The Little Clown Part 13

'I don't think so. Why should she be cross?' As she spoke she took away the empty cup and gave Jimmy the egg. She cut a slice of bread and b.u.t.ter into fingers, and he dipped them into the egg and ate it that way.

'This _is_ a nice egg,' said Jimmy. 'But,' he continued, 'I thought perhaps she'd be cross because I got into the wrong train.'

'Why did you run away from the policeman?' asked the lady.

'Because he said he should lock me up.'

'But he was only joking, you know.'

'Was he?' asked Jimmy, opening his eyes very widely.

'That's all,' was the answer, and Jimmy looked thoughtful for a few minutes.

'I don't think I like policemen who joke,' he said solemnly.

'Then,' asked the lady, 'why did you run away from the circus? You seem to be very fond of running away.'

'I shan't run away from you,' said Jimmy. 'Only I heard the policeman's voice outside the van and I thought I'd better.'

'Well,' she answered, 'if you had not run away you would have found your mother much sooner.'

'I do hope she isn't like Aunt Selina,' he said wistfully.

'What should you wish her to be like?' asked the lady.

'Why, like you, of course,' he cried, and then he was very much surprised to see the lady lean forward and throw her arms about him and to feel her kissing him again and again. And when she left off her eyes were wet.

'Why did you do that?' asked Jimmy.

'She _is_ like me, you darling!' said the lady.

'My mother?' cried Jimmy.

'You dear, foolish boy, I am your mother,' she said.

'Oh,' said Jimmy, and it was quite a long time before he was able to say anything else.

A few moments later Mrs. Wilmot rang the bell, and a servant carried a large bath into the room, then she went away and came back with a can of very hot water, and then she went away again to fetch a brown-paper parcel. Mrs. Wilmot opened the parcel at once, and Jimmy sat up in bed and looked on. He saw her take out a suit of brown clothes, a shirt, and all sorts of things, so that he should have everything new.

Then he got out of bed, and had such a washing and scrubbing as he had never had before. He was washed from head to foot, and dressed in the new clothes, and when he looked in the gla.s.s he saw himself just as he had been before he left Miss Lawson's school at Ramsgate.

'Now,' said Mrs. Wilmot, 'I think you may as well come to see your father and Winnie.'

'Are they here?' he asked.

'Oh yes,' she explained, 'I sent to tell them last night, and they arrived early this morning. Not both together, because we left Winnie with Aunt Ellen at Chesterham, whilst father went to look for you one way and I went another.'

'Then you were really looking for me?' cried Jimmy.

'Why, of course we were,' she answered. 'We knew you were walking about the country dressed as a little clown. But come,' she said, 'because your father is anxious to see you.'

'I should like to see him too,' said Jimmy. 'I hope he's as nice as you are,' he cried as they left the bedroom.

'He is ever so much nicer,' was the quiet answer.

'I don't think he could be,' said Jimmy, as his mother turned the handle. Then he remembered what the boys had said at school.

'Winnie isn't really black, is she?' he asked.

'Black!' cried his mother; 'she is just the dearest little girl in the world.'

'I'm glad of that,' said Jimmy, and then he entered the room and saw a tall man with a fair moustache standing in front of the fire, and, seated on his shoulder, was one of the prettiest little girls Jimmy had ever seen.

'There he is!' she cried. 'There's my brother. Put me down, please.'

'Good-morning,' said Jimmy, as his father put Winnie on to the floor.

But the next moment Mr. Wilmot put his hands under Jimmy's arms and lifted him up to kiss him, but the odd thing was that when he was standing on the floor again he could not think of anything to say to Winnie.

'I've got a dollie!' she said presently, while their father and mother stood watching them, 'and I'm going to have a governess.'

Then they all began to talk quite freely, and Jimmy soon felt as if he had lived with them always. Presently they went out for a walk to buy Jimmy some more clothes, and when they came back the children's dinner was ready.

'I do like being here,' said Jimmy during the meal.

'I am glad you got found,' cried Winnie.

'So am I,' he answered. 'But suppose,' he suggested, 'that I hadn't been found before you went away again.'

Then Winnie solemnly laid aside her fork--she was not old enough to use a knife.

'Why,' she said, 'you do say funny things. We're not going away again, ever.'

'Aren't you?' asked Jimmy, looking up at his father and mother.

'No,' answered Mrs. Wilmot, 'we're going to stay at home with you.'

'Are you really--really?' asked Jimmy, for he could scarcely believe it.

'Yes, really,' said Mr. Wilmot.

'It will be nice,' said Jimmy thoughtfully, and then he went on with his dinner.

THE END