Soap-Bubble Stories Part 31

"Jim can't get away yet, I'm sorry to say," she said, "but he'll be in afterwards. Sit down, all of you, please. Draw up to the table, ma'am!"

Bobbie deposited his dog-skin gloves carefully in his hat, and seated himself solemnly, trying to keep his eyes off the plum cake, for the sake of good manners.

"This bread's a bit heavy, mother!" remarked Jeptha, grappling with a large loaf in the centre of the table.

"I don't know how that can be," replied Mrs. Funnel cheerfully. "It rose enough."

"Then it must ha' sat down again!" said Jeptha. "It's that worritting oven, ma'am"--turning to nurse; "I a.s.sure you we _do_ have a time with it sometimes."

The tea began merrily, and just in the middle of it the door opened, and James Seton's sunburnt face looked in. He carried a basket which Bobbie pounced upon eagerly, for he knew it contained the long-expected guinea-pigs.

Behind Jim stood a little woe-begone creature in a ragged dress, her head covered by a large crumpled sun-bonnet. The tears were rolling down her face, and in her hand she held the bottom of a broken gla.s.s medicine bottle.

"Look here, grandmother," said Jim, "I picked up this unfort'net little mortal just outside the Lodge gates. She'd been into town to buy some lotion for her sick mother, and she went and fell up against a stone, and smashed her bottle; and now she's in a terrible state of mind about it."

The little girl was still crying bitterly; and Bobbie, who was very tender-hearted, furtively wiped his eyes with the back of his hand, and looked hard out of the window.

"Sit you down, child, and have some tea. You're fair worn out with misery," said Mrs. Funnel kindly. "After that we'll think of what's to be done. How much did the medicine cost, child?"

"Two shillings," said the child, with a fresh burst of sobbing.

Bobbie discovered, to his great annoyance, that two large tears had fallen down his own cheeks out of sympathy; and at the same moment he seemed to feel his little wash-leather purse growing so large, that he almost fancied in another moment it would burst out of his pocket.

Exactly two shillings were in it--the price of the bottle of lotion, or of two of Jim's guinea-pigs! Which should it be?

"If only I hadn't bought Maria's collar last Monday, I could have got you a bottle _easily_," cried Jerry, in great distress. "I've only twopence-halfpenny left, but _do_ take it. Oh, you poor little girl, I _am_ so sorry for you!"

Bobbie felt very guilty, and his money seemed to weigh upon him like lead. He watched the attractive brown guinea-pigs--who had been let out of their basket--gambol about the parlour. His mind was a chaos.

Suddenly he s.n.a.t.c.hed out his purse, and thrust the two shillings into the little girl's hand, before she could say anything.

"Get the medicine, please," he said, in a gruff voice. "I don't want the guinea-pigs, thank you, Jim." And opening the door hurriedly, he darted off across the park towards home.

CHAPTER IV.

"I do think it was one of the goodest things I ever heard of," said Jerry confidentially, as she drove with one of the "light gentlemen"

to the pantomime.

She had just finished an account of Bobbie's heroic sacrifice of the day before; and as Bobbie himself was following in a hansom cab, with the other uncle, it was quite safe to relate the whole story without fear of interruptions.

"He wanted those guinea-pigs _dreadfully_," continued Jerry, "and he gave everything he had to the poor little girl. He cried horribly about it, though. He was literally _roaring_ when we got back from Mrs. Funnel's tea, though he went and hid himself so that we shouldn't know; but nurse said his blouse was quite _damp_!"

"Shall we go round on our way back, and order Bobbie some new guinea-pigs, as a surprise?" asked Uncle Ronald, who had listened to the story with all the respectful sympathy expected of him.

Jerry gave a shriek of delight. "Oh, how _lovely_! May I choose? I know just his favourite colours."

As Bobbie took his usual stroll into the stable yard on Monday morning, he was astonished to see Jeptha approaching him with a large box on a wheelbarrow.

"Summut for you, Master Bobbie. Come by rail; and there seems to be a deal of moving about and squeaking a-goin' on inside!"

Bobbie unfastened the covers with feverish haste; and there was a hutch such as he had never even _dreamt_ of, with a row of four little eager noses sticking out between the bars.

A label hanging to the wire said, "From the two light gentlemen."

"Well now, Master Bobbie, if ever I saw the like of that!" cried Jeptha admiringly. "Why, they're all a-sittin' as comfortable as you please, in a kind of a Eastern palace."

Bobbie, who was almost delirious with delight and excitement, ran in to fetch Jerry.

"Oh, Jerry, come out!" he cried. "The light gentlemen--in a splendid blue cage with red stripes, come by train! And such guinea-pigs! Just the kind I wanted--two long-hair. Oh, I do think this is the splendidest day of my life, and as long as I live I won't never forget it!"