Then, the noise of the stifled sobs that had at first attracted Mary’s notice grew louder, and all could hear Teddy’s voice between the sobs, muttering or repeating something at intervals to himself.
“I do believe he’s saying his prayers!” said Mary, approaching the wardrobe more closely with stealthy steps, so as not to alarm the little stowaway, a smile of satisfaction at having at last found him crossing her face, mingled with an expression of amazement—“Just hear what he is repeating. Hush!”
They all listened; and this was what they heard proceeding from within the wardrobe, a sob coming in as a sort of hyphen between each word of the little fellow’s prayer.
“Dod—bess pa—an’ Conny an’ Liz—an’ ’ittle Ciss—an’ Jupp, de porter man, an’ Mary—an’—an’—all de oders—an’ make me dood boy—an’ I’ll neber do it again, amen!”
“The little darling!” cried Mary, opening the door of the wardrobe when Teddy had got so far, and was just beginning all over again; but the moment she saw within, she started back with a scream which at once brought Jupp upstairs. Joe the gardener still stopped, however, on the mat below in the passage, as nothing short of a peremptory command from the vicar would have constrained him to put his heavy clod-hopping boots on the soft stair-carpet. Indeed, it had needed all Mary’s persuasion to make him come into the hall, which he did as gingerly as a cat treading on a hot griddle!
As Jupp could see for himself, when he came up to the group assembled round the open door of the wardrobe there was nothing in the appearance of poor Teddy to frighten Mary, although much to bespeak her pity and sympathy—the little fellow as he knelt down in the corner showing an upturned face that had been blistered by the gunpowder as it exploded, besides being swollen to more than twice its ordinary size. His clothing was also singed and blackened like that of any sweep, while his eyelashes, eyebrows, and front hair had all been burnt off, leaving him as bare as a coot.
Altogether, Master Teddy presented a very sorry spectacle; and the little girls all burst into tears as they looked at him, even Jupp passing his coat-sleeve over his eyes, and muttering something about its being “a bad job” in a very choky sort of voice.
It was but the work of an instant, however, for Mary to take up the unfortunate sufferer in her arms, and there he sobbed out all his woes as she cried over him on her way to the nursery, sending off Jupp promptly for the doctor.
“I’se not do nuzzin,” explained Teddy as he was being undressed, and his burns dressed with oil and cotton-wool, pending the arrival of medical advice. “I’se only zust light de match an’ den dere was a whiz; an’ a great big black ting lift me up an’ trow me down, and den I climb up out of de smoke an’ run ’way here. I was ’fraid of black ting comin’ an’ hide!”
“There was no black thing after you, child,” said Conny. “It was only the force of the explosion that knocked you down, and the cloud of smoke you saw, which hid you from us when you ran indoors.”