TEE NOVELIST. MORE ABOUT • - - MISRULE

Otago Witness, Issue 2528, 27 August 1902, Page 59

TEE NOVELIST. MORE ABOUT • - - - MISRULE

By ETHEL TURNER (Mrs H. E. Curlewis). Author of " Seven Little Australians," " Family at Misrule," etc.

" They often take leave, yet seem loth to depart."— Old Play. f

CHAPTER I.— GOING TO MEG'S,

HERE was the freshness of early winter in the air. The river leaped and 'augh&d in its old brown rocky bed ; the autumn "ains had washed the summer brown from the grassed banks and coloured them so sweetly green you would have thought that Spring herself had passed ovetbtm with twinkling feet.

•Even -the gum trees could not quite make v/ their minds as to the season. There stood a group with trunks so richly red and brown that to a boat shooting round the river bend all the landscape directly in froiil btemed suffused with the royal autumn tints.

But here a tongue of land that ran out into the water was thick with young wattle 1 uvsting into leaves of spring-like greenness.

And if the eye looked ahead, far, far up the river, where Misrule's paddocks ran c'own wild-haired to the waters, the tree tiunks there, as jf to accentuate the irresolute note of nature, gleam-ad white as silver.

Dosrn in the tumbledown loatshed at the edge of the poppy paddock Bunty was drying out the boat and putting in the gay red cushions. H2 ■« as working, not cheerfully, but of necessity.

Ie was Saturday afternoon, and after the onrly dinner customary to that day of the week, he had said he was going down to Meg's, and went off whistling across the gias*. Peter came bursting down after him. "Wait for mo, wait for me — I'm ci'inmg too." he shouted. Bunty was standing up in the boat and pushing off, but at the shout he steadied the little craft a second.

"Jump, then," he called out ; and Peter leaped wildly after him, and landed in a pool in the bottom of the boat. "Why didn't you bale her out;?' 1 the small youth said, his spirits a trifle sad-dc-jied at the siglit of his wet boots and the spkishes on the clean cuffs of his sailor Mouse ; "aren't yo:i going to? There's a bucket of water thare at least. 1 '

"You let it alone and it'll kt you alone," quoth Bunty, laconically. "Stick your feet on the seat, or s>it on them, or something, if they get in your road ''

Over the gnus came yet another flying figure — eager little E~sie, five now, with l-rowny-gold cuils streaming out behind her, and scarlet on her cheeks and sparkles in i>er round brown eves.

"Stop, slop," she shouted; "vor're to Ftcp — cl ) you hear? Stop at onee — Nellie says."

"Oh, han^," said Bunty, "now what's to pay?"

"We can't conn back," shouted Peter; "go away — go home at once, Essie ; we can't take you — the boat's as wet as sop." But Esiic continued to hhout and gesticulate so energetically that Bunty took an unwilling back-s,troke or two.

Nellie wanted to come — that was the substance of tha message — Nellie herself inttnded to go down to Meg's this afternoon, and Bunty would please to see the btat was dry and fit to go in.

Ho Bunty came back and tied the boat up again, not over cheerfully, and baled out the water with an ox-tongue tin, and mopped the seats dry.

"Cut up to the house and get a rug. Jumbo," lie said ; "and tho cushions are in the coachhouse — I put them there because the shed leaks."

Peter went off to obey the mandate, and Es*ie insisted upon helping to bale out. She got a rusty pannikin from the picnic hamper, and baled vigorously, spilling the water naturally down the iront of her muslin pinafore.

Then Poppet appeared — Poppet at 12 grown strangely, almost painfully, like Judy, bright little eager-eyed Judy, on whose far-off, quiet grave the suns had shone and the grey rains fallen for more than eight long years.

And last of all came Nell — Nell just nineteen, Nell in a dress of deep heliotrope shade, with a black velvet picture-hat setting off her fresh young beauty. But now what was to be done? The big boat was up, high and dry, waiting for lepairs. This little dinghy Bunty had prepared was meant for two, but would hold three at a pinch. And five of them were there insisting that they must go ! "Essie and Peter must stay," Nellie .vud decisively. "Essie went yesterday with Esther, so there is no need for her to go again, and Peter can go one day next week. Now stay, like good chickens, and play together nicely. Martha is going to make scones and gingerbread, and you could help her."

"I don't want to make scones and dingerbread," said Essie ; ''I want to go and &cc Meg."

She jumped aa she spoke, and Bunty, standing in the boat, had to catch her.

"Don't bo naughty, Essie," said Nell. "Look, your pinafore is all wet, and Peter's boots are wet — neither of you could come like that. Be good and run back with Peter. Put her out agxin, Buuty."

The l ittl© witch clung to Bunty. "Dear Bunty, kind Bunty, I can go, can't I? I want to oar — nobody lets me £.0 ia boatSjt nobody lets me oar."

The tears welled up. "She wouldn't make any difference in the weight, Nell," said Bunty, vanquished; "she's only a feather." "Only a fefer," Essie repeated, looking agitatedly at Nell. "And then poor old Jumbo would be left alone," Nell said; "you wouldn't be so selfish, would you, Essie?" Essie w<is torn with conflicting emotions — there was Peter standing desolate on the bank; but, on the oi her hand, just across the river and down a little way was Meg. "Oh," she said, and burst into tears, " I do want to yock the little baby again." "But you were rocking him yestei'day, Esther said so, ' said Nellie ; "Meg let you have him for a long time." "I want him again," wept Essie ; "I want to schtroke his Jit tie teenty feet." But clearly someone had to stay ; Pip, who was an authority, had said the dinghy could not safely hold more than three. Bnnty must go to " oar " them ; Poppet must go ; she had not been for a fortnight, having been shut h the house with a cough ; and she herself, Nellie — oh, she had countless things to consult Meg upon. Peter was making very little outcry at being left ; he*had said at first disappointedly that he " wanted to see the kid," but now he stood on the bank quite resigned. "Put her out, Bunty," whispered Nail. And Bunty topped on shore, his young sister clinging tightly to him. "Hang on to her, Jum," he said, and Peter manfully pulled at Essie's waist while his elder brother disentangled himself from her frantic hands. The next second Bunty v as on board again, and the gay little 'Possum was twenty yards away. "Go back to the house," cried Nellie ; " run at once. Peter, take her back — I want to see you inside the white gate." For tha first few yards Peter had to drag his sister, but af'er that he evidently told her something consoling, for her sobs ceased, and the boatload saw the little pair walk hand-in-hand up through the rank grass ' and disappear within the v icket gate "What a good little fellow Peter is," Nell said admiringly, and spread the rug comfortably over her knees and Poppet's. "Now, pull away, Bunty ; it must be half2>ast 3." "I don't think much of you, Nell, dolling up like this," Bunty said, plying his oars a little viciously ; "it I were Meg I wouldn't ! like it." ! "What nonsense you talk," Nell said indignantly ; "Meg knows I have to get diesses sometimes, and I may as well get pretty ones. It wouldn't do her any good for me to get blacks or plain browns." "I don't cai-e — it looks like showing off; i you could go to her in an old one, and ] keep these flaring ones for rich people," persisted the boy. "I thought you needn't hare ooine in j your new hat," said Poppet; "poor Meg, j she hasn't had a new hat for a dreadful lime." Nellie looked fit to cry. "I always like < to ask Meg's opinion of my clothes," she «ud; '"you know I wouldn't be so hoirid, | John. And it isn't- a bit an expensive dre«s." "It oughtn't to be, it's fo precious ugly," I John said ; "you've as much taste as Flib-berty-jibbct, Nell. There's your dress j.uce "' "Puce!" ciied Nellie; "why, it's the lovt'he&t shade of deep Parma violet!" "Puce," persisted Bunty ; "and then you go and put red and purple all over your , L-r.t." "Shows how much you know of colours," said Nellie ; "that velvet is a lovely shade, just the pinky tinge that helps to make up heliotrope ; and the purple is just a licher tone than Ihe dress — I -.elected them most carefully, and I trimmed it myself." "I'll believe you," said Bunty, showing I'is teeth in a grin. "I suppose you put it on the bottom knob of the banisters and went upstairs and dropped the trimming down on it any way." "Oh," said Nell, "I just dropped my bag of ribbons on it, and then -tikihed on all that clung to it. But it wants sometl nig else as a finish — an aigrette or something — that's why I wanted tc consult Meg." "Look here," said Bunty, "if you put another thing on it. I'll give some kids a penny to throw biicks at it. Doesn't it look, Poppet, as if she'd put everything she's got on it?" But Poppet's eye was a feminine one. "I think it's lovely," she said ; "only I wish Mag had one too." An hour's row took them across a long slant to the other bank of the :iver. They tied the boat to a pile of the small rough wharf that was anyone's property now a big, important one had been built to meet | the wants of this rapidly-growing suburb of Redbank. Don n here, near tlie water, , handsome houses nestled in extensive grounds, and the beautiful river frontage was held by the rich, as the bathing and boathouses all along testified. It was not there that the three stopped. , They made their way up, up the River Hill to streets where quiet, modest cottages stood in small, neat allotments of land. One, a liny, pretty plase, was running over with roses — they rioted over the fence, nn the verand'-ih pillars, peeped gaily into all windows. Poppet stopped one little second at its eale and .sighed. "If only Megsie lived herp," she said. They went on again — into the business street of the suburb now. It was a dusty, i.nbeautiful street, built upon thickly on either side. Not a peep of the laughing river could be seen from here, not a tree tossed its free branches in all the length of it, hardly a blade of grass dare show. The bank was here, the post office, the stucco Town Hall of the district, two or three grocers, bootmakers, drapers — all the shops a spreading civilisation brings. Half-way down it stood a terrace of tall, narrow, commonplace | houses, and the middle one bore a ' brass plate, highly polished, with the uau.e "Dr Courtney " upon it. Bunty rang the , bellj PtifiDet >i«aed exneotanilv *t the may, I

maple-grained door in front of he-, Nellirt lcoked across the road with pained eyes — < across to where the rival butchers of thtfdistrict, separated only by -the circulating 1 library and a confectioner's, tried to cub each other's throats with the tickets on their muttor and beef. To eyes accustomed to the river's witcheries, the thousand greens of the trees, and the free skies round Misrule, the view oi hanging carcases and fly-spotted walls came unpleasantly. A very young maid came to the door, but her cap and apron left nothing to be desired. She beamed at the three, and they passed into the narrow hall. At the sound of their voices Alan came out of his empty consulting room. He looked ten years older than the day, three years ago, when he led Meg lightheartedly from a rose-strewn ajjar, in front of Nellie., Poppet, Essie, and his. own little sistei all in fluttering bridesmaids] array. His face was sharper, thinner than the boy Alan's had been, and the always resolute mouth lines were more pronounced. But the eyes looked out at you quite cheerfully. "That you, young ones?" he said, pleasure on his face. "I'm glad you've come ; it'll do Meg good to see you. Go straight vp — she's trying to make a silk purse oui . of a sow's ear as usual— you can hear he? hammer." Nellie looked round. "You are much straighter than t ex pected you would be," she said; "you know, 1 Poppet and I have not seen the house yet, though you have been here a fortnight." "Ten days," he said. "Does it strike you as a very wretched hole?' His eyes looked round anxiously. "Oh," Nell faltered, "it— it might he woise. Alan." "Meg doesn't care a dump, I bet,'' Bunty said, with a gruffness that betrayed his sympathy. Poppet rubbed her cheek against Alan> arm. "She won't care where she is noil die's got little Baby," she said. The anxiety died out of the young doctor's face, and he went back to the work , he was doing in the consulting room quiet i cheerfully. I Up stairs the three rushed, and found i Meg mounted on steps, putting up curtains 1 of a sunshiny yellow. She sprang down with n glad little cry when the dooi opened. "Oh, I am glad," she said; "Nell, J thought you never were coming — Poppet, ! you darling — oh, more than one kiss, I i haven't seen you for ages ; Buuty, I've wanted you a dozen times since last you came — that shelf came down, we couldn't have put strong enough supports, and T have been dying to get on with the other dressing-table." Bunty took off his coat in a most busi-ness-like fashion and rolled up his sleeves. "But where's the ' nipper.'" he said: "we'll -just have a look at him before we start." _ , . They trooped into an adjacent bedroom, and found Meg's baby on the bed waving its aimless little legs and arms in the air. "Why, he's awake, the darling, darling," . said Nellie, and stooped over him to gathei I him up in her arms, the new look of tenderness making her face exquisite to see. Poppet was caressing the warm, wee feet, from which she had pulled the boots, putting her finger to be grasped by the iiutter* ing. tiny hand, stroking the downy he^. "Why," she said, "oh, Meg, I'm sire '•'* eyelashes have grown. Did you cut them? Flonie at our school — you know Florrie, with lovely goldy curls and long eyelashes? j — well, she said the reason her lashes are so long her mother cut them when she waa a baby."' "But they are as long as they can be, without cutting," Meg said proudly. "Mrs Lindsay said, Nell, she never saw such long black lashes on so young a child. Wheu I was on the boat yesterday there were quite six babies, there, and not one of them had such lovely ones as Little Boy." 'And I'm sure they hadn't such sweet little mouths," Poppet said stoutly. "Xo, truly they hadn't," Meg said eageilj* ; "they just seemed to have plain, ordinary lips. — none of them had a tiny little red bud of a mouth like Baby's." "Had they more hair?" said Poppet anxiously. "Yes, one or fewo had," Meg admitted ; "you see, I am not blinded, though I am a mother. I remember, Nell, I was. a little disappointed that Baby hadn'L a lot of golden curls when he came. But now I wouldn't change for worlds — they couldn't be half so sweet as this soft, brown, downy silk, could they?" and she put her lips | down on the dear little head. "Those j babies on the boat who had a lot looked so ordinary. And I must say Little Boy's complexion put all of them in the shade ; they were pasty-looking babies, and Boy w as so rosy and fresh and smiling, everyone was looking at him." "Hello, Curraut-Eye," said Bunty. "Hi, theie, look* at me — hi, hi, over here, you little donkey, you.*' He was waving his arais wildly and contorting his face, and now stooping below the bed foot, and now springing up. Little Boy continued to gaze calmly and serenely up at the top of the bed. "Oh, he doesn't quite understand that sort of thing, Bunty," Meg said apologetic cally. "Why, Meg,"' said Poppet indignantly, "you have no eyes — he smiled distinctly. Do it again, Bunty." Bunty contorted his body violently again, and said, "Hi, there," and "Hullo," and "Here we are again." And Baby, gazing about the room, blinked a moment, and shut and opened his hungry little mouth. "There," said Poppet triumphantly, "didn't I tell you — the darlingebt little smile, wasn't it, Nell?" "It certainly was," Nell said ; "he really _ is astonishingly knowing for two months, Meg." "Yes, I'm afraid he is," Meg said anxiously, "sometimes it frightens me a little ; my book says babies with too active, bruins do not thrive as well' as duller chiU. drfcu. Ploise don't do it again, Bunty.^ And I think I'll put him to sleep if you'll*

all go out for a few nnnutesj this is too much excitement for him." They all went obediently into the next room to await her leisure.