Dick and Brownie Part 5

"Yes, ma'am. Can I do anything more for you before I go?"

"No, thank you. Keep in the shade as much as you can; it is going to be dreadfully hot again, I b'lieve."

In the lane, in spite of the shade, the heat was already stifling, the high hedges seemed to shut it in, and to keep out the air.

Huldah, hurrying along over the rough ground, felt her face growing scarlet, and her breath coming quick. She was almost glad to get out on the high road, for though the glare of the sun was blinding, and there was no shade, it was less stifling there; but it was not the discomfort that she minded so much, her great desire was to look her best when she had to face Miss Rose. So she walked on the gra.s.s by the road-side, to keep her from getting dusty, and every now and then her hands went up to her cheeks, to feel if they were very, very hot; and indeed, between nervousness, and the heat, her cheeks were very, very scarlet by the time she reached the vicarage, and had found the back door.

Obedient to her orders, she knocked gently, so gently that for a time no one heard her, and she was about to knock for the third time, when a lady came round from the front of the house and caught sight of her.

She was a young lady, tall and thin and pretty, with such shining golden hair that it made Huldah wink to look at it gleaming in the sunshine.

"Can't you make anyone hear? I expect cook is busy; you must knock more loudly." She smiled kindly as she spoke, and her eyes were so gentle and pretty that Huldah scarcely heard what she was saying, for looking at them. "It must be Miss Rose herself," she thought to herself.

"Please, ma'am, I--I wanted to see Miss Rose," she stammered out at last. "Please, ma'am, are you--"

"I am Miss Rose Carew, yes. How did you know my name? You don't live anywhere hereabouts, do you?"

"No, miss." Huldah was almost glad her cheeks were so hot already, for she felt herself blushing at this question. "No, ma'am, I--I don't live anywhere. I'm come from Mrs. Perry, in Woodend Lane.

She's ill in bed, and if it wouldn't be putting you out very much, please would you come and see her, miss? She'd be very much obliged, I was to say."

Miss Carew's quick sympathy was aroused at once.

"Mrs. Perry ill. Oh, I am so sorry! What has caused it, I wonder?

I hope she hasn't been out in the hot sun. I warned her not to."

"No, miss; 'twas last night that upset her, I think. Some fellows came and tried to steal her fowls, and she was reg'larly frightened she was, and I reckon she caught cold standing at the door in her nightdress."

"Some men came stealing her fowls! Oh, how wicked!" Miss Rose's cheeks flushed with indignation, and her soft eyes sparkled with anger. "Did they take them all?"

"No, miss, they didn't get any. d.i.c.k frightened the thieves off, just as they were going to open the door, and he bit their legs too.

I'll be bound they're lame enough to-day!" and Huldah chuckled aloud at the thought, forgetting her shyness, and everything else but the thieves.

Miss Carew gazed at her, frankly puzzled. Who was d.i.c.k? and who was this funny little maid with the brown skin, brown hair, golden brown eyes, the shabby brown frock, and battered old hat?

"Are you a young relative of Mrs. Perry?" she asked, gently.

Huldah blushed again, and the laughter died out of her eyes.

"No, miss; I aint n.o.body's relative, I haven't got n.o.body but d.i.c.k."

"Is d.i.c.k your brother?"

"No, miss, he's only a dog; but he's ever such a good dog," eagerly.

"He's so clever, there's nothing he can't do. He's at home with Mrs.

Perry now, to keep her company while I'm gone, 'cause she's nervous after last night."

"I see," said Miss Carew, thoughtfully. "I am very glad she has d.i.c.k to take care of her. Tell her I will come to see her this morning, will you? and wait a moment, I must give you something for d.i.c.k, as a reward for his care last night."

Miss Rose opened the door near which they had been standing, and disclosed a large wide, slate-paved pa.s.sage, with large, cool-looking slate slabs on each side. After the glare and heat outside, the slates looked cool and restful to the eye. At the other end of the pa.s.sage a door stood open, and through it Huldah could see a big bright kitchen, with a snowy table standing in the middle of the blue slate floor, and a window beyond, festooned with green creepers and roses.

"Dinah, I want something nice for a brave dog," said Miss Rose.

"Have you got a bone with something on it?"

Dinah produced a leg of mutton bone and some cold pudding.

Huldah's eyes gleamed, as she thought of d.i.c.k's delight.

Two bones in two days! He had never before known such a wonderful time. Miss Rose added two large dog biscuits. "Those will come in for his supper," she said.

Huldah took the parcel with a joy she did not attempt to conceal.

In her pleasure she lost her shyness. "Oh, miss!" she exclaimed, "I wish you could be there to see d.i.c.k when he knows the bone is for him!"

"I wish I could, but don't keep him waiting, poor doggie!"

It was not until she put out her hand to take the parcel for d.i.c.k that Huldah remembered the basket which she had brought with her to sell, and which she had been holding all this time. Now, though, when she did remember it, she could not bring herself to offer it for sale. Indeed, she longed to give it to pretty, kind Miss Rose.

Miss Rose, though, settled the matter for her. "What a sweetly pretty basket!" she exclaimed. She had noticed it in Huldah's hands, and been attracted by its prettiness. "It is too dainty to put that clumsy parcel into. Isn't it a new one?"

"Yes, miss; I--I made it," stammered Huldah, shyly.

"Did you really? What a clever little girl! Do you make them to sell?" She had begun to understand the situation.

"Yes, miss; but I--I--"

"Will you make one for me? I should very much like to have one; I am always needing baskets. What do they cost?"

"This size is--eighteenpence," said Huldah, hesitatingly.

It suddenly seemed to her that it was a great deal of money to ask for it. "You can have this one if you like, miss. It is new; I--I brought it out to--to sell, if I could. I do want to get some money to give to Mrs. Perry--she's been so good to d.i.c.k and me, and--and I hadn't got anything to give her." Then, mistaking the cause of Miss Carew's thoughtful silence, she added, nervously, "But perhaps you'd rather have a new one made on purpose for you, miss. This one is quite clean, but--"

"Yes, yes, I'd like to have this one; I'd rather have this one, child. I was only thinking." Then, as she put the money for it into Huldah's hand, she asked gently, "Will you tell me your story, dear, presently, when I come to see Mrs. Perry? I should so like to know it. Then I shall be better able to understand, and perhaps I could help, or do something. I must not keep you now, or Mrs. Perry may begin to worry about you."

"Yes, miss; I think I ought to go back now, and--and thank you, miss, very much." Huldah was so excited she scarcely knew how to get her words out. A great sense of relief and happiness filled her heart.

If Miss Rose would help her, she felt sure she would be safe and happy; and d.i.c.k too.

She almost danced back over the sunny road, in spite of the scorching sun. Her heart was lighter, she had eighteenpence in her hand to give to Mrs. Perry, and she had a feast for d.i.c.k. Life seemed beautiful, and happy, and hopeful. Could it have been only yesterday morning that she was in that dreadful caravan, bruised, hungry, miserable, and desperate to escape? It seemed impossible!

Suddenly, around the bend of the road ahead of her, appeared the head and shoulders of a white horse,--and instantly all her world changed.

Her heart almost stood still with fright; then, with a low cry of despair, she scrambled over the hedge and into a field on the other side of it. "If I'd had d.i.c.k, I couldn't have done it!" she panted, as she scuttled along under the hedge, bending low, almost like an animal. At the corner of the field she paused. "If I can get over this hedge, I shall be in the lane," she thought; but the sound of wheels made her crouch low again; the horse was just pa.s.sing.

Fascinated, yet terrified, Huldah peeped through the hedge, and saw-- a quiet old farm-horse drawing a hay-cart, and the driver sound asleep on the shafts! Oh, how her heart thrilled with relief at the sight! If she had known what prayer was, she would have offered up a thanksgiving then. As it was, she scrambled out over the hedge and into the lane in a somewhat sobered mood. The thought of what might have been, made her heart beat fast and her limbs tremble, and her new life seemed more than ever beautiful.

Miss Carew meanwhile had stood watching Huldah flitting like a little dark shadow along the road. "What an odd little brown thing she is!"

she thought to herself, half-amused, half-sad. "I ain't n.o.body's relative, I haven't got n.o.body but d.i.c.k! She seemed so cheerful about it, too, it makes one feel that she did not mind the want.

I wonder--but I must go and hear more about the strange pair who seem to have dropped out of the clouds to act as good fairies to poor Martha Perry."

When, about an hour later, Miss Carew reached the little cottage in Woodend Lane, she found Huldah washing the floor of the little kitchen, d.i.c.k lying in the garden gnawing his bone, and Martha Perry lying in bed with eighteenpence on the table beside her, and a bunch of flowers in a jug. Huldah had taken off Mrs. Perry's ap.r.o.n, for that was far too clean and precious to be worn for such work, whereas her old dress could not possibly be made shabbier.

When she saw Miss Carew standing on the doorstep, she looked up with a bright smile of welcome. "Please to walk in, miss," she said, shyly. She had hoped to have had the kitchen washed and made quite neat before the visitor arrived, but nothing could lessen her pleasure at seeing Miss Rose.

Without her white ap.r.o.n she looked browner than ever, and Miss Rose felt as she looked at her a great desire to dress her in pretty, clean, dainty things, a blue, or pink, or green cotton frock, with big white ap.r.o.n and white collar. She said nothing, though, but, stepping delicately over the clean floor, made her way up the stairs alone to visit the invalid.

Huldah had washed the kitchen and the tiled path to the gate, and shaken the mats, and dusted the chairs and mantelpiece, and was sitting down to rest her hot and weary little body, before Miss Rose came down again. When she heard the footsteps on the stairs she started up at once.