Tales from Many Sources | Page 9

"fresh woods
and pastures new." He had seated himself on the threshold to take off
his shoes, when he heard the sound of Thomasina's footsteps, and,
hastily staggering to his feet, toddled forth without farther delay. The
sky was blue above him, the sun was shining, and the air was very
sweet. He ran for a bit and then tumbled, and picked himself up again,
and got a fresh impetus, and so on till he reached the door of the
kitchen garden, which was open. It was an old-fashioned kitchen
garden with flowers in the borders. There were single rose-colored
tulips which had been in the garden as long as Miss Betty could
remember, and they had been so increased by dividing the clumps that
they now stretched in two rich lines of colour down both sides of the

long walk. And John Broom saw them.
"Pick the pretty flowers, love," said he, in imitation of Thomasina's
patronising tone, and forthwith beginning at the end, he went steadily
to the top of the right-hand border, mowing the rose-coloured tulips as
he went.
Meanwhile, when Thomasina came to look for him he could not be
found, and when all the back premises and the drying-ground had been
searched in vain, she gave the alarm to the little ladies.
Miss Kitty's vivid imagination leaped at once to the conclusion that the
child's vagabond relations had fetched him away, and she became rigid
with alarm. But Miss Betty rushed out into the shrubbery, and Miss
Kitty took a whiff of her vinaigrette and followed her.
When they came at last to the kitchen-garden, Miss Betty's grief for the
loss of John Broom did not prevent her observing that there was
something odd about the borders, and when she got to the top, and
found that all the tulips had been picked from one side, she sank down
on the roller which happened to be lying beside her.
And John Broom staggered up to her, and crying, "For 'oo, Miss Betty,"
fell headlong with a sheaf of rose-coloured tulips into her lap.
As he did not offer any to Miss Kitty, her better judgment was not
warped, and she said, "You must slap him, sister Betty."
"Put out your hand, John Broom," said Miss Betty much agitated.
And John Broom, who was quite composed, put out both his little
grubby paws so trustfully that Miss Betty had not the heart to strike
him. But she scolded him, "Naughty boy!" and she pointed to the tulips
and shook her head. John Broom looked thoughtfully at them, and
shook his.
"Naughty boy!" repeated Miss Betty, and she added in very impressive
tones, "John Broom's a very naughty boy!"

After which she took him to Thomasina, and Miss Kitty collected the
rose-colored tulips and put them into water in the best old china
punch-bowl.
In the course of the afternoon she peeped into the kitchen, where John
Broom sat on the floor under the window, gazing thoughtfully up into
the sky.
"As good as gold, bless his little heart!" murmured Miss Kitty. For as
his feet were tucked under him, she did not know that he had just put
his shoes and stockings into the pig-tub, into which he all but fell
himself from the exertion. He did not hear Miss Kitty, and thought on.
He wanted to be out again, and he had a tantalizing remembrance of the
ease with which the tender juicy stalks of the tulips went snap, snap, in
that new place of amusement he had discovered. Thomasina looked
into the kitchen and went away again. When she had gone, John Broom
went away also.
He went both faster and steadier on his bare feet. And when he got into
the kitchen garden, it recalled Miss Betty to his mind. And he shook his
head, and said, "Naughty boy!" And then he went up the left-hand
border, mowing the tulips as he went; after which he trotted home, and
met Thomasina at the back door. And he hugged the sheaf of
rose-coloured tulips in his arms, and said, "John Broom a very naughty
boy!"
Thomasina was not sentimental, and she slapped him well--his hands
for picking the tulips, and his feet for going barefoot.
But his feet had to be slapped with Thomasina's slipper, for his own
shoes could not be found.
In spite of all his pranks, John Broom did not lose the favor of his
friends. Thomasina spoiled him, and Miss Betty and Miss Kitty tried
not to do so.
The parson had said, "Treat the child fairly. Bring him up as he will
have to live hereafter. Don't make him half pet and half servant." And

following this advice, and her own resolve that there should be "no
nonsense" in the matter, Miss