Troublesome Comforts | Page 7

besides, you want to yourself."
"No, I don't," said Tom stoutly. "I hate to sit on any one's lap; if you are so anxious you can sit on nurse's."
Susie's eyes threatened to overflow.
"Oh, don't cry, Susie," said her mother, in alarm, "or I shall have to put up my umbrella. Go and build a castle with Tom, and take Amy. I trust her to you. Nurse and I must get the babies home."
Susie always rose to any demand made upon her, and was proud of being trusted. She gathered Dick's shells and seaweed and glittering stones skilfully into his pail, and was really helpful in rolling up the rugs and cushions. She was so pleased to see his rather thin, unsteady legs gathering strength as they wobbled slowly over the sand. When she put her arm round him, she was proud to feel that he really needed support. At the foot of the wooden steps leading up the cliff his mother took him in her arms. She was looking tired and pale, but she smiled very sweetly at Susie.
"My kind little daughter," she said; and Susie beamed.
When she got back to Tom and Amy she found that they were not alone: two other children, a boy and a girl, with bare feet and tucked-up skirts, were standing talking to them.
The boy had black eyes and black hair, and the girl was the image of him; her long, thin legs were like pipe stems, and she spoke in a loud, domineering voice.
"We have watched you all the week," she said, "and we made up our minds to know you. We thought we had better wait until your mother and nurse were out of sight, in case they forbid us to come. Us two are twins."
"Oh, they wouldn't forbid you," said Amy, with hasty politeness.
The boy smiled in a superior way. "They might" he said. "Nurses generally do. We are not particularly good, and nurses are so narrow-minded."
"We are reckless," said the girl. "Our names are Dot and Dash."
"They're pretty good names," said Tom.
"They fit us," said the twins in a breath.
"Both of we were taken out of church last Sunday," said Dot, in an explanatory way and with an air of pride. "When the clergyman came from inside the railings, Dash forgot he was in church, and he jumped up and said quite loud, 'Shut the gate.'"
"Whatever for?" said Tom.
"You see," said Dash, with his air of modest pride, "I always spend the time thinking how many sheep I could pen into the pews, and how many cows I could get behind the railings. I think it could be seventeen _with a squash_, but of course, if you left the gate open, the cows would get into the sheep pens; so, when I saw him go out and leave the bar up, I felt I must run and shut it, and I spoke out loud. I didn't really mean to, but father marched us out of church, and he wouldn't let me explain."
"I suppose you oughtn't to have been thinking of cows and sheep in church," said Amy, in her surprised little voice.
"Shut up, Miss Prig," said Dash; and Amy was obediently silent.
"Shall we play together?" said the twins, with one voice.
"It would be jolly," said Tom.--"Wouldn't it, Susie?"
"Well, you mustn't tell your people," they said, "but every morning after your babies go in we might have a jolly game."
"Mother wouldn't mind, would she, Susie?" said Amy.
"We don't want your opinion," said Tom loftily.
Amy blushed till the tears came. "Would she?" she repeated desperately.
"There's no harm in playing," said Susie.
All her good resolutions were slipping away, and her voice grew excited. Susie was always so carried away by the spirit of adventure, and she forgot so easily. These sands, and the silver sea full of monsters! The black rocks and seaweed--no nurse to bother about wet stockings--no babies who needed a good example! Susie's spirits rose.
"There wouldn't be any harm," she cried eagerly, "and we might have some jolly games. We only wouldn't tell mother, because it might worry her."
"Mother can walk on the rocks," cried Amy eagerly.
"I don't believe it," said Dash. "I don't believe an old woman like that can walk a bit--not like we can."
"Not as fast as us," said Susie.--"Don't be tiresome, Amy; it isn't mother who is tiresome--it's nurse."
"Well, we'll meet to-morrow," said the twins, speaking together, as they generally did, at the top of rather squeaky voices.
They pulled Susie to one side.
"Don't tell the other one," they said, in hoarse whispers; "she'd go and tell."
"She's very young," said Susie, in quick apology, as she ran off.
"Both of we has pails," shouted the twins after her, "and we can bring cake."
"We are not allowed curranty cake," said Susie reluctantly.
"Bosh," said the twins. "Who's to know? We come