“That’s just like Mr. Rock,” said John McClure. “Come along, children, we’ll be looking at the flowers, and Mr. Rock will see that you don’t go hungry.”
“But——” Cassy looked confused. “I—mother——Do you think mother would like it, Jerry?”
“What?” John interrupted. “I’ll venture to say she’ll not object to your taking a bit of a sandwich from Mr. Rock. Just make yourselves easy, and if you think there’ll be any trouble I’ll go and explain it to her myself. By the way, you won’t want to take your geranium to school, sis; you’d better leave it here and call for it on your way home. Come now; these are the tulips.” And he began to guide them around the garden showing them all manner of sweet or showy flowers.
They were not half way around when Rock appeared bearing a tray on which were two glasses of milk, a pile of sandwiches and two generous slices of pie. He set the tray down on a bench under a spreading tree.
“I say, John, it’s a jolly place to eat, out here, this fine day. I’ve a mind to bring something for myself. Don’t begin your lunch, children, till I come back.” And he was off again, returning in a few minutes with more sandwiches, some crackers and half a pie. “Now,” he said, “I call this great. Pitch in, youngsters. Come along, John, bring your dinner-bucket, and we’ll have a lively time.”
Cassy and Jerry were rather shy at first, but Rock soon made them feel at home, and they thought they had never tasted anything so good as those chicken sandwiches and that apple pie.
“There!” exclaimed Rock, as the last crumb disappeared, “I enjoyed that a great deal more than if I had eaten my lunch indoors. I went to the country for over Sunday and when I got back this morning it was too late for school; the train was an hour late. I found mother wasn’t going to be at home to lunch, so, if you hadn’t been here to keep me company, I’d have eaten a solitary meal indoors. By the way, what time do you go back to school?”
Jerry told him, and he pulled out his watch.
“Then you’ll have to scamper,” he cried.
“You’re coming back to get your geranium,” John charged Cassy, and she smiled up at him with such a sunny expression that John saw there was little danger of her forgetting.