The Pillars of the House; Or, Under Wode, Under Rode, Vol. 1 (of 2). Yonge Charlotte Mary

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СКАЧАТЬ and jealous of the twins. The urchin had found out that when once Cherry's crutch was out of her reach she could not get at him; and he had ridden off upon it so often, before committing any of his worst misdemeanours, that Cherry always lay down on it to secure it. After all, he was a fine, affectionate, impetuous little fellow, but with a very high, proud, unmanageable will; and she was very fond and proud of him; but never more so than when he slept till dinner-time.

      That was the hour which brought Felix home to help Sibby to carry his mother into the sitting-room, pay a little court to the babies, and enliven Cherry with any chance scrap of news or occupation. Best of all were the proofs of that unfinished comment on the Epistle to Philippi, which was being printed by subscription of the congregation, and the clergy of the diocese. It always did Mrs. Underwood good to have these read aloud to her by her little daughter, and she could sometimes find a clue to the understanding of sentences that had puzzled even Mr. Audley.

      The two school-boys never appeared till dinner was imminent; and then—one unuttered wish of poor Cherry was that Mr. Audley could have dined with them; but he kept to his own hours, and they were late.

      Whereby dinners on five days of the week were apt to be something on this fashion. Bell-ringing—Felix helping Geraldine to her seat, Angela trotting after; a large dish of broth, with meat and rice, and another of mashed potato; no sign of the boys; Angela lisping Grace; Sibby waiting with a tray.

      Felix filled a soup-plate for his mother, and a basin for Bernard. 'We must begin, I suppose,' and he helped his sisters and himself.

      'Here, Angel, push over your plate; I'll cut that.—How did you get on to-day?'

      'Very well; the only mistake I made I found out before Smith saw it. I know all the stationery and steel pens apart now, and haven't made a mistake for a week. Yesterday Bartlett junior came in, he stood like a post before Mr. Froggatt till he caught sight of me, and then he shouted out, "O Blunderbore, you know! What is it that Collis wants?"'

      'And did you?'

      'When he said it was a horrid sum-book all little a's and b's.—What have you been doing, Cherry?'

      'I have begun an abstract of the first Punic—'

      The door flew open with a bounce, and two hot, wild-locked boys, dust everywhere except in their merry blue eyes, burst in, and tumbled on their chairs. 'I say—isn't it a horrid sell? we ain't to have a holiday for Squire's wedding.—Come, Fee, give us some grub.'

      'You have not said Grace,' said Cherry.

      Lance, abashed, stood up and bowed; Fulbert looked grim, and mumbled something.

      'You have not washed your hands,' added Felix.

      'Bosh! What's the good?' said Fulbert.

      'They'll be as jolly dirty again directly,' said Lance.

      'But you would be more decent company in the meantime,' said Felix.

      At that moment there was a splash in his plate, a skip-jack made of the breast-bone of a chicken had alighted there with a leap.

      'There's Felix's master come after him,' cried Fulbert, and Lance went off into choking laughter.

      'Boys, how can you?' broke out Cherry.

      'Look at Blunderbore fishing out his master!' was Fulbert's answer.

      'The frog is in the bog,

      And Felix is squeamish,'

      chanted Lance.

      'Bad rhyme, Lance,' said Felix, who could bear these things much better from the younger than the elder. Indeed, he scarcely durst notice them in Fulbert, lest he should be betrayed into violence by letting out his temper.

      'I say!' cried Lance, struck by a new idea, 'what prime stuff it is for making a fort!' and he began to scrape the more solid parts of his plateful to one side.

      'Oh, I say, isn't it?' echoed Fulbert: 'but I've eaten up the best part of my castle;' and he grasped at the ladle.

      'No, I thank you,' said Felix, putting it on the other side. 'While I am here, you don't play tricks with that.'

      Fulbert swallowed a spoonful in a passion, but a bright thought struck Lance, who always cared much more for fun than for food. 'I say, we'll empty it all into one, and eat it down.'

      'You horrid boys!' plaintively exclaimed Cherry, almost crying—for this return to savage life was perfect misery to her. 'I can't bear it.'

      'I will not have Cherry tormented,' said Felix, beginning to be very irate.

      'We ain't doing anything to Cherry,' said Lance, amazed.

      'Don't you know it spoils Cherry's appetite to see you so disgusting?'

      'Then she'll have the more next time,' said Fulbert. 'Get along, Captain—you've splashed my face!'

      'Hurrah! the red-hot shot! The rice is the cannon-balls! Where's some bread?'

      'O Lance!' entreated Cherry; 'no waste—think of Wilmet and the bills.'

      'We'll eat it every bit up,' asseverated Lance; but Fulbert growled, 'If you bother any more, I shall crumble the whole lot out at window.'

      'It is wicked to waste bread,' lisped Angela, and Martha at that moment appeared to fetch the tureen for the kitchen dinner.

      'Can't you eat any more, Cherry?' asked Felix gloomily.

      'Not a bit, thank you,' she said.

      'We've not done!' shouted the boys, seizing on her scarcely-tasted and half-cold plate.

      'You must finish after. Come, Cherry!' Then, as they left the room, and she laid her head on his shoulder—'Little ruffians!' he said under his breath.

      'Oh, never mind, Felix. I don't—at least I ought not to mind—they don't mean it.'

      'Lance does not, but I think Fulbert does. He'll make me thrash him within two inches of his life, before he has done. And then there's no one to take me in hand for it. It is horridly bad for them, too, to live just like young bears.'

      But he smoothed his brow as he came into the room where his mother was, and amused her till his time was up.

      Mr. Froggatt had explained to his father long ago, that Felix's work would not be that of a clerk in a great publishing house, but veritably that belonging to the country bookseller and printer, and that he must go through all the details, so as to be thoroughly conversant with them. The morning's work was at the printing-house, the afternoon's at the shop. The mechanical drudgery and intense accuracy needed in the first were wearisome enough; and moreover, he had to make his way with a crusty old foreman who was incredulous of any young gentleman's capabilities, and hard of being convinced that he would or could be useful; but old Smith's contempt was far less disagreeable to him than the subdued dislike he met with from Redstone, the assistant in the shop, a sharp, half-educated young man, who had aspired to the very post of confidence for which Felix was training—and being far less aware of his own utter unfitness for it than was Mr. Froggatt, regarded the lad as an interloper; and though he durst not treat him with incivility, was anxious to expose any deficiency or failure on his part. Having a good deal of quickness and dexterity, he could act as a reporter, draw up articles of a certain description for the newspaper, and had, since the death СКАЧАТЬ