Melbourne House Part 24

But Daisy only looked rather hard at the Captain, and made him no answer.

"Do you expect to emulate the charge of the Light Brigade, in some tilt against fancied wrong?"

Daisy looked at her friend; she did not quite understand him, but his last words were intelligible.

"I don't know," she said, meekly. "But if I do, it will not be because the order is a _mistake_, Captain Drummond."

The Captain bit his lip. "Daisy," said he, "are you the only soldier in the family?"

Daisy sat still, looking up over the sunny slopes of ground towards the house.

The sunbeams showed it bright and stately on the higher ground; they poured over a rich luxuriant spread of greensward and trees, highly kept; stately and fair; and Daisy could not help remembering that in all that domain, so far as she knew, there was not a thought in any heart of being the sort of soldier she wished to be. She got up from the ground and smoothed her dress down.

"Captain Drummond," she said, with a grave dignity that was at the same time perfectly childish too, ? "I have told you about myself ? I can't tell you about other people."

"Daisy, you are not angry with me!"

"No, sir."

"Don't you sometimes permit other people to ask your pardon in Preston Gary's way?"

Daisy was about to give a quiet negative to this proposal, when perceiving more mischief in the Captain's face than might be manageable, she pulled away her hand from him, and dashed off like a deer. The Captain was wiser than to follow.

Later in the day, which turned out a very warm one, he and Gary McFarlane went down again to the edge of the bank, hoping to get if they could a taste of the river breeze. Lying there stretched out under the trees, after a little while they heard voices. The voices were down on the sh.o.r.e. Gary moved his position to look.

"It's that child ? what under the sun is she doing! I beg pardon for naming anything warm just now, Drummond ? but she is building fortifications of some sort, down there."

Captain Drummond came forward too. Down below them, a little to the right, where a tiny bend in the sh.o.r.e made a spot of shade, Daisy was crouching on the ground apparently very busy.

Back of her a few paces was her dark attendant, June.

"There's energy," said Gary. "What a nice thing it is to be a child and play in the sand!"

The talk down on the sh.o.r.e went on; June's voice could scarcely be heard, but Daisy's words were clear ? "Do, June!

Please try." Another murmur from June, and then Daisy ? "Try, June ? do, please!" The little voice was soft, but its utterances were distinct; the words could be heard quite plainly. And Daisy sat back from her sand-work, and June began to sing something. _What_, it would have been difficult to tell at the top of the bank, but then Daisy's voice struck in. With no knowledge that she had listeners, the notes came mounting up to the top of the bank, clear, joyous and strong, with a sweet power that n.o.body knew Daisy's voice had.

"Upon my word, that's pretty!" said the Captain.

"A pretty thing, too, faith," said Gary. "Captain, let's get nearer the performers. Look out, now, and don't strike to windward."

They went, like hunters, softly down the bank, keeping under shelter, and winding round so as to get near before they should be seen. They succeeded. Daisy was intent upon her sand-work again, and June's back was towards them. The song went on more softly; then in a chorus Daisy's voice rang out again, and the words were plain.

"Die in the field of battle, Die in the field of battle, Die in the field of battle, Glory in your view."

"Spirited!" whispered Gary.

"I almost think it is a Swedish war song," said the Captain.

"I am not sure."

"Miss Daisy!" ? said June ? "the gentlemen ?"

Daisy started up. The intruders came near. On the ground beside her lay an open map of Europe; in the sand before her she had drawn the same outlines on a larger scale. The sh.o.r.e generally was rough and pebbly; just in this little cove there was a s.p.a.ce of very fine sand, left wetted and adhesive by the last tide. Here the battle of Inkermann had been fought, and here Daisy's geography was going on. Captain Drummond, who alone had the clue to all this, sat down on a convenient stone to examine the work. The lines were pretty fairly drawn, and Daisy had gone on to excavate to some depth the whole area of the Mediterranean and Black Seas, and the region of the Atlantic to some extent; with the course of the larger rivers deeply indented.

"What is all this gouging for, Daisy?" he said. "You want water here now, to fill up."

"I thought when the tide came, Captain Drummond, I could let it flow in here, and see how it would look."

"It's a poor rule that don't work both ways," said the Captain. "I always heard that 'time and tide wait for no man;'

and we won't wait for the tide. Here Gary ? make yourself useful ? fetch some water here; ? enough to fill two seas and a portion of the Atlantic Ocean."

"What shall I bring it in, if you please?"

"Anything! ? your hands, or your hat, man. Do impossibilities for once. It is easy to see you are not a soldier."

"The fates preserve me from being a soldier under you!" said Gary ? "if that's your idea of military duty! What are you going to do while I play Neptune in a bucket."

"I am going to build cities and raise up mountains. Daisy, suppose we lay in a supply of these little white stones, and some black ones."

While this was done, and Daisy looked delighted, Mr. McFarlane seized upon a tin dipper which June had brought, and filled it at the river. Captain Drummond carefully poured out the water into the Mediterranean, and opened a channel through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles, which were very full of sand, into the Black Sea. Then he sent Gary off again for more; and began placing the pebbles.

"What is that for, Captain Drummond?" asked Daisy.

"These are the Alps ? white, as they should be, for the snow always lies on them."

"Is it so cold there?"

"No, ? but the mountains are so high. Their tops are always cold, but flowers grow down in the valleys. These are very great mountains, Daisy."

"And what are those black ones, Captain Drummond?"

"This range is the Pyrenees ? between France and Spain; ? they are great too, and beautiful. And here go the Carpathians ?

and here the Ural mountains, ? and these must stand for the Apennines."

"Are they beautiful too?"

"I suppose so ? but I can't say, never having been there. Now what shall we do for the cities? As they are centres of wealth, I think a three-cent piece must mark them. Hand over, Gary; I have not thrips enough. There is St. Petersburg ? here is Constantinople ? here is Rome ? now here is Paris. Hallo!

we've no England! can't leave London out. Give me that spoon, Daisy ?" and the Captain, as he expressed it, went to work in the trenches. England was duly marked out, the channel filled, and a bit of silver planted for the metropolis of the world.

"Upon my word!" said Gary, ? "I never knew geography before. I shall carry away some ideas."

"Keep all you can get," said the Captain. "Now, there's Europe."

"And here were the battles," ? said Daisy, touching the little spot of wet sand which stood for the Crimea.

"_The_ battles!" said Gary. "What battles?"

"Why, where the English and French fought the Russians."