“We’ll have a dear little cottage in the country,” she was saying, “with ivy and roses growing all over it, and a garden, full of fruit and flowers and vegetables, and chickens—you must let us have chickens, mother—and a cat and kittens, and a big dog, and then we shall enjoy ourselves all day long. Won’t it be lovely, baby? And you’ll learn to walk, and grow up straight and tall, and Kitty will get the roses back into those white cheeks of hers, and mother will get well and strong and happy.”
“It is sad, though,” said Mrs. Coleson, “to think how many poor things we shall leave behind us in London, whose grandmothers have no money to leave them, and who will live as we have been living until they die.”
The children were quiet for a little while; but they soon began to plan how they would have some little girls and boys they knew to stay with them in that new home, and they should enjoy themselves too.
Already Mrs. Coleson had some money to use, and she could have as much more as she liked, while she made her arrangements for leaving Wingate Row. But her first duty was to pay her debt to Mr. Kayll, whose visit to her had, as she knew, resulted in a great trouble falling upon his family.
“This afternoon, Amy,” she said, interrupting the children’s chatter, “I think, if the rain and thunder are over, you and I might leave Kitty and baby in Mrs. Smith’s care while we go over to Denham Green.”
Amy looked delighted.
“How lovely!” she cried. “You won’t mind being left, baby, will you?”
The child only laughed, for their old landlady was almost like another mother to them all, and they were greatly attached to her.
And so it befell that the same day, towards evening, Mrs. Coleson and Amy went over to Buxton Street, but not to No. 15, for that number had ceased to exist.
It was now their turn to aid, comfort, and advise, although, indeed, there were plenty of people willing to help the sufferers by the accident as far as lay in their power. There were doors open to them, meals for them to share, offers of assistance in saving what was left of their belongings from the wreck. Poor Mrs. Kayll, however, sadly needed someone to manage for her, for this last calamity had been such a shock, that at first she seemed quite helpless and broken down.