That Little Beggar Part 1

That Little Beggar.

by E. King Hall.

CHAPTER I

JACK AND HIS MASTER.

"No carriage! Are you quite sure? Mrs. Wyndham told me that she would send to meet this train."

I looked anxiously at the station-master as I spoke. I was feeling tired, having had a very long journey; and now, to find that I had the prospect of a good walk before me was not pleasant.

"I'll go and have another look, mum," he said civilly as he turned away; "it may have driven up since the train came in. It weren't there before, I know that."

Presently he returned, and shook his head.

"There's nothing from the Hall," he remarked; "nothing to be seen nowhere."

I looked round despairingly, first at the deserted-looking little country station with its gay flower-beds, decorated with ornamental devices in dazzling white stones, then at the long, white country road, stretching away in the distance with the July sun beating down upon it, and sighed. The outlook was not cheering.

"Is there no inn near at which I could find some sort of conveyance?" I asked, though without much hope of receiving a satisfactory reply.

"None but the White Hart at Teddington, and that's a matter of four miles off," he replied. "It would take less time to send to the Hall."

"How far off is that?" I inquired.

"It's two miles and a bit. By the fields it's less, but as you are a stranger in these parts, I take it, mum, you'd do better to keep to the road if you think of walking," he answered.

"It seems to me the best thing to do," I replied with resignation.

"Well, it's a beautiful afternoon for a walk, if it _is_ a bit hot," he said consolingly, and, retiring to his office, left me to my own devices.

I started very slowly, determined not to waste any energy, with that long and hot walk before me.

Strolling gently on I fell to thinking over my past life--the quiet, peaceful life in the country rectory, where I had lived for so many years, and which had only ended with the death of my dear old father two months ago. Now middle-aged--yes, I called myself middle-aged, though I daresay you at the age of eight, ten, fourteen (what is it?) would have called me a Methuselah--now I had to earn my own living, and start a fresh life. I don't want to make you sad, for I am quite of the opinion that it is better to make people laugh than cry, but I will confess that as I walked along that sunny afternoon, with the recollection of my great sorrow still fresh in my mind, the tears came to my eyes. You see, my father and I loved each other so much, and he was all that I had in the world; I had no brothers and sisters to share my sorrow with me.

I had gone some distance on my way, when I heard the sound of loud and bitter sobbing. Hastening my steps, I turned a bend of the road, and saw a little boy lying full length on the roadside, his face buried in the dusty, long gra.s.s, as he gave vent to the loud and uncontrolled grief which had attracted my attention; whilst a few yards off stood a little wire-haired fox-terrier, regarding him with a perplexed and wondering eye.

"What is the matter, dear?" I asked the distressed little mortal, whose tears were flowing so fast.

But he only mumbled something unintelligible, then burst into renewed sobs.

"Get up from that dusty gra.s.s and tell me what it is all about," I said encouragingly, as I stooped down and took hold of his hand.

He rose slowly from the ground and looked at me doubtfully, half sobbing the while; then I saw how pretty he was. Such a pretty little boy, but oh! such a dirty one. He had the sweetest violet eyes, the prettiest golden curls, the most rosy of rosy checks that you can imagine, and he was dressed in the dearest little white-duck sailor's suit that any little boy ever wore. But at that moment the violet eyes were all swollen with crying, the golden curls were all tumbled and tossed, the rosy cheeks all smudged where dirty fingers had been rubbing away the tears, whilst as for the white-duck suit--well, to be accurate, I ought not to call it white. But as the small person inside of it had apparently been recklessly rolling on the ground, it was not surprising that something of its original purity had departed.

"What is the matter?" I asked again.

"I took Jack out for a walk and he runned away and I runned after him, but he wouldn't stop!" he sobbed vehemently.

Then, leaving go of my hand, he made a sudden dash towards the truant, who as suddenly ran off. My small friend wept afresh.

"He thinks that you are playing with him," I said; "that's why he runs away. Wait a moment!" seeing he made a movement as if he were again about to chase the dog.

"Look!" I went on, and going gently towards Jack, I picked him up and placed him beside his little master.

"Come along, you little beggar!" the indignant little fellow exclaimed, and, seizing hold of the cause of the commotion, he walked, or rather staggered, off with him.

Poor Jack! He did look so unhappy. I think you would have been as sorry for him if you had seen him, as I was. Hugged closely in his master's arms, his hind-legs hanging down in a helpless, dislocated fas.h.i.+on, he gazed after me piteously over his master's shoulder, as if to say, "Can you do nothing to help me?"

He looked so funny and so miserable I could not help laughing. "What!"

you say with some surprise, "and you were crying a little while before?"

Yes, my dear child; yet I could laugh in spite of that, for, you know, there is no better way of drying our own tears than to wipe away the tears of another--though they be but the ready tears of a little child.

So I laughed, and I laughed very heartily too.

"Wait," I said. "I fancy Jack is as uncomfortable as you, and that looks to me very uncomfortable. Supposing we see if both you and he cannot get home in an easier fas.h.i.+on. Why don't you put him on the ground? I think if you were to walk back quietly Jack would follow you now."

My new acquaintance wrinkled his dirty little tear-stained countenance doubtfully.

"P'r'aps he'll run away, 'cause he's runned away often and often whilst he's been out with me, and I sha'n't be able to catch him," he said woefully.

"Put him down and see," I suggested. And Jack was dropped on the ground, though as much I fancy from necessity as choice, since his weight was evidently becoming too much for his master.

"Are you far from home?" I asked.

"A long, long way," he replied forlornly. "All the way from Skeffington."

"That's where I'm going," I said, "so we can go together."

"Are you the lady what's coming to live with my Granny?" he asked, slipping his hand confidingly in mine, as we turned our steps homewards.

"Yes," I replied.

"I'm called Chris, but my proper name is Christopher," he stated, p.r.o.nouncing it slowly and with some difficulty.

"It's very pretty," I answered, smiling at the diminutive little figure by my side, "but a very long name for such a little person."

"That's not my only name," he said proudly. "Did you think it was?"

And he laughed pityingly at my ignorance.

"What is your other?" I inquired, as I was intended to.

"Why, I have two others," he answered with still greater pride. "Three names altogether. Christopher, that's only like myself; and G.o.dfrey, that's like my Uncle G.o.dfrey; and Wyndham, that's like my Uncle G.o.dfrey and my Granny too. All our names is Wyndham. What's your name?"