Milly and Olly | Page 2

Olly. Now, Milly, guess--what have father and I just
been talking about?"
"Sending Olly to school, perhaps," said Milly. "I heard Uncle Richard
talking about it yesterday."
"That wouldn't be such a nice something," said Olly, making a long
face. "I wouldn't like it--not a bit. Boys don't never like going to school.
I want to learn my lessons with mother."
"I know a little boy that doesn't like learning lessons with mother very
much," said the lady, laughing. "But my nice something isn't sending
Olly to school, Milly. You're quite wrong--so try again."
"Oh, mother! is it a strawberry tea?" cried Milly. "The strawberries are
just ripe, I know. Gardener told nurse so this morning. And we can
have tea on the lawn, and ask Jacky and Francis!"
"Oh, jolly!" said Oliver, jumping off his mother's knee and beginning to
dance about. "And we'll gather them ourselves--won't you let us,
mother?"
"But it isn't a strawberry tea even," said his mother. "Now, look here,
children, what have I got here?"

"It's a map--a map of England," said Milly, looking very wise. Milly
had just begun to learn geography, and thought she knew all about
maps.
"Well, and what happens when father and I look at maps in the
summertime?"
"Why," said Milly, slowly, "you and father pack up your things, and go
away over the sea, and we stay behind with nurse."
"I don't call that a nice something," said Olly, standing still again.
"Oh, mother, are you going away?" said Milly, hanging round her
mother's neck.
"Yes, Milly, and so's father, and so's nurse"--and their mother began to
laugh.
"So's nurse?" said Milly and Olly together, and then they stopped and
opened two pairs of round eyes very wide, and stared at their mother.
"Oh, mother, mother, take us too!"
"Why, how should father and I get on, travelling about with a pair of
monkeys?" said their mother, catching hold of the two children and
lifting them on to her knee; "we should want a cage to keep them in."
"Oh, mother, we'll be ever so good! But where are we going? Oh, do
take us to the sea!"
"Yes, the sea! the sea!" shouted Olly, careering round the room again;
"we'll have buckets and spades, and we'll paddle and catch crabbies,
and wet our clothes, and have funny shoes, just like Cromer. And
father'll teach me to swim--he said he would next time."
"No," said Mrs. Norton, for that was the name of Milly's and Oliver's
mother. "No, we are not going to the sea this summer. We are going to
a place mother loves better than the sea, though perhaps you children
mayn't like it quite so well. We're going to the mountains. Uncle

Richard has lent father and mother his own nice house among the
mountains and we're all going there next week--such a long way in the
train, Milly."
"What are mountains?" said Olly, who had scarcely ever seen a hill
higher than the church steeple. "They can't be so nice as the sea, mother.
Nothing can."
"They're humps, Olly," answered Milly eagerly. "Great, big humps of
earth, you know; earth mixed with stone. And they reach up ever so
high, up into the sky. And it takes you a whole day to get up to the top
of them, and a whole day to get down again. Doesn't it, mother?
Fräulein told me all about mountains in my geography. And some
mountains have got snow on their tops all year, even in summer, when
it's so hot, and we're having strawberries. Will the mountains we're
going to, have snow on them?"
"Oh, no. The snow mountains are far away over the sea. But these are
English mountains, kind, easy mountains, not too high for you and me
to climb up, and covered all over with soft green grass and wild flowers,
and tiny sheep with black faces."
"And, mother, is there a garden to Uncle Richard's house, and are there
any children there to play with?"
"There's a delightful garden, full of roses, and strawberries and grapes,
and everything else that's nice. And it has a baby river all to itself, that
runs and jumps and chatters all through the middle of it, so perhaps
Olly may have a paddle sometimes, though we aren't going to the sea.
And the gardener has got two little children, just about your age, Aunt
Mary says: and there are two more at the farm, two dear little girls, who
aren't a bit shy, and will like playing with you very much. But who else
shall we see there, Milly? Who lives in the mountains too, near Uncle
Richard?"
Olly looked puzzled, but Milly thought a minute, and then said quickly,
"Aunt Emma, isn't it, mother? Didn't she come