Jimmy, Lucy, and All | Page 2

button your gloves, Edy, you'll be dropping them off."
"See those butterflies! I'd be happy if Bab was only in here," murmured a little voice from under Lucy's hat. "Bab didn't want to come with her papa and mamma; she wanted to come with me!"
"Now, Lucy, don't be foolish," said Edith. "Where could we have put Bab? There's not room enough in this coach, unless one of the rest of us had got out. You'll see Bab to-morrow, and she'll be in Castle Cliff all summer; so you needn't complain."
"I wasn't complaining, no indeed! Only I don't want to go down in the gold mine till Bab comes. I s'pose they'll put us down in a bucket, won't they? I want Uncle James to go with us."
Jimmy-boy laughed and threw himself about in quite a gale. He often found his little sister very amusing.
"Excuse me, Lucy," said he; "but I do think you're very ignorant! That mine up there is all played out, and Uncle James has told us so ever so many times. Didn't you hear him? The shaft is more than half full of muddy water. I'd like to see you going down in a bucket!"
"Well, then, Jimmy Dunlee, what shall we do at Castle Cliff?"
"We've brought a tent with us, and for one thing I'm going to camp out," replied Jimmy. "That's a grand thing, they say."
"Don't! There'll be something come and eat you up, sure as you live," said Lucy, who had a vague notion that camping out was connected in some way with wild animals, such as coyotes and mountain lions.
"Poh! you don't know the least thing about Castle Cliff, Lucy! And Uncle James has talked and talked! Tell me what he said, now do."
Uncle James was seated nearly opposite, for the two long seats of the tallyho faced each other. Lucy spoke in a low tone, not wishing him to overhear.
"He said we were going to board at a big house pretty near the old mine."
"Yes, Mr. Templeton's."
"And he said somebody had a white Spanish rabbit with reddish brown eyes and its mouth all a-quiver."
"Yes, I heard him say that about the rabbit. And what are those things that come and walk on top of the house in the morning?"
"I know. They are woodpeckers. They tap on the roof, and the noise sounds like 'Jacob, Jacob, wake up, Jacob!' Uncle James says when strangers hear it they think somebody is calling, and they say, 'Oh, yes, we're coming!' I shan't say that; I shall know it's woodpeckers. Tell some more, Jimmy."
"Yes" said Eddo, leaving Maggie and wedging himself between Lucy and Jimmy. "Tell some more, Jimmum!"
"Well, there's a post-office in town and there's a telephone, and Mr. Templeton has lots of things brought up to Castle Cliff from the city; so we shall have plenty to eat; chicken and ice-cream and things. That makes me think, I'm hungry. Wouldn't they let us open a luncheon basket?"
Kyzie thought not; so Jimmy went on telling Lucy what he knew of Castle Cliff. "It's named for an air-castle there is up there; it's a thing they call an air-castle anyway. A man built it in the hollow of some trees, away up, up, up. I'm going to climb up there to see it."
"So'm I," said Lucy.
"Ho, you can't climb worth a cent; you're only a girl!"
"But she has an older brother; and sometimes older brothers are kind enough to help their little sisters," remarked Kyzie, with a meaning smile toward Jimmy; but Jimmy was looking another way.
"Uncle James told a funny story about that air-castle," went on Kyzie. "Did you hear him tell of sitting up there one day and seeing a little toad help another toad--a lame one--up the trunk of the tree?"
"No, I didn't hear," said Lucy. "How did the toad do it?"
"I'll let you all guess."
"Pushed him?" said Edith.
"No."
"Took him up pickaback," suggested Lucy.
"Nothing of the sort. He just took his friend's lame foot in his mouth, and the two toads hopped along together! Uncle James said it probably wasn't the first time, for they kept step as if they were used to it."
"Wasn't that cunning?" said Edith. And Jimmy remarked after a pause, "If Lucy wants to go up to that castle, maybe I could steady her along; only there's Bab. She'd have to go too. And I don't believe it's any place for girls!"
The ride was a long one, forty miles at least. The passengers had dinner at a little inn, the elegant horses were placed in a stable; and the tallyho started again at one o'clock with a black horse, a sorrel horse, and two gray ones.
The afternoon wore on. The horses climbed upward at every step; and though the journey was delightful, the passengers were growing rather tired.
"Wish I could sit