FIVE O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING.
"Maggie, Maggie, wake up, I say!"
"Yes, who's there. I'm so sleepy. Oh, it's you, Eric. What do you
want?"
"It's father's birthday, and the clock has just struck four. You
promised you'd get up at four."
"Yes; but, oh dear me, I _am_ so sleepy."
Marjorie yawned, and twisted about on her pillow.
"Are you sure it wasn't three that struck, Eric?"
"No, four; I counted the strokes. I thought you liked getting up
early."
"So I do, but don't talk so loud, or you'll wake Ermie."
"Catch me wanting her to get up, cross old thing!"
"Eric, you are unkind, and Basil wouldn't like it."
"Bother Basil! what do I care? I say, Mag, are you going to pop out of
bed?"
"I suppose so. Go outside the door and wait for me, Eric, and _do_ be
quiet."
Eric departed, whistling under his breath, and kicking his heels so
restlessly that only the soundest sleeper could still remain in the
land of dreams.
Marjorie rubbed her eyes, stretched herself, yawned, and finally,
stimulated by threatening knocks of Eric's on the other side of the
door, managed to tear herself away from her warm snug bed. She saw the
sunlight streaming in through the closed window-curtains, but August
though it was, this early hour of the morning was chilly, and Marjorie
shivered as she tumbled not too tidily into her clothes. Eric would
not give her time to take her usual cold plunge-bath, and she was
decidedly of opinion that plans which looked delightful the night
before are less alluring when viewed by the candid light of morning.
Marjorie was a hearty child in every way, hearty at work and at play,
hearty, too, at sleep, and it was hard to be debarred of quite a third
of her usual allowance. She dipped her face and neck, however, in cold
water, which effectually woke her up, and when she had brushed out her
thick hair, and knelt for a moment or two at her little bed to say her
usual morning prayers, she felt quite cheerful, and joined Eric with
her usual sunny good humored face.
"That's right," said Eric, clasping her hand. "Isn't the morning
scrumptious? Not a bit of a cloud anywhere. Now let's be off to wake
father."
"To wake father! at four o'clock in the morning! What do you mean,
Eric?"
"It's twelve minutes past four, if it comes to that," said Eric. "You
were an awful time getting into your clothes, Mag. And why shouldn't
we wake father? It's his birthday. He will like us to wake him!"
Marjorie, however, judging from her own too recent experience, thought
differently.
"It really _is_ too early," she said. "He wouldn't like it a bit, and
why should we vex father because it's his birthday?"
"You forget that he never is vexed with anything we do on his
birthday," said Eric. "It's our day, and we couldn't be scolded,
whatever we did. _Do_ come along, Maggie; I have it all planned so
jolly. Father is to come with us, and unmoor the boat, and help us to
gather the water-lilies. Do come on, and don't waste the precious
time. I tell you, father will like it."
Marjorie was very unselfish, but she was also easily persuaded,
particularly by her chosen and special chum, Eric. Accordingly, after
a little further demur, she consented to go with her brother to their
father's room.
It was very still in the house, for not a servant as yet had thought
of stirring. Eric pushed back the oak doors, which so effectually
divided the nursery people from the grown ups.
"There you stay, you nasty things!" he said, hooking them back with an
air of great triumph. "This is our day, and you can't keep us
prisoners. Come along, Mag, I've broken the prison-bars."
Marjorie's own spirits were rising fast. After all, it was delicious
to be up in the early morning. She was glad she had taken the trouble
to get out of bed now.
The children ran down the wide corridor into which the best bedrooms
opened. They paused at length outside their father's door. Here
Marjorie once again grew a little pale, but Eric, with a look of
resolution, turned the handle of the door and went in.
Marjorie followed him on tiptoe. Father's room was very large, and to
the culprits who stood just inside the door, looked solemn and
awe-inspiring. Even Eric felt a little subdued; the chamber seemed so
vast, and the great four-poster, away by itself in an alcove, had a
remote and unapproachable aspect. It was one thing to have a
rollicking, merry, good-humored father to romp about with all day, and
another to approach the solemn personage who reposed in the center of
that bed.
"Let's come away," whispered Marjorie.
"Fudge!" retorted Eric. "It's father's birthday! It's _our_ day! Come
along--he can't be angry with us even if he wished."
Thus exhorted, but with many misgivings at her heart, Marjorie
followed her brother across the big room and up the two steps which
led to the alcove.
A picture of the children's mother hung over the mantelpiece. It was a
very girlish picture, and represented a slim figure in a white dress,
with a blue sash round her waist. The face was a little like
Ermengarde's, but the eyes which looked down now at the two children
had Marjorie's expression in them. There were other portraits of Mrs.
Wilton in the house, later and more matronly portraits; but Marjorie
liked this the best--the girlish mother seemed in touch with her
youthful self.
"Do come away, Eric," she said again, and tears almost sprang to her
eyes. It seemed cruel to wake father just to add to their own
pleasure.
Eric, however, was not a boy to be lightly turned from his purpose.
He had very little sentiment about him, and had stern ideas as to what
he termed his rights. Father's birthday was the children's lawful day:
on that day they were one and all of them kings, and the "king could
do no wrong."
Accordingly this little king, with a somewhat withering glance at his
sister, stepped confidently up to the big bed, raised himself on
tiptoe, so as to secure a better view, and looked down with his chubby
expectant face on his slumbering father.
It is all very well for the little folk, who are in bed and asleep as
a rule between eight and nine in the evening, to feel lively and
larky, and quite up to any holiday pranks at four o'clock on a
summer's morning; but the older and less wise people who sometimes do
not close their eyes until the small hours, are often just enjoying
their deepest and sweetest slumbers about the time the sun likes to
get up.
This was the case with Mr. Wilton. He had not arrived home until
midnight--he had found some letters before him which must be replied
to--he had even dipped into a book in which he was specially
interested. Then his favorite spaniel Gyp had begun to howl in his
kennel, and Mr. Wilton had gone out to see what was the matter.
So, from one cause or another, he had not laid his tired head on his
pillow until one and two o'clock in the morning.
Therefore Mr. Wilton was now very sound asleep indeed, and not Eric's
buzzing whispers nor Marjorie's cautious repentant "Hush--hush, Eric!"
disturbed him in the very least.
"How _lazy_ of father!" pronounced Eric in a tone of withering scorn.
"He has not even stirred. Oh, you needn't go on with your
'hush--hush!' Mag--he's as sound as a button. Look here, I must speak
a little louder. Fa--ther! oh, I say, father, open your eyes!"
Eric's voice became piteous, but the eyes remained closed, the face
peaceful and immovable.
"We might both of us jump on the bed at the same moment," said Eric.
"That ought to shake him a good bit, and perhaps he'd begin to yawn.
Oh, jolly, it's a spring mattress; we can give him a great bounce if
we jump on together. Now then, Mag, be sure you jump when I do."
Marjorie, still looking rather terrified, but led on by Eric's
indomitable spirit, did spring on the bed, and so heavily that she
rolled on to Mr. Wilton's leg. He started, groaned, said "Down, Gyp!"
in a very angry voice, and once more pursued his way in dreamland,
without any idea that two little imps were perched each on one side
of his pillow.
"It's too bad," said Eric. "The whole morning will go at this rate; it
will soon be five o'clock. Oh, I say--pater--father--gov! do wake!"
"You shouldn't say pater or gov," said Marjorie. "Father doesn't like
it."
"Much he cares! He doesn't hear anything. He's stone deaf--he's no
good at all!"
"Well, we shouldn't say words he doesn't like, even if he is asleep,"
said Marjorie in her properest tones.
"I like that," said Eric. "And why mayn't I say pater, I wonder? Pater
is the Latin of father. It's a much nicer word than father, and all
our fellows say it. You think it isn't respectful because you're an
ignorant girl, Maggie, but Julius Caesar used to say pater when he was
young, so I suppose I may."
"Father looks very handsome in his sleep," said Marjorie, turning her
head on one side, and looking sentimentally at her parent.
"He doesn't," said Eric. "He looks much better with his eyes open. Oh,
I say, I can't stand this! The morning will go, and we'll never get
our water-lilies. Father, wake up! Father, it's your birthday! Don't
you hear us? Here, Mag, let's begin to jump up and down again on the
bed. Couldn't you manage to hop on his leg by accident? You're heavier
than me."
Marjorie and Eric joined hands, the fun entered into their souls, and
they certainly jumped with energy.
Mr. Wilton began to have a very bad dream. Gyp, his favorite spaniel,
seemed suddenly to have changed into a fiend, and to have seized him
by the leg. Finally the dream dissolved itself into a medley of
laughter and childish cries. He opened his eyes: two little figures
with very red faces and very disordered hair were tumbling about on
his bed.
"Eh--what? Is the house on fire?" he gasped.
"Oh, father! At last!" exclaimed Marjorie. She flung herself upon him,
and began to kiss him all over his face.
"My dear child--very affectionate of you, no doubt, but why this
sudden rush of devotion in the middle of the night?"
"It isn't!" exclaimed Eric in a voice of awful emphasis. "It's nearly
five o'clock!"
"And it's your birthday," said Marjorie, beginning to kiss him again.
"Yes," continued Eric, "it's your birthday, father. _Our_ day, you
know."
The victim in the bed lay quite still for a moment. That much grace
he felt he must allow himself to recover from the shock of the
announcement. Then he said, as cheerfully as he could speak, "What did
you say the hour was?"
"Close on five o'clock--awfully late," answered both children,
shouting their words into his ears.
"All right; what do you want me to do?"
"To get up at once, and come with us to gather water-lilies."
"Oh!"
"Isn't it a delightful plan?"
"Very. Are you sure the morning isn't wet?"
"The morning wet, father! The sun is shining like anything. Run to the
window, Mag, and pull the blind up. Now you can see, can't you,
father?"
"I can, thanks, Eric."
"Well, aren't you getting up?"
"I will, if you will both favor me by retiring into the corridor for
five minutes. And listen, even though it is my birthday, it isn't
necessary to have any more vic----I mean, we need not wake the rest of
the house."
"Oh, we'll be as quiet as mice," retorted Marjorie. "_Dear_ father,
you'll promise to be very quick?"
"_Dear_ Maggie, I promise; I am your devoted and humble servant for
the rest of the day."
"Isn't father delicious?" said Marjorie, as they waited in the
passage.
"Delicious!" retorted Eric; "what a girl's expression! One would think
you were going to eat him. I tell you what it is, pater ought to be
very much obliged to us for waking him. He was lazy, but he'll have a
time of it for the rest of the day."