“Well, then,” said Dr Budge, “I want to go to the chalk-pit beyond Rumborough to-morrow, and if you were both to go with me we might find something that would do for it.”
Ambrose was speechless. He stared at the doctor’s kind red face almost as though he was frightened at the proposal.
“I could give you some fossils of my own,” said the doctor, glancing round at his dusty treasures, “but it would be better to find something for yourselves. You could learn a little by doing that.”
“Would you really take us?” said Ambrose; “how awfully kind of you!” He spoke under his breath, for it seemed too good to be true.
“You see,” said the doctor, “one good turn deserves another. You and David helped me to find Jack, so it is only fair that I should help you to fill the museum. If we get on well you can open it when your mother comes home, instead of on her birthday. Wouldn’t that be a good plan?”
Ambrose hardly knew how he got over the road between the doctor’s cottage and the Vicarage that day, he was in such haste to tell the wonderful news to David. They went up after dinner to the deserted museum, and looked at it with fresh interest. It was dim and dusty now, but how different it would be when it was filled with all the really valuable objects they would find with the doctor’s help! Did it want any more shelves? they wondered. David had put up so many that there was hardly a bare space left on the walls, and it was decided that for the present no more should be added.
“But I’ll tell you what,” said David, “we’ll get a mop, and a pail, and a scrubbing-brush, and give it a regular good clean out. Then it’ll be quite ready.”
The afternoon was spent happily in this way, Nancy looking wistfully in at the door and longing to assist. As usual, however, she was not allowed any part in the affairs of the museum, and after a few jeering remarks she went slowly down-stairs.
“It is dull,” she said to herself, “now Pennie isn’t at home.”
Poor Nancy felt this more and more as the days went on. No Pennie, no one in the nursery, and the boys entirely engaged in their new pursuit. It was very dull. She would willingly have taken an interest in the museum too, and when she heard that the boys were to go with the doctor to the chalk-pit, she felt her lot was hard indeed. It was so exactly what she would have liked, and yet because she was a girl she might have no part in it. When they came home, full of importance and triumph, with some ugly-looking stones and some very long names to write on the labels, she followed them into the school-room.