The good lady was so anxious for everything to be exactly as the children liked it, that sometimes Laura felt quite at a loss what to say or do. One day, having cracked her egg-sh.e.l.l at breakfast, Mrs. Darwin peeped anxiously over her shoulder, saying,

"I hope, my dear! your egg is all right?"

"Most excellent indeed!"

"Is it quite fresh?"

"Perfectly! I dare say it was laid only a minute before it was boiled!"

"I have seen the eggs much larger than that."

"Yes! but then I believe they are rather coa.r.s.e,--at least we think so, when Mrs. Crabtree gives us a turkey egg at dinner."

"If you prefer them small, perhaps you would like a guinea-fowl's egg?"

"Thank you! but this one is just as I like them."

"It looks rather over-done! If you think so, we could get another in a minute!"

"No! they are better well boiled!"

"Then probably it is not enough done. Some people like them quite hard, and I could easily pop it into the slop-basin for another minute."

"I am really obliged to you, but it could not be improved."

"Do you not take any more salt with your egg?"

"No, I thank you!"

"A few more grains would improve it!"

"If you say so, I dare say they will."

"Ah! now I am afraid you have put in too much! pray do get another!"

This long-continued attack upon her egg was too much for Laura's gravity, who appeared for some minutes to have a violent fit of coughing, and ending in a burst of laughter, after which she hastily finished all that remained of it, and thus ended the discussion.

In the midst of all their happiness, while the children thought that every succeeding day had no fault but being too short, and Harry even planned with Peter to stop the clock altogether, and see whether time itself would not stand still, n.o.body ever thought for a moment of anything but joy; and yet a very sad and sudden distress awaited Mrs.

Darwin. One forenoon she received a letter that seemed very hastily and awkwardly folded,--the seal was all to one side, and surrounded with stray drops of red wax,--the direction appeared sadly blotted, and at the top was written in large letters, the words, "To be delivered immediately."

When Mrs. Darwin hurriedly tore open this very strange-looking letter, she found that it came from her own housekeeper in town, to announce the dreadful event that her sister, Lady Barnet, had been that day seized with an apoplectic fit, and was thought to be at the point of death, therefore it was hoped that Mrs. Darwin would not lose an hour in returning to town, that she might be present on the melancholy occasion.

The shock of hearing this news was so very great, that poor Mrs. Darwin could not speak about it, but after trying to compose herself for a few minutes, she went into the play-room, and told the children that, for reasons she could not explain, they must get ready to return home in an hour, when the car would be at the door for their journey.

Nothing could exceed their surprise on hearing Mrs. Darwin make such an unexpected proposal. At first Peter Grey thought she was speaking in jest, and said he would prefer if she ordered out a balloon to travel in, this morning; but when it appeared that Mrs. Darwin was really in earnest about their pleasant visit being over so soon, Harry's face grew perfectly red with pa.s.sion, while he said in a loud angry voice,

"Grandmama allowed me to stay here till Friday!--and I was invited to stay,--and I will not go anywhere else!"

"Oh fie, Master Harry!" said Mrs. Crabtree. "Do not talk so! You ought to know better! I shall soon teach you, however, to do as you are bid!"

Saying these words, she stretched out her hand to seize violent hold of him, but Harry dipped down and escaped. Quickly opening the door, he ran, half in joke and half in earnest, at full speed up two pairs of stairs, followed closely by Mrs. Crabtree, who was now in a terrible rage, especially when she saw what a piece of fun Harry thought this fatiguing race. A door happened to be standing wide open on the second landing-place, which, having been observed by Harry, he darted in, and slammed it in Mrs. Crabtree's face, locking and double-locking it, to secure his own safety, after which he sat down in this empty apartment to enjoy his victory in peace. When people once begin to grow self-willed and rebellious, it is impossible to guess where it will all end! Harry might have been easily led to do right at first, if any one had reasoned with him and spoken kindly, but now he really was in a sort of don't-care-a-b.u.t.ton humour, and scarcely minded what he did next.

As long as Mrs. Crabtree continued to scold and rave behind the door, Harry grew harder and harder; but at length the good old lady, Mrs.

Darwin herself, arrived up stairs, and represented how ungrateful he was, not doing all in his power to please her, when she had taken so much pains to make him happy. This brought the little rebel round in a moment, as he became quite sensible of his own misconduct, and resolved immediately to submit. Accordingly, Harry tried to open the door, but, what is very easily done cannot sometimes be undone, which turned out the case on this occasion, as, with all his exertions, the key would not turn in the lock! Harry tried it first one way, then another. He twisted with his whole strength, till his face became perfectly scarlet with the effort, but in vain! At last he put the poker through the handle of the key, thinking this a very clever plan, and quite sure to succeed, but after a desperate struggle, the unfortunate key broke in two, so then n.o.body could possibly open the door!

After this provoking accident happened, Harry felt what a very bad boy he had been, so he burst into tears, and called through the key-hole to beg Mrs. Darwin's pardon, while Mrs. Crabtree scolded him through the key-hole in return, till Harry shrunk away as if a cannonading had begun at his ear.

Meantime, Mrs. Darwin hurried off, racking her brains to think what had best be done to deliver the prisoner, since no time could be lost, or she might perhaps not get to town at all that night, and the car was expected every minute, to come round for the travellers. The gardener said he thought it might be possible to find a few ladders, which, being tied one above another, would perhaps reach as high as the window, where Harry had now appeared, and by which he could easily scramble down; so the servants made haste to fetch all they could find, and to borrow all they could see, till a great many were collected. These they joined together very strongly with ropes, but when it was at last reared against the wall, to the great disappointment of Mrs. Darwin, the ladder appeared a yard and a-half too short!

What was to be done?

The obliging gardener mounted to the very top of his ladder, and Harry leaned so far over the window, he seemed in danger of falling out, but still they did not reach one another, so not a single person could guess what plan was to be tried next. At length Harry called out very loudly to the gardener,

"Hollo! Mr. King of Spades! If I were to let myself drop very gently down from the window, could you catch me in your arms?"

"Mr. Harry! Mr. Harry! if you dare!" cried Mrs. Crabtree, shaking her fist at him. "You'll be broken in pieces like a tea-pot, you'll be made as flat as a pancake! Stay where you are! Do ye hear!"

But Harry seemed suddenly grown deaf, and was now more than half out--fixing his fingers very firmly on the ledge of the window, and slowly dropping his legs downwards.

"Oh Harry! you will be killed!" screamed Laura. "Stop! stop! Harry, are you mad? can n.o.body stop him?"

But n.o.body could stop him, for, being so high above everybody's head, Harry had it all his own way, and was now nearly hanging altogether out of the window, but he stopped a single minute, and called out, "Do not be frightened, Laura! I have behaved very ill, and deserve the worst that can happen. If I do break my head, it will save Mrs. Crabtree the trouble of breaking it for me, after I come down."

The gardener now balanced himself steadily on the upper step of the ladder, and spread his arms out, while Harry slowly let himself drop.

Laura tried to look on without screaming out, as that might have startled him, but the scene became too frightful, so she closed her eyes, put her hands over her face and turned away, while her heart beat so violently, that it might almost have been heard. Even Mrs. Crabtree clasped her hands in an agony of alarm, while Mrs. Darwin put up her pocket handkerchief, and could not look on another moment. An awful pause took place, during which, a feather falling on the ground would have startled them, when suddenly a loud shout from Peter Grey and the other children, which was gaily echoed from the top of the ladder, made Laura venture to look up, and there was Harry safe in the gardener's arms, who soon helped him down to the ground, where he immediately asked pardon of everybody for the fright he had given them.

There was no time for more than half a scold from Mrs. Crabtree, as Mrs.

Darwin's car had been waiting some time; so Harry said she might be owing him the rest, on some future occasion.

"Yes! and a hundred lashes besides!" added Peter Grey, laughing. "Pray touch him up well, Mrs. Crabtree, when you are about it. There is no law against cruelty to boys!"

This put Mrs. Crabtree into such a rage, that she followed Peter with a perfect hail-storm of angry words, till at last, for a joke, he put up Mrs. Darwin's umbrella to screen himself, and immediately afterwards the car drove slowly off.

When uncle David heard all the adventures at Ivy Lodge, he listened most attentively to "the confessions of Master Harry Graham," and shook his head in a most serious manner after they were concluded, saying, "I have always thought that boys are like cats, with nine lives at least! You should be hung up in a basket, Harry, as they do with unruly boys in the South Sea Islands, where such young gentlemen as you are left dangling in the air for days together without a possibility of escape!"

"I would not care for that compared with being teazed and worried by Mrs. Crabtree. I really wish, uncle David, that Dr. Bell would order me never to be scolded any more! It is very bad for me! I generally feel an odd sort of over-all-ish-ness as soon as she begins; and I am getting too big now, for any thing but a birch-rod like Frank. How pleasant it is to be a grown-up man, uncle David, as you are, sitting all day at the club with your hat on your head, and nothing to do but look out of the window. That is what I call happiness!"

"But once upon a time, Harry," said Lady Harriet, "when I stopped in the carriage for your uncle David at the club, he was in the middle of such a yawn at the window, that he very nearly dislocated his jaw! it was quite alarming to see him, and he told me in a great secret, that the longest and most tiresome hours of his life are, when he has nothing particular to do."

"Now, at this moment, I have nothing particular to do," said Major Graham, "therefore I shall tell you a wonderful story, children, about liking to be idle or busy, and you must find out the moral for yourselves."

"A story! a story!" cried Harry and Laura, in an ecstacy of delight, and as they each had a knee of uncle David's, which belonged to themselves, they scrambled into their places, exclaiming, "Now let it be all about very bad boys, and giants, and fairies!"

CHAPTER IX.

UNCLE DAVID'S NONSENSICAL STORY ABOUT GIANTS AND FAIRIES.