ADVENTURE THE FIFTH
BROWNIE ON THE ICE
WINTER was a grand time with the six little children especially whenthey had frost and snow. This happened seldom enough for it to be thegreatest possible treat when it did happen; and it never lasted verylong, for the winters are warm in Devonshire.
There was a little lake three fields off, which made the most splendidsliding-place imaginable. No skaters went near it--it was not largeenough; and besides, there was nobody to skate, the neighborhood beinglonely. The lake itself looked the loneliest place imaginable. It wasnot very deep--not deep enough to drown a man--but it had a gravellybottom, and was always very clear. Also, the trees round it grew sothick that they sheltered it completely from the wind, so, when it didfreeze, it generally froze as smooth as a sheet of glass.
"The lake bears!" was such a grand event, and so rare, that when it didoccur, the news came at once to the farm, and the children carried it asquickly to their mother. For she had promised them that, if such athing did happen this year--it did not happen every year--lessons shouldbe stopped entirely, and they should all go down to the lake and slide,if they liked, all day long.
So one morning, just before Christmas, the eldest boy ran in with acountenance of great delight.
"Mother, mother, the lake bears!" (It was rather a compliment to call ita lake, it being only about twenty yards across and forty long.) "Thelake really bears!"
"Who says so?"
"Bill. Bill has been on it for an hour this morning, and has made us twosuch beautiful slides, he says--an upslide and a down-slide. May we godirectly?"
The mother hesitated.
"You promised, you know," pleaded the children.
"Very well, then; only be careful."
"And may we slide all day long, and never come home for dinner or anything?"
"Yes, if you like. Only Gardener must go with you, and stay all day."
This they did not like at all; nor, when Gardener was spoken to, did he.
"You bothering children! I wish you may all get a good ducking in thelake! Serve you right for making me lose a day's work, just to lookafter you little monkeys. I've a great mind to tell your mother I won'tdo it."
But he did not, being fond of his mistress. He was also fond of hiswork, but he had no notion of play. I think the saying of, "All work andno play makes Jack a dull boy," must have been applied to him, forGardener, whatever he had been as a boy, was certainly a dull andmelancholy man. The children used to say that if he and idle Bill couldhave been kneaded into one, and baked in the oven--a very warmoven--they would have come out rather a pleasant person.
As it was, Gardener was any thing but a pleasant person; above all, tospend a long day with, and on the ice, where one needs all one'scheerfulness and good-humor to bear pinched fingers and numbed toes, andtrips and tumbles, and various uncomfortablenesses.
"He'll growl at us all day long--he'll be a regular spoil-sport!"lamented the children. "Oh! mother, mightn't we go alone?"
"No!" said the mother; and her "No" meant no, though she was always verykind. They argued the point no more, but started off, ratherdownhearted. But soon they regained their spirits, for it was a bright,clear, frosty day--the sun shining, though not enough to melt the ice,and just sufficient to lie like a thin sprinkling over the grass, andturn the brown branches into white ones. The little people danced alongto keep themselves warm, carrying between them a basket which held theirlunch. A very harmless lunch it was--just a large brown loaf and a lumpof cheese, and a knife to cut it with. Tossing the basket about in theirfun, they managed to tumble the knife out, and were having a search forit in the long grass, when Gardener came up, grumpily enough.
"To think of trusting you children with one of the table-knives and abasket! what a fool Cook must be! I'll tell her so; and if they're lostshe'll blame me: give me the things."
He put the knife angrily in one pocket. "Perhaps it will cut a hole init," said one of the children, in rather a pleased tone than otherwise;then he turned the lunch all out on the grass and crammed it in theother pocket, hiding the basket behind a hedge.
"I'm sure I'll not be at the trouble of carrying it," said he, when thechildren cried out at this; "and you shan't carry it either, for you'llknock it about and spoil it. And as for your lunch getting warm in mypocket, why, so much the better this cold day."
It was not a lively joke, and they knew the pocket was very dirty;indeed, the little girls had seen him stuff a dead rat into it only theday before. They looked ready to cry; but there was no help for them,except going back and complaining to their mother, and they did not liketo do that. Besides, they knew that, though Gardener was cross, he wastrustworthy, and she would never let them go down to the lake withouthim.
So they followed him, trying to be as good as they could--though it wasdifficult work. One of them proposed pelting him with snowballs, as theypelted each other. But at the first--which fell in his neck--he turnedround so furiously, that they never sent a second, but walked behind himas meek as mice.
As they went, they heard little steps pattering after them.
"Perhaps it is the Brownie to play with us--I wish he would," whisperedthe youngest girl to the eldest boy, whose hand she generally held; andthen the little pattering steps sounded again, traveling through thesnow, but they saw nobody--so they said nothing.
The children would have liked to go straight to the ice; but Gardenerinsisted on taking them a mile round, to look at an extraordinary animalwhich a farmer there had just got--sent by his brother in Australia. Thetwo old men stood gossiping so long that the children weariedextremely. Every minute seemed an hour till they got on the ice.
At last one of them pulled Gardener's coat-tails, and whispered thatthey were quite ready to go.
"Then I'm not," and he waited ever so much longer, and got a drink ofhot cider, which made him quite lively for a little while.
But by the time they reached the lake, he was as cross as ever. Hestruck the ice with his stick, but made no attempt to see if it reallydid bear--though he would not allow the children to go one step upon ittill he had tried.
"I know it doesn't bear, and you'll just have to go home again--a goodthing too--saves me from losing a day's work."
"Try, only try; Bill said it bore," implored the boys, and lookedwistfully at the two beautiful slides--just as Bill said, one up and onedown--stretching all across the lake; "of course it bears, or Bill couldnot have made these slides."
"Bill's an ass!" said the Gardener, and put his heavy foot cautiously onthe ice. Just then there was seen jumping across it a creature whichcertainly had never been seen on ice before. It made the mostextraordinary bounds on its long hind legs, with its little fore legstucked up in front of it as if it wanted to carry a muff; and its long,stiff tail sticking out straight behind, to balance it itself withapparently. The children at first started with surprise, and then burstout laughing, for it was the funniest creature, and had the funniest wayof getting along, that they had ever seen in their lives.
"It's the kangaroo!" said Gardener, in great excitement. "It has gotloose--and it's sure to be lost--and what a way Mr. Giles will be in! Imust go and tell him. Or stop, I'll try and catch it."
But in vain--it darted once or twice across the ice, dodging him, as itwere; and once coming so close that he nearly caught it by the tail--tothe children's great delight--then it vanished entirely.
"I must go and tell Mr. Giles directly," said Gardener, and thenstopped. For he had promised not to leave the children; and it was sucha wild-goose chase, after an escaped kangaroo. But he might get half acrown as a reward, and he was sure of another glass of cider.
"You just stop quiet here, and I'll be back in five minutes," said he tothe children. "You may go a little way on the ice--I think it's soundenough; only mind you don't tumble in, for there'll be nobody to pullyou out."
"Oh no," said the children, clapping their hands. They did not care fortumbling in, and were quite glad there
was nobody there to pull themout. They hoped Gardener would stop a very long time away--only, as someone suggested when he was seen hurrying across the snowy field, he hadtaken away their lunch in his pocket, too.
Off they darted, the three elder boys, with a good run; the biggest ofthe girls followed after them; and soon the whole four were skimming oneafter the other, as fast as a railway train, across the slippery ice.And, like a railway train, they had a collision, and all came tumblingone over the other, with great screaming and laughing, to the high bankon the other side. The two younger ones stood mournfully watching theothers from the opposite bank--when there stood beside them a smallbrown man.
"Ho-ho! little people," said he, coming between them and taking hold ofa hand of each. His was so warm and theirs so cold, that it was quitecomfortable. And then, somehow, they found in their mouths a nicelozenge--I think it was peppermint, but am not sure; which comfortedthem still more.
"Did you want me to play with you?" cried the Brownie; "then here I am.What shall we do? Have a turn on the ice together?"
No sooner said than done. The two children felt themselves floatingalong--it was more like floating than running--with Brownie betweenthem; up the lake, and down the lake, and across the lake, not at allinterfering with the sliders--indeed, it was a great deal better thansliding. Rosy and breathless, their toes so nice and warm, and theirhands feeling like mince-pies just taken out of the oven--the littleones came to a standstill.
The elder ones stopped their sliding, and looked toward Brownie withentreating eyes. He swung himself up to a willow bough, and then turnedhead over heels on to the ice.
"Halloo! you don't mean to say you big ones want a race too! Well, comealong--if the two eldest will give a slide to the little ones."
He watched them take a tiny sister between them, and slide her up oneslide and down another, screaming with delight. Then he took the twomiddle children in either hand.
"One, two, three, and away!" Off they started--scudding along as lightas feathers and as fast as steam-engines, over the smooth, black ice, soclear that they could see the bits of stick and water-grasses frozen init, and even the little fishes swimming far down below--if they had onlylooked long enough.
When all had had their fair turns, they began to be frightfully hungry.
The two little children felt themselves floatingalong--with Brownie between them--Page 64]
"Catch a fish for dinner, and I'll lend you a hook," said Brownie. Atwhich they all laughed, and then looked rather grave. Pulling a cold,raw live fish from under the ice and eating it was not a pleasant ideaof dinner. "Well, what would you like to have? Let the little onechoose."
She said, after thinking a minute, that she should like a currant-cake.
"And I'd give all you a bit of it--a very large bit--I would indeed!"added she, almost with the tears in her eyes--she was so very hungry.
"Do it, then!" said the Brownie, in his little squeaking voice.
Immediately the stone that the little girl was sitting on--a round, hardstone, and so cold!--turned into a nice hot cake--so hot that she jumpedup directly. As soon as she saw what it was, she clapped her hands forjoy.
"Oh, what a beautiful, beautiful cake! only we haven't got a knife tocut it."
The boys felt in all their pockets, but somehow their knives never werethere when they were wanted.
"Look! you've got one in your hand!" said Brownie to the little one; andthat minute a bit of stick she held turned into a bread-knife--silver,with an ivory handle--big enough and sharp enough, without being toosharp. For the youngest girl was not allowed to use sharp knives, thoughshe liked cutting things excessively, especially cakes.
"That will do. Sit you down and carve the dinner. Fair shares and don'tlet any body eat too much. Now begin, ma'am," said the Brownie, quitepolitely, as if she had been ever so old.
Oh, how proud the little girl was. How bravely she set to work, and cutfive of the biggest slices you ever saw, and gave them to her brothersand sisters, and was just going to take the sixth slice for herself,when she remembered the Brownie.
"I beg your pardon," said she, as politely as he, though she was such avery little girl, and turned round to the wee brown man. But he wasnowhere to be seen. The slices of cake in the children's hands remainedcake, and uncommonly good it was, and such substantial eating that itdid nearly the same as dinner; but the cake itself turned suddenly to astone again, and the knife into a bit of stick.
For there was the Gardener coming clumping along by the bank of thelake, and growling as he went.
"Have you got the kangaroo?" shouted the children, determined to becivil, if possible.
"This place is bewitched, I think," said he, "The kangaroo was fastasleep in the cow-shed. What! how dare you laugh at me?"
But they hadn't laughed at all. And they found it no laughing matter,poor children, when Gardener came on the ice, and began to scold themand order them about. He was perfectly savage with crossness; for thepeople at Giles's Farm had laughed at him very much, and he did not liketo be laughed at--and at the top of the field he had by chance met hismistress, and she asked him severely how he could think of leaving thechildren alone.
Altogether, his conscience pricked him a good deal, and when people'sconsciences prick them, sometimes they get angry with other people,which is very silly, and only makes matters worse.
"What have you been doing all this time?" said he.
"All this five minutes?" said the oldest boy, mischievously; forGardener was only to be away five minutes, and he had staid a fullhour. Also, when he fumbled in his pocket for the children's lunch--tostop their tongues, perhaps--he found it was not there.
They set up a great outcry; for, in spite of the cake, they could haveeaten a little more. Indeed, the frost had such an effect upon all theirappetites, that they felt not unlike that celebrated gentleman of whomit is told that
"He ate a cow, and ate a calf, He ate an ox, and ate a half; He ate a church, he ate the steeple, He ate the priest, and all the people, And said he hadn't had enough then."
"We're so hungry, so very hungry! Couldn't you go back again and fetchus some dinner?" cried they, entreatingly.
"Not I, indeed. You may go back to dinner yourselves. You shall, indeed,for I want my dinner too. Two hours is plenty long enough to stop on theice."
"It isn't two hours--it's only one."
"Well, one will do better than more. You're all right now--and you mightsoon tumble in, or break your legs on the slide. So come away home."
It wasn't kind of Gardener, and I don't wonder the children felt ithard; indeed, the eldest boy resisted stoutly.
"Mother said we might stop all day, and we will stop all day. You may gohome if you like."
"I won't, and you shall!" said Gardener, smacking a whip that he carriedin his hand. "Stop till I catch you, and I'll give you this about yourback, my fine gentleman."
And he tried to follow, but the little fellow darted across the ice,objecting to be either caught or whipped. It may have been rathernaughty, but I am afraid it was great fun dodging the Gardener up anddown; he being too timid to go on the slippery ice, and sometimesgetting so close that the whip nearly touched the lad.
"Bless us! there's the kangaroo again!" said he, starting. Just as hehad caught the boy, and lifted the whip, the creature was seenhop-hopping from bank to bank. "I can't surely be mistaken this time; Imust catch it."
Which seemed quite easy, for it limped as if it was lame, or as if thefrost had bitten its toes, poor beast! Gardener went after it, walkingcautiously on the slippery, crackling ice, and never minding whether ornot he walked on the slides, though they called out to him that hisnailed boots would spoil them.
But whether it was that ice which bears a boy will not bear a man, orwhether at each lame step of the kangaroo there came a great crack, ismore than I can tell. However, just as Gardener reached the middle ofthe lake, the ice suddenly broke, and in he po
pped.--The kangaroo too,apparently, for it was not seen afterward.
What a hullaballoo the poor man made! Not that he was drowning--the lakewas too shallow to drown any body, but he got terribly wet, and thewater was very cold. He soon scrambled out, the boys helping him; andthen he hobbled home as fast as he could, not even saying thank you, ortaking the least notice of them.
Indeed, nobody took notice of them--nobody came to fetch them, and theymight have staid sliding the whole afternoon. Only somehow they did notfeel quite easy in their minds. And though the hole in the ice closed upimmediately, and it seemed as firm as ever, still they did not like toslide upon it again.
"I think we had better go home and tell mother every thing," said one ofthem. "Besides, we ought to see what has become of poor Gardener. He wasvery wet."
"Yes, but oh, how funny he looked!" And they all burst out laughing atthe recollection of the figure he cut, scrambling out through the icewith his trowsers dripping up to the knees, and the water running out ofhis boots, making a little pool, wherever he stepped.
"And it freezes so hard, that by the time he gets home his clothes willbe as stiff as a board. His wife will have to put him to the fire tothaw before he can get out of them."
The ice suddenly broke, and in he popped.]
Again the little people burst into shouts of laughter. Although theylaughed, they were a little sorry for the poor old Gardener, and hopedno great harm had come to him, but that he had got safe home and beendried by his own warm fire.
The frosty mist was beginning already to rise, and the sun, though stillhigh up in the sky, looked like a ball of red-hot iron as the sixchildren went homeward across the fields--merry enough still, but notquite so merry as they had been a few hours before.
"Let's hope mother won't be vexed with us," said they, "but will let uscome back again to-morrow. It wasn't our fault that Gardener tumbledin."
As somebody said this, they all heard quite distinctly, "Ha, ha, ha!"and "Ho, ho, ho!" and a sound of little steps pattering behind.
But whatever they thought, nobody ventured to say that it was the faultof the Brownie.
The Adventures of A Brownie Page 5