Rosa M. Gilbert

“ I wonder I am alive since six o'clock this morning!"
"You were sound asleep then, Nursey. I heard you snoring. And you won't call it dreadful when you see the eggs. The only terrible thing is Jocko's knees. I'm awfully sorry about that, indeed I am. I'd rather it had been my own knees!" cried Terry, running to the back of the cart to examine poor Jocko's injuries.
"The pony's knees!" shrieked Nurse, throwing up her hands and her eyes in despair.
"I tell you Lally will make him all right!" said Turly. "Ponies and men don't make a row over a scratch as women do!" ”

“ It wasn't you at all that got the eggs, but Misther Reilly; for there you were stuck in the dyke, with the pony hurted, an you as far off as to-morrow from Connolly's farm."
"It's a worse punishment than if you beat me," said Terry. "And you said I had an appetite like a trooper, and I haven't, for I can't eat a bit."
"You're a jolly goose, then!" said Turly. "Breakfast's awfully good, I can tell you."
"If you don't eat, it doesn't matter," said Nurse. "It'll maybe make you think again before you set off to run into such dangers. ”

“ Pappy says I shall like reading when I'm older; but I'm not older, and I don't like it. I just like to be doing something, and oh, dear, there is nothing to do!"
Terry was sitting at the nursery fire waiting to be summoned to Granny's sitting-room. She had on her pretty white frock, her gold curls were all brushed up into a thousand shining rings, and her blue silk work-bag was hanging by its ribbons from her arms. She had been extremely good and quiet all day, and she was intending to behave nicely to Gran'ma during the evening. She knew exactly all that would happen. ”

“ Turly looked at his sister admiringly, but went on piling up the difficulties she was going to surmount.
"You don't know where Connolly's farm is. And when you do, the hens are not yours. Connolly wants to eat his own eggs. Perhaps he's got a gran'ma."
"No, he hasn't. And he would rather have money than eggs. At least poor people generally do."
"How do you know he is poor?"
"Oh, Turly, how you do keep contradicting! Now I'll tell you what I am going to do. I'll just get out the pony quite early in the morning and ride to Connolly's farm, and be back with the eggs for Gran'ma's breakfast." ”

“ Even when they smelt the hot food, the gulls did not alter their rhythmical pace and movement, but performed their journey in regular order, descending with each circle nearer and yet a little nearer to the ground. At last the first gull ventured a foot upon the territory of man, and immediately they all dropped on one another, wings falling on wings, and cries filling the air as the beautiful hungry creatures forgot all their poetry in their ravening and scrambling for the food. ”

“ Now if there was one thing in the world that Terry hated it was her "practising". To sit hammering out five-finger exercises on a piano in a lonely room, making a dreary, monotonous noise, trying to turn in her fingers and thumbs at the right places, and doing the same thing over and over again, while the hands of the clock crept slowly round ”

“ Nurse looked ready to faint, as she thought of her boy being smothered before her eyes in a Benares pot.
"Oh, Turlough! why did you do anything so wild as putting your head into that pot?"
"He didn't, Nursey," said Terry, trembling and [Pg 74] pale. "It was I who put it on his head for a helmet."
"I can believe it, Terencia Mary," said Nurse. "You are always the ringleader. And why did they call you Mary, like your gentle mother and grandmother? There's no Mary-ness in you, you shocking girl, that couldn't do your little bit of practising without running after helmets." ”

“ And don't let me hear you give that bark again or there will be a fuss."
"What are you going to do with him now?" said Turly. "If he can't dance about or bark what's the good of him?"
"I'll show you," said Terry. "Now, Vulcan, darling, you are going to sit down in this nice large basket-chair, Nursey's chair, you know, and I'm going to change you into such a dear old woman. You can't have a nursery, you know, without a nurse, and you're going to be our nurse. Mind him, Turly, until I get a few things. ”

“ But Terry and Turly could scarcely understand what they said, even when they spoke English.
"What are they saying, Mrs. O'Neill?" asked Terry, completely puzzled, while Nonie and her little brothers and sisters chattered to one another.
"Sure it's Irish they're talkin'," said their mother. "It's what we always talk together, and anything else comes strange to them."
"Irish? But we are Irish too. Why don't we talk Irish?" cried Terry. ”

“ Turly, who was riding from Kimberley to Pretoria on the newly-painted rocking-horse, waved an assent, and Nurse Nancy left the nursery without misgiving.
She was not long gone before Terry began to get impatient with the new dolls. She had inspected them inside and outside, found what they were made of, satisfied herself as to whether or not their clothes came off and on, tossed up their curls and smoothed them down again, shaken them up and told them to stand up straight, which they promptly refused to do. ”

“ In a very short time afterwards Terry and Turly came racing up the avenue and into the house and up the stairs in search of Nurse Nancy, who brought them into the nursery and cried over them, and was far too happy at seeing them again to think of scolding them. [Pg 110]
The children cried too, and told her their adventures.
"Oh, Nursey, dear," said Terry, "this is really the last time we'll ever do anything wild! We should have been drowned, only God took care of us. We will never do wild things again, I assure you." ”

“ Very soon a horse's head appeared, then his body, and afterwards the cart he was drawing, and the frosty-red face of the driver who was sitting on a load of turf on the cart.
"Hullo!" shouted the man. "What on airth are you doin' there in the dyke, little missy?"
"Oh," cried Terry, "I've broken my pony's knees, and I can't ride him, and I couldn't see the way to Connolly's farm, and even if I did now I don't know how to get there with Jocko!" ”

“ A rocking-cradle in a corner caught their eyes. [Pg 88]
"I wonder if Granny was rocked in it!" said Terry.
"She would have to be very little," said Turly dubiously.
"Of course she was little. I can quite fancy Gran'ma little. Some people must have been born grown-up. Miss Goodchild was born grown-up, I know. Of course she's nice, but she couldn't ever have been little, Turly."
"Nobody could be born grown-up," said Turly. "They've all got to begin babies. Nursey told me so."
"Now, Turly! As if God couldn't make us big at once if He liked. And He did. There's Adam. ”

“ I like people to tell me stories, but nobody has more than a few, and you get to know them all off by heart. The books always say such a lot between the happening parts, and if you skip too much you lose part of the story. The story people all sit down and fold their hands, and wait till the close thick pages of prosy prosy are over, and when they get up again and go on they have forgotten their parts. ”

“ There is only one pony. You must stay behind, and if there's any fuss because I'm a little late or something, you can tell them I've gone for the eggs and will be back directly."
Nurse came in and took them off to bed, but Terry kept thinking of her morning adventure. She did not think of it as an adventure, but as a delightful surprise for Gran'ma.
"She does so much for us," thought Terry, "and we can do so little for her! And she will find it so nice to have a good fresh egg for breakfast!" ”

“ But the pony did no wrong, and you've hurted him!"
"Bad again!" groaned Terry; "and I felt so good. You are not a kind man," she added, looking at him with big tears in her blue eyes. "I'm not going to ask you to do anything for me. Only, if you would just tell me where Connolly's farm is perhaps I can get there if the fog would only go. I can walk Jocko there, and Connolly will take care of him." ”

“ All the evening and through the night men were out searching for them in every direction. No one noticed the disappearance of the boat till next morning, and it was feared that the children had [Pg 105] fallen down some steep rocks, and had either been killed by the fall or drowned. Bridget was nearly out of her senses, knowing that she had neglected the children; and poor old Nancy was so ill from the shock and fear that she would perhaps have died, only that she had Madam to think of.
When Granny's tea-time came and the children did not appear, Madam naturally asked what was delaying them. ”

“ Sure, poor people do have to walk into a shop, and just try and try till they get a pair to fit them."
Terry sat on the old woman's knee, and threw her arms round her neck.
"I'll darn the stockings, and sew on the strings and buttons, and read your prayer-book to you, and read the newspaper to you after Grandma has done with it. Is there anything else I can do for you, Nursey darling?"
"Nothing in the world, except try to be good an' keep out of mischief, Miss Terry."
"But I do so want to be good always, Nancy. ”

“ The box only holds enough bricks to build one house with."
"I know that," said Turly placidly. "I build one house at a time, and I count the houses I've built till I know there is a street."
"Oh, you silly! You are building the same house every time, and taking it down again. How can you be so baby as to call that building a street."
"No matter," said Turly, "I have the street in my head. I see all the houses I built, though they had to come down. It's a grand city." [Pg 40]
"Whereabouts is it in the world!" asked Terry, a little interested in spite of herself. ”

“ Miss Goodchild says I have a taste for music. How can I have when I hate a piano? I love beautiful sounds when I hear them, but these are not beautiful sounds. I can't make anything but a dismal noise. Even the long-ago people on the walls object to it. But I must do it again or it won't be practising;" and this time Terry ran the five-finger exercise up and down two or three times without stopping before she let her hands drop again from the keys. ”

“ And how can we tell where we are going?"
Turly was quiet now, and came to sit with Terry in the bottom of the boat.
"It's the only way to keep it steady," said Terry. "Let us ask God to take care of us!" ”

“ Fortunately there were no chimney-pots on that particular chimney It had a wide opening, and Turly got his head out at the top.
"Oh!" said Terry, with her head in the grate, "I hope it won't get all wet, and flop!"
"Rain's over!" shouted Turly. "I've got such a splendid view! Walsh and Lally and a whole pack of them are running down the avenue; going to look for us, I suppose. Hullo! If they would only look up! What duffers they are, with their eyes on the ground! ”

“ His feet will get dry by degrees."
"We have made a mess on the stairs," said Turly, looking back.
"Yes, I don't know how we ever got so wet," said Terry; "but stone stairs dry up so quickly. Come along now, Vulcan, you are not to bark a word or you may frighten your grandma!"
Vulcan was quite in the spirit of the adventure, and trotted quietly along with the children into the nursery. ”

“ At last it seemed that there was nothing more to be done with them.
"Oh, you are stupid!" she exclaimed; "staring with your glassy eyes, always your same pink cheeks, and never saying a word."
"Dolls don't talk," said Turly, who was now solemnly engaged in making a play on the floor with a box of soldiers. [Pg 24]
"Of course they don't," said Terry. "That's just what it is. I hate playing with things that have got no life in them!"
"Soldiers aren't alive," said Turly, as one tumbled over and he set it up again, "but I'm having a splendid battle."
"Oh, Turly, how can you? ”

“ You are not as old as I am, so hold on to me well in case the stairs are slippy."
They went out on the landing very quietly, "not to make any fuss", as Terry said, and made for the gate at the top of the stairs. Terry knew the trick of the hasp and it was quickly opened, and away they went, down flight after flight, into the yard.
"Oh, I say, it is wet!" said Turly, as they paddled across the yard with the rain pouring on them.
"Hush!" said Terry, "or someone will hear you and come running to prevent us. And it can't be any harm. It will be such a delightful treat for poor old Vulcan!" ”

“ When Nurse is angry her nose gets long and her mouth goes down at the corners. And when she's pleased they both shorten up again."
"I didn't look at her as much as that," said Turly.
So Turly came and played in the drawing-room while Terry went on with her practising. He made a play for himself which was not particularly good for the furniture. A long train of wagons was constructed of chairs put on their sides and one or two small old spider tables with their spindle legs in the air. ”

“ Finally, the excited dog escaped through the open back-door into the yard, where he flopped across, the paving-stones flowing with rain, dragging Nurse's skirts behind him and buffeting her cap with his paws till he got rid of it by rending it into a hundred fragments. [Pg 31]
At last Vulcan settled himself back in his kennel with the drenched and ragged remains of Nurse's gown and apron rolled around him, and with an air of thankfulness for his escape from persecution. ”

“ There are magicians living in it."
"Oh, that's better!" cried Terry. "You must take me with you, Turly."
"Girls don't ever grow up into famous travellers," said Turly, as he packed his bricks solidly back into their box. ”

“ We can't lave a young lady and a pony with cut knees foundherin' on the roadside," said the carter. And so the pony was tied to the cart, and Terry was hoisted to a seat on the turf beside the carter.
At any other time she would have asked to be allowed to take the reins and drive the cart, but just now she felt too cold and miserable and crushed, too unhappy about Jocko, and too utterly defeated in the matter of the eggs, to do anything but huddle up in her nook among the [Pg 55] turf sods and struggle against a threatened burst of weeping. ”