| Share page |
|
174 THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH.
" Sitting in the open air, John !"
"In the open air," replied the Carrier, "just at dusk. ' Carriage Paid,' he said; and gave me eighteenpence. Then he got in. And there he is."
" He's going, John, I think !"
Not at all. He was only going to speak.
" If you please, I was to be left till called for," said the Stranger, mildly. " Don't mind me."
With that, he took a pair of spectacles from one of his large pockets, and a book from another, and leisurely began to read. Making no more of Boxer than if he had been a house lamb !
The Carrier and his wife exchanged a look of perplexity. The Stranger raised his head; and glancing from the latter to the former, said :
" Your daughter, my good friend ?"
"Wife," returned John.
" Niece ?" said the Stranger.
" Wife," roared John.
" Indeed ? " observed the Stranger. " Surely ? Very young !""
He quietly turned over, and resumed his reading. But, before he could have read two lines, he again interrupted himself to say:
" Baby, yours ?"
John gave him a gigantic nod; equivalent to an answer in the affirmative, delivered through a speaking-trumpet.
" Girl ?"
" Bo-o-oy !" roared John.
" Also very young, eh I"
Mrs. Peerybingle instantly struck in. " Two months and three da-ays ! Vaccinated just six weeks ago-o ! Took very fine-ly! Considered, by the doctor, a remarkably beautiful chi-ild ! Equal to the general run of children at five months o-old ! Takes notice, in a way quite won-der-ful! May seem impossible to you, but feels his legs al-ready !"
Here the breathless little mother, who had been shrieking these1 short sentences into the old man's ear, until her pretty face was crimsoned, held up the Baby before him as a stubborn and triumphant fact; while Tilly Slowboy, with a melodious cry of "Ketcher, Ketcher"—which sounded like some unknown words, adapted to a popular Sneeze—performed some cow-like gambols round that all-unconscious Innocent.
" Hark ! He's called for, sure enough," said John. " There's somebody at the door. Open it, Tilly."
Before she could reach it, however, it was opened from without; |
||