JESSE PIGGOT
Miss Lilly's face was cheerful too. At least so it seemed to Ferdy, for
she was smiling, and immediately began speaking in a bright, quick way.
But Chrissie looked at her once or twice and "understood." She saw faint
traces of tears having been very lately in her governess's kind eyes,
and she heard a little tremble in the voice below the cheeriness. "My
dear Ferdy," Miss Lilly was saying, "see what comes of holidays! Much
better have lessons than accidents, but it's an ill wind that blows no
good. We shall have famous time now for your _favourite_ lessons--sums
and--"
"Now, Miss Lilly, you're joking--you know you are," said Ferdy, looking
up in her face with his sweet blue eyes--eyes that to the young girl's
fancy looked very wistful that morning. He had stretched out his arms,
and was clasping them round her neck. Ferdy was very fond of Miss
Lilly. "_Aren't_ you joking?" He wasn't quite, quite sure if she was,
for sums were one of the few crooks in Ferdy's lot, and rather a sore
subject.
Something in the tone of his voice made Miss Lilly kiss him again as she
replied, "Of course I'm joking, my dear little matter-of-fact. No, your
mamma says you are only to do your _really_ favourite lessons for a week
or two, and not those if they tire you. We are all going to spoil you,
I'm afraid, my boy."
"I don't want to be spoilt," said Ferdy. "Chrissie and I have been
talking. I want to make plans and be--be useful or some good to
somebody, even if I have to stay in bed a good bit. What I most want to
get out of bed for is to lie on the sofa and have the end of it pulled
into the window, so that I can see along the roads all ways. Oh,
Chrissie, you must tell Miss Lilly about the swallows, and--and--what
was it I wanted to ask you?" He looked round, as if he were rather
puzzled.
"Are you not talking too much?" said Miss Lilly, for the little fellow's
eyes were very bright--too bright, she feared. "Chrissie dear, perhaps
you can remember what Ferdy wanted to ask me about."
"Oh, I know," said Ferdy; "it was about Jesse Piggot. Chrissie, you
ask."
"We saw you talking to him--at least I did--out of the window, and we
wondered what it was about. They all say he's a very naughty boy, Miss
Lilly."
"I know," Miss Lilly replied. "He's a Draymoor boy"--Draymoor was the
name of the mining village that Ferdy had been thinking about on his
birthday morning--"or rather he used to be, till his uncle there died."
"And now he lives at Farmer Meare's, where he works, but he's still
naughty," said Chrissie, as if it was rather surprising that the having
left off living at the black village had not made Jesse good at once.
Miss Lilly smiled.
"I don't think everybody at Draymoor is naughty," she said. "I think
Jesse would have been a difficult boy to manage anywhere, though
Draymoor isn't a place with much in the way of good example certainly.
But I hope it's getting a little better. If one could get hold of the
children." She sat silent for a moment or two, her eyes looking as if
they saw scenes not there. "I know several of the miners' families who
live nearer us than Draymoor--at Bollins, and there are some such nice
children among them."
Bollins was a small hamlet on the Draymoor road, and the little house
where Miss Lilly lived with her grandfather, an elderly man who had once
been a doctor, was just at the Evercombe side of Bollins.
"But you haven't told us what you were saying to Jesse," said Chrissie.
"Oh no," said Miss Lilly. "Poor boy, it was nice of him. He was asking
how Master Ferdy was."
Ferdy looked pleased.
"Did you tell him I was better?" he asked.
"I said I hoped so, but that I had not seen you yet. And then he asked
if he might send you his 'respexs' and 'Was there any birds' eggs you'd
a fancy for?'"
"Poor Jesse," said Ferdy. "But birds' eggs are one of the things he's
been so naughty about--taking them all and selling them to somebody at
Freston. Papa's almost sure--at least Ferguson is--that he took some
thrushes' eggs out of our garden. Fancy, Miss Lilly!"
"And then for him to offer to get Ferdy any," said Chrissie.
"He knows I c'lect them," said Ferdy; "but papa told me long ago, when I
was quite little, never to take all the eggs, and _I've_ never taken
more than one. If you see Jesse again will you tell him he must never
take more than one, Miss Lilly?"
"I think in this case," she replied, "it is better to tell him not to
take any at all--the temptation would be too great if he knows he can
always sell them. I told him I would give you his message, but that I
did not think you wanted any eggs that he could get you, and I advised
him to leave bird's-nesting alone, as it had already got him into
trouble."
"What did he say?" asked Christine.
"He looked rather foolish and said he 'had nought to do of an evening,
that was what got him into mischief; it wasn't as if he had a home of
his own,' though as far as that goes, I see plenty of boys who _have_
homes of their own idling about in the evenings. It doesn't matter in
the summer, but in the winter grandfather and I often feel sorry for
them, and wish we could do something to amuse them. But now, Chrissie
dear, we had better go to the schoolroom; your mamma is coming to sit
with Ferdy for an hour or so."
"Good-bye, darling," said Chrissie, as she stooped to kiss Ferdy's pale
little face--it had grown very pale again since the excitement of seeing
Miss Lilly had faded away. "We shall be back soon--won't we, Miss
Lilly?" she went on, turning to her governess as they left the room
together.
"It depends on how he is," was the reply. "Mrs. Ross hopes that he will
have a little sleep now, but if he is awake and not too tired when you
have finished your lessons, I will read aloud to you both in his room."
"Miss Lilly," began Chrissie again, looking up very sadly when they were
seated at the schoolroom table, "I don't want to be silly, but I really
don't feel as if I could do any lessons. It is so--so dreadful to be
without Ferdy, when you think that only the day before yesterday we
were both here together and so happy, looking forward to his birthday,"
and the child put her head down on her arms and broke into deep though
quiet sobs.
In an instant Miss Lilly had left her place and was kneeling on the
floor beside her.
"My poor little Chrissie, my dear little Chrissie," she said, "I am so
sorry for you," and the tone of her voice showed that it was difficult
for her to keep back her own tears,--"so very sorry; but remember, dear,
that we can do much better for Ferdy by controlling our grief than by
giving way to it. A great deal depends on keeping him cheerful and
happily employed and interested. When I got your mother's note yesterday
afternoon--oh dear, what a shock it was to me!--I spoke to my
grandfather about Ferdy a great deal, and he said in such cases much
depends on not letting the nervous system give way. Do you understand at
all what I mean?"
"Yes, I think so," said Chrissie, drying her eyes and listening eagerly.
"You mean if poor Ferdy was to lie there all day alone, like some poor
children have to do, I daresay, he'd get to feel as if he would never
get well again."
"Just so," said Miss Lilly, pleased to see how sensible Chrissie was.
"Of course, he must not be tired or allowed to excite himself, and for a
few days he is sure to be restless and fidgety from weakness; but as he
gradually gets stronger again in himself, we must do all we can not only
to amuse him, but to keep up his interest in things and people outside
himself."
"I know," said Chrissie, "if he can feel he's of any good to anybody,
that would make him happier than anything. Ferdy has never been selfish,
has he, Miss Lilly?"
"No, he certainly has never seemed so, and I do not think suffering and
trial such as he may have to bear will make him so."
Chrissie's face fell again at the two sad words.
Miss Lilly saw it, and went on speaking quietly. "I don't mean anything
very dreadful, dear, but he may have to stay in bed or on a couch for a
long time, and of course that cannot but be a great trial to an active
boy. Let us get on with your lessons now, Chrissie, in case Ferdy is
awake when they are over."
He was not awake. He slept a good part of the morning, which Mrs. Ross,
sitting beside him, was very glad of; and when at last he opened his
eyes and looked about him, it was not long before a smile came to his
face, and he cheered his mother by saying he felt "so nicely rested."
"May Chris and Miss Lilly come back now?" he asked. "Miss Lilly said she
would read aloud."
Yes, Chris and Miss Lilly would be only too happy to come, but first
Ferdy must be "good" and drink some beef-tea, which was standing all
ready.
It was rather an effort to do so. Ferdy did not like beef-tea, and he
was not at all hungry, and he just wanted to lie still and not be
bothered. But "To please me" from his mother was enough, and when she
kissed him and said he _was_ "a good boy," he told her, laughing, that
he felt as if he were a little baby again.
Chrissie's face brightened when she heard the sound of her brother's
laugh.
"Are you feeling better, Ferdy dear?" she said. "I _am_ so glad, and
Miss Lilly has brought a story-book of her own that we have never read."
"Oh, how nice!" said Ferdy. "Do tell me the name of the book, Miss
Lilly."
"It is short stories," she replied. "I will read you the names of some
of them, and you shall choose which you would like best."
The titles were all very tempting, but Ferdy made a good hit, and fixed
upon one of the most interesting in the book, so said Miss Lilly. It was
about a family of children in Iceland, and though it was rather long,
they wished there was more of it when it came to an end. Then Miss Lilly
looked at her watch.
"There is still a quarter of an hour," she said, as she turned over the
leaves. "Yes, here is a short story, which will just about fill up the
time."
Ferdy and Chrissie looked very pleased, but they did not say anything.
They were so afraid of losing any of the precious fifteen minutes.