“Yes!” I cried, and I went towards where Mr Brownsmith was standing.
“Look here, Grant,” he said, looking very red in the face. “Sir Francis has given me this to buy you a watch by and by. He says you’re too young to have one now, but I’m to buy it and keep it for you a year or two. Five pounds.”
“I’m much obliged to him,” I said rather dolefully; but I did not feel at all pleased, and Mr Solomon looked disappointed, and I’m afraid he thought I was rather a queer boy.
At the end of the week I heard that Courtenay was better, but that he was to go with his brother down to the seaside, and to my great delight they went; and though I thought the lad might have said, “Thank you,” to me for saving his life, I was so pleased to find he was going, that this troubled me very little, for it was as if a holiday time had just begun.
The effects of my adventure soon passed away, and the days glided on most enjoyably. There was plenty to do in the glass-houses, but it was always such interesting work that I was never tired of it; and it was delightful to me to see the fruit ripening and the progress of the glorious flowers that we grew. Mr Solomon was always ready to tell or show me anything, and I suppose he was satisfied with me, for he used to nod now and then—he never praised; and Mrs Solomon sometimes smiled at me, but not very often.
The autumn was well advanced when one day Mr Solomon told me that he had arranged for Ike, as he was a good carter, to go with the strongest horse and cart to a place he named in Surrey, to fetch a good load of a particular kind of silver sand for potting.
“It’s a long journey, Grant,” he said; “and you’ll have to start very early, but I thought you would like to go. Be a change.”
“I should like it,” I said. “Does Ike know I’m going?”
“No; you can tell him.”
I went down to Ike, who was as usual digging, for he was the best handler of a spade in the garden, and he liked the work.