The Happy Adventurers | Page 5

He
leapt forward with a short bark, but the girl laid a restraining hand on
his back:
"Down, Laddie, down," she said, "don't you know a friend when you
see one? Come in, Mollie."
And suddenly Mollie knew where she was. This was Adelaide, in
Australia; that was the child in the photograph, whose name, she knew,
was Prudence Campbell; and they were living in the year 1878.

CHAPTER II
The Builders or The Little House
Mollie left the white gate, which swung behind her with a sharp click,
and walked up the path towards Prudence. Laddie circled round with a
few inquiring sniffs, decided that the newcomer was harmless, and
stood blinking his eyes in the sunlight, his bushy tail waving slowly
from side to side. Prudence slid an arm through Mollie's.
"I'm so glad you've come," she said. "Hugh's little house is all but
finished, and he promised to let us up to-day. Let's go and sit beside
Grizzel till he calls."

Mollie's eyes followed the turn of Prue's head, and she saw a younger
child seated upon the golden floor beyond the flower-beds. This child
wore an overall of bright blue cotton, shaped like Prue's, and her head
was covered with short red curls, which shone in the sun like burnished
copper. Prudence frowned a little as she looked at her sister:
"How Grizzel can sit in the middle of that yellow, dressed in that blue,
with that red hair, I can't think," she said. "She calls herself an artist,
but it simply puts my teeth on edge. Did you ever see anything so
ugly?"
"Ugly!" Mollie repeated in surprise. "I think it is beautiful, just like a
picture in Colour. What is she doing?"
The child looked up at that moment and smiled at them. "Hullo,
Mollie," she said in a friendly tone, as if she were quite well acquainted
with the new arrival, "come and see my dandelion-chain; it's nearly
done."
Prudence jumped the flower-bed, followed by Mollie and the dog, and
all three made their way through the thickly growing dandelions, and
seated themselves beside Grizzel. She had filled her lap with
dandelions, and was busily occupied in linking them together as
English children link a daisy-chain.
"What are you doing?" Mollie asked again, as her eyes followed
Grizzel's chain, and she observed that it stretched far away out of sight
among the trees and bushes.
"I am laying a chain right round the garden," Grizzel replied. "When it
is finished it will be the longest dandelion-chain in the world."
"What are you going to do with it?" asked Mollie.
"Nothing," answered Grizzel.
"Then what's the good of making it?" asked Mollie.

"It isn't meant to be any good," answered Grizzel, "it's only meant to be
the longest dandelion-chain in the world."
"But there's nothing beautiful about longness," persisted Mollie. "You
wouldn't like to have the longest nose in the world."
"It would be rather nice," said Grizzel, working as steadily as the
Princess in Hans Andersen's tale of the "White Swans", "then I could
smell all the delicious smells there are. Mamma says a primrose- patch
in an English wood is delicious."
"Don't waste your breath trying to make Grizzel change her mind,"
Prudence interposed. "Papa says you might as well explain to a pigling
which way you want it to go. Let's help with her chain and get it
finished. I'm tired of it." She threw a handful of yellow bloom into
Mollie's lap as she spoke, and began herself to link some stalks together
in a somewhat dreamy and lazy fashion. Mollie followed her example
more briskly.
"It's a pity, you know," she said to Grizzel, "to leave the poor little
flowers withering all round the garden when they might have gone on
growing for days. They will soon be faded and forgotten."
"I'd rather fade in the longest chain in the world than be one of a
million dandelions growing on their roots," Grizzel said, pulling a fresh
handful and shifting her chain to make room for them.
Mollie shook her head but did not argue any more. She dropped her
chain and looked round the garden. Although the sun was so warm and
bright the flowers were those which grow in springtime in England.
Daffodils, narcissus, freesias, and violets grew thickly in the borders
and under the trees, which seemed to be mostly fruit-trees, though
Mollie did not recognize them all. Peach and apricot were in bloom; fig
trees and mulberry trees spread out their broad leaves; and an immense
vividly scarlet geranium dazzled even Mollie's modern eyes. It was a
funny mixture of seasons, she thought.
Suddenly Prudence jumped to her feet, letting all her dandelions drop

unheeded. "There's Hugh!" she exclaimed; "he is calling us. The house
must be