The Adventurous Seven | Page 3

send enough money to keep us, and we have all got such big
appetites," said Nealie, with a sigh.
"I am hungry now, dreadfully hungry," put in Billykins from the rear.
"Shall we go to see Mr. Runciman to-morrow?" asked Rumple.
"We can't manage to get back before dark, I am afraid, and Mrs. Puffin
makes such a fuss if we are out after dark; just as if anyone would want
to run away with the seven of us," returned Nealie in a scornful tone.
"We can go in the morning, for the vicar is going to a Diocesan
Conference, and he has given us a holiday. He told me about it

to-night," said Rupert.
"That will be lovely. Then we will have Aunt Judith's chair for you and
Ducky, it will be just a jolly jaunt for us; only we must be at The
Paddock early, to catch Mr. Runciman before he goes out," said Nealie.
"I would rather walk----" began Ducky, with a touch of petulance in her
voice, but Nealie stopped her quickly with a whisper:
"You must ride, darling, or Rupert won't have the chair, and a long
walk does take it out of him so badly you know."
"If we have the chair, Don and I will be the horses, and we will go
down Coombe Lane at a gallop," said Billykins, with a festive prance.
"That will be perfectly lovely, only Rupert will have to hold me tightly
or I shall be tossed out at the turn, and I might damage my nose again,"
replied Ducky, with a gleeful chuckle.
By this time they had reached Beechleigh, and turning short across the
green by the pond they tramped in at the gate of the funny little house
where their great-aunt, Miss Judith Webber, had lived and died, and
which was the only home they had known since Ducky was a tiny babe.
Mrs. Puffin, a lean little widow of mouldy aspect, opened the door to
let them in and exclaimed loudly to see how damp they were.
"Now you will all be catching colds, and I shall have to nurse you," she
said in a woebegone tone, as she felt them all round. "If you must go
out in the wet in this fashion, why can't you take umbrellas?"
"Because we haven't got them," answered Nealie, with a laugh. She
mostly laughed about their limitations, because it made them just a
little easier to bear. "The little boys had the last umbrella that we
possess to play at Bedouin tents with on Tuesday, and they had a sad
accident and broke three of its ribs, poor thing. But we shall not catch
cold, Mrs. Puffin, because we are all going straight to bed."

"But I am hungry," protested Billykins.
"I know, and so am I; but we will all have a big piece of seed cake
when we get into bed, and go to sleep to dream of big bowls of
steaming porridge with brown sugar on the top," said Nealie; and the
vision proved so alluring that all seven trooped up the dark stairs and
crowded into the small bedrooms, feeling quite cheerful in spite of tired
limbs, hunger, and the discomfort of damp clothes.
But their voices hushed, and a wistful look crept into their faces, as
they passed the door leading into Aunt Judith's empty bedroom. The
old lady had loved them so dearly, and they had given her love for love
in unstinted measure, so that now she was dead there was an awful
blank in their hearts and their lives.
Being very tired and very healthy, however, they went to sleep directly
they tumbled into bed; indeed Ducky could not keep awake long
enough to eat her cake, so Nealie laid it on the chair by the little girl's
bed for her to find when she opened her eyes in the morning.
Sleep was longer in coming to Nealie than to the others. She was older
than they were, and had been mother to them so long that she was apt
to be thinking out ways and means when she ought to have been asleep.
It would be too utterly delightful to go out to Australia and live with
her father. It was nearly seven years since she had seen him, and her
heart was always aching at the thought of his lonely exile.
If only Mr. Runciman would consent to their going! But would he?
"Well, it is of no use to worry and to wonder; we must just wait and see.
But I think when all seven of us go marching into that splendid library
of his at The Paddock, he will be so dismayed to see what a lot of us
there are, that he will be quite