FIRST BLOOD.
Ten minutes later, and without, as Jane Sheepshanks said, "so muckle
as a sponge or a brush-and-comb being laid upon them," the three stood
before their father. Silently Janet had introduced them, and now as
silently she stood aside to listen to the evidence--and, as she
put it, "keep the maister to his duty, and mind him o' his
responsibilities to them that's gane."
Janet Sheepshanks never forgot that she had been maid for twenty years
to the dead mother of the children, nor that she had received "the
bits o' weans" at her hand as a dying charge. She considered herself,
with some reason, to be the direct representative of the missing
parent, and referred to Priscilla, Toady Lion, and Hugh John as "my
bairns," just as, in moments of affection, she would still speak to
them of "my bonnie lassie your mither," as if the dead woman were
still one of her flock.
For a full minute Mr. Picton Smith gazed speechless at the spectacle
before him. He had been writing something that crinkled his brow and
compressed his lips, and at the patter of the children's feet in the
passage outside his door, as they ceremoniously marshalled themselves
to enter, he had turned about on his great office chair with a smile
of expectation and anticipation. The door opened, and Janet
Sheepshanks pushed in first Sir Toady Lion, still voluble and calling
for vengeance on the "bad, bad boys at the castle that had striked him
and hurted his dear Prissy." Priscilla herself stood white-lipped and
dumb, and through the awful silence pulsed the dry, recurrent, sobbing
catch in the throat of Hugh John.
Mr. Picton Smith was a stern man, whose great loss had caused him to
shut up the springs of his tenderness from the world. But they flowed
the sweeter and the rarer underneath; and though his grave and
dignified manner daunted his children on the occasion of any notable
evil-doing, they had no reason to be afraid of him.
"Well, what is the meaning of this?" he said, his face falling into a
greyer and graver silence at the sound of Hugh John's sobs, and
turning to Priscilla for explanation.
Meanwhile Sir Toady Lion was pursuing the subject with his usual
shrill alacrity.
"Be quiet, sir," said his father. "I will hear you all one by one, but
let Priscilla begin--she is the eldest."
"We went to the castle after dinner, over by the stepping-stones,"
began Priscilla, fingering nervously the frill of the torn pinafore
about her throat, "and when we got to the castle we found out that our
pet lamb Donald had come after us by the ford; and he was going
everywhere about the castle, trying to rub his bell off his neck on
the gate-posts and on the stones at the corners."
"Yes, and I stooded on a rock, and Donald he butted me over behind!"
came the voice of Sir Toady Lion in shrill explanation of his personal
share in the adventure.
"And then we played on the grass in the inside of the castle. Toady
Lion and I were plaiting daisy-chains and garlands for Donald, and
Hugh John was playing at being the Prisoner of Chillyon: he had tied
himself to the gate-post with a rope."
"'Twasn't," muttered Hugh John, who was a stickler for accuracy; "it
was a plough-chain!"
"And it rattled," added Sir Toady Lion, not to be out of the running.
"And just when we were playing nicely, a lot of horrid boys from the
town came swarming and clambering in. They had run over the bridge and
climbed the gate, and then they began calling us names and throwing
mud. So Hugh John said he would tell on them."
"Didn't," interrupted Hugh John indignantly. "I said I'd knock the
heads off them if they didn't stop and get out; and they only laughed
and said things about father. So I hit one of them with a stone."
"Then," continued Priscilla, gaining confidence from a certain curious
spark of light which began to burn steadily in her father's eyes,
"after Hugh John threw the stone, the horrid boys all came and said
that they would kill us, and that we had no business there anyway."
"They frowed me down the well, and I went splass! Yes, indeedy!"
interrupted Toady Lion, who had imagination.
"Then Donald, our black pet lamb, that is, came into the court, and
they all ran away after him and caught him. First he knocked down one
or two of them, and then they put a rope round his neck and began to
take rides on his back."
"Yes, and he bleated and 'kye-kyed' just feeful!" whimpered Toady
Lion, beginning to weep all over again at the remembrance.
But the Smith of the imperial race only clenched his torn hands and
looked at his bruised knuckles.
"So Hugh John said he would kill them if they did not let Donald go,
and that he was a soldier. But they only laughed louder, and one of
them struck him across the lip with a stick--I know him, he's the
butch----"
"Shut up, Pris!" shouted Hugh John, with sudden fierceness, "it's
dasht-mean to tell names."
"Be quiet, sir," said his father severely; "let your sister finish her
story in her own way."
But for all that there was a look of some pride on his face. At that
moment Mr. Picton Smith was not sorry to have Hugh John for a son.
"Well," said Priscilla, who had no such scruples as to telling on her
enemies, "I won't tell if you say not. But that was the boy who hurt
Donald the worst."
"Well, I smashed him for that!" muttered Napoleon Smith.
"And then when Hugh John saw them dragging Donald away and heard him
bleating----"
"And 'kye-kying' big, big tears, big as cherries!" interjected Toady
Lion, who considered every narrative incomplete to which he did not
contribute.
"He was overcome with rage and anger"--at this point Priscilla began
to talk by the book, the dignity of the epic tale working on her--"and
he rushed upon them fearlessly, though they were ten to one; and they
all struck him and kicked him. But Hugh John fought like a lion."
"Yes, like Wichard Toady Lion," cried the namesake of that hero, "and
I helpted him and bited a bad boy on the leg, and didn't let go though
he kicked and hurted feeful! Yes, indeedy!"
"And I went to their assistance and fought as Hugh John showed me.
And--I forget the rest," said Priscilla, her epic style suddenly
failing her. Also she felt she must begin to cry very soon, now the
strain was over. So she made haste to finish. "But it was dreadful,
and they swore, and said they would cut Donald's throat. And one boy
took out a great knife and said he knew how to do it. He was the
butch----"
"Shut up, Pris! Now don't you dare!" shouted Hugh John, in his most
warning tones.
"And when Hugh John rushed in to stop him, he hit him over the head
with a stick, and Hugh John fell down. And, oh! I thought he was dead,
and I didn't know what to do" (Priscilla was crying in good earnest
now); "and I ran to him and tried to lift him up. But I could not--he
was so wobbly and soft."
"I bited the boy's leg. It was dood. I bited hard!" interrupted Toady
Lion, whose mission had been vengeance.
"And when I looked up again they had taken away p-p-poor Donald,"
Priscilla went on spasmodically between her tears, "and I think they
killed him because he belonged to you, and--they said he had no
business there! Oh, they were such horrid cruel boys, and much bigger
than us. And I can't bear that Don should have his throat cut. I was
promised that he should never be sold for mutton, but only clipped for
wool. And he had such a pretty throat to hang daisy-chains on, and was
such a dear, dear thing."
"I don't think they would dare to kill him," said Mr. Smith gravely;
"besides, they could not lift him over the gate. I will send at once
and see. In fact I will go myself!"
There was only anger against the enemy now, and no thought of
chastisement of his own in the heart of Mr. Picton Smith. He was
rising to reach out his hand to his riding-whip, when General Napoleon
Smith, who, like most great makers of history, had taken little part
in the telling of it, created a diversion which put all thought of
immediate action out of his father's head. He had been standing up,
shoulders squared, arms dressed to his side, head erect, as he had
seen Sergeant Steel do when he spoke to his Colonel. Once or twice he
had swayed slightly, but the heart of the Buonapartes, which beat
bravely in his bosom, brought him up again all standing. Nevertheless
he grew even whiter and whiter, till, all in a moment, he gave a
little lurch forward, checked himself, and again looked straight
before him. Then he sobbed out once suddenly and helplessly, said "I
couldn't help getting beaten, father--there were too many of them!"
and fell over all of a piece on the hearthrug.
At which his father's face grew very still and angry as he gathered
the great General gently in his arms and carried him upstairs to his
own little white cot.