Us | Page 7

eat so much! This morning they had not half finished when their appetites began to flag. Perhaps it was with the excitement of Nurse being absent--perhaps they chattered and "played" over their breakfast, not having her to keep them up to the mark--I can't say. But the bowls were still deplorably full, though the milk was no longer steaming, and the little squares of bread had lost their neat shape, and were all "squashy" together, when Duke threw down his spoon in despair.
"I can't eat any more, sister. I cannot try any more."
Pamela opened her lips to make some reproach; she was a very "proper" little girl, as you have probably discovered, but the words died away before they were uttered, as her eyes fell on her own bowl, and with a deep sigh she said:
"I'm afraid I can't finish mine either. And after us saying to Nurse about going to be so good."
Her blue eyes began to look very dewy. Duke, who could not bear to see his dear "sister" sad, spoke out (in Nurse's absence be it observed) valiantly--more so, it must be confessed, than was his wont.
"I don't see that it's naughty of us not to eat more when us isn't hungry for more. I think it would be like little pigs to eat more than they want. Little pigs would go on eating all day just 'cos they're too silly, and they've got nothing else to do."
"But," objected Pamela, "us haven't eaten as much as us can, Duke, for you know downstairs us could eat Grandmamma's treat. I could--I could snap it up in a minute, and the tea too, and yet I _can't_ eat any more bread and milk!" and she gazed at the bowl with a puzzled as well as doleful expression. "I'm afraid--yes, I'm afraid, Duke, that us is dainty like Master Frederick and Miss Lucy in 'Amusing Tales.' And Nurse says it is so very naughty to be dainty when so many poor children would fink our bread and milk such a great treat."
"I'm sure I wish, then, they'd come and eat it," said Duke. "I'd be very glad to give it them."
His boldness quite took away his sister's breath, and she looked up at him in astonishment.
"_Bruvver!_" she said reproachfully.
"Well, there's nothing naughty in that. It would be much better than letting it all be wasted. And----" but just at that moment came a queer little sound at the door, which made Duke tumble off his high chair as fast as he could, and hurry to open it.
"It's Toby," he cried.
Toby, sure enough, it was--Toby with his little black nose and bright eyes gleaming from behind the overhanging shaggy hair, that no one but a Toby could have seen through without squinting--Toby, rather subdued and meekly inquiring at first, as if not quite sure of his welcome, till--a glance round the room satisfying him that there was no one to dread, no one but his two dearly-beloved friends--his courage returned, and he rushed towards them with short yelps of delight, twisting about his furry little body, and wagging his queer short feathery tail, till one could not tell what was what of him, and almost expected to see him shake himself into bits!
"Toby, dear Toby!" cried the children, all their perplexities forgotten for the moment. "How clever of him--isn't it?--to come to see us this morning, just as if he knew us was alone. Dear Toby--but hush! don't make a noise, Toby, or Nurse may be vexed--are you so pleased to see us, Toby?"
Suddenly Duke separated himself from the group of three all rolling in a heap on the floor together and made for the table, and before Pamela could see what he was doing he was back again--his bowl, into which he had poured the contents of his sister's as well, in his hand, and in another moment Toby's nose was in the bowl too, to Toby's supreme content! It was done now--there was no stopping him till he had done. Aghast, and yet filled with admiration, Pamela could only express her feelings by the one word--"Bruvver!"
"Isn't it a good thought?" said Duke. "Why, he'll have finished it all in a minute, and nobody will ever know that it wasn't us. And nothing will have been wasted. There now," as Toby, having really made wonderfully quick work, lifted from the now empty bowl his hairy muzzle bespattered with remains of bread and milk, which he proceeded to lick away with his sharp bright-red tongue, with an air of the greatest satisfaction.
For a moment or two Pamela's face expressed nothing but approval. But gradually a little cloud stole over it.
"What shall us say if Grandpapa and Grandmamma ask if us have eaten all our bread and milk?" she said.
Duke considered.
"Us can