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"Do sing us something, Val," Julian said, to create a diversion. But Valentine shook his head. "Not to-day. I have got a cold in my throat." "Well, then, play something." But Valentine did not seem to hear the last request. He had turned again to Cuckoo, who visibly shied away from him, and clattered the teacup and saucer, which she held like one alarmed.
Is it nothing that the backwoods boy lies down in clover meadows, and rambles in maple woods, and hears the bobolink and swamp robin sing; starts at the sound of Logan's cuckoo, and imitates her lay?
She took it awkwardly, with a shooting glance of question at the doctor, who seemed her only spar in this deep social sea. Valentine placed her beneath the bell of violets, and took his seat beside her. Julian was on her other hand, the doctor exactly opposite. Wade presented her with hors-d'oeuvres. Cuckoo selected a sardine. She understood sardines, having met them at the Monico.
Griselda gave a little wriggle. "Cuckoo, you're laughing at me," she said. "I mean, have you come back to stay and cuckoo as usual and make my aunts happy again?" "You'll see in the morning," said the cuckoo. "Now go off to bed." "Good night," said Griselda, "and thank you, and please don't forget to let me know when you've considered." "Cuckoo, cuckoo," was her little friend's reply.
It was frequented by a cuckoo, who came once a year to hoot at the rules of life, but seldom made long stay; for boys threw stones at it, exasperated by the absence of its morals. The village which clustered in the dip had not yet lost its dread of motor-cars.
And then when I was in the field he called me, but I couldn't find him, and nurse said 'Nonsense. And to-day he called me again, so I camed up through the bushes. And mayn't I come again? Perhaps if we both tried together we could find the way to fairyland. Do you think we could?" "I don't know," said Griselda, dreamily. "There's a great deal to learn first, the cuckoo says."
"Going to stop abed?" she asked, in a husky voice, in which the smuts seemed floating. "Yes. What's there to get up for?" Cuckoo groaned. "Nothun' as I know of." And Mrs. Brigg was gone about her business. All the morning Cuckoo lay staring at the blank square of the window, and Jessie snored under the blankets. The tea was drunk, the toast lay about in fragments.
"But who's happy? I should like to know. Cuckoo isn't. Are you, Cuckoo?" It seemed a cruel question, addressed to that spectre of girlhood. "I dunno," she answered swiftly. "It don't matter much either way." "She may be," the doctor said. "And you were happy, Julian." The tea had certainly cleared the boy's brain. His manner was more sensible, and the heavy sensuality had gone from his eyes.
When the messengers arrived at Gotham, they found some of the inhabitants engaged in endeavouring to drown an eel in a pool of water; some were employed in dragging carts upon a large barn to shade the wood from the sun; and others were engaged in hedging a cuckoo, which had perched itself upon an old bush.
Its irregular manner of laying also seems better suited to a parasite like our cowbird, or the European cuckoo, than to a regular nest-builder. This observer, like most sharp-eyed persons, sees plenty of interesting things as he goes about his work. He one day saw a white swallow, which is of rare occurrence.
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