The Story of the White-Rock Cove Part 2

"An _individual_!" I said, feeling that made a great difference. "But now, papa, you're only in fun; you know I didn't mean that."

"One thing I do mean very distinctly, Willie, which is, that I must not stay chattering here with you any longer, or my letters will never be ready before post-time. You may stay a little longer with George if you like."

I stayed accordingly, determining to be home by the Zig-zag at the appointed hour.

But my parents had scarcely had the time necessary for walking up to the house, when the sharp sound of horses' trot suddenly aroused my attention, and in another moment our carriage, with the travellers inside, was rounding the curve of the road, and had drawn up before the gate.

My confusion and shyness at thus being surprised were indescribable; and a latent desire to take to immediate flight and get home the short way might probably have prevailed, had not my uncle's quick eye caught sight of me as I drew back under the shelter of old George.

"Why, surely there must be Willie!" he exclaimed; and in another moment Groves had hoisted my unwilling self on to the step of the carriage, and was introducing me to my relations, regardless of my shy desire to stand upon the ground, and make geological researches with my eyes under the wheels.

"Yes, sir, this is Master Willie; he's been uncommon taken up with the other young master coming, and it's his thought having a bit of something [To think of old George designating our beautiful arch as a bit of something!] put up at the gate to bid him welcome."

"There's for you, Aleck," said my uncle to a fair-haired boy sitting in the furthest corner of the carriage opposite to my aunt, whom I just mustered courage to look at. "You'll have to make your best bow and a very grand speech, to return thanks for such an honour."

"Master didn't expect you so soon, sir," proceeded George; "he thought you'd be coming by the next train; that's how it is that Master Willie was down here."

"Then I think the best thing we can do with Master Willie is to carry him up to the house with us," said my uncle. And accordingly I was lifted over from my step into the midst of the party in the carriage, and seated down between my uncle and aunt.

The coachman was compelled to rein in the horses a minute longer, whilst they all looked at and admired the arch, and then we bowled off rapidly up the avenue. I sometimes think we remember our life in pictures: certainly the very frontispiece of my acquaintance with my cousin Aleck always is, and will be, a distinct mind's eye picture of that party in the carriage, with myself in their midst.

Uncle Gordon sitting in the right hand corner with his arm round me, keeping me very close to himself, so that I might not crowd my aunt, who was leaning back on the other side of me, as though weary with the long journey. Opposite my uncle my aunt's maid, with a green bonnet decorated with a bow of red velvet of angular construction in the centre of the front, to which the parting of her hair seemed to lead up like a broad white road; she was grasping, as though her life depended upon her keeping them safely, a sort of family f.a.got of umbrellas in one hand, whilst with the other she kept a leather-covered dressing-case steady on her lap. In the fourth corner was my cousin, in full Highland kilt, such as I had hitherto seen only in toy-books of the costumes of all nations or other pictures, and which inspired me with a wonderful amount of curiosity. Lastly, myself in blue and white sailor's dress, looking, no doubt, as if I had been captured from a man-of-war; conscious of tumbled hair, and doubtful hands, and retribution in store for me in the shape of a talking-to from nurse, who had still unlimited jurisdiction over my wardrobe, for having been surprised in a state she would designate as "not fit to be seen."

Aleck and I found our eyes wandering to each other momentarily as we drove along. When they met, we took them off again, and pretended to look out at opposite sides of the carriage; but this happened so often, that at last we both laughed, and--the ice broke. I was quite on chatty terms before we reached the house.

"There are papa and mamma!" I exclaimed, as we came in sight of the entrance. They had heard the carriage, and were at the door to welcome their guests.

"See, I have brought you two boys instead of one," said my uncle, lifting me out first, and then proceeding to help out my aunt, as if she were a delicate piece of china, and "With care" labelled outside her.

When the greetings were over, my mother declared a rest on the sofa in her room and a cup of tea indispensable for my aunt's refreshment. My uncle took my father's arm and disappeared into the study; and we two boys were left to take care of each other until dinner-time.

I proposed going round the garden, and Frisk being of the party, proceeded to show off his accomplishments. This led to an animated description of my cousin's dog, Caesar, and a comparison of the ways and habits of Caesar the Big with those of Frisk the Little, on the strength of which we became very intimate.

Afterwards we returned to the house, and having shown Aleck his room, I took him into mine, where we were found seated on the floor surrounded by "my things," which I had been exhibiting in detail to my cousin, when nurse came, a little before six o'clock, to see that we were ready for dinner.

"Aleck, tell me one thing," I had just said to my cousin; "are they really your knees or leather?"

Aleck stared, "Leather! why, of course not; what made you think such an odd question?"

"I didn't think they _could_ be leather after the first minute," I replied, doubtfully; "but I couldn't know--"

CHAPTER III.

A WHOLE HOLIDAY.

To what boy or girl does not the promise of a whole holiday convey a sort of Fortunatus' purse of antic.i.p.ated enjoyment! I used to wonder--I remember wondering that very day after Aleck's arrival, when I had the most enjoyable whole holiday I ever spent--why grown-up people who always had them should seem so indifferent to their privileges, writing it down upon the secret tablets of my resolve, that when _I_ grew up things should be very different with me.

My cousin and I sat side by side at the breakfast-table in a vehement impulse of boyish affection, so completely taken up with each other that I for one never remember noticing any one else during the progress of the meal, except when once I caught a wistful look from my aunt, and heard her saying, in a rather sorrowful low voice, to my mother,--

"I am very thankful to see our boys take to each other; it is quite a load off my mind that Aleck should be with you instead of being left at school."

"Won't Aleck come too?" I asked my mother, when she summoned me to our usual Bible-reading after breakfast.

"Not whilst his own mamma is here," was the answer; and I was obliged to rest content. But the moment I had put away my Bible, I flew off in search of him, eagerly explaining that we were to do what we liked for the whole of the morning, and sketching out a plan for our amus.e.m.e.nt such as I thought would be pleasant to him:--

"First, we must go over the whole house--you've only seen a little bit of it yet--and the kitchen-garden and the stables, and then down the Zig-zag to old George's, and we'll get him to go out with us in the boat. It's smooth enough to sail the 'Fair Alice'--that's a little yacht of mine that old George gave me."

Aleck's face brightened. "May you go out in a boat when you like?" he asked, eagerly. "Oh, how _de_-light-ful!"

How we careered over the house that morning, visiting every nook and corner of it, from the "leads" on the roof; accessible only by a ladder and trap-door, to the most hidden repositories in the housekeeper's domain! The servants good naturedly remarked I had gone crazy. Presently I bade Aleck shut his eyes, and submit to my guidance blindfold, whilst I led him to the only room he had not been in. We pa.s.sed through several pa.s.sages, and then I went forward, tapped at a door, and finding I might come in, fetched Aleck, still with eyes shut.

"There now, you may look," I exclaimed, watching in a satisfied manner the astonishment with which he opened his eyes to find himself in the study, and his confusion on seeing my father seated at the library table near the window, surrounded by books and papers.

"Oh, uncle," he exclaimed, "I did not know I was in your room!"

"And are very much startled at finding yourself there," said my father, finis.h.i.+ng his sentence for him. "What shall we do with the culprit, Willie? Prosecute him according to the utmost rigour of the law, and sentence him to a year's imprisonment at Braycombe, with hard labour, under Mr. Glengelly and old George!"

"I think that would be a very good punishment," I answered, "only I should like it to be more than a year."

"See what a cruel fellow your cousin is," said my father, getting up from his chair, and proceeding to take Aleck round the room, showing him various curiosities with which I was familiar; then he sat down again, and keeping Aleck at his side, told him that so long as he remained at Braycombe he was to feel as much at home, and as welcome to the study as I was, and that he was to try and trust him as he could his own father, until we all had the joy of welcoming his parents home again.

"Famous chats we get here sometimes, eh, Willie?" he concluded, appealing to me.

"_Rather!_" I answered emphatically, seating myself on the arm of his chair, and looking over his shoulder. "Papa, shall you have time to play with us this afternoon. It's a whole holiday. I want you to very much."

"I fear not, Willie. I must be away all the morning. Peter the Great will be at the door to carry me off in another minute, and I must keep the afternoon for your uncle and aunt. To-morrow afternoon I will give you an hour, only I stipulate you must have mercy upon your old father, and not expect him to climb trees like a squirrel, or run like a hare."

"You know you're not an _old_ father, papa," I said; "and, Aleck, papa can run quite fast--faster than anybody else I ever saw, and he climbs better than anybody else. He's been up the tree I showed you in the avenue."

"Whatever papa's qualifications may be," my father observed, "the end of the matter just at present is, that Rickson is coming round with the horses, and I cannot keep his imperial majesty waiting."

"What does uncle do?" inquired my cousin after we had been to the door and had seen my father mount and ride away on Peter the Great.

"Papa! oh, he does quant.i.ties of things," I replied, somewhat vaguely.

"What kind of things?"

I proceeded to enumerate them promiscuously:--

"Why, he's a magistrate, and tries cases at Elmworth, and sends people to prison; and he goes to a hospital twice every week at Elmworth, and he goes to see poor people--we often have some from the hospital down here; and he always has quant.i.ties of letters; and he reads to mamma; and, do you know, he once wrote a book--"

I paused, not so much because I had exhausted the list of my father's employments, as because I had named that achievement which of all others filled me with the deepest awe and reverence. I could remember how, when I was four years old, my mother had lifted me up to see a volume on the counter of the great bookseller's shop at Elmworth, and had let me spell through the name "Grant" on the t.i.tle-page. I felt as if I had risen in life, and looked upon books in general with a feeling of personal friends.h.i.+p, as from one behind the scenes, from that day; whilst, personally, I was much elated by the thought of what a very wonderful and extraordinary man my father was. I was rather glad when Aleck told me that he did not think his papa had ever written a book;--it made me feel a little bit superior to him.

After going to the stables to see my pony, we proceeded to the Zig-zag, chattering fast the whole way. I was full of plans and projects, and anxious at once to interest my cousin in every one of them.