Still he did not move, and I felt that if I did not master him he would me.
“Do you hear what I say, sir?” I cried in my most angry tones; “come with me and fetch my box.”
He leaped round so quickly that he made me start, and stood glaring at me as if about to strike.
“You must come and fetch my box,” I said, feeling all the while a good deal of dread of the rough, fierce-looking boy.
I was between him and the wide door; and he stooped and looked first one side of me and then the other, as if about to dart by. But, growing bolder, I took a step forward and laid my hand upon his shoulder.
Up flew his arms as if about to strike mine away, but he caught my eye and understood it wrongly. He must have thought I was gazing resolutely at him, but I really was not. To my great satisfaction, though, he stepped forward, drooping his arms and hanging his head, walking beside me out into the open yard, where we came suddenly upon Old Brownsmith, who looked at me sharply, nodded his head, and then went on.
I led the way, and Shock half-followed, half-walked beside me, and we had just reached the gate when Old Brownsmith shouted:
“Take the barrow.”
Shock trotted back like a dog; and as I watched him, thinking what a curious half-savage lad he was, and how much bigger and stronger than I was, he came back with the light basket barrow, trundling it along.
We went in silence as far as my old home, where Mrs Beeton held up her hands as she saw my companion, and drew back, holding the door open for us to get the corded box which stood in the floor-clothed hall.