“You will soon be able to have a watch now, like the boys in Holland,” said Mildred. “Your alabaster things will change away for a watch; will not they? But we might not have remembered breakfast, if you had had a watch.”
“We are forgetting it now,” said Oliver, catching up George and running to the house, followed by Mildred, who could not help feeling as if Roger was at her heels.
They were surprised to find how late it was. Their father was already gone with Pastor Dendel’s load of manure. Their mother only waited to kiss them before she went, and to tell them the their father meant to be back as soon as he could; and that meantime, neighbour Gool had promised to keep an eye on the mill. If anything happened to frighten them, Oliver or Ailwin had only to set the mill-sails agoing, and neighbour Gool and his men would be with them presently. She did not think, however, that anything would happen in the little time that their father would be away.
“I will tell you what we will do!” cried Oliver, starting from his chair, after he had been eating his bread and milk, in silence, for some time after his mother’s departure. “Let us dress up a figure to look like father, and set him at the mill-window; so that those Redfurns shall not find out that he is away. Won’t that be good?”
“Put him on the mill-steps. They may not look up at the window.”
“The mill-steps, then. Where is father’s old hat? Put it on the broom there, and see how it looks. Run up to the mill, dear, and bring his jacket—and his apron,” he shouted as his sister ran.
Mildred brought both, and they dressed up the broom.
“That will never do,” said Mildred. “Look how the sleeves hang; and how he holds his head! It is not a bit like a man.”
“’Tis a good scarecrow,” declared Ailwin. “I have seen many a worse scarecrow than that.”
“But this is to scare the Redfurns, and they are far wiser than crows,” said Mildred. “Look how George pulls at the apron, and tugs at the broomstick behind! It does not scare even him.”