Jill's Red Bag Part 7

"Oh no!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the young man; "that I refuse to do. I'm in a hurry. If you come along with me I will put you in the road again, and then you will soon find your way home."

b.u.mps trotted after him quite rea.s.sured, talking fast all the time.

"We're having a truant-day, and I've got to stay out till tea-time--Jill thaid so. It is such a long day, and I'd like to go back to Miss Falkner--she's our governess. She takes me in her lap, and I like her. Does your gun go off? Are you killing any one? Jack likes guns. I don't! Jill and him have runned after a deer with horns. I'm thorry I couldn't run after it too. But I think I'll go home by myself, I'm tired of being a truant."

She talked on to her new acquaintance till they reached the road, then he came to a standstill.

"Now where do you live? Can you find your way home?"

b.u.mps looked about her, then put one finger in her mouth and considered.

"I don't know this road, I'm afraid," she said slowly.

"Where do you live, child?" the young man asked impatiently.

"I live at home," said b.u.mps with dignity.

"What is your name? Your mother's or father's name?"

"Oh, they went to heaven _years_ ago, we never talks about them. My name is Winnie, but I'm called b.u.mps."

"And your other name?"

"Winnie Baron."

The young man whistled slowly.

"I see light at last. I know your sister, Miss Baron. You have just come down from London. I'll see you home."

He seemed as anxious now to accompany b.u.mps back as he had been before to get rid of her.

She was perfectly content to follow him.

"You're a keeper, I expect," she said presently. "We've got two, and I'm dreadfully frightened of Andrew, he is tho croth, he won't let us go into his wood at all. But Barker is very nithe. He has a little boy who tumbled on the fender and had to have his forehead thewn up with needle and cotton! Fanthy that! And he has the cotton in him now!"

Half-an-hour afterwards b.u.mps and her friend were at the hall door, and Mona came hastily forward to meet him.

"Oh, b.u.mps, how naughty! We have been looking for you everywhere! Where are the others?"

Then as the young man raised his hat and stepped forward, Mona held out her hand.

"Sir Henry Talbot, is it not? I met you, I think, at Mrs. Archer's the other day. How very kind of you to take pity on my small sister.

Do come in. We are just going to have lunch."

"I thought he was a keeper," said b.u.mps, staring at her sister gravely.

"Do you know him, Mona?"

"Run along up-stairs to Miss Falkner. She has been out all the morning looking for you. I hope she will punish you all. You deserve it."

Mona turned sharply away into the drawing-room, and Sir Henry followed her willingly.

b.u.mps toiled up-stairs, feeling sore-footed and heavy-hearted. What would Jack and Jill say if their day was spoilt because of her? And what would Miss Falkner say? Great tears filled her blue eyes, but she opened the school-room door and walked in bravely.

Miss Falkner met her with a smile of relief.

"Oh, b.u.mps, where have you been?"

b.u.mps ran to her and buried her head in her lap.

"I'm thorry," she sobbed. "We were truants, but I've come back, and the others are lotht!"

"Where did you leave them? It was very naughty to go away as you did. Now tell me all about it."

b.u.mps tried to check her tears.

"I'll never do it again," she said. "They left me up a tree, and I oughtn't to have come back at all. Jill thaid we motht thtay out till tea-time. She'll be angry, and Jack too."

"Where are Jack and Jill?"

"I don't know. They ran away after a deer and never came back; and I waited till a man came by, and he broughted me home."

No more could be got out of b.u.mps, who began crying again. Miss Falkner saw she was tired and hungry, so she wisely said no more, but gave her some dinner, and then made her lie down on her bed, where she soon fell fast asleep.

Meanwhile Jack and Jill were hunting high and low for b.u.mps. They pursued the deer with such zeal that they missed their path in the wood, and could not find their tree again.

"Oh, let us leave off looking," said Jack, impatiently, "we shall lose all our day, b.u.mps is sure to find her way home."

"We can't leave her," said Jill. "She's always a bother when we bring her out. I wish we had left her behind."

But they continued their search. And at last they found the object of it, but no b.u.mps. Jack climbed up the tree and they shouted till they made the wood ring again, but no answer came.

"She's gone home," said Jack decisively. "We'll just enjoy ourselves without her."

"I think being truants is very dull," admitted Jill.

"I'm not enjoying myself a bit as I thought I should. We have no adventures, and nothing has happened."

"We've lost b.u.mps."

"Yes, so we have. But that isn't fun to us. It's only fun to the one lost. She may be having heaps and heaps of adventures!"

"What shall we do now?"

"Oh, there's nothing to do but just walk on and see what comes."

Nothing did come. They walked right through the wood, which was a small one, and then got over a hedge into a field. Here they met a small boy carrying a milk-can.

Jill stopped him. "I'm dreadfully thirsty," she said. "Could you give me a drink?"