The Happy Adventurers Part 30

"I breathed a song into the air, It fell to earth I know not where, For who has sight so swift and strong That it can follow the flight of a song?

"Long, long afterwards, in an oak I found the arrow still unbroke.

And the song from beginning to end I found again, in the heart of a friend."

"I love that," Grizzel whispered. "Papa says you often do find the song long, long afterwards. I think it's something like casting your bread upon the waters, though I never could understand why they chose _bread_. I shouldn't think there would be much of it left after many days in the water. I like a song better."

Hugh had stepped nearer to the window, and was observing the interior of the room with curious eyes. "Who's the old buffer with white hair?" he asked.

Mollie began to laugh, but suddenly stopped. She looked from the boy to the man--so there _were_ two Hughs! "He is a Time-traveller," she answered softly, "but he has travelled the other way, forwards, you know. He has invented a lot of things about flying."

"Has he!" exclaimed Hugh. "That old chap!" He leaned forward and gazed more intently at the white-haired man. "I wish I was him," he said wistfully!

"Cooo-eee!"

The call seemed to come from far away, m.u.f.fled, perhaps, by the night air.

"They are calling us," said Prue. "We must go--come, Hugh. Good-bye, Mollie, goodbye."

"Where are you, Mollie, my child?" Aunt Mary had risen and was coming towards the window. Mollie turned to answer her.

"All right, Aunt Mary. I am here looking for the boys."

"Are the boys not there? I thought I heard voices." Aunt Mary leaned out and peered into the dark. "How dark it is--I can't see--I thought for a moment I saw someone there--here they are coming!"

"Cooo-eee! Where are you, Moll? We want you."

"It's d.i.c.k calling," Mollie said. "I'll go and meet them, Aunt Mary; it's only a step. Coming, d.i.c.k," she called back.

But she found it hard to walk on the wet gravel without her stick, and after sending another call to the boys stood and waited where she was, wondering why she had not felt her foot when she had gone to the other children. She stared into the shadows of the cedar, but the little figures had disappeared. "I love them," she murmured to herself, "and I can never forget this week, whether I ever learn to understand Time-travelling or not. I mean to learn ever so much about Australia and our other colonies, and about the immigrant s.h.i.+ps Prue talked of. I am glad she is a Guider and that I am a Guide." She looked back to the lighted window, through which she could see Aunt Mary and Major Campbell standing together, then forward into the misty dark--she could hear the boys coming up the hill. "I loved Prue and Grizzel and their Time," she repeated, "and of course Aunt Mary is going to have a tremendously happy time now, but--I am glad that _I_ belong to d.i.c.k and Jerry. I like our own Time best; it suits us. It's a good sort of Time for doing things, and it will be better before we are done with it, if we all Carry On.

"I'm here, d.i.c.k!"

THE END