“Very well, then,” replied grandfather a little absent-mindedly. “Only remember that we’ve got to hand you and Janey over, whole and sound, to your father and mother in less than a month.”
Mr. Baker gave his permission with a little less consideration than he usually gave to the twins’ requests, perhaps because his mind was busy with his own affairs. One of the letters which Christopher had brought from the postoffice had been from the city about some business which grandfather was afraid he would have to go into town to attend to himself.
“I can’t bear to think of your tramping about those hot city pavements in this August weather,” exclaimed grandmother in distress, when he told her about it. “Can’t you possibly arrange it by letter?”
“No, I must see two or three men personally. If Kit were home” (he meant his own son, Christopher’s father), “he could attend to it for me, but as it is, I can’t see anything for it but to go myself. I shall start to-morrow and get back in three days.”
Christopher was secretly glad that his grandfather was going away for a few days. When he returned and was told that Christopher had learned how to swim, he would be very glad, the boy felt sure.
Grandmother felt quite dismayed when she was told that the three boys were to go off on a picnic. It seemed like a very great responsibility for her to bear by herself; but as there was no real reason why she should ask Christopher to put off his excursion she said nothing about it.
The day of the party arrived and Jane was so impatient to start that she would have gone without even finishing her dessert if grandmother had permitted.
“But Mrs. Hartwell-Jones said to come early. Oh, dear!” she groaned as Christopher passed his plate for a second helping. “If you’re going to sit there and stuff all day, Kit Baker, we might as well not go at all. You won’t have any room in your tummy for your picnic, and Huldah has packed an awful big one.”
It had been arranged that Joshua was to drive the twins into the village. He had left a horse in the blacksmith’s stable overnight, while a certain special shoe was made, and he intended to ride it home. Jo Perkins had not quite finished his work at the stable, so he was to follow on his bicycle and join the others at Billy Carpenter’s house.
“Now, remember, Kit, you are to go back to Mrs. Hartwell-Jones’s to get Janey, and be sure to be there promptly at half-past five; not a minute later,” exclaimed grandmother for about the twentieth time; and she proceeded to give the same instructions and many more to Jo Perkins.