Jane found no difficulty in getting them to come home. Freda and Daffy walked on sedately in front of her. They talked eagerly in low tones, and made plans for the good of the small wayfarer.
They were turned out in the garden as usual, after their nursery dinner. Both Freda and Daffy had managed to secrete some meat, and Freda had added a piece of currant pudding, which she put in her pocket. Daffy had got a medicine bottle filled with clean water. They made their way to the grand old cedar in the centre of the lawn, and there sat down to wait for their visitor. Bertie was trundling his wheelbarrow along the gravel path. He was filling it with small stones as he went.
"We shall do better than Dreamikins," said Daffy. "And the Bible says a cup of cold water, not milk, is the thing to be given. I remember Nurse reading it to us long ago, so I've got a cup in my pocket too."
"But we haven't got his bed ready," said Freda disconsolately. "It seems so difficult; p'raps he won't want it. We'll ask him."
The time seemed long as they sat there and waited.
At last they thought they saw something moving in the shrubbery at the bottom of the lawn; and then a little figure came out of it, and crept up to them very shyly. He was barefooted no longer. He had washed his face and hands and looked quite tidy and respectable.
Freda looked a little disappointed.
"Are you really hungry and thirsty?" she asked sternly. "Speak the truth, for this isn't a game, it's a—a religious thing!"
"And," said Daffy, looking at him with dancing eyes, "if it's done properly it will turn us into sheep."
Well might the small boy stare at the children in dazed wonder.