“Gone!” echoed Mrs. Digby, with a little falter in her voice.
Winnie coloured quickly. She had not meant to say so much. She thought she ought not to speak of the journey she was to take, until her mother told her of it. Perhaps she ought not to have heard that conversation—perhaps it was only a dream like the one she had just awoke from.
She looked into her mother’s face with a little laugh, and kissed the soft hand she still held in her own small one.
“I dreamt I was flying with the swallows, mamma. One of them took me on his back and carried me; but he brought me back home again, you see.”
Was mamma crying? Winifred wondered, for Mrs. Digby had turned quickly away, and the child fancied she put her handkerchief to her eyes.
Nurse, however, came in just then, and Winnie’s thoughts were directed into a different channel.
“Nursey,” she called eagerly, “did Charley and Ronald finish the kite-tail yesterday?”
“No, Miss Winnie, they went out to the Rectory instead, and never touched it. I heard them this morning wishing it was done; and then they’d have time to fly it before dark, when they came home in the evening.”
“Oh, I am so glad! now I can finish it for them!” cried Winnie eagerly. “Please go and fetch it for me, Nursey—I mean when you have time to spare.”
“Won’t it tire you, dear?”