The Little Clown Part 12

'Two a penny,' said the woman.

'I'll have two, please,' said Jimmy, and he began to eat them as soon as he left the shop. But he was glad to leave the village behind, because everybody he met stared at him and he did not like it. Three boys and a girl followed him some distance along the road, no doubt expecting that he was really and truly a clown, and would do some tumbling and make them laugh. But at last they grew tired of following him, and they stopped and began to call him names, and one boy threw a stone at him, but Jimmy felt far too miserable to throw one back. Chocolate creams and lemonade are very nice things, but they don't make a very good breakfast. The morning seemed very long, and presently Jimmy sat down by a hedge and fell asleep. He awoke feeling more hungry than ever, and no one was in sight but a man on a hay cart. But it happened that the cart was going towards Sandham, and Jimmy waited until it came up, and then he climbed up behind and hung with one leg over the tailboard and got a long ride for nothing. He might have ridden all the way to Sandham, only that the carter turned round in a rather bad temper and hit Jimmy with his whip, so that he jumped down more quickly than he had climbed up.

He guessed that he was near the town, because there were houses by the roadside, and pa.s.sing carts, and even an omnibus. If Jimmy had had any more money he would have got into the omnibus; as he had none he was compelled to walk on. It was quite late in the afternoon when he entered Sandham, and he had eaten nothing since the chocolate creams. He was annoyed to find that a number of children were following him again, and as he went farther into the town they crowded round in a ring, so that Jimmy was brought to a standstill.

He felt very uncomfortable standing there, with dozens of children and a few grown-up persons round him. They cried out to him to 'go on,' and this was just what Jimmy would have liked to do. He felt so miserable that he put an arm to his eyes and began to cry, and then the crowd began to laugh, for they thought he was going to begin to do something to amuse them at last. But when they saw he did nothing funny as a clown ought to do, but only kept on crying, they began to jeer at him, and one boy came near as if he would hit him. Jimmy took down his arm then, and the two boys, one dressed in rags and the other in the dirty clown's dress, stood staring at each other with their small fists doubled, when Jimmy felt some one take hold of his arm, and looking round he saw a rather tall, dark-haired lady, with a pretty-looking face. Her hand was on his arm, and her eyes wore a very curious expression, almost as if she were going to cry also, just to keep Jimmy company.

But from the moment that Jimmy looked at her face he felt that things would be better with him.

'Come with me, dear,' she whispered, and taking his hand in her own she led him out of the crowd.

'Where to?' asked Jimmy, wondering why she held his hand so tightly.

'I think the best thing to do will be to put you to bed,' she answered.

'Yes,' said Jimmy, 'I should like to go to bed--to a real bed, you know--not sacks.'

'You shall go into a real bed,' she answered.

'I think I should like to have something to eat first,' he cried.

'Oh yes, you shall have something to eat,' she said.

If a good many persons had stopped to stare at Jimmy when he was alone, many more stared now to see a dirty-faced, poor little clown being led away by a nicely-dressed lady. But the fact was that Jimmy did not care what they thought. They might stare as much as they liked, and it did not make any difference. He felt that he was all right at last, although he did not in the least know who his friend could be. But he felt that she _was_ a friend, and that was the great thing; he felt that whatever she did would be pleasant and good, and that she was going to give him something nice to eat and a comfortable bed to sleep in.

Somehow he did not feel at all surprised, only extremely tired, so that he could scarcely keep his eyes open. Things that happened did not seem quite real, it was almost like a dream. The lady stopped in front of a house where lodgings were let, although Jimmy knew nothing about that.

The door was opened by a pleasant, rosy-cheeked woman in a cotton dress.

'Well, I _am_ glad!' she cried; and Jimmy wondered, but only for a moment, what she had to be glad about.

'I think some hot soup will be the best thing,' said the lady, 'and then we will put him to bed.'

'What do you think about a bath?' asked the landlady.

'The bath will do to-morrow,' was the answer. 'Just some soup and then bed. And I shall want you to send a telegram to the Post Office.'

'You're not going to send a telegram to the policeman,' exclaimed Jimmy; but as the landlady left the room to see about the soup, the lady placed her arm round him and drew him towards her. Jimmy thought that most ladies would not have liked to draw him close, because he really looked a dirty little object, but this lady did not seem to mind at all.

Suddenly she held him farther away from her, and looked strangely into his face.

'What is your name?' she asked.

'James--Orchardson--Sinclair--Wilmot,' said Jimmy with a gape between the words.

Then she pressed him closer still, and kissed his face again and again, and for once Jimmy rather liked being kissed. Perhaps it was because he had felt so tired and lonely; but whatever the reason may have been, he did not try to draw away, but nestled down in her arms and felt more comfortable than he had felt for ever so long.

It was not long before the landlady came back with a plate of hot soup, and Jimmy sat in a chair by the table and the lady broke some bread and dipped it in, and Jimmy almost fell asleep as he fed himself. Still he enjoyed the soup, and when it was finished she took him up in her arms and carried him to another room where there were two beds. She stood Jimmy down, and he leaned against the smaller bed with his eyes shut whilst she took off the clown's dress, and the last thing he recollected was her face very close to his own before he fell sound asleep.

CHAPTER XIII

THE LAST

It was quite late when Jimmy opened his eyes the next morning, and a few minutes afterwards he was sitting up in bed, wondering how much he had dreamed and how much was real.

Had he actually got into the wrong train, and run away from a policeman, and travelled in the van, and put on the little clown's clothes, and then run away again? Had he really done all these strange things or had he only dreamed them? But if he had dreamed them, where was he? And if they were real, where had the clown's dress gone to?

As Jimmy sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes, he hoped that he had not been dreaming; because if it had been only a dream, why, then, he had only dreamed of the lady also, and he felt that he very much wished her to be real.

Why, she was real! For there she stood smiling at the open door, with a tray covered with a white cloth in her hand, and on it a large cup of hot bread and milk, and two eggs.

'I am glad!' said Jimmy.

'What are you glad about?' she asked, as she placed the tray on his bed.

'That you're quite real,' he answered.

'Well,' she said, 'your breakfast is real too, and the best thing you can do is to eat it.'

Jimmy began at once. He began with the bread and milk, and the lady sat at the foot of the bed watching him.

'Where am I going after breakfast?' he asked.

'Into a nice hot bath,' she said.

'But after that?'

'How should you like to go to see your father?' she asked.

'Do you know him?' asked Jimmy, laying down his spoon in his astonishment.

'Very well indeed.'

'And my mother too?'

'Yes, and Winnie too.'

'Is she like Aunt Selina?' asked Jimmy, as the lady began to take the top off his egg.

'Do you mean Winnie?' she said.

'No, my mother. Because Aunt Selina said they were like each other, but I hope they're not.'

'Well, no,' answered the lady, 'I really don't think your mother is very much like Aunt Selina.'

'Do you think she'll be very cross?' he asked.