He caught up his cap, waved it at them, and dashed out of the window like a schoolboy.
Jockie laughed delightedly.
"What a nice boy! Tell me who he is?"
So Sidney told her, and then left her, whilst she went to her cook, and Jockie amused herself by drawing caricatures of people on a sheet of notepaper. On one she made a solemn-looking dog regarding a chicken emerging from an egg, and the words underneath were: "Will it bite me?" The dog had a great look of her uncle, and the pert chicken a slight resemblance to herself.
When Sidney returned to her, she wore her hat and coat.
"Now I have done all my duties, and I'll take you out; we'll go and see Monica. If you want to garden or to farm, she's the one who will teach you. And then we'll lunch with the de Cressiers. I'm sorry for Austin, for he is being pulled two different ways every day of his life."
"Pleasure versus duty," said Jockie knowingly. "It's the way with me. My chief chum is a girl—oh, she is grand! I would like you to know her. We did everything together at school, and she inspired me. She's chock full of enthusiasm and earnestness, and life is all nobility and grandeur, and work is our vocation, and we tread in the air, with our souls in heaven when we're together, and then when we part, I tumble down to earth, and have been grovelling on it ever since I last heard her speak. But she's trained me to have an uncomfortable feeling when idle the whole day through, so I know what it is to be tugged two different ways."
Jockie knew how to talk; her tongue was at it hard till the farm was reached. They came upon Chuckles swinging upon the gate.
"Can't come in!" he cried. "This is my castle, and everybodies outside is enemies!"
Jockie caught him up in her strong young arms, then seated herself upon the gate and began to swing herself and him together.