The Little School-Mothers
Page 16
swimmy--yes, that was how heexpressed his feeling.
He sank down at last on a very uncomfortable sofa with a broken spring,and the next minute fell fast asleep. He did not know, poor little boy,how long he slept; but when he awoke he felt very much startled andpuzzled, for it had grown quite late, and the sun had gone away, and theroom was no longer so hot. The clothes, too, had all been taken downfrom their lines, and he could see across the ugly garden.
It was a very small garden; but there was a gate at the further end, andthe gate was standing open; and beyond the gate was a field with a pathleading across it; and, lo and behold! at the far, far end of the fieldwas a very brown man standing quite still, and holding a lot of basketsin his hand. They were baskets of all sorts and shapes and sizes; andthere was something about the man and the baskets which caused Ralph'sheart to beat.
He went cautiously to the window, and gazed across the garden and acrossthe fields at the man. The man was very brown, and he carried baskets.Gipsies carried baskets; they always did; Ralph had heard so. He didnot believe that there was ever a basket in the whole world that had notonce been carried by a gipsy.
Suppose he went and talked to the man; there would be no harm in that;it would be interesting to him. Harriet had told him to stay where hewas, but then Harriet did not know that there would be--first, an openwindow, and then an open gate, and beyond the gate a gipsy--the veryperson Ralph longed to see!
The temptation was too much for him. He was too tired, and too lonely,and too much a very little boy to resist it. Swiftly he rose from hisuncomfortable sofa, pushed back his tumbled hair, and flying, firstacross the garden and then across the field, reached the brown man'sside.
"Please," said Ralph earnestly, looking up with his brown eyes at thebrown face, "is you a gipsy?"
"I be that, little master," said the man, and he gazed downinquisitively and perhaps not unkindly at Ralph.
Ralph looked at him with great wonder and intense curiosity.
"Wot be yer wanting o' me, little master?" said the man.
"I love gipsies!" said Ralph.
"Do yer, indeed? And wot's yer name?"
"I am Ralph Durrant. I live at a school near. There are lots of girlsin the school, and I've got a school-mother. My school-mother is at thefair, and I am alone here. I'm rather lonesome, and I'm so glad youhave come, gipsy man, 'cause you can talk to me."
"To be sure," said the man, seating himself on a low stile, and takingfrom his pocket a very large clasp knife, with which he proceeded tosharpen a stick.
Ralph stood very near him without speaking, just glad to be close tohim. From time to time the man looked at the child, and the childreturned the man's gaze.
"Where did yer say yer held out, youngster?" he remarked after a longpause.
"At a school with a lot of girls," said Ralph. "Father sent me; it'sall right. How funny and sharp you make that stick, gipsy man!"
"I guess you mean you live at Abbeyfield?" said the man, now shutting uphis knife and returning it to his pocket. "They be rich folks there, soI guess you must be rich. We gipsies is poor; our folks haven't got anymoney."
"Nor have I," said Ralph eagerly. "I haven't any money at all; if I hadI 'spec' I'd have been took to the fair. See, gipsy man, see, mypockets is quite empty."
He turned out both his little pockets as he spoke, and looked at the manfor sympathy.
"Dear, dear, dear!" said the man. "That is 'ard, now. But your folksis rich, bean't they?"
"Father's made of money; I've heard folks say so."
"Well, now; that is nice for you; and he's fond of a little chap likeyou, ain't he?"
"Father?" said Ralph. He paused for a minute; then said with greatforce: "Yes, Father's fond of me."
The man looked to right of him and to left of him. There was no one insight. There was only very pretty little Ralph, in his pretty andexpensive dress. There was a wood behind them, a wood to right of them,and a wood to left of them, and the doctor's little, old-fashioned houseat the further end of the field; the house was to all appearance emptyfor the time being.
The gipsy man drew Ralph close and took his hand. Ralph felt that brownhand of the gipsy man's as hard as iron. His little heart gave a sortof jump; but he was not going to be at all frightened. He was glad, hewas very glad, he had seen a brown, brown gipsy man for himself; he hadspoken to him; whatever Harriet might or might not do in the future,_he_ had seen a gipsy man himself.
"I must be saying good-night, now," he remarked in a very polite voice."I am so glad I has met you. Please, good-night, Mr Gipsy Man. I amgoing back. I must wait in a horrid, ugly drawing-room for myschool-mother: I must say good-night, Mr Gipsy."
"Not so fast, master," said the man. "How do you know that I wants tosay good-night to you? I've took a sort of a fancy to yer, littlemaster."
"Have you?" said Ralph, looking up at him.
"Yes--'tain't every little master as says such pretty words to us brownfolks."
"Oh, I love you all," said Ralph.
"Now, see," said the man, "that's very pretty talk, very pretty, indeed;and how would little master like a basket for his very own to holdthings--marbles and knives--"
"Oh--and matches!" said Ralph, intensely excited all in a minute.
"Yes, and matches."
"And pocket-hankershers," said Ralph.
"To be sure! How would little master like such a basket with a lid toit, now, and a little handle?"
"Oh--it would be lovely!" said Ralph.
"There's my good wife 'as got one, not like these,"--he kicked his ownbaskets with a look of contempt--"but a pretty one, to home. You comealong 'ome with me, and I'll give you one."
"How far off is your house?" asked Ralph, in great excitement.
"No way 'tall; just through this wood, and through another field, andthere you be."
"Is it a house on wheels?" asked Ralph.
"Now, ain't you a 'cute little master! There are wheels to our house."
"And does it move?"
"In _course_, it moves!"
"I should love it to move," said Ralph--"and to _feel_ it move."
"Then, you shall, my pretty little dear. You come along with me, andwe'll harness old Dobbin to the house, and take you a bit across thefield and give you a basket, and you shall be back again here in timefor your school-mother afore she misses you."
Ralph considered for a minute.
"We must be very, very quick," he said. "I shouldn't like to vex myschool-mother. Shall we run, brown gipsy man?"
"Yes," said the man.
The next minute he had sprung lightly over the stile, had lifted Ralphacross, and hand-in-hand they were running through the wood. In a veryshort time they had also crossed a field, and beyond the field was awide clearing, where were tents, and brown babies, and brown men andwomen, and some mongrel dogs that rose lazily and wagged their tailswhen the big brown man and the little brown boy approached. A veryhideous old woman, nearly bent double, and with a toothless jaw,advanced towards the pair, and a very young woman with a handsome faceand flashing black eyes followed her.
The young woman wore a scarlet shawl twisted round her head, and a lotof beads round her neck, and long ear-rings in her ears. The man spokeat once:
"Here's a little master," he said, "who wants a basket. Flavia--youchoose him the very prettiest basket we 'as got, and put a knife into itand some coloured beads, and take him into our house on wheels, and putDobbin to the house, and make the house move right across the field.You understand, Flavia?" Flavia's eyes flashed. She knelt down byRalph, and took his two little hands, and looked into his face.
"Eh, but you are a sweet little man!" she said, and she kissed him onhis red lips. Then, lifting him bodily in her arms, she carried him upthe steps into the house on wheels.
"Here we be!" said Flavia; "and I'll just find the prettiest basket ofall for you, and I'll find a knife, too, and show you how to sharpensticks so as to make them like arrow
s. I'll show yer lots o' things,and I'll be real good to yer."
"Only--I must be going home," said Ralph, who, somehow, now that he hadgot into the house on wheels, was not quite so sure that he liked it.It was so full of smoke, and so crowded with furniture, and there weresuch a number of brown babies bobbing up their heads in every directionthat at first he felt he could not breathe. And then he wondered whyhis eyes hurt so much.
"You shall go home," said Flavia, "as soon as ever the house