Me and Nobbles | Page 5

that has taken us so aback. He's to have
his old room, the one at end of the passage. It's going to rain, so you'd
best stay in the nursery this afternoon, and I shall be busy.'
Bobby promised to be good, but with the sounds of such an unusual
bustle in the house what small boy could resist peeping through the
green baize door occasionally to see what was going on? And at last,
thinking the coast quite clear, he made one of his rapid rushes along the
corridor and into the room that was being prepared for the guest. Here
he gazed round him with innocent admiration. The room was barely
furnished, but a fox's brush and some sporting-prints round the walls,
one of which depicted a cock fight, interested him greatly. He was
standing on tiptoe at the dressing-table opening some little china pots,
when approaching footsteps made him start. Then, as the door handle
turned, he scrambled under the bed and lay still, hardly daring to
breathe. It was his grandmother with Jane. She was speaking in rather
an agitated voice.
'He slept in this room many years ago, Jane, and I wish things to be as

he left them. Yes, even this cricket bat that I have just found in the attic.
He used to have it in the corner by the fireplace, and I wish you to place
it there now.'
She came up to the bed, smoothed the pillow with her hand, looked at
the pictures on the walls, sighed, then went away, and Jane followed
her. Bobby crept out of his hiding-place feeling very guilty. Then he
eyed the cricket bat, lifted it, but found it very heavy.
'He won't be able to play with it if he hasn't a ball!' he said to himself.
'Perhaps he'll come and ask me for mine!'
Very reluctantly he left the room and returned to the nursery, quite
unconscious that he had left behind him on the floor a tell-tale reminder
of his presence there.
Ail that day Bobby watched and waited for the expected arrival. He
was bitterly disappointed that bedtime came before there were any
signs of his uncle. Early the next morning he woke, wondering whether
he had come, and when Nurse told him that it was past ten o'clock
before he arrived, he eagerly enquired:
'And did he come quite by himself?'
'Of course, he did. I haven't seen him yet, but Jane says he's wonderful
good looking.'
When Bobby was dressed and Nurse had gone downstairs to fetch
something from the servants' hall, he ran to the green baize door and
crept along the passage to his uncle's bedroom. He listened outside,
hoping he might hear a strange voice or cough, but there was silence.
Then he peered down into a shining pair of boots which had evidently
just been cleaned and placed outside the door upon the mat.
He wondered how long it would take for his foot to grow big enough to
fill such a big boot. With a little chuckle of delight he slipped his tiny
feet into them and managed to walk one step forward without making
much noise. Finally, with another little snigger of laughter, he thrust his

chubby hand into the pocket of his overall and produced two bright
coloured marbles. He dropped one into each boot, murmuring as he did
so:
'For Master Mortimer, with mine own dear love.'
And then, rather aghast at his audacity, he fled along the passage to his
own territory, laughing softly as he went. After his nursery breakfast he
was turned into the kitchen garden again. He was never supposed to
play anywhere else, but he had a way of making little excursions into
the shrubberies. There were a good many hiding-places in the old
gardens. He considered it quite fairplay to haunt the shady paths and
even to make daring rushes out upon the lawn when no grown-up was
there. 'Children must keep out of sight,' had been dinned into his ears
by his careful nurse, and as long as he did that, he considered that he
played the game. He had no great desire to talk to any grown-up person;
he knew that he was voted a nuisance, and was quite content to watch
them from afar. But this unknown traveller interested him greatly. He
stole now into one of the shrubbery paths, and then suddenly, coming
towards him, he saw a tall dark man with bronzed skin, a heavy
moustache, and merry blue eyes. This much Bobby noted from the
depths of a laurel bush in which he had taken refuge. He thought
himself well hidden, and certainly his uncle was unaware of his close
presence. Suddenly, as he was passing him, close enough to touch