“O, it will not frighten them much,” said Royal; “and after it is all over, they will only laugh at it.”
“No, you mustn’t frighten them,” said Lucy.
“Yes,” said Royal; “let us go; we can creep along slyly by the bank of the brook, and get into the bushes close to where they are.”
“No,” said Rollo, gesticulating with his hand, and speaking in a very positive tone; “you must not frighten them, Royal.”
“I shall go and tell them,” said Lucy, “that you a’n’t any bears at all; that you are nothing but Royal.”
“No,” said Royal, “you must not tell them. If you do, I will run away from you, and leave you here all alone; and I don’t believe that you can find your way home.”
So Royal and Thomas went off, creeping slowly along by the bank of the brook, until they came to a little copse of trees, which was near where the children were gathering their blueberries. There were three children—two girls and a boy. The oldest girl was about as old as Marielle, the youngest about as old as Lucy, and the boy was between them, in respect to age.
They were all barefoot, and they wore very old clothes. In fact, they were poor, and had come to gather berries to sell, to get some money for their mother.
If Marielle and Lucy had known these facts, they would have been still more unwilling to have had Royal go and frighten these children; and Royal himself would probably have altered his plan. And as it was, Marielle and Lucy were very sorry to have him go.
“I wish he would come back,” said Lucy, “and not go and frighten those poor children.”