UNCLE BEN.
Mother Rodesia was most kind and obliging. The pony was whipped up,
and now it seemed to Diana's excited fancy that they quite flew over
the road. She felt for her broken bow, which she had laid by her side,
then she cuddled up closer to Orion, and whispered to herself:
"Mother 'Odesia's a good woman when all's said, done. She has gived us
supper and soon we'll be home; and Uncle William won't be in bed, and
he won't let c'uel Aunt Jane beat me. It's all wight; I may just as
well go to s'eep, 'cos I is drefful s'eepy, and it's late. I wonder if
the night will be starful, and if I'll see Orion up in the sky.
Anyhow, there's no stars at pwesent, and I had best go to s'eep."
So the little girl cuddled herself up close to her brother, and soon
the big dark eyes were shut, and she was happy in the land of dreams.
When this happened, Mother Rodesia softly and stealthily changed her
position. She stretched out her hand and touched Jack on his arm. This
seemed to have been an arranged signal, for he drew up the pony at
once.
They were still under the shelter of the great woods which extended
for miles over that part of the country.
"We had best begin to change their clothes now," said Mother Rodesia.
"They are both as sound as nails, and I don't want the clothes to be
seen by Ben, for he's safe to pawn 'em, and if he pawns 'em the police
may get 'em, and then the children may be traced, and we may get into
hot water."
"But, mother," said Jack, "do you dare to disturb them now when they
are asleep? That young 'un with the black eyes is such a fury; seemed
to me as if she was never goin' off."
"She's all right now," said Mother Rodesia. "She's just dead tired. Of
course, if I had had my way, I'd have put a little of that syrup into
their soup--Mother Winslow's Syrup--but Mother Bridget wouldn't have
it. She took quite a fancy to the little gal, and all on account of
her firing up and calling her names."
Jack laughed.
"I never seed sech a little 'un," he said, "sech a sparky little
piece. Ben's in rare luck. I'd like to keep her for a sort of little
sister of my own--she'd amuse me fine."
"Well, well, you aint a-goin' to have her," said Mother Rodesia. "I'm
goin' to ask thirty shillin's for her and thirty shillin's for the
boy. That'll be three pund--not a bad night's work; eh, Jack?"
"No," replied Jack; but then he continued after a pause, "You'll tell
him, won't you, mother, to be good to the children. I wouldn't like to
think that little 'un was treated cruel, and her sperit broke--she has
got a fine sperit, bless her; I wouldn't like it to be broke. I don't
care for the little boy. There's nothing in 'im."
"Well, stop talking now," said Mother Rodesia. "They must be missed at
the Rectory by this time, and they'll be sendin' people out to look
for 'em. It's a rare stroke of luck that nobody knows that we are
camping in the Fairy Dell, for if they did they would be sure to come
straight to us, knowin' that poor gypsies is always _supposed_ to
kidnap children. Now, Jack, you just hold the pony as still as you
can, and I'll slip the clothes off the pair of 'em."
Little Diana, in her deep sleep, was not at all disturbed when stout
hands lifted her away from Orion, and when she lay stretched out flat
on a large lap. One by one her clothes were untied and slipped off her
pretty little body, and some very ugly, sack-like garments substituted
in their place. Diana had only a dim feeling in her dreams that mother
was back again, and was undressing her, and that she was very glad to
get into bed. And when the same process of undressing took place on
little Orion, he was still sounder asleep and still more indifferent
to the fact that he was turned sometimes over on his face, and
sometimes on his back, and that his pretty, dainty clothes, which his
own mother had bought for him, were removed, never to be worn by him
again.
"Now, then," said Mother Rodesia, when she had laid the two children
back again upon the straw, "when they awake, and if Ben is not there,
we must dye their faces with walnut juice; but we can't begin that
now, for they are sure to howl a good bit, and if folks are near, they
will hear them and come to the rescue. Jack, have you got that spade
'andy?"
The man, without a word, lifted a portion of the straw in the cart,
and took out a spade.
"That's right," said the woman. "You make a deep hole under that tree,
and put all the clothes in. Bury 'em well. I'll rescue 'em and pawn
'em myself when we go to the West of England in the winter, but for
the present they must stay under ground. See, I'll wrap 'em up in this
good piece of stout brown paper, and then perhaps they won't get much
spoiled."
Jack took the little bundle (there were the soft, pretty socks, the
neat little shoes, even the ribbon with which Diana's hair was tied),
and twisted them all up into a bundle. Then his mother wrapped the
bundle in the piece of brown paper, and gave it to him to bury.
This being done the pony was once more whipped up, and the cart
proceeded at a rapid rate. They were now on the highroad, and going in
the direction of a large town. The town was called Maplehurst. It was
fifteen miles away from the Rectory of Super-Ashton.
Little Diana slept on and on, and the sun was beginning to send faint
rays of light into the eastern sky, when at last she opened her eyes.
"Where is I?" she said with a gasp.
"With me, my little dear; you are as safe as child can be," said
Mother Rodesia. "Don't you stir, my love; you are just as good as you
was in your little bed. See, let me lay this rug over you."
She threw a piece of heavy tarpaulin, lined with cloth, over the child
as she spoke.
Diana yawned in a comfortable manner.
"Isn't we at Wectory yet?" she asked.
"No, dear; the pony went lame, and we had to stop for a good bit on
the road; but if you like to go to sleep again, you'll be there when
next you wake."
"I isn't s'eepy any longer," said Diana, sitting bolt upright in the
cart. "Oh, what a funny dwess I has on. Where is my nice b'ack dwess,
and my pinafore, and my shoes and socks?"
"Well, dear," said Mother Rodesia, "you were so dead asleep, and the
pony got that lame we couldn't stir hand nor foot, so I thought it
best to put a little nightdress on you."
"But what a funny one," said Diana, gazing with curious admiration at
the stout, sack-like garment.
"It's the best poor Mother Rodesia has, my dear. I'm awful poor, you
know."
"Is you?" asked Diana.
"Yes, dear."
"And does you mind?" asked Diana.
"Yes, dear; 'cos when people are poor they can't get bread to eat, and
then they can't get nice clothes like you, little missy. You are a
very rich little gal; aint you, little dear?"
"My faver's awfu' rich," said Diana. "We used to live in a most
beaut'ful house, and we had a beaut'ful garding to play in. We had
animals there--lots and lots. Woman, is you fond of animals--mices and
that sort?"
"Love--I just adores 'em."
"Then you _is_ a nice sort," answered Diana. She left her place by
Orion and crept up close to the woman.
"May I sit on your lap?" she said.
Mother Rodesia made a place for her at once.
"Put your arm wound me, p'ease; I is still a teeny bit s'eepy."
"You lay your head against my breast, little love, and you'll go off
into a beautiful sleep, and I'll keep you nice and warm, for hot as
the days are, it's chilly in the mornin's."
"When my faver comes home I'll ask him to give you lots of money,
Mother 'Odesia," said Diana.
She closed her eyes as she spoke, and in another moment was once again
slumbering peacefully.
When little Diana next opened her eyes all was completely changed. She
was no longer in the funny cart with the straw. Her nightdress was
still on her, it is true, and there were neither shoes nor stockings
on her bare feet; but she and Orion found themselves in a dirty room
with a nasty smell. Both children looked at one another, and both felt
cold and frightened. The broad daylight was lighting up the room, and
Diana could perceive that there was scarcely any furniture in it. Her
bow was also gone, and her arrow no longer hung round her neck. She
clutched a firm hold of Orion's hand.
"Don't you be afeared, Orion," she said. "Don't you forget you is a
big giant. Don't you forget you has got your belt and your sword."
"But I haven't, that's just it," replied Orion. "Diana, I aren't a
giant, and I'm awfu' frightened."
"Where can us be?" said Diana. "What a keer room! But there's one good
comfort; there isn't no aunts anywheres 'bout."
"I can't remember nothing," said Orion. "Why aren't we in bed? It's
too early to get up. How have we got into this horrid little room?"
"I don't know more nor you," said Diana, "only I do know that we has
got to be bwave. Don't you forget, Orion, that mother gived you your
name, and that you is a giant, whether you likes it or not. Don't you
forget that, and I won't forget that I is Diana, and that mother gived
me my name too, and that I is the bwavest huntwess in all the world."
"But you haven't got a bow and arrow," said Orion.
Diana was silent for a moment.
"Anyhow," she said, with a little shake, "I isn't going to be
fwightened. Let's sit close together, and let's think."
"Why can't we open that door and go out?" said Orion. "Why should we
stay in this horrid room?"
"'Cos our foots is bare," said Diana.
"But don't let's mind that," said Orion; "let's go to the door and
open it, and let's run back to Rectory. I'd rather have Aunt Jane and
Miss Ramsay than this horrid room--and oh, Diana! my tumtum has got a
big hole in it again."
"And mine has too," answered Diana. "I could eat a whole loaf, that I
could."
"Hush!" whispered Orion; "somebody's coming. Oh, come close to me,
Diana!"
"Now, you isn't to be fwightened, little boy," said Diana. "I is near
you, and I isn't fwightened of nobody."
At that moment the door was flung open, and Mother Rodesia,
accompanied by a tall, dark man, with a scowling face, came in.
"Mornin', little dears," said Mother Rodesia. "Now I have got
something to say to you."
"P'ease, where's Wectory?" asked Diana.
"You are not going there just for the present, my dear. This man, Ben
is his name--you told me last night that you were fond of uncles--you
can call 'im Uncle Ben; he's very kind and very, very fond of
children."
"Oh, yes! I'm very fond of children," said the man. He spoke in a
gruff voice which seemed to come right from the bottom of his chest.
"And as you don't like aunts," continued Mother Rodesia, "I have
brought an uncle. You can call 'im Uncle Ben; and if you do just what
he says, why, you'll be as happy as the day is long."
"Look here," said the man; "you stop your talk, Rodesia. Before I
makes myself an uncle to these kids I must see what sort they are. You
stand up along here, little gal, and let me examine you."
Diana scrambled instantly to her feet and went straight up to the man.
She gave him a keen glance from her piercing black eyes.
"What wight has you to speak to me in that sort of style?" she said.
"You isn't my uncle, and I isn't going to have nothing to do with
you."
"There," said Mother Rodesia; "did I say one word too much for her?"
The man burst into a loud laugh.
"No, that you didn't," he said; "and aint you frightened of me,
missy?"
"Fwightened?" replied Diana; "that aren't me." She turned her back and
strode back to Orion.
"'Member you is a giant," she said, in a whisper; "and giants never is
fwightened."
The man laughed again.
"Well, they are a queer little pair," he said. "I tell you what it is,
Rodesia Lee; I'll give you a pund apiece for 'em. Come, now; not a
penny more."
Diana stared very hard indeed when these words were uttered. She had
not the faintest idea what a "pund apiece" meant. Mother Rodesia
seemed to consider.
"And you may think yourself in rare luck," continued the man; "for,
remember, if it is known--" Here he walked to the farthest end of the
room, and Mother Rodesia followed him.
"You had best close up the bargain and be quick about it," he said;
"for not one penny more will you drag out of me. I'll give you a gold
sov. for each of 'em, and that's as much as I can manage. They will
take a sight of training, and then there's the risk."
"Very well," said Mother Rodesia, "I suppose I had best do it; only
they are worth more. There's a fortune in that little gal, and
whenever you are tired of her, why, there's a rich father to fall back
on. I spect he would give a sight of money to have her back again.
Very well, we'll agree; only, if ever you do get a fortune out of that
child, Ben Holt, you might remember poor Rodesia Lee."
The man laughed and patted Mother Rodesia on her shoulder. Then the
pair left the room, locking the door behind them.
"What does it all mean?" said Orion.
"I don't know," said Diana; "but I aren't fwightened; that aren't me."
Her little voice shook as she spoke, and she had great difficulty in
keeping the tears back from her big, black eyes.