should go and see an old lady, a great friend of their aunt's, who lived
just outside the village.
"She might ask us to tea," suggested Roy, "and she has awfully nice cake
always going. I'll leave my pony here, and we'll call again for them on
our way back."
"I don't like paying visits," objected Dudley, a little crossly.
"But Mrs. Ford isn't half bad to talk to, she's full of stories."
And by dint of these two baits, "cake" and "stories," Dudley's shyness
was overcome, and the two boys were soon walking up a sunny little
garden and knocking at the rose-covered door of "Clematis Cottage."
It was a tiny house, but spotlessly clean and tidy, and the long, low,
dainty drawing-room into which they were shown had a sense of rest and
repose which insensibly affected even the boys' restless spirits.
"A nice room to be ill in," was Roy's comment; "there would be such a
lot of jolly pictures and things to look at on the walls when you were
in bed."
"I should like to sit here on Sunday," said Dudley. "I am sure I could
be still for quite half an hour!"
The door opened and a little old lady in widow's cap and gown came
forward. She was a fragile, delicate-looking little woman, with a very
bright face and smile, and she beamed upon the boys delightedly.
"My dear boys, this is quite a treat! I don't often get a visit from
young gentlemen. How is your grandmother? Have you brought me any
message from your aunt?"
"Granny is not very well to-day," replied Roy, frankly, "and Aunt Judy
didn't know we were coming here. We have been riding, and Dudley's pony
has had to be shod, so we've left him at the blacksmith's and come on
here. You see we thought it would pass the time."
"And so it will, and you shall have a nice cup of tea before you go
back. Why, what big boys you are growing! Which is the elder? I always
forget."
"I am," said Roy, a little shamefacedly; "but of course most people
think Dudley is, because he is the biggest."
"It's only two months and five days, though, between us," put in Dudley,
eagerly, knowing what a sore point his size was to Roy; "and you see,
Mrs. Ford, Roy's brain is much bigger than mine--Mr. Selby says it is,
so that makes us quits!"
"And I wonder which has the biggest soul?" said Mrs. Ford, quaintly.
The boys stared at her.
"Shall I tell you a little story while we are waiting for tea?" she
asked, sitting down in her easy chair by the open window, and looking
first at the boys with loving interest, and then away to the sweet
country outside her garden.
Roy gave Dudley a delighted nudge with his elbow.
"Yes, please; we love a good rattling story; and make plenty of
adventures in it, won't you?"
But Mrs. Ford shook her head with a little smile.
"I can't tell you of fights with red Indians, and shipwrecks, and lion
hunts, and all such things as that; but you must take my story as it is,
and think over it in your quiet moments.
"There was once an old garden. Flowers and fruit of every description
grew in it, and when no human creature was about the air was full of
flower laughter and fruit conversation. One day in autumn some saucy
sparrows were teasing a young walnut-tree that stood between an apple
and a pear-tree, opposite a wall which was covered with beautiful golden
plums.
"'What are you here for?' they said, pecking at the round green balls
that hung on the tree, and then wiping their beaks in disgust on the
grass underneath. 'Ugh! you're sour and bitter and nasty enough to
poison a person! You're a disgrace to your master. The red and yellow
apples next door to you are delicious this warm day, and the pears make
one's mouth fairly water, while as to the plums over there--well, every
one is fighting for them, from the slugs and snails to every bird in the
country, and the boys and girls and men and women--all of us have to be
kept off by those horrible nets which the old gardener is continually
spreading!'
"'I'm sure,' whispered the young walnuts, humbly, 'we don't mean any
harm. We don't quite know why we are here ourselves. We have been hoping
to see our green skins get red and yellow, and soft and ripe, like
everything else round us, but they seem to get harder and uglier as time
goes by. They feel very heavy, and our stems ache with holding them up;
do you think it just possible there may be something inside?'
"'Inside!' laughed the sparrows; 'who ever heard of the inside being
better than the outside? You're stuffed with conceit, but nothing else.'
"And away they flew, for they were not a year old themselves, and knew
nothing about autumn nuts and berries.
"The walnuts sighed and appealed to an old crow flying by.
"'Do you think we have been planted in this beautiful garden by
mistake?' they said. 'We have been waiting a long time to give pleasure
and to do good to those around us. The bees give us a wide berth--they
say they can get no honey from us; we have no sweet scent to please the
passer-by, no lovely blossoms to delight their eyes. The apples have had
blossoms and fruit, and all the other trees the same, yet here we hang
and grow, and the days go by and we're only laughed at for our ugliness
and want of sweetness.'
"'Wait a little longer,' said the old crow; 'wait, and take pains to
grow!'
"And the walnuts waited, and the sun kissed their hard skins, and the
rain refreshed them when dry and thirsty; and still the sparrows mocked
them, and the apple and pear-tree talked to each other over their heads,
for they too looked upon them as a failure. One day the biggest walnut
broke from his stem and dropped in the long grass. No one heeded his
fall except his brothers; the gardener came by and gathered the apples
and pears, but did not look at the walnut-tree; and when he kicked the
fallen walnut with his feet he took no more notice of it than if it had
been a pebble.
"'Is that our fate?' sighed the walnuts. 'Now we know we are no good.
What is the use of trying to grow? What is the good of living at all
when we're so ugly and useless, and the end of us is to lie and rot in
the grass and be kicked by every one who passes?'
"And they wept bitter tears of disappointment and mortification; and one
by one they dropped from the tree and lay unheeded, uncared for on the
ground below.
"Then one morning came up the old crow.
"'Why did you tell us to wait?' cried one walnut in petulant tones.
'We're rotting, dying here, and this is the end of us.'
"'Wait a little longer,' said the crow again; 'it is when we are very
low that we are lifted very high. When we come to an end a new beginning
is coming.'
"The walnuts sighed as he flew away; yet the biggest one turned with a
spark of hope to his brothers.
"'I do believe we have been made for something. My skin is rotting and
dying, but in spite of it all I feel as if I have something inside that
is still alive. Let us wait and be patient a little longer.'
"And then at last one day, when the apple and pear-tree were fruitless
and leafless, when the flowers and butterflies and bees had all
disappeared, down the garden came the master himself and the gardener.
"He stopped when he came to the walnut-tree, and stooping down in the
long grass he gently raised one of the fallen nuts.
"'You must gather these in,' he said to his gardener; 'we have a good
many for the first year.'
"'Yes,' said the gardener, 'they are ready now. I've let them lie till
you saw them.'
"And the walnuts whispered to themselves in surprised delight that it
was not neglect and indifference had left them there, but that the
gardener had watched each one fall, and knew where to find them when
their time came at last.
"And when their green husks were removed, and their brown shells cracked
at the master's table, they discovered that the most valuable part of
them was what could not be seen by outsiders, and could only be brought
to light by the master's hand."
"That's a kind of parable," said Roy when Mrs. Ford ceased speaking.
"Yes," she said, smiling; "most people are like the sparrows: they think
it is only the outside you should go by. Now, when I see a person for
the first time I always wonder what their soul is like. If that is
beautiful it doesn't matter about their body. And a little body may
contain a very big soul."
"Can we make our souls big?" asked Roy, with an anxious face.
"They should be growing, my boy, day by day. Put them into the
Gardener's keeping and He will make them grow. It isn't the handsome and
the strong who do all the good in the world; very often it is just the
other way."
"Then there is hope I may do something," said Roy, brightening up; "I
like that story about the walnuts, don't you, Dudley?"
"Yes, I'll think of it when I crack them next," said Dudley.
Tea was now brought in, and the boys did it full justice, and shortly
after they were on their homeward way.
"She's a jolly old thing," remarked Dudley, presently, "and her cake was
awfully good. I'm glad we went to see her."
Roy was unusually silent. Dudley continued--
"I expect you've got the biggest soul of us too, Roy; nurse is always
saying your soul is too big for your body."
"I wish I had no body sometimes," said Roy, with a sigh; "it gets so
tired and stupid."
"Well, we won't talk about souls and bodies any more," Dudley said,
quickly, "they aren't interesting. I say, do you think we could teach
Rob cricket?"
Rob was a topic which always interested Roy. He brightened up at once.
"We'll teach him everything," he said, eagerly. "I want him to be able
to read and write and play, and do everything that we do, and more
besides, for I shall have him for my friend as well as a servant when I
grow up."
"A funny kind of chap for a friend," said Dudley, a little crossly;
"he's twice as old as you are, to begin with, and he's an awfully
stupid, thick-headed fellow."
"Don't you like Rob?"
Roy's tone was an astonished one.
"Oh, I like him well enough, but I'm getting rather sick of hearing you
crack him up so."
Roy changed the subject. He wondered sometimes why Dudley seemed to lose
his temper so over Rob; it never entered his head that Dudley might
regard him as a possible rival; that Rob, the country lad, might spoil
the covenant of friendship between them.
VIII
THE BERTRAMS' LEAP
It was Roy's birthday, and he was standing at his bedroom window before
breakfast looking out into the old garden below, his busy brain full of
thought and conjecture. His birthday was a very important day to him,
and for some years now there had been a settled programme for the day.
His guardian, an old Indian officer living in the neighborhood, and
formerly a very old friend of his father's, always came over to see him
and stayed to lunch, the two boys joining their elders at that meal.
Directly after, they would drive or ride over to Norrington Court which
was Roy's future home, and stay there for the rest of the day.
The boy's heart was full of the future as usual, and when Dudley burst
into his room with a radiant face to offer his good wishes, he turned to
meet him gravely.
But Dudley was too occupied in tugging in a small basket to notice it.
"This is my present, old chap. Just open it and see if you don't like
it."
Roy's little face became illumined with smiles a moment after, when he
saw two beautiful little white mice amongst the straw looking up at him
with calm curiosity out of their bright beady eyes.
"They're tame," said Dudley, delightedly; "old Principle has had them,
taming them for over a month. Their names are Nibble and Dibble. Look!
This is Dibble with the little black spot on his nose. You never
guessed, did you? I've been down to see them lots of times and they'll
eat food out of my hand. You just see!"
Roy was too excited over his mice to eat much breakfast, and when Rob
came up to him immediately afterward with a new cricket ball, bought out
of his small wages, he declared he was the "luckiest fellow in the
world."
Miss Bertram presented him with a handsome writing case, and every one
of the servants had some trifle to offer him. At ten o'clock he went to
his grandmother's room.
This was also part of the programme.
Mrs. Bertram received him very impressively, as was her wont.
"Sit down, Fitz Roy; you are getting a big boy; have you been measured
this morning?"
"Yes, granny, and I really have grown an inch and a half since last
year. That isn't very bad, is it?"
"Your father was very much taller at your age. I cannot understand it."
Roy began to feel rather depressed. "General Newton will be here soon,
I suppose," continued Mrs. Bertram, precisely, "and I wish you to convey
him a message from me. Give him my very kind regards, and ask him to
excuse me from coming down to see him this morning. I have had a very
bad night, and am not feeling fit for any extra fatigue. I hope he will
find you improved in manners and appearance. I could wish you talked and
laughed less and thought more. You must endeavor to realize your
responsibilities when you visit Norrington Court this afternoon. It is a
very large and important property for a little boy like you to be heir
to, and I hope you will fill the position worthily when you come of age.
Your uncle was the most respected and honored man in the county, and if
your dear father had lived to come back from Canada, he would have
walked in your uncle's steps."
"And who will walk in mine when I'm dead, granny?"
"My dear, you must learn not to interrupt grown-up people when they are
speaking."
"I'm very sorry, but do tell me if I died before I grew up, would Dudley
have my house?"
"Yes, by the terms of the will he would, as his father came next in age
to yours."
"That is what Aunt Judy means, when she calls me Jonathan and says when
I brag, that I must remember my namesake never came to the throne at
all. I like to think that Dudley may have it, he would make a grander
master than me, wouldn't he?"
Mrs. Bertram gave a little sigh. Roy's delicacy was a sore point with
her, and she could never get reconciled to his small stature.
"Well," said Roy, after a pause; "I'll do my very best, granny, to grow
up a big strong man. I take my tonics now whenever nurse gives them to
me, and I never pour them out of the window as I used to do. And I'm
hoping to do something great before I die, and I'm trying to grow up a
good man. Do you think that will do?" he added, a little anxiously, as
he fancied his grandmother's gaze rested on him with some
dissatisfaction.
She did not reply, only drew out her purse from her pocket, and Roy knew
this was a signal for his dismissal.
"Now," said Mrs. Bertram, "this is the sovereign that I usually give
you. I hope you will spend it wisely. Tell me when it is gone what you
have done with it. I hope you will spend a happy day. Give me a kiss and
leave me. Oh, if only you were more like your handsome father!"
Roy took his gift, thanked her for it, and giving his grandmother a
kiss, left the room very quietly.
Outside the door he paused on the door-mat, and drew his jacket across
his eyes with a strangled sob.
"It's a pity God won't make me strong, but I don't seem to be able to do
it myself."
And then with a shout for Dudley, a minute after he was tearing round
the house, showing his pet mice to all, and chattering away as if he had
not a care upon him.
General Newton arrived soon after and took a more cheering view of his
ward's appearance than had his grandmother.
"You'll grow into a splendid fellow yet," he said, patting him on the
shoulder, "and you'll out-top your cousin. Have you been in many scrapes
lately?"
"They're good boys on the whole," replied Miss Bertram, smiling; "except
when they try to be philanthropists, and then they come to grief."
"Oh, that's the last idea, is it? When I was here before they were going
to be travelling peddlers. Have you made a choice of any profession yet,
either of you?"
"Yes, I'm going to be a traveller and discoverer," said Roy, with
decision.
"Oh, indeed! Then you've still the love for exploration. How is your
friend old Principle? Is he still unearthing wonders and keeping them in
his kettles?"
"He is busy in a cave now," said Dudley, eagerly; "would you like to
come and see it one day?"
"No, thank you. And are you lads still devoted friends?"
"David and Jonathan, still," said Miss Bertram; and the old general
laughed heartily.
Before he left, he also gave Roy a sovereign, which made the little
fellow confide to Dudley,
"I've put granny's in my right hand pocket, and the general's in my
left, they won't mix together well, because hers is such a solemn one,
and his is so jolly!"
It was a happy little party that set off for Norrington Court. The boys
were on their ponies, and Miss Bertram in her pony trap, with Rob
sitting behind, proud in the consciousness of a new suit of clothes, and
delighted at being included in the number.
Up a long stately avenue of elms and beeches, with bracken and ferns
covering mossy glades in the distance, and then Roy and Dudley flung
themselves off their ponies before an old stone house with ivy-covered
walls and turrets. Everything had been brightened up for their visit.
The flowers on the terraces were one mass of sweet perfume and color,
the drives weeded and rolled, and the velvet turf in only such a
condition as centuries of care can make it. The old housekeeper opened
the door in her very best black silk, and two or three more faithful
retainers stood in the background.
Roy spoke to them all with boyish frankness and grace, and then eagerly
demanded if tea might be on the terrace. Miss Bertram agreed and while
she went indoors for a chat with the housekeeper, the boys tore round
the place dragging Rob after them. The stables of course were visited,
and an old groom who had known the boys' fathers when boys, welcomed
them with great warmth.
"Ye must grow quicker, Master Fitz Roy. We want to see you here among
us. I'm looking to see all these stalls occupied by hunters and sich
like again. 'Tis mournful work to live year in and year out with only
two bosses for company!"
"Tell us about the old times, Ben, do!"
Ben sat down and spread his hands out on his knees reflectively.
"All the young gentlemen were born riders," he said, slowly; "I mind how
Master Randolph would tear up the avenue after a long ride. 'There, Ben'
he'd say to me, chucking me the rein, and jumpin' off as light as a
feather, 'we've worked our spirits h'off--Ruby and me!' When the old
squire were alive, he'd have all three young gentlemen up, and then he'd
mount them and bring them down to Ruddocks stream, and see them jump it.
He used to say, 'No grandson of mine is worth calling a Bertram if he
can't take that leap before he is twelve year old!' They all did it
before they was ten, and he used to stand chuckling and rubbing his
hands as he saw them do it."
"Is that the stream at the bottom of the back meadow?" asked Dudley,
eagerly; "the one with the hedge in front?"
"Ay, to be sure!"
"But we have never jumped it," exclaimed Roy. "And I think we ought to
for we're his great-grandsons."
"We shan't be twelve for a long time yet," said Dudley, "but we really
ought to try."
"Well, we'll do it this evening after tea; and you shall come and see us
do it, Ben."
Ben grinned from ear to ear.
"You'll go over it like a bird, if so be as your pony is accustomed to
sich things!"
"We haven't taken very high jumps," admitted Dudley, candidly.
"Oh, we shall do it," said Roy, with a little toss of his head; "we'll
_make_ them go over!"
And then they turned to other subjects.
"What do you think of my house, Rob?" asked Roy, later on as he was
escorting his humble friend through the empty rooms and corridors
upstairs.
"It'll take a powerful number of people to fill it," said Rob, with awe.
"I shall have a lot of friends to stay with me, of course, and then I
shall marry; men always do that, don't they?"
"I b'lieve they mostly does," was the grave reply.
"And won't you like to come and live with me here?"
"That I should."
"Well," said Dudley, from a few paces behind; "if you're going to
travel, you won't use your house much, Roy. If Rob is going to be your
follower, I'll come and live here when you're abroad, and when you come
home, I'll go away."
"No you won't, you know we shall want you too."
And seeing the frown on Dudley's face, Roy turned back and linked his
arm in his. "Look here," he added, "Rob shall be your follower as well
as mine, and we will all go out to look for a new country together, and
when we've found it, we will come back and have a jolly time in this old
house."
"I shall have to work for my living," Dudley replied, gruffly.
"Yes. I was thinking," and the earnest look came into Roy's eyes as he
spoke; "I was thinking this morning, I mustn't just live as I like to
live when I grow up. There will be an awful lot to be done. Old
Principle was telling me the other day that the reason some people are
overworked is because other people don't work enough, and an idle man
puts his burden of work on other people's backs."
"We don't want old Principle's sermons here," exclaimed Dudley, having
recovered his good humor. "Aren't you awfully hungry? I'm sure tea must
be ready."
They went to the terrace where a most elaborate repast was set out,
which they thoroughly enjoyed. After it was over all the servants came
up to drink Roy's health; the old butler Pike made a little speech, and
Roy responded; his words lingering in the memories of those who heard
him for long afterward.
Miss Bertram, as she looked at his upright, slender little figure, and
noted the intense emphasis with which he spoke, felt a pang go through
her, as she wondered if his frail young life would be cut short before
he reached manhood.
"I'm awfully much obliged to you all for your good wishes. I'm
determined when I grow up and come to live with you that I'll do all
the good I can to everybody. I hope I'm getting stronger, and I think I
may be able to do as much as other people. But whatever I am, I promise
you I'll do my very best for the property!"
Then three cheers were given for the little master; and after the
ceremony was over, Miss Bertram told her little nephews to amuse
themselves quietly for another half hour before they returned home.
Their plans were already arranged, and they went straight to the stables
for their ponies to try the leap the old groom had mentioned to them.
He had already saddled them, and a few minutes after, they came through
the small paddock in front of the spot.
It was rather an awkward hedge, though not a very high one with a broad
stream of running water the other side.
Old Ben began to get a little nervous as he saw the boys eyeing the leap
rather doubtfully.
"Has the hedge grown since our fathers were little boys?" asked Dudley.
"A wee bit, perhaps, though we do keep it cut pretty much to the same
level. It's a deal thicker than it used to be, but don't you try it if
you hain't sure of your ponies. It 'ud be a awful thing if you hurt
yourself and couldn't do it!"
[Illustration: "'He's dead, Ben! he's dead!"]
"If we try it at all, we shall do it," said Roy, spiritedly, and then
he and Dudley rode back to put their steeds to a gallop.
Old Ben watched them breathlessly. Dudley seemed to be hesitating.
"I say, old fellow, don't let us do it to-night."
Roy's look was one of astonishment mingled with a little contempt.
"Not do it! Are you afraid?"
Dudley's color rose. "I'm not afraid of our courage," he said, boldly,
"but of our ponies: they have never been accustomed to it."
"Then they can learn to-night. Now then, there's plenty of room for us
both abreast. One--two--three--off! Hurrah for the Bertrams!"
The ponies were fresh, the hedge was cleared; but as old Ben was in the
act of waving his cap aloft to give a cheer--there was a crash--a sharp
cry--and a sickening thud the other side of the hedge. And when the old
groom with beating heart and trembling limbs, reached the farther bank,
Roy and his horse were prostrate on the ground. Dudley had cleared it
safely, and now having flung himself from his horse was leaning over Roy
in agony of terror.
"He's dead, Ben--he's dead--his pony rolled over him--oh, fetch a
doctor, quick!"
Ben took the unconscious little figure in his arms, with a heavy groan;
and Dudley tore on to the house almost frantic with fright.
Every one was in confusion at once, but it was Rob who tore off for the
doctor, and brought him in an incredibly short time, considering that he
lived three miles away.
To Dudley, listening outside the bedroom door, it seemed years before
the doctor came out, and when he did, he was too overcome to speak to
him. But seeing the white unnerved face of the boy, Doctor Grant put his
hand kindly on his shoulder.