Archie shouted at this.
“So you never found the berry-pasture at all? Haven’t you got a single berry among you all? Well, by Jove, you are a fine set! Thought it was supper-time at ten in the morning!”
The children never heard the end of this joke.
CHAPTER XIX.
WHAT ZAIDEE AND HELEN FOUND.
Mamma had gone away for a two weeks’ visit to grandmamma, and had taken little Kenneth with her. Zaidee and Helen felt very lonely without their small playfellow, for it was the first time they had ever been separated. The first week seemed very long. Then when nurse began to comfort them by saying that next week mamma and Kenneth would be at home again, there came a letter from mamma saying that grandmamma was not very well, and she would stay another week besides.
The twins were quite ready to cry. “Next week” seemed like saying “next year.” But auntie was staying with them still, and as she was mamma’s own sister herself, and she looked very much like her, this was a great comfort to the children, for they would try and “play” it was mamma who spoke to them. But there was no one to take little Kenneth’s place.
The twins had a favourite playground down by the brook. It was just below the pool where they had tried to drown the poor little kittens.
A great oak tree grew there, and the grass underneath was smooth and green. The brook was very shallow there, and there were plenty of smooth, round stones which they could easily get out of the water, without getting themselves at all wet. On the green grass they played house, marking off the rooms by these round stones. The acorns from the oak served the purpose of cups for their dolls, and bits of broken china made fine dishes. They had, at home, a beautiful, real doll’s house, with the cunningest furniture, and plenty of “really, truly” doll’s dishes, but they got much more pleasure out of this make-believe house, marked off with stones.
Since Kenneth was not at home to be looked after, Eliza often let the twins go down to the brook to play all by themselves. One morning, after breakfast, they ran down there as usual. To their great surprise they found that some one was there before them.
It was a little boy, about Kenneth’s age. He had on a linen dress and a broad-brimmed hat. He sat on the edge of the bank, poking a stick into the water. Where could he have come from? The children were sure they had never seen him before.