Dick, from his hiding-place behind the hedge, saw him arrive, striking the ground importantly with his cane, and followed by his grandsons.
"Now for it!" thought Dick, and rubbed his hands in glee.
The Squire knocked; but no one answered, so he knocked again. Still no one came.
"Go round to the back," said he to Will.
Will went, and returned with the news that he had tried the wash-house door and found it fast, but through the window he could see a little fire in the grate.
"We'll knock once more," said the Squire.
This time the upper window of the next door cottage opened, and a head was hastily thrust out. "Mrs. Mumby a'n't at home," the neighbour called. Then, seeing who was waiting down below, she humbly begged pardon, and further informed the Squire that Mrs. Mumby had gone up the road to carry home some linen.
The Squire thanked her with his customary courtesy; and having hoped the children were quite well, was going down the pathway, when the good woman called again to say that Mrs. Mumby was in sight.
When she arrived, her honest face was red with toiling through the sun; and it went redder when she saw the Squire at her door. But Mrs. Mumby knew her manners, so she asked him with a curtsey if he wouldn't step inside; and there she dusted chairs for him and the three young gentlemen, and stood up, with a corner of her apron in her hand, to hear what he had come about.
"It's about your boy, Mrs. Mumby," began the Squire, when he had said a pleasant thing or two about the weather and her health. "He isn't in just now, I believe."