The Adventurous Seven | Page 6

wonder what you will want next?" gasped Mr.
Runciman, who had probably not been so much astonished for a very
long time.
"It would really be taking a great load of worry from you, sir," put in
Rupert eagerly, thrusting himself abreast of Nealie and leaning on his
stick while he talked. "A large family, as we are, would be a valuable
asset in a new country, while here we are only an encumbrance and a
nuisance. Besides, we should like to be with our father."
"Quite so, quite so; but think of the expense!" murmured Mr. Runciman,
as he rubbed his hands together in a nervous manner. He said the first
thing which came into his head for the sake of gaining time. The
proposition was sufficiently staggering, but on the other hand it might
be worth consideration.
"I am afraid that we must be a heavy expense to you now, sir, seeing
that we have to be fed and clothed," replied Rupert, with a deference
that was really soothing to Mr. Runciman, who smiled graciously and
waved his hand as much as to say that the matter was too trifling to be
considered.

"You will let us go, won't you, air, because we want to build the
Empire?" burst out Billykins, thrusting himself in between his elders
and looking so flushed and excited that Mr. Runciman, who had no son
of his own, could not be so repressive as he felt he ought to have been.
"Eh, what? And how do you expect you are going to set about it, young
man?" he demanded, while Billykins went suddenly red in the face,
because Sylvia had tweaked his jacket, which was the signal that he
was overstepping the mark.
"I don't know, but I expect we will find out when we get there. Don and
I mostly find out how to do things, and Nealie says we are going to be
the business men of the family. Rupert and Rumple have got the brains,
but there is practical perseverance in us----"
The small boy came to a sudden pause, for Sylvia, fearing what he
might say next, had dragged him into the background, leaving Nealie to
speak.
"We should be very glad to go to Australia, if you please; for now that
Aunt Judith is dead no one wants us here, and we might be a very great
comfort to our father when he got used to having us." Her voice broke a
little on the last words; she was remembering the letter which she had
so innocently opened and read, and the wonder whether he would be
quite glad to see them at first crept in to spoil her joy at the thought that
perhaps Mr. Runciman was for once going to do the thing they wanted
so badly.
Her words brought a frown to his face, and when he spoke his voice
had an apologetic ring which sounded strangely in the ears of the seven.
"I am sorry that you should feel that no one wants you here. Of course
Mrs. Runciman and my daughters have so many engagements that it is
not easy for them to go as far as Beechleigh very often; but we have
certainly tried to take care of you since your great-aunt passed away."
"You have been most kind," said Nealie hastily, divining in a vague
fashion that she had somehow said something to hurt his feelings,

which was certainly outside her intentions. "But we hate to be a
continual burden upon our connections, and there seems no way in
which we can earn money here."
"Don and I could keep pigs on the stubble fields, only Nealie won't let
us. We could earn half a crown a week at it too," burst out Billykins,
thrusting himself to the front like a jack-in-the-box and disappearing as
suddenly, being again dragged back by Sylvia.
There was a troubled look on the face of Mr. Runciman as his gaze
rested upon Nealie, who was the living image of her dead mother.
There was a secret chamber in his heart that was tenanted by the
mournful memory of a dead love. He had loved the mother of the seven,
but she had passed him by to marry Dr. Plumstead, and so the secret
chamber had held nothing but a shrine ever since, only it made him a
little kinder to the motherless children than he otherwise might have
been.
"It would be a tremendous expense to send you all such a long
distance," he said, still speaking for the sake of gaining time, yet
disposed to regard the proposal as a really practical way in which to
solve the problem of their future.
"It could be done for about seventy pounds, I think, if we went steerage;