The Settlers at Home | Page 8

have been sound asleep, however," observed Oliver to his sister; "and it is still so early, that I do not believe they have been abroad about mischief in the night. They would not have been awake yet if they had."
"Look! There is a woman!" exclaimed Mildred. "Is that Nan?"
"Yes; that is Nan Redfurn,--Stephen's wife. That is their great net that she has over her arm. They are going to draw the oval pond, I think. We can watch their sport nicely here. They cannot see an inch of us."
"But we do not like that they should watch us," said Mildred, drawing back. "We should not like to know that they were peeping at us from behind a hedge."
"We should not mind it if we were not afraid of them," replied Oliver. "It is because they plot mischief that we cannot bear their prying. We are not going to do them any mischief, you know; and they cannot mean to make any secret of what they are doing in the middle of the carr, with high ground all about it." Satisfied by this, Mildred crouched down, with her arm about her brother's neck, and saw the great net cast, and the pond almost emptied of its fish,--some few being kept for food, and the small fry--especially of the stickleback--being thrown into heaps, to be sold for manure.
"Will they come this way when they have done drawing the pond?" asked Mildred, in some fear, as she saw them moving about.
"I think they will sweep the shallow waters, there to the left, for more stickleback," replied Oliver. "They will make up a load, to sell before the heat of the day, before they set about anything else."
Oliver was right. All the three repaired to the shallow water, and stood among the reeds, so as to be half hidden. The children could see, however, that when little George came down the garden, shouting to them to come to breakfast, the strangers took heed to the child. They turned their heads for a moment towards the garden, and then spoke together and laughed.
"There, now!" cried Oliver, vexed: "that is all because we forgot to go to breakfast. So much for my not having a watch! Mother need not have sent George to make such a noise; but, if I had had a watch, he would not have come at all; and these people would not have been put in mind of us."
"You will soon be able to have a watch now, like the boys in Holland," said Mildred. "Your alabaster things will change away for a watch; will not they? But we might not have remembered breakfast, if you had had a watch."
"We are forgetting it now," said Oliver, catching up George and running to the house, followed by Mildred, who could not help feeling as if Roger was at her heels.
They were surprised to find how late it was. Their father was already gone with Pastor Dendel's load of manure. Their mother only waited to kiss them before she went, and to tell them the their father meant to be back as soon as he could; and that meantime, neighbour Gool had promised to keep an eye on the mill. If anything happened to frighten them, Oliver or Ailwin had only to set the mill-sails agoing, and neighbour Gool and his men would be with them presently. She did not think, however, that anything would happen in the little time that their father would be away.
"I will tell you what we will do!" cried Oliver, starting from his chair, after he had been eating his bread and milk, in silence, for some time after his mother's departure. "Let us dress up a figure to look like father, and set him at the mill-window; so that those Redfurns shall not find out that he is away. Won't that be good?"
"Put him on the mill-steps. They may not look up at the window."
"The mill-steps, then. Where is father's old hat? Put it on the broom there, and see how it looks. Run up to the mill, dear, and bring his jacket--and his apron," he shouted as his sister ran.
Mildred brought both, and they dressed up the broom.
"That will never do," said Mildred. "Look how the sleeves hang; and how he holds his head! It is not a bit like a man."
"'Tis a good scarecrow," declared Ailwin. "I have seen many a worse scarecrow than that."
"But this is to scare the Redfurns, and they are far wiser than crows," said Mildred. "Look how George pulls at the apron, and tugs at the broomstick behind! It does not scare even him."
"It will look very different on the steps--in the open air," Oliver declared. "A bunch or two of straw in the sleeves, and under the jacket, will make