Page images
PDF
EPUB
[graphic][merged small][merged small]
[graphic]

HEN Uncle Tom and the children went back to the hayfield, there was the empty waggon just returning from the rick to fetch some hay. Uncle Tom jumped them all in, one after the other, and the carter smacked up the horses, so that they trotted with the waggon-load of children, who had to hold hard to the sides to prevent themselves from being thrown off their feet. Everybody laughed and screamed, as children may at haymaking time; but the jolting of the waggon made Hugh and Harry feel rather sick, for besides their having eaten many more cherries than were good for them, and the cherries being hardly ripe, in their hurry they had bolted a great number of the stones, and now they were rolling about inside them. But they said nothing, only they looked rather pale, until Guy noticed

C

how silent they were, and next that Harry leant over the side of the waggon.

We must guess what he leant over the side for. Had he been in the house he would have run for a basin.

'Hillo!' said Guy.

Hugh felt very vexed that his cousin had seen what Harry was about, and he answered very rudely

'Leave him alone, can't you? Mind your own business.'

But he is ill,' said Guy, without noticing Hugh's rudeness.

[ocr errors]

'Oh!' said Harry. Oh dear!-oh dear!'

Hugh kicked Harry's shins to make him quiet; and as by this time he felt better, Harry took the hint.

'What made you sick, I wonder?' said Guy. 'I wasn't sick,' Harry answered.

Guy looked very much surprised, then said slowly

'I think, Harry, you are a very wicked boy. You have told a horrid story; for I saw you being sick.'

'He wasn't,' said Hugh. 'It is you who have told a story; so you had better hold your tongue.'

Walter and little Edith had been chatting and laughing with each other and had not seen or heard what had passed. Guy turned very red, but said no more. The waggon was going so fast that it soon came to the other end of the field, and Hugh was very glad to get out, for he was afraid of following his brother's example.

They were to have tea in the hayfield, and the maid was already trying to spread the cloth upon the ground, which was all in bumps from the newly-made stubble. The wind was rising a little, and each time Mary Anne tried to smoothe the cloth at one side it blew it up at the other.. She went round and round it, and at last placed a great loaf of bread in the middle, to keep it down, then the wind caught the corners of the cloth and whisked it over the loaf, so that the whole looked like a bundle of dirty linen for the wash. Guy ran to help, and got large stones to place at the corners, so as to keep the cloth down. And Mary Anne said

'Thank you, Master Guy. You always think of something clever to help other people.'

Hugh and Harry began to drag the things about, and upset the butter into the ground, so that it was covered with chips of hay, and then,

when Mary Anne told them to pick it up, they ran away, shouting,- Pick it up yourself.'

After a great many trials the cloth was spread out, and dishes and plates put all over it to keep it down. Mary Anne put on the loaf of bread and a plum-cake, and then went into the house to get some more things. Guy and Hugh had not walked far from the cloth when they heard a grunt, which made them turn round. There was a great fat pig, which had made his way through the hedge into the field, and was now running towards the tea-cloth. Guy shouted and clapped his hands, but the pig only gave a grunt for answer, and trotted faster. Then Guy and Hugh both ran to him, but by the time they had reached him he was standing on the table-cloth with all four of his dirty feet, and was seizing hold of the loaf of bread. Guy pushed the pig with all his might, but pig only grunted, and was too wise to let go the bread. Hugh was surprised at Guy pushing the pig, for he had an idea that all animals, great and small, will bite, and he kept at a good distance from him.

'Get me a stick, Hugh!' shouted Guy. 'He will eat the cake next.'

Hugh found a stick, and Guy thumped the pig's sides with it; but he still grunted, as if

to say, 'Can't you let me enjoy my bread in peace?'

He took a good deal of whacking before he would move at all, and then he went off with the rest of the loaf in his mouth. Just as Guy had managed to drive away the pig, and turn him into his own field, Uncle Tom, Aunt Sophy, and the other children came up, and Mary Anne arrived with the teapot. She was very angry with the pig when she found the bread was gone, and that he had left the marks of his dirty feet all over the cloth; but the children were too hungry to wait to have it changed-all excepting Hugh; the cherry-stones were still rattling about inside him, and it turned him sick even to look at the cake. Aunt Sophy seemed very much surprised that Hugh did not eat anything, and asked him so many questions that he was obliged to try and eat; and he heartily wished the cherries were again hanging in their places in the garden, and their stones inside them.

Uncle Tom had just been helped to a slice of cake, and before eating it, was lifting his cup to his mouth to drink his tea, when everybody heard a grunt, and the pig's nose came round the corner from under Uncle Tom's arm, and gobbled up the cake from off his plate.

« PreviousContinue »