Me and Nobbles | Page 6

had
he so wished, an impulse seized Bobby to speak.
Mr. Mortimer Egerton, sauntering lazily along in the morning sunshine
and smoking his beloved pipe, was startled when he heard a lisping
whisper:
'Where's mine father? Did you see him?'
It brought him to a standstill; there was a rustle in the bushes. He
probed them with his stick, but could see nothing. Then he gave chase,
and soon caught sight of a vanishing blue linen smock.
'I spy!' he shouted, and renewed his chase with vigour. But Bobby was
an experienced hider. He was small, and the bushes were thick and high.

Keeping well under cover, he reached the kitchen garden, and heard his
baffled uncle take a wrong turn into the rose walk that stretched across
the front lawn. Breathless and excited, the child reached Tom.
'He's run after me. He was the hunter and I was a tiger in the jungle! I
seed him when he couldn't see me, and I likes him!'
'Which of course you is bound to do,' was Tom's ready response.
'Master Mortimer allays twisted most folk round his little finger.'
'I'll make him hunt me again,' said Bobby, a flush on his cheek and fire
in his eye. 'He couldn't catch me, Tom. I won't be catched by him.'
'Master Mortimer allays used to do what he'd a mind to,' said old Tom
again.
Bobby looked at him thoughtfully. He was beginning to be afraid of
this uncle.
Chapter II.
'HE MAY COME TO-MORROW!'
That very same day in the afternoon Bobby was up in his apple-tree,
when, to his consternation, he saw his uncle saunter into the orchard,
shake hands with Tom, who was cutting the grass there, and begin an
animated conversation with him. Bobby curled himself up well out of
sight, and presumed upon his position, for when Mr. Mortimer came
down to his corner and stopped for a moment under the tree, the little
scamp again said, in as gruff a voice as he could assume:
'Have you seen mine father?'
In one second Mr. Mortimer's great long arm had shot up through the
branches, and seized hold of one of Bobby's fat legs.
'Now, my little man, we'll meet each other face to face!'

Terror succeeded Bobby's audacity. He found himself on the ground,
but, alas! in his rough descent Nobbles had been dashed from his grasp
over the wall upon the high-road, and his anxiety over his darling's fate
overcame his terror.
'Oh, save him! Oh, save mine Nobbles! Oh, he'll be hurt, he'll be run
away with! Oh, please get Nobbles, and I'll never run away from you
nevermore!'
Tears were crowding into his eyes as he spoke.
'Who's Nobbles?' asked the bewildered uncle.
'He's always lived with me for years--everlasting years!' repeated the
troubled child. 'I couldn't live without him! Why, a big dog may eat
him up, or a motor run over him! Oh, save him quick!'
It was Tom who understood and dashed through the gate at the far end
of the orchard. In five minutes Nobbles was given into his hand, and a
seraphic smile lit up his face as he hugged his treasure. His uncle did
not smile. He sat down on one of the lowest limbs of the apple-tree and
lit up his pipe.
'Is Nobbles fond of going off upon expeditions on his own account?' he
asked gravely.
'Well, I hope he doesn't,' rejoined Bobby mysteriously. 'But I have my
suspecs of him, acause I always make him sleep with his head on my
pillow close to me, and two mornings I've found him on the floor, and
once under the bed.'
'Ah,' said his uncle, shaking his head at Nobbles, 'I would quite believe
it of him. You'll promise not to give him too hard a thrashing if I tell
you where he was last night. He came into my room and had a fight
with my old cricket bat. He got the worst of it, and went back to your
nursery to get some help. He brought along a ninepin, and they fought
two against one; the poor ninepin was nearly done for, and he rolled
away under the bed and fainted. Then Nobbles slunk off and left him in

the lurch. And this morning the young villain thinks he will play me a
trick, so he put two marbles in my boots. He must have done that in the
early hours before you were awake!'
Bobby's face was a study. Delight, horror, and confusion was depicted
on it. He looked at Nobbles thoughtfully, then he announced:
'I didn't reely fight the cricket bat, I only felt him!'
'But I am talking of Nobbles.'
'He is wicked sometimes,' said Bobby, eyeing him wistfully, 'but I
didded it all mine