“A young sperrit o’ mischief! that’s what he is,” muttered the old man, giving a writhe as he felt the stinging of the bees. “Now what’s he been up to with that there stick? making a fishing-rod of it, I s’pose, and tearing my rows o’ beans to pieces. I tell him what it is—”
Dan’l stopped short, and stared at the end of the stick—the thin end, where there was something peculiar, betraying what had been done with it.
It was a sight which made him tighten his lips up into a thin red line, and screw up his eyes till they could be hardly seen, for upon the end of that stick were the mortal remains of two crushed bees.
Chapter Eighteen.
Dexter spends a pleasant Afternoon.
Dexter went up to where Helen was waiting for him, and found her dressed. “Going out!” he said.
“Yes; I thought I would walk up to Sir James’s with you,” she said; and she cast a critical eye over him, and smiled upon seeing that he only needed a touch with a brush to make him presentable.
This was given, and they set off together, the doctor only giving Dexter a friendly nod in accordance with a promise made not to upset the boy with a number of hints as to how he was to behave.