Terry | Page 2

thick an' thin, if it was through
the fire. But still an' all it never does be him that sets the mischief
goin'."
"But Turlough is only eight years old. Terry is ten, and two years of a
bush life at that age make a great deal more difference than the count of
the days," said Madam musingly.

Madam Trimleston was a pretty old lady who had soft white hair and
sweet blue eyes, and wore handsome lace caps with peachy ribbons in
them; and she usually sat in a high-backed arm-chair either at the fire or
the window in her own room with Nurse Nancy attending on her. For
Madam was very delicate, and since she had been left alone in old
Trimleston House she rarely went down into the great rooms below.
"It would make you cry," Nancy would say, "to see her sittin' there all
by herself, afther the family she rared, an' them all scatthered about
over the four corners of the earth; an' the rest o' them in heaven!"
It is true that Madam had sons holding posts in different lands, but her
daughters had "all died on her", as Nancy lamented. However, though
old Trimleston House stood in a lonely part of Ireland, between the
hills and the sea, yet Madam was not so desolate as might have been
supposed, for she was beloved by all the "neighbours" for twenty miles
around, and poor and rich made their sympathy felt by her. And
everyone was glad when her favourite son in Africa sent home his two
children to her care; no one so glad as the dear old granny herself,
unless it might be Nurse Nancy.
To tell how the grandmother and nurse, whose hands had once been so
full and were now so long empty, went into the deserted nurseries and
furbished them up till everything looked as good as new would require
a chapter to itself. A handy man was sent for to come two miles and
paint up the old rocking-horse which had been standing for years with
its nose in a corner of a closet and its sides all blistered with damp; and
nine-pins, tops, and marbles were hunted out of drawers and cupboards.
"Mercy me! Look here, madam! If this isn't the dog that Misther Jack
broke the ear off knockin' its head against the wall one day and him in a
passion!" said Nurse Nancy.
She was afraid to bring forth the dolls, with their associations, but the
mother herself went to look for them.
"We are getting a little girl, Nancy," she said, "and we can't have
nothing but boys' toys for her to play with."

Nancy nodded her head, but Madam went boldly to the drawer, looked
at the dolls with their faded cheeks and glassy eyes, shook out their gay
frocks, and laid them back in their place. Nancy said nothing, but when
Madam remarked that evening:
"I am writing for one or two new ones. They will be fresher. And you
might lock up the old ones and leave them where they are," Nancy
knew exactly what her mistress was thinking of.
But that was more than a year ago. The story of how the girl and boy
came, and how the two old women, who had many years ago been so
clever in the management of children, failed utterly with the "young
African savages", as a lady neighbour twenty miles distant described
Terry and Turly, need not be told. There had been utter dismay in
Trimleston House: and after much struggling with difficulties, Madam
had been obliged to yield to the decision of their father and to send
them to school.
There had been a summer vacation, the recollection of which made
Madam and Nurse Nancy tremble; hence the serious expectation with
which they are awaiting at the present moment the arrival of the
children for the Christmas holidays.
CHAPTER II
"ONLY MISS TERRY COME BACK TO US!"
"Yes," continued Madam; "from what the good schoolmistress has
written to me, and from the child's own letters, I am hoping to find my
granddaughter grown into quite a gentle little lady."
A shout from somewhere below the windows interrupted her, a shout
so unusual and peculiar that Madam and Nurse Nancy were silenced,
and sat listening and looking at one another. More cries followed,
astonished, admiring, and then a sound from a little distance of wild,
shrill cheering began to come nearer.
Madam and Nurse Nancy stood up and hurried to a window

overlooking the drive in front of the house, and then to another through
which they could see the avenue approaching it.
There was a hint of dusk in the air, yet enough light to show a strange
sight, a horse and car flying along