Hollowdell Grange Part 3

There was a moment's struggle, for the fish was still at the end, but it was beaten: and the effort of keeping the cork-float down so long, and its previous struggles, made it an easy prey. Tightly twisting the line round his finger, Harry swung himself up again, and began carefully to make the retrograde journey after the manner of a sloth, with his back downwards, and arms and legs clasping the bough. The small twigs and branches made this no easy task, but, to the great delight and admiration of Fred, he soon reached the tree, where he pa.s.sed the line to Philip, who was elevated in his turn by Fred, till he could reach Harry's extended hand.

"Now you won't pull him out till I come down," said Harry.

"Oh, no," said Philip.

"Honour bright," said Harry.

"Honour bright," said Philip.

Then, and only then, did the climber loose his hold of the line and proceed to make his descent. He contrived to get into the fork of the tree, and then let himself down until he hung by his hands, and tried to clasp the trunk with his legs, but somehow or other the tree seemed to keep gliding away from him, and the more he tried the more tired he grew, till at last his hands slipped, and down he came upon the ground in a sitting position.

Happily, the distance was only small, and there was too much excitement awaiting him for Harry to spare time for anything more than a terrible grimace.

"Now, then," he said, taking hold of the line and drawing it gently, "look out, boys," and then, with his beautiful golden scales glittering in the sun, and his strength completely gone, a carp of about a pound and a half weight rose to the surface, and, turning on his side, was drawn insh.o.r.e.

"Now hold the line, and I'll land him," said Harry to his brother, who took his post while the speaker went down upon his knees to grasp the fish.

"Flip, flap, plish, plash," went the carp, when Harry's hand came in contact with its shiny sides.

"Oh!" groaned all the boys, "he's gone;" for the fish was free from the line, the hook having, broken out of his mouth.

But he was not quite gone, for he lay in a shallow on some weeds, feebly opening and shutting his gills. The next flap of his tail, however, would have taken him into deep water, but in went Harry into the mud up to his knees, and with one scoop of his hand sent the golden treasure flying out on to the gra.s.s, yards away from the pond edge.

Didn't they cheer, and didn't Harry dance about, on the gra.s.s with his black muddy legs dripping about, and the water going "suck, suck," in his boots, and squeezing out at every step. How they gloated over the poor panting prize; so much, that it was ever so long before they could stop to rub Harry's legs down with bunches of gra.s.s; and it was no easy matter for Fred and Philip to do, for the wet boy kept dancing, and cheering, and skipping about like a mad thing, slapping his brother's back; and at last, when they were half finished--

"Bring the tiddlers along, and let's keep carpy alive," he shouted; and running to the edge of the pond, soaked his handkerchief therein, wrapped up the carp, and away they all ran homewards, to put the fish in their little pond. Philip, who was carrying the can of little fish-- which had now become almost insignificant in the eyes of their captors-- kept splashing his legs at every step, till they were nearly as wet as his brother's; while Fred, who bore the rods, had to stop more than once to disentangle the lines from the overhanging branches as they went down the lane.

At last they reached home, to find Mary carrying in the dinner, after Mr Inglis had been waiting about an hour for the truants, and at last, exhausted in patience, had ordered it in.

"Look! look! Papa, Mamma," shouted Harry, rushing in through the French window; "look, here's a fish!"

"Soak, soak," went his boots as he went in.

"Take him outside," said his father to the two other boys, who were just coming breathlessly in, only Fred was entangled by the rods crossing the window. "Take him outside, the young rascal is spoiling the carpet with his wet boots."

It was no use to think of dinner then, so Papa and Mamma both had to come outside the window to see and admire the carp, and hear how it was captured, before the mid-day meal could be gone on with.

"Ah!" said the Squire at last, "there used to be plenty of fine carp in Trencher Pond down the deep hole under the tree, but I did not know there were any left, for the dry summers killed them when the railway cutting was made and took off so much water. But come, boys, dinner."

And then he drove them off, and made them enter the hall-door so as to make themselves fit for the repast that awaited them. But he was not quite successful, for Harry made a double, and ran off to pop his carp in the pond, but was back directly, and shortly after in the dining-room, feasting away with a country boy's appet.i.te--an appet.i.te, too, that Fred already began to show symptoms of possessing, as the fruit of his visit to Hollowdell.

CHAPTER THREE.

INDOOR AMUs.e.m.e.nTS.

Dinner had not been finished above an hour before the sky became overcast; and, all at once, a rushing, sweeping wind came over the country. Far-off in the distance where the hills could be seen, a thick, misty appearance almost hid them from sight. There was a low, muttering sound, then another, seemingly nearer; then came a dazzling blue flash of lightning that made all the party stationed at the dining-room window start back; and then came a long, rolling, rattling peal of thunder, that sounded as though it had come bellowing through great metal pipes; while before it had died away in the distance, splashing and plunging down came the rain in torrents, ploughing up the flower-beds, and making little rivers run along each side of the gravel-walks. Out in the home-fields the cows and horses were running to get under shelter of the trees, and looked evidently frightened as flash succeeded flash of lightning, and peal after peal of thunder seemed to make the very heavens vibrate as they rolled round and round, east, west, north, and south. The rain kept streaming down so fast that out of doors seemed one great watery mist that could have been almost swum through.

All at once, just in the middle of a clap of thunder, Mary, the housemaid, opened the dining-room door, and hurriedly said something, but what no one could tell, for her voice was drowned by the rumbling peal.

"Oh! my poor verbenas," said Mrs Inglis.

"Oh! won't this fill up the carp-pond, jolly!" said Harry.

"Come in, Mary," said Mrs Inglis; "what's the matter? Are all the upstairs windows shut?"

"Oh! yes, mem," said Mary; "but the drain's stopped in the yard, and d.i.c.k's kennel's floating, and the water's all coming into the kitchen."

"Oh! come and see," said Harry; and away the whole party went, to be just in time to see the water taking its departure, and d.i.c.k's kennel wrecked, down by the gates where the yard was highest, for Old Sam, in spite of the pelting rain, was punching away at the sink-hole with the stump of an old birch broom, and the water was rushing down it like a little maelstrom; while the bits of straw and twigs that floated near, represented the unfortunate vessels that get caught in that famous whirlpool.

And still the rain kept pelting down, although the lightning ceased to flash, and the thunder grew more and more distant, till it could only be heard to mutter occasionally afar off. And still the rain kept pouring down, even after cook had made up a roaring fire and wiped up all the water, trundling her mop outside the scullery door till it seemed to go off like a wet firework, as she spun and twisted it upon her great red arms. And still it kept raining, after cook had smeared mason's dust all over the stone floor with the wet mop, and when it had dried up and the floor looked beautiful and white--white like the clean dresser and table that cook used to scrub with soap and sand as though she meant to scrub all the top off. And still it kept on raining, till tea was brought in, and the urn hissed and sputtered upon the table, and at last it became very plain that there would be no more going out that night, to the great disappointment of the boys; for though in London Fred hardly went out at all except for a walk, yet now the liberty of the morning made him feel like a caged bird, and a melancholy feeling seemed to come over all three boys as they sat watching the leaden sky, the dripping leaves, the beaten down flowers, the sandbanks by the walks, and the great drops of water that formed upon the edge of the verandah and porch, and then came down plash upon the stone pavement.

"Oh! come along," said Harry at last; "I know what we'll do."

"What?" said Philip and Fred together.

"Oh! come along, you'll see," said the other.

Mrs Inglis was busy over some needlework, and the Squire deep in a book, so the boys slipped out of the room without any notice being taken, and perhaps half an hour pa.s.sed away, when all of a sudden Mrs Inglis dropped her work and jumped out of her chair, while the Squire, leaping up, overturned his little reading-table, and with it the screened candle-lamp, breaking the gla.s.s and setting fire to the green crimped shade.

"Whatever is the matter?" said the Squire, when he had extinguished the burning paper; "whatever is the matter?" he continued, as they heard another scream similar to one that had caused the first start.

Mrs Inglis ran out of the room, and through the pa.s.sage into the kitchen, from whence the sound seemed to have proceeded; and, on entering, there stood cook upon the dresser, while Mary, having knocked off the bra.s.s kitchen candlestick on to the floor, was balancing herself upon the top of the little round table, which creaked and groaned and threatened to break with the weight that had been put upon it.

"What's the matter?" said Mrs Inglis.

"Oh! do look, mem," said cook, "do look; there it goes again!"

And Mrs Inglis herself started, for a gritting, grinding, sc.r.a.ping noise was heard, and then by the light of the fire she saw one of the large tin dish covers go creeping along the kitchen floor, till it reached the wall underneath the place where it generally hung.

Mrs Inglis could not help feeling a little startled, but, knowing well that some trick must have been played, she told Mary to get down and pick up the cover and hang it in its place.

"Oh! please 'm, I dussn't," said Mary.

"Then I must," said Mrs Inglis, and stepping across the kitchen, she lifted up the cover, when out popped the great black tom cat, that was generally toasting his back before the fire, but who now seemed dreadfully put out with being shut up so long under such an unpleasant prison-house.

Just then an uncontrollable burst of merriment came ringing out of the pa.s.sage, where it was all dark; which gave Mrs Inglis a very good clue as to who were the authors of the mischief.

The next morning at breakfast time all the trees, flowers, buds, lawns, and hedge-rows looked soaking wet, and the rain kept pouring down,--not so heavily, certainly, as on the previous night, but quite enough to do away with all prospect of going out that day.

"A bad job, as there's so much hay down," said Mr Inglis; "but I think it will be fine again to-morrow, and it will swell out the corn beautifully."

"But how wet it will be," said Philip, "when it leaves off raining! We shan't be able to play."

"Oh, yes, you will," said his father. "Why, boys, you ought to go down to the mill early to-morrow morning. Old Peagrim will have had the fish-traps open to-night, for the river will be flooded, and then you will be able to see some sport,--that is if it leaves off raining."

"Oh! that will be capital," said Harry; who then had to enter into a long dissertation, explaining to Fred what a fish-trap was; and how watermills went round; and which was the dam, and the tail, and the waste-water, and all the rest of it. After this they helped the Squire to arrange his cabinet of birds' eggs; and Fred learned the difference between sparrows' eggs, and finches', and t.i.ts', and larks', etc, from the tiniest tom-t.i.t's egg right up to that of the wild swan, which had been known to breed in the marsh, five miles from Hollowdell; and so interested did the boys get with the work they had in hand, that the dinner-bell rang before they could believe it was more than half-past eleven.