlivening character to
banish the little maidens' despondency, the fire in the drawing-room
grate having died out long since from inattention, making them feel cold
and comfortless, and it had got so dark within that they could not
distinguish the various articles of furniture, even papa's armchair in
the chimney-corner; while, outside, in the gloaming, the snow-flakes
were falling slowly and steadily from a leaden-hued sky overhead.
The only thing breaking the stillness of the murky air was the
melancholy "Chirp, churp! chirp, churp" uttered at intervals by some
belated sparrow who had not gone to bed in good time like all sensible
bird-folk, and whose plaintive chirp was all the more aggravating from
its monotonous repetition.
"I'm sore sumtin d'eadfill's happened," whimpered little Cissy, the
youngest of the three watchers, after a long silence between them. "Pa
sood have been back hours and hours and hours ago."
"Nonsense, Cissy!" said Miss Conny, her elder sister, who by virtue of
her seniority and the fact of her having reached the mature age of ten
was rather prone to giving herself certain matronly airs of superiority
over the others, which they put up with in all good faith, albeit they
were most amusing to outside onlookers. "You are always imagining
something terrible is going to befall everybody, instead of hoping for
the best! Why don't you learn to look on the bright side of things,
child? Every cloud, you know, has its silver lining."
"But not dat one up dere!" retorted Cissy, unconvinced by the proverb,
pointing to the sombre pall of vapour that now enveloped the whole sky
overhead; when, struck more than ever with the utter dismalness of the
scene, she drew out a tiny sort of doll's handkerchief from as tiny a
little pocket in her tiny pinafore-apron, and began wiping away the
tears from her beady eyes and blowing her little red nose vigorously.
"It's all black, and no light nowhere; and I'm sore poor pa and Teddy
and all of dem are lost!"
With that, completely overcome by her own forebodings, the little thing
all at once broke down, sobbing in such a heart-broken way that it was
as much as Conny could do to comfort her; the elder sister drawing her
to her side and hugging her affectionately, rocking her small person to
and fro the while with a measured rhythm-like movement as if little
Cissy were a baby and she her mother, hushing her to sleep!
At this moment, Liz, who occupied the middle step between the two, and
was of a much more sedate and equable nature than either of her sisters,
suddenly effected a diversion that did more to raise Cissy's spirits
than all Conny's whispered consolation and kisses.
"I think I see a black speck moving in the lane," she exclaimed,
removing her face a second from the glass to look round at the others as
she spoke, and then hastily glueing it to the pane again. "Yes,
somebody's coming. There's an arm waving about!"
Conny and Cissy were instantly on the alert; and before Liz had hardly
got out the last words they had imitated her example, wedging their
little noses once more against the window, looking down the lane, and
trying somewhat vainly to pierce the haze obscuring the distance.
"No," said Conny, after a prolonged observation of the object Liz had
pointed out; "it's only a branch of the lilac tree blown about by the
wind."
A minute later, however, and Liz began to clap her hands triumphantly,
although still keeping her face fixed to the window.
"I was right, I was right!" she exclaimed in triumph. "The speck is
getting nearer, and, see, there are two more behind."
"I believe you are right," said Conny, after another steady glance down
the lane. "There are three people approaching the house, and--"
"Dat's pa in front, I know," shouted out Cissy, interrupting her and
clapping her hands like Liz, her whilom sad little face beaming with
gladness. "I see him, I see him, and he's dot Teddy in his arms!"
"So he has," said Conny, carried away by the excitement out of her
ordinarily staid and decorous demeanour. "Let us all run down and meet
him!"
Her suggestion was hailed with a shout of exclamation; and, the next
moment, forgetful of the falling flakes and the risk of getting damp
feet, which Conny the careful was ever warning the others against, the
three had run out into the hall, opened the outside door of the porch,
which the wind banged against the side of the passage with a thump that
shook the house, and were racing towards the entrance gate over the
white expanse of lawn, now quite covered with some six inches of snow.
Just as the little girls reached the gate, all breathless in a batch, it
was opened from without, and they were confronted by their father with
Master Teddy on his shoulder, still holding the kitten in his arms;
while, close behind, followed Jupp taking care of Mary the nurse.
"Oh, papa!" cried Conny, Cissy, and Liz in chorus, hanging on to their
father's coat-tails as if afraid he would get away from them again; and
so, in a motley procession, Teddy apparently king of the situation and
Jupp and Mary still bringing up the rear, they marched into the hall,
where Molly the cook, having heard the door bang when the little girls
rushed out, was waiting with a light to receive them.
"Take the porter to the kitchen, Molly," said Mr Vernon, "and give him,
mind, a good cup of tea for bringing home Master Teddy. But for his
kindness we might not perhaps have seen the little truant again--to-
night, at all events."
"Lawks a mercy, sir!" ejaculated Molly with open-mouth astonishment,
curtseying and smiling: "you doant mean that?"
"Yes, I do," went on Mr Vernon. "Mind you take every care of him, for
the porter is a right good fellow."
"Why, sir, I didn't do nothing to speak of, sir," said Jupp, quite
abashed at being made so much of. "The young gen'leman commed to me,
and in course, seeing as how he were such a little chap and all alone
out in the cold, I couldn't do nothing else."
"Never mind that; I'm very much obliged to you, and so are all of us.
What you've got to do now is to go with Molly and have a good cup of
tea, the same as we are going to have after that long tramp in the
snow," said the vicar cordially, shaking hands with Jupp; while Teddy,
who was still perched on his father's shoulder, came out with a "tank
oo, my dood man," which made everybody laugh.
Jupp hesitatingly attempted to decline the proffered hospitality,
murmuring something about being wanted down at the station; but the
vicar wouldn't hear of his refusal, the more especially as Mary reminded
him that he had asked in her hearing his fellow-porter to look after his
work in his absence.
So, presently, in heart nothing loth in spite of his excuses, he was
following Molly the cook down the passage into her warm kitchen at the
back of the house; while Mr Vernon, opening a door on the opposite side
of the hall to the drawing-room, entered the parlour, where fortunately
the fire, thanks to Molly's care, had not been allowed to go out, but
was dancing merrily in the grate-lighting up the bright-red curtains
that were closely drawn across the windows, shutting out the gloomy
prospect outside, and throwing flickering shadows against the walls of
the apartment as the jets of flame rose and fell.
Nurse Mary at first wanted to march off Master Teddy to bed, on the plea
that he must be wet through and tired out with all the exposure he had
undergone during his erratic escapade; but the young gentleman
protesting indignantly against his removal whilst there was a chance of
his sitting up with the rest, and his clothes having been found on
examination to be quite dry on the removal of the porter's protecting
jacket, he was allowed to remain, seated on the hearth-rug in state, and
never once leaving hold of the tabby kitten that had indirectly led to
his wandering away from home, with Conny and Liz and little Cissy
grouped around him.
Here by the cosy fireside the reunited family had quite a festive little
meal together, enlivened by the children's chatter, Miss Conny pouring
out the tea with great dignity as her father said laughingly, and Teddy,
unchecked by the presence of his nurse, who was too prone to calling him
to account for sundry little breaches of etiquette for him to be
comfortable when she was close by.
While the happy little party were so engaged, Jupp was being regaled
sumptuously in the kitchen with both Molly the cook and Mary to minister
to his wants, the latter handmaiden having returned from the parlour
after carrying in the tea-tray.
Jupp was in a state of supreme satisfaction ensconced between the two,
munching away at the pile of nice hot buttered toast which the cook had
expressly made for his delectation, and recounting between the mouthfuls
wonderful yarns connected with his seafaring experiences for Mary's
edification.
Joe the gardener, who had also come back to the house shortly after the
others, with the report that he "couldn't see nothing of Master Teddy
nowheres," sat in the chimney-corner, gazing at the porter with envious
admiration as he told of his hairbreadth scapes at sea and ashore when
serving in the navy. Joe wished that he had been a sailor too, as then
perhaps, he thought, the nurse, for whom he had a sneaking sort of
regard, might learn to smile and look upon him in the same admiring way,
in which, as he could see with half an eye, she regarded the stalwart
black-bearded Jupp.
Bye and bye, however, a tinkle of the parlour bell summoning the
household to prayers brought the pleasant evening to a close, too soon
so far as Jupp was concerned, although Joe the gardener did not regard
the interruption with much regret; and while Mary took off the children
to bed on the termination of the vicar's heart-felt thanks to the Father
above for the preservation of his little son, Mr Vernon wished him
good-night, trying to press at the same time a little money present into
his hand for his kind care of Teddy.
But this Jupp would not take, declining the douceur with so much natural
dignity that the vicar honoured him the more for refusing a reward, for
only doing his duty as he said.
Mr Vernon apologised to him for having hurt his feelings by offering
it, adding, much to Jupp's delight, that he would always be pleased to
see him at the vicarage when he had an hour or so to spare if he liked
to come; and, on the porter's telling him in return that he was only
free as a rule on Sundays, as then only one train passed through the
station early in the morning, between which and the mail express late at
night he had nothing to do, and being a stranger in the place and
without any relations the time somewhat hung on his hands, Mr Vernon
asked him to come up to the house after church and have dinner with the
servants, saying that he could go to the evening service in company with
the family.
This invitation Jupp gladly accepted in the same spirit in which it was
given; and then, with another hearty "good-night" from the vicar, to
which he responded by touching his cap and giving a salute in regular
blue-jacket fashion, he went on his way back to the little railway-
station beyond the village where Master Teddy had first made his
acquaintance--much to their mutual benefit as things now looked!
CHAPTER FOUR.
IN A SCRAPE AGAIN.
The winter was a long and severe one, covering the range of downs that
encircle Endleigh with a fleecy mantle of white which utterly eclipsed
the colour of the woolly coats of the sheep for which they were famous,
and heaping the valleys with huge drifts that defied locomotion; so that
Master Teddy, being unable to get out of doors much, was prevented from
wandering away from home again, had he been in that way inclined.
It may be added, too, that beyond breaking one of his arms in a tumble
downstairs through riding on the banisters in defiance of all commands
to the contrary, he managed for the next few months to keep pretty free
from scrapes--something surprising in such a long interval.
During all this time Jupp had been a very regular Sunday visitor at the
vicarage, coming up to the house after morning-service and being
entertained at dinner in the kitchen, after which meal he served as a
playfellow for the children until the evening, when he always
accompanied the vicar to church.
He had now come to be looked upon by all as a tried and valued friend,
Mr Vernon being almost as fond of chatting with him about his old sea
life as was Mary, the nurse; while Conny would consult him earnestly on
geographical questions illustrative of those parts of the globe he had
visited.
As for the younger ones, he was their general factotum, Teddy and Cissy
regarding him as a sort of good-natured giant who was their own especial
property and servant.
With all a sailor's ingenuity, he could carve the most wonderful things
out of the least promising and worthless materials that could be
imagined; while, as for making fun out of nothing, or telling thrilling
stories of fairies and pirates and the different folk amongst whom he
had mixed in his travels--some of them, to be sure, rather queer, as
Conny said--why, he hadn't an equal, and could make the dreariest
afternoon pass enjoyably to young and old alike, even Joe the gardener
taking almost as great pleasure in his society as Molly and Mary.
This was while the snow lay on the ground and Jack Frost had bound the
little river running through the village and the large pond in the water
meadow beyond with chains of ice, and life out of doors seemed at a
standstill; but, anon, when the breath of spring banished all the snow
and ice, and cowslips and violets began to peep forth from the released
hedgerows, and the sparrows chuckled instead of chirped, busying
themselves nest-building in the ivy round the vicarage, and when the
thrush sang to the accompaniment of the blackbird's whistle, the
children found that Jupp was even a better playfellow in the open than
he had been indoors, being nearly as much a child in heart as
themselves.
Whenever he had half a day given him in the week free from duty he would
make a point of coming up to take "Master Teddy and the young ladies"
out into the woods, fern-hunting and flower-gathering, the vicar
frequently popping upon the little picnickers unawares, whilst they were
watching the rabbits and rabbitikins combing out their whiskers under
the fir-trees, and Jupp and Mary getting an al fresco tea ready for the
party.
The little tabby kitten had long since been eclipsed in Teddy's
affections by a small Maltese terrier with a white curly coat of hair,
which his fond grandmother had rather foolishly given him, the poor
little animal being subjected to such rough treatment in the way of
petting that it must have over and over again wished itself back in its
Mediterranean home.
"Puck" was the little dog's name, and he appeared in a fair way of
"putting a girdle round the earth," if not in forty minutes like his
elfish namesake, at least in an appreciable limited space of time, Teddy
never being content except he carried about the unfortunate brute with
him everywhere he went, hugging it tightly in his arms and almost
smothering its life out by way of showing his affection.
Having once had his hair cut, too, unluckily by Mary, Teddy seized an
opportunity, when alone in the nursery, to treat poor Puck in similar
fashion, the result of which was that the little animal, deprived of his
long curly coat, not only shivered constantly with cold, but looked, in
his closely-shorn condition, like one of those toy lambs sold in the
shops in lieu of dolls for children, which emit a bleating sort of sound
when pressed down on their bellows-like stands.
Of course, Puck was as invariable an attendant at the picnic excursions
in the woods as Master Teddy himself, and, having developed sufficient
interest in the rabbits to summon up courage to run after them, which
Teddy graciously permitted him to do, these outings perhaps gave the
little animal the only pleasure he had in existence, save eating; for he
was then allowed, for a brief spell at all events, to use his own legs
instead of being carried about in baby fashion.