United States or Bahamas ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"Sam Bossom might take down the Success to Commerce for it, and he's as well out o' the way wi' the rest o' you." Tilda clapped her hands. "Mind you," he went on, "I'm not includin' any orphan. I got no consarn with one. I haven't so much as seen him." He paused, with his eyes fixed severely on Tilda's. She nodded. "O' course not."
She's a good one, is Miss Sally; but when a woman sees a man poor well, of course, that's her revenge." "Is is Sir Miles poor?" Tilda's hopes were tottering, falling about her, she hardly knew how or why. Vaguely she had been building up a fabric of hope that she was helping Arthur Miles home to a splendid inheritance.
In the grass by the roadside, however, he did find the lost temper a queer sort of affair like a melon of fiery red glass all stuck over with uneven spines and brittle thorns. Bobo, with great goodness of heart, took along this extraordinary object, in the hope of finding its angry possessor. Farther on, the lad encountered Tilda's father, the unhappy King, and delivered his message.
Once or twice, indeed, before trotting off again, he left these objects of interest to run around Tilda's heels and rub against her crutch. But she was busy with her own plans. So through a zig-zag of four or five dingy streets they came to one she recognised as that leading into the Plain, or open space where the show-people encamped. At its far end 'Dolph halted.
"Where did you get this information?" Tilda's first impulse was to show him her scrap of paper, but she thought better of it. She would keep it back while she could, as a possible trump card. Besides, she feared and distrusted this man with the little eyes. Seen through glasses they were worse than ever. "He's wanted by someone very particular," she repeated. "By whom? Speak up, child!
Thus, after a while, Bobo learned to ask Tilda's advice before going away on a wild-goose chase, and was in this way saved from many a jest. Tilda, the kitchen-maid, was as sweet and pretty as she was kind and good. She was said to be the daughter of an old crane who had come to the castle one day, asking for help.
She pointed to the paper. "Go on, please. 'Dear sir, a party as we will call W. B. 'as joined the company. W'ich is strange to say " "Who's he?" Sam looked up again, but Tilda's finger still pointed firmly. "'W'ich 'e too continues 'earty; but You-know-Oo is close after 'im; and so, dear sir, 'avin' 'eard of an Island called 'Olmness, we are off there to-morrow, and will let you know further.
Somehow but exactly how the boy could never tell they were racing after her down the immense length of the green meadow. It seemed endless, did this meadow. But it ended at last, by a grassy shore where the two rivers met, cutting off and ending all hope. And here, for the first and only time on their voyage, all Tilda's courage forsook her. "Bill!
Even so no one paid any heed to him until, halting a foot or so from the hem of Tilda's skirt, he abased his head to the carpet while his hind-legs strained in a grotesque effort to pitch his body over in a somersault. It was at this that Sir Elphinstone had exclaimed. Tilda, glancing down sideways across her shoulder, saw and checked a laugh. She understood.
But the dawn was chilly, and now they had only their excitement to keep them warm. For some reason best known to himself the dog did not share in this excitement, and only the firm embrace of Tilda's arm around his chest and shoulders held him from wandering. Now and again he protested against this restraint.
Word Of The Day