Me and Nobbles Part 13

Bobby looked up wonderingly.

'I couldn't never be kind to grandmother,' he said; 'she wouldn't like it. And it's only fathers who love anybodies; Nurse told me they always did.'

'And not mothers? Ah! you poor little atom, I forgot that you have not known your mother.'

'How's the back?' asked Mr. Allonby, looking at his wife with a smile.

'Oh! very good to-day; I've been following you in thought all the time.

You see, Bobby, I have to lie here on my back, and my truant and wanderer go out to seek adventures, and come back and amuse me by telling me all they have seen and heard. Then I mend them up, and send them out again, and that's how we spend our life.'

'Motherums hasn't always lived on her back,' put in True eagerly. 'She used to gallop everywhere on a lov-elly black horse till she got her fall. That was a dre'fful day!'

'So "dre'fful" that we will never talk of it,' said Mrs. Allonby quickly. 'Now, True, darling, take Bobby to Margot, and she will get a comfy bed for him in dad's dressing-room. And when he is quite tucked up in it he shall have a basin of bread and milk and go fast asleep till to-morrow morning, for I'm sure it is long past his proper bedtime.'

Bobby looked longingly towards the table, and Mrs. Allonby noted it.

'That is for father only; he is going to have some hot meat directly; but I think he can spare you six strawberries. True, you can have six too. Bring a plate over here and eat them together.'

So the two children sat down on the rug together, and Bobby felt he would like to stay there all night. But a little later, when he was going upstairs to bed, he felt very sleepy, and his head had not been upon his pillow for five minutes before he was fast asleep.

He was wakened the next morning by True's voice.

'Oh, do wake up! We've had breakfast already. And oh! you funny boy, you've got your walking-stick in bed with you.'

Bobby resented her tone.

'It isn't a stick, it's n.o.bbles,' he said. 'Me and n.o.bbles always sleep together.'

He fingered n.o.bbles' red cap lovingly, then held him out for True's inspection.

'He comed from over the sea. He's really alive, though he never speaks; but he finks a lot, and whispers to me, but n.o.body but me can hear him.'

True gazed at n.o.bbles' smiling face with fascination.

'What does he tell you?' she asked.

Bobby's slow smile came.

'He told me last night he liked this house very much; and--he ran away from me in the night--he very often does--he goes up the chimleys, and the wind takes him journeys. He went to the House to see how Nurse was getting on.'

'Did he? To your grandmother's house? What did she say?'

Bobby considered.

'She said to Nurse, "I reely can't be troubled with the child, Nurse; it's your place to look after him."'

'And what did your nurse say?'

'She wented down to the kitchen and ate some apple tart. And then n.o.bbles said he came away "'cause n.o.body wanted me back," and I'm never going to leave my father no more!'

'Dad is going to see your grandmother now. Motherums told him he ought to. Do get up and come and see my rabbits. Oh! Here is Margot!'

Margot appeared with a breakfast tray, and Bobby lay still and ate an egg and some bread and b.u.t.ter with relish.

'The mistress said you was not to be called, for you were tired out,'

said Margot, by way of explanation. 'And when you've had your bath, and dressed, you can go to her room and see her. Can you dress yourself?'

'I'm nearly sure I can,' said Bobby bravely.

But he was forced to let Margot a.s.sist him more than once; and when ready at last, paused before leaving the room, looking up into her face with a little uncertainty and doubt.

'Do you think they'll all like me here?' he said.

'Bless the child, this be a real home to everyone, though it be small.

I've been with the mistress for twenty years. She were a wild slip of a girl when I took service out in 'Merica. She lost her mother when she were eight, and I mothered her after, for her father were a proper ne'er-do-weel, and were always moving from one ranch to another. Miss Helen took after her mother, and got everyone's love. And then her father got her to marry a rich old settler, so that some of his debts might be paid, and he died within a twelvemonth of the marriage, and Miss Helen kept the property together and did for her father till he broke his neck riding an unbroken horse, and Miss True was all the bit of comfort she had left. She could have married over and over scores of times; but not she; till Mr. Allonby found Miss True one day and brought her home, and then I knew how things would end. And when she would gallop off with him on her big horse, with her laugh and jest, I little thought she'd ever live to lie on her back and never move again.'

The old woman paused. Bobby had not been following her. He only repeated the question, which was an all-important one to him:

'Will they be sure to like me?'

'The mistress has the biggest heart in the world, my dear, and the master never says a cross word to n.o.body!'

Bobby felt cheered by her tone, and his doubts utterly vanished when he was held in the close clasp of his stepmother.

'We are going to keep you, Bobby, and I must be prepared to see two small children go off every day with my Wanderer. We are going to make this summer a holiday, to build up and strengthen your father, who has been very ill, and next winter, if we are spared, we must all set to work in earnest. Lessons and school for the little ones, real hard writing for your father and me. Now, darling, True is calling to you from the garden. Run out to her, and the air and suns.h.i.+ne will bring colour into those pale cheeks of yours.'

'Me and n.o.bbles likes to be darlings,' Bobby informed True a short time afterwards. 'We aren't darlings with Nurse or grandmother.'

When his father returned, Bobby approached him, almost trembling to hear his fate.

'Well, little chap,' Mr. Allonby said, 'it has been rather a stormy scene, but I've got you for good and all. And if I had known your grandmother considered children such a trouble I never would have left you with her all this time. Your nurse is going to drive over this afternoon and wish you good-bye. She will bring your clothes. Do you think you will get on with us without a nurse? We are very poor folk, you know, until I write this big book of travels that is going to bring us fame and money, and then--well, you ask True what will happen.'

Bobby smiled contentedly. Things had not turned out quite according to his expectations, but he was well pleased to have a little playfellow in True, and though she adopted a slightly superior and motherly air with him, she was a deferential listener to any of n.o.bbles' exploits.

She had no difficulty in believing that he was alive; in fact she was quite ready to explain his existence in a manner quite new to Bobby.

'You see,' she said, 'a wicked fairy must have turned him into a stick.

He really was a very brave good prince, but he set free a beautiful princess, who had been a prisoner in the wicked fairy's house, and the way he did it was dressing in her clothes and staying behind while she put on his and rode away. Then the wicked fairy was so angry when she found out the trick that she turned him into a stick and said he must stay like it till someone broke the spell.'

'What's a spell?' asked Bobby.

'Oh, there are lots of spells. The sleeping beauty was in one, you know. The spell was that she would sleep till a prince kissed her.

What we've got to do is to find out the spell for n.o.bbles, and when we do the right thing to him he'll wake up, and come alive, and be a prince again.'

Bobby thought over this with a perplexed brow.

'But then he might ride away from me to find the princess, and I should be 'fraid of a grand prince. I like n.o.bbles best like he is!'

'Oh, but wouldn't you like him to be able to run about and take off his little red cap and bow? He wouldn't be any bigger you know; he comes from a country where they are all very tiny, and perhaps he will have forgotten all about the princess and will like to stay with you best.'