The Adventurous Seven | Page 5

to wait on themselves during the long illness of
Aunt Judith, for Mrs. Puffin had her hands full with nursing, while
since the death of the old lady she had been in such poor health that
Nealie and Sylvia had done all the cooking and most of the housework,
with a great deal of help from the others.
Breakfast consisted of big plates of porridge and slices of home-made
bread spread with damson jam. There were two trees in Aunt Judith's
small garden, and they had borne a record crop this year.
There was no lingering over their food this morning, but directly the
meal was dispatched the boys washed up the breakfast crockery, while
the girls made the beds and put the rooms tidy. Then Nealie asked Mrs.
Puffin to make them a suet pudding and bake them some potatoes for
dinner, after which they brushed themselves into a fine state of neatness,
and then, bringing the bath chair from the shed, Rupert and Ducky were
packed into it and the expedition set out on the five miles' journey to
The Paddock, Smethwick, where Mr. Runciman lived.
It was still quite early, and Mr. Runciman, having dealt with the
morning's letters, was sitting in his library looking through the daily
paper before going out to interview his steward and settling the other
business of the day, when the butler entered the room and announced:
"The seven Misses and Masters Plumstead to see you, sir."
"Goodness gracious, what next?" exclaimed Mr. Runciman in a tone of
positive alarm.
"Shall I show them in, if you please, sir?" asked the butler in a
sympathetic fashion, looking as if he really felt sorry for the perturbed
gentleman.

"All seven of them? Yes, I suppose you must, and see here, Roberts,
just ask the housekeeper to have some cakes and cocoa, or something
of that kind, ready for them to have before they go back to Beechleigh,
for I suppose that they are walking?"
"Yes, sir; that is to say, some of them are, but the lame young
gentleman and the little girl rode down in a bath chair," replied the
butler, and then permitted himself a grin of pure amusement as he
retired from the room to usher in the visitors, for the harassed master of
the house fairly groaned at the thought of having callers arrive in such a
fashion.
"The Misses and Masters Plumstead," announced the butler, throwing
open the door with the grand flourish which was worth at least ten
pounds a year to him in salary.
Nealie and Ducky entered first, followed by Rupert, walking alone,
then came Sylvia and Rumple, while Don and Billykins brought up the
rear.
Mr. Runciman rose at once and came forward to greet them, trying very
hard to infuse as much cordiality as possible into his manner.
"My dear children, what an unexpected pleasure! Why, Cornelia, you
are positively blooming, and my little friend Hilda is as charming as
always. Ah, Rupert, my boy, how goes the Latin? Nothing like the dead
languages for training the mind. Sylvia, you grow so fast that there is
no keeping up with you. Dalrymple, you will have to use the
dumb-bells more or you will positively have Donald and William beat
you in the matter of height."
It was one of Mr. Runciman's vices in the eyes of the seven that he
would always give them the full benefit of their baptismal names,
although he knew, because they had told him so, that they simply hated
the formal mode of address, which no one used except himself. It
always had the effect of making them stiff and self-conscious; so now
Rupert limped more than usual, Sylvia dropped her gloves, which she
was carrying because they had too many holes to be wearable, and

Rumple lurched against a pile of books that lay at the edge of the table
and brought the whole lot to the floor with a crash.
"Sorry," murmured Rumple, diving hastily to recover the volumes, and
promptly knocking his head against that of Billykins, who was also
grovelling for the same purpose, while Nealie plunged into the business
of their visit, hoping to divert the attention of the master of the house
from the awkwardness of the boys, poor things; but Sylvia giggled in
quite a disgraceful fashion, then blinked hard at a bust of Apollo which
stood on a bookshelf opposite, and tried to look as if she were
appreciating the admirable way in which it was sculptured.
"We have come down to see you to-day to ask you if you will please
send us out to New South Wales to our father," said Nealie, holding her
head at an extremely haughty angle, just because she was so very
nervous.
"Good gracious! I