“Suppose we take a little turn before the others come back? That big, easy carriage will be quite safe and comfortable, and a breath of fresh air will do you good. Get a cushion and a shawl, Demi, and let’s carry Dan off.”
The boys thought it a capital joke, and Dan looked delighted, but asked, with an unexpected burst of virtue,—
“Will Mrs. Bhaer like it?”
“Oh, yes; we settled all that a minute ago.”
“You didn’t say any thing about it, so I don’t see how you could,” said Demi, inquisitively.
“We have a way of sending messages to one another, without any words. It is a great improvement on the telegraph.”
“I know—it’s eyes; I saw you lift your eyebrows, and nod toward the carriage, and Mrs. Bhaer laughed and nodded back again,” cried Nat, who was quite at his ease with kind Mr. Laurie by this time.
“Right. Now then, come on,” and in a minute Dan found himself settled in the carriage, his foot on a cushion on the seat opposite, nicely covered with a shawl, which fell down from the upper regions in a most mysterious manner, just when they wanted it. Demi climbed up to the box beside Peter, the black coachman. Nat sat next Dan in the place of honor, while Uncle Teddy would sit opposite,—to take care of the foot, he said, but really that he might study the faces before him—both so happy, yet so different, for Dan’s was square, and brown, and strong, while Nat’s was long, and fair, and rather weak, but very amiable with its mild eyes and good forehead.
“By the way, I’ve got a book somewhere here that you may like to see,” said the oldest boy of the party, diving under the seat and producing a book which made Dan exclaim,—
“Oh! by George, isn’t that a stunner?” as he turned the leaves, and saw fine plates of butterflies, and birds, and every sort of interesting insect, colored like life. He was so charmed that he forgot his thanks, but Mr. Laurie did not mind, and was quite satisfied to see the boy’s eager delight, and to hear his exclamations over certain old friends as he came to them. Nat leaned on his shoulder to look, and Demi turned his back to the horses, and let his feet dangle inside the carriage, so that he might join in the conversation.