Pennie gulped down a sort of sob. “I should love to,” she said, “but I want to keep my money.”
“Well, if you’re not going to buy, you’d better not look at it any more,” said Nancy; “I haven’t got any money.”
With an immense effort, and a parting glance full of affection at “Siegfried the Dragon Slayer,” Pennie turned away from the stall, much to Nurse’s relief. Soon the old man and his books were lost to sight, but they remained very clearly and distinctly in Pennie’s mind. She saw the picture of that flying man more vividly than all that was going on round her, and would have given worlds to be acquainted with his history. If only she had more money, enough to buy the book and the mandarin too!
Then she began to wonder how the boys had spent theirs. No doubt they had bought just what had taken their fancy, and she would be the only one to go back empty-handed. It was a little hard. The only drop of comfort in it was that she would be able to tell them what a real sacrifice she had made. Yesterday she had seen David writing ten times over in his copy-book, “Virtue is its own reward.” If that meant feeling good, better than other people, Pennie had no doubt she was tasting the reward of virtue now, and it consoled her not a little for the loss of “Siegfried the Dragon Slayer.”
It was now nearly four o’clock, and Nurse was not sorry to turn towards the entrance, where Andrew was to wait with the carriage, and where she hoped to join the boys and Jane.
“They’re there already,” cried Nancy as they approached the turnstile, bobbing her head from side to side to see through the crowd, “and oh! what has David got?”
Nurse groaned.
“Something he oughtn’t to have, I make sure,” she said.
“It’s something alive!” exclaimed Nancy, giving a leap of delight as they got nearer, “I can see it move. Whatever is it?”
David was standing as still as a sentinel with his back against the gate-post and a look of triumph on his face, clutching firmly to his breast a small jet-black kitten. It was mewing piteously, with some reason—for in his determination not to let it go, he gripped it hard, so that it was spread out flat and could hardly breathe. The children gathered round him in an ecstasy.