Teddy | Page 6

you'd hurt a hair of his head."
"Well, let it be then," replied she, accepting this amende and setting to
work gathering together the mite's goods and chattels that were still
lying on the floor of the waiting-room--with the exception of the kitten,
which he had himself again assumed the proprietorship of and now
held tightly in his arms, even as he was clasped by Jupp and elevated
above the porter's shoulder. "I must see about taking him home again."
"Shall I carry him for you, miss?" asked Jupp. "The down-train ain't
due for near an hour yet, and I dessay I can get my mate to look out for

me while I walks with you up the village."
"You are very kind," said she; "but, I hardly like to trouble you?"
"No trouble at all, miss," replied Jupp heartily. "Why, the little
gentleman's only a featherweight."
"That's because you're such a fine strong man. I find him heavy enough,
I can tell you."
Jupp positively blushed at her implied compliment. "I ain't much to
boast of ag'in a delicate young 'ooman as you," he said at last; "but,
sartenly, I can carry a little shaver like this; and, besides, look how the
snow's a coming down."
"Well, if you will be so good, I'd be obliged to you," interposed the
nurse hurriedly as if to stop any further explanations on Jupp's part, he
having impulsively stepped nearer to her at that moment.
"All right then!" cried he, his jolly face beaming with delight at the
permission to escort her. "Here, Grigson!"
"That's me!" shouted another porter appearing mysteriously from the
back of the office, in answer to Jupp's stentorian hail.
"Just look out for the down-train, 'case I ain't back in time. I'm just
agoin' to take some luggage for this young woman up to the village."
"Aye, just so," replied the other with a sly wink, which, luckily for
himself, perhaps, Jupp did not see, as, holding the mite tenderly in his
arms, with his jacket thrown over him to protect him from the snow, he
sallied out from the little wayside station in company with the nurse,
the latter carrying all Master Teddy's valuables, which she had re-
collected and tied up again carefully within the folds of the red
pocket-handkerchief bundle wherein their proprietor had originally
brought them thither.
Strange to say, the mite did not exhibit the slightest reluctance in

returning home, as might have been expected from the interruption of
his projected plan of going to London to see his "d'an'ma."
On the contrary, his meeting with Jupp and introduction to him as a
new and estimable acquaintance, as well as the settlement of all
outstanding grievances between himself and his nurse, appeared to
have quite changed his views as to his previously-cherished expedition;
so that he was now as content and cheerful as possible, looking
anything but like a disappointed truant.
Indeed, he more resembled a successful conqueror making a triumphal
entry into his capital than a foiled strategist defeated in the very
moment of victory!
"I like oo," he said, pulling at Jupp's black beard in high glee and
chuckling out aloud in great delight as they proceeded towards the
village, the nurse clinging to the porter's other and unoccupied arm to
assist her progress through the snow-covered lane, down which the
wind rushed every now and then in sudden scurrying gusts, whirling
the white flakes round in the air and blinding the wayfarers as they
plodded painfully along.
"I don't know what I should have done without your help," she
observed fervently after a long silence between the two, only broken by
Master Teddy's shouts of joy when a snow-flake penetrating beneath
Jupp's jacket made the kitten sneeze. "I'm sure I should never have got
home to master's with the boy!"
"Don't name it," whispered Jupp hoarsely beneath his beard, which the
snow had grizzled, lending it a patriarchal air. "I'm only too proud, miss,
to be here!" and he somehow or other managed to squeeze her arm
closer against his side with his, making the nurse think how nice it was
to be tall and strong and manly like the porter!
"They'll be in a rare state about Master Teddy at the vicarage!" she said
after they had plodded on another hundred yards, making but slow
headway against the drifting snow and boisterous wind. "I made him
angry by taking away his kitten, I suppose, and so he determined to

make off to his gran'ma; for we missed him soon after the children's
dinner. I thought he was in the study with Mr Vernon; but when I came
to look he wasn't there, and so we all turned out to search for him.
Master made sure we'd find him in the village; but