CHAPTER IV
OUT ON THE HILLS
Milly and Olly, and the four little Westmoreland children, had a verypleasant tea together in the afternoon of the Nortons's first day atRavensnest. Bessie and Charlie certainly didn't talk much; but Tiza,when once her mother had made her come, thought proper to get rid of agreat deal of her shyness, and to chatter and romp so much that theyquite fell in love with her, and could not be persuaded to go anywhereor do anything without her. Nurse would not let Milly and Olly go tocall the cows, though she promised they should some other day; but shetook the whole party down to the stepping-stones after tea, and greatfun it was to see Becky and Tiza running over the stepping-stones, andjumping from one stone to another like little fawns. Milly and Ollywanted sorely to go too, but there was no persuading Nana to let them gowithout their father to fish them out if they tumbled in, so they had tocontent themselves with dangling their legs over the firststepping-stone and watching the others. But perhaps you don't quiteknown what stepping-stones are? They are large high stones, with flattops, which people put in, a little way apart from each other, rightacross a river, so that by stepping from one to the other you can crossto the opposite side. Of course they only do for little rivers, wherethe water isn't very deep. And they don't always do even there.Sometimes in the river Thora, where Milly and Olly's stepping-stoneswere, when it rained very much, the water rose so high that it dashedright over the stepping-stones and nobody could go across. Milly andOlly saw the stepping-stones covered with water once or twice while theywere at Ravensnest; but the first evening they saw them the river wasvery low, and the stones stood up high and dry out of the water. Millythought that stepping-stones were much nicer than bridges, and that itwas the most amusing and interesting way of getting across a river thatshe knew. But then Milly was inclined to think everything wonderful andinteresting at Ravensnest--from the tall mountains that seemed to shutthem in all around like a wall, down to the tiny gleaming wildstrawberries, that were just beginning to show their little scarletballs on the banks in the Ravensnest woods. Both she and Olly went tobed after their first day at Ravensnest with their little hearts full ofhappiness, and their little heads full of plans. To-morrow they were togo to Aunt Emma's, and perhaps the day after that father would take themto bathe in the river, and nurse would let them go and help Becky andTiza call the cows. Holidays _were_ nice; still geography lessons werenice too sometimes, thought Milly sleepily, just as she was slipping,slipping away into dreamland, and in her dreams her faithful littlethoughts went back lovingly to Fraeulein's kind old face, and to thecapes and islands and seas she had been learning about a week ago.
"The flowers Milly gathered for her mother"]
The next morning Mr. and Mrs. Norton were busy indoors till about twelveo'clock; and the children wandered about the garden with nurse, findingout many new nooks and corners, especially a delightful steep path whichled up and up into the woods, till at last it took the children to alittle brown summer-house at the top, where they could sit and look overthe trees below, away to the river and the hay-fields and the mountains.And between the stones and this path grew the prettiest wildstrawberries, only, as Milly said, it was not much good looking for themyet, for there were so few red ones you could scarcely get enough totaste what they were like. But in a week or two, she and Olly plannedthat they would take up a basket with some green leaves in it, andgather a lot for father and mother--enough for regular dessert--and somewild raspberries too, for these also grew in the wood, to the greatdelight of the children, who had never seen any before. They began tofeel presently as if it would be nothing very extraordinary to findtrees covered with barley sugar or jam tarts in this wonderful wood. Andas for the flowers Milly gathered for her mother, they were a sight tosee--moon-daisies and meadow-sweet, wild roses and ragged-robins, andbright bits of rhododendrons. For both the woods and the garden atRavensnest were full of rhododendrons of all colours, pink and red, andwhite and flame colour; and Milly and Olly amused themselves with makingup bunches of different coloured flowers with as many different coloursin them as they could find. There were no rhododendrons at Willingham;and the children thought them the loveliest, gayest things they had everseen.
But at last twelve o'clock came. Nurse tidied the children, gave themsome biscuits and milk, and then sent them to the drawing-room to findfather and mother. Only Mrs. Norton was there, but she said there was noneed to wait for father, as he was out already and would meet them onthe way. They were to go straight over the mountain instead of walkinground by the road, which would have taken much longer. So off theyset--Olly skipping, and chattering as he always did; while Milly stuckclose to her mother, telling her every now and then, when Olly left offtalking, about their morning in the wood, the flowers they had gatheredand the strawberries they had found. At the top of the garden was alittle gate, and beside the gate stood Bessie and Charlie, who hadreally been watching for the children all the morning, though theydidn't dare to come into the garden without leave.
"Bessie, we are going to Aunt Emma's," said Milly, running up to them."Where are you and Charlie going to?"
"Nawhere," said Bessie, who, as usual, had her pinafore in her mouth,and never said more than one word at a time if she could help it.
"Nowhere! what do you do all the morning, Bessie?"
"I doan't know," said Bessie, gravely looking up at her; "sometimes Imind the baby."
"Do you mind the baby, too? Dear, dear! And what does Charlie do?"
"Nawthing," said Bessie again. "He only makes himself dirty."
"Don't you go to school ever?"
"No, but mother's going to send us," said Bessie, whose big eyes grewround and frightened at the idea, as if it was a dreadful prospect. "Areyou going to be away for all day?"
"Yes; we shan't be back till quite evening, mother says. Here she is.Good-bye, Bessie; good-bye, Charlie. Will you come and play with usto-morrow morning?"
Bessie nodded, but Charlie ran off without answering; for he saw Ollycoming, and was afraid he might want to kiss him. On the other side ofthe gate they had to begin to climb up a steep bit of soft green grass;and very hard work it was. After quite a little way the children beganto puff and pant like two little steam engines.
"It _is_ a little bit like going upstairs, don't you think, Olly?" saidMilly, sitting down by her mother on a flat bit of gray stone.
"No, it isn't a bit like going upstairs," said Olly, shaking his head;for Olly always liked contradicting Milly if he could. "It's like--it'slike--walking up a house!"
Suddenly they heard far above them a shout of "Hullo!" Both the childrenstarted up and looked about them. It was like father's voice, but theycouldn't see him anywhere.
"Where are you, father?"
"Hullo!" again. And this time it sounded much nearer to them. Wherecould it be? The children began to run about and look behind the bushesand the rocks, till all of a sudden, just as Milly got near a big rock,out jumped Mr. Norton from behind it with a great shout, and began torun after her. Away ran Milly and Olly as fast as their small feet couldcarry them, up and down, up and down, till at last there came a steepplace--one of Milly's feet tripped up, down she went, rolling over andover--down came Olly on the top of her, and the two of them rolled awaytogether till they stopped at the bottom of the steep place, all mixedup in a heap of legs and arms and hats and pinafores.
"Here's a boy and girl tied up in a knot," said Mr. Norton, scramblingdown after them and lifting them up. "There's no harm done, is there?"
"I've got a bump on my arm," said Milly, turning up her sleeve.
"And I've got a scratch on my nose," said Olly, rubbing it.
"That's not much for a nice tumble like that," said Mr. Norton, "youwouldn't mind another, would you, Milly?"
"Not a bit," said Milly, merrily skipping along beside him. "Hide again,father."
"Another day, not now, for we want to get to Aunt Emma's. But tomorrow,if you like, we'll come up here and have a capital game. Only we
mustchoose a nice dry place where there are no bogs."
"What are bogs?" asked Olly.
"Wet places, where your feet go sinking deeper and deeper into the mud,and you can't find any stiff firm bit to stand on. Sometimes people sinkdown and down into a bog till the mud comes right over their head andface and chokes them; but we haven't got any bogs as bad as that here.Now, children, step along in front. Very soon we shall get to the top ofthe mountain, and then we shall see wonderful things on the other side."
So Milly and Olly ran on, pushing their way through the great tall fern,or scampering over the short green grass where the little mountain sheepwere nibbling, and where a beautiful creeping moss grew all over theground, which, mother told Milly, was called "Stags' horn moss," becauseits little green branches were so like stags' horns.
"Now look, children," shouted their father to them from behind. "Here weare at the top."
And then, all of a sudden, instead of only the green mountain and thesheep, they could see far away on the other side of the mountain. There,all round them, were numbers of other mountains; and below, at theirfeet, were houses and trees and fields, while straight in front lay agreat big blue lake stretching away ever so far, till it seemed to belost in the sky.
"Look, look, mother!" cried Milly, clapping her hands, "there'sWindermere lake, the lake we saw when we were coming from the station.Look at that steamer, with all the people on board! What funny littleblack people. And oh, mother, look at that little boat over there! Howcan people go out in such a weeny boat as that?"
"It isn't such a weeny boat, Milly. It only looks so small because it'ssuch a long way off. When father and I take you and Olly on the lake, weshall go in a boat just like that. And now, instead of looking so faraway, look just down here below you, and tell me what you see."
"Some chimneys, and some trees, and some smoke, ever so far down,"shouted the children. "Is it a house, mother?"
"That's Aunt Emma's house, the old house where I used to come and staywhen I was a little girl, and when your dear great-grandfather andgreat-grandmother were alive. I used to think it the nicest place in theworld."
"Were you a very little girl, mother, and were you ever naughty?" askedMilly, slipping her little hand into her mother's and beginning to feelrather tired with her long walk.
"I'm afraid I was very often naughty, Milly. I used to get into greatrages and scream, till everybody was quite tired out. But Aunt Emma wasvery good to me, and took a great deal of pains to cure me of going intorages. Besides, it always did naughty children good to live in the samehouse with great-grandmamma, and so after a while I got better. Takecare how you go, children, it's very steep just here, and you might soontumble over on your noses. Olly, take care! take care! where _are_ yougoing?"
Where, indeed, was Olly going? Just the moment before the little man hadspied a lovely flower growing a little way off the path, in the middleof some bright yellow-green moss. And without thinking of anything butgetting it, off he rushed. But oh! splish, splash, splish, down wentOlly's feet, up splashed the muddy water, and there was Olly stuck in abog.
"Father, pull me out, pull me out!" cried the little boy in terror, ashe felt his feet stuck fast. But almost before he could speak there wasfather close beside him, standing on a round little hump of dry grasswhich was sticking up out of the bog, and with one grip he got hold ofOlly under his arm, and then jump! on to another little hump of grass,jump! on to another, and there they were safe on the path again.
"Oh, you black boy!" cried father and mother and Milly all together. Wasthere ever such a little object! All his nice clean holland frock wassplashed with black mud; and what had happened to his stockings?
"I've got mud-stockings on," shouted Olly, capering about, and pointingto his legs which were caked with mud up to his knees.
"You're a nice respectable boy to take out to dinner," said Mrs. Norton."I think we'll leave you on the mountain to have dinner with the sheep."
"Oh no, father," pleaded Milly, taking Olly fast by the hand. "We canwash him at Aunt Emma's, you know."
"Don't go too close to him, Milly!" exclaimed Mrs. Norton, "or you'llget as black as he is. We shall have to put him under the pump at AuntEmma's, that's quite certain. But there's nothing to wash him with here,so he must just go as he is for a bit. Now, Olly, run along and yourfeet will soon dry. Father's going first, you go next, just where hegoes, I'm coming after you, and Milly shall go last. Perhaps in that waywe shall get you down safe."
"Oh, but, mother, look at my flower," said Olly, holding it uptriumphantly. "Isn't it a beauty?"
"Shall I tell you what it's called, Olly? It's called a butterwort, andit always grows in boggy places; I wouldn't advise you to go after oneagain without asking father first."
It was a very different thing going down the mountain from climbing upit. It seemed only a few minutes before they had got almost to thebottom, and there was a gate leading into a road, and a little villageof white houses in front of them. They walked up the road a little way,and then father opened a big gate and let them into a beautiful gardenfull of rhododendrons like the Ravensnest garden. And who was thiswalking down the drive to meet them? Such a pretty little elderly lady,with gray hair and a white cap.
"Dear Aunt Emma!" said Mrs. Norton, running up to her and taking bothher hands and kissing her.
"Well, Lucy," said the little lady, holding her hands and looking at her(Lucy was Mrs. Norton's Christian name), "it _is_ nice to see you allhere. And there's dear little Milly, I remember her. But where's Olly?I've never seen that small creature, you know. Come, Olly, don't be shy.Little boys are never shy with Aunt Emma."
"Except when they tumble into bogs," said Mr. Norton, laughing andpulling Olly forward, who was trying to hide his mud-stockings behindhis mother. "There's a clean tidy boy to bring to dinner, isn't he, AuntEmma? I think I'll take him to the yard and pump on him a little beforewe bring him in."
Aunt Emma put up her spectacles to look at Olly.
"Why, Olly, I think Mother Quiverquake has been catching hold of you.Don't you know about old Mother Quiverquake, who lives in the bogs? Oh,I can tell you splendid stories about her some day. But now catch holdof my hand, and keep your little legs away from my dress, and we'll soonmake a proper boy of you again."
And then Aunt Emma took one of Milly's hands and one of Olly's, and upthey went to the house. But I must start another chapter before I beginto tell you what the children saw in Aunt Emma's house, and of the happytime they spent there.