We went round to the back of the house accordingly, where we found a neat little garden-plot in which was a tame sea-gull running about in company with a hedge-pig, a lame goose, and a queer little dog, which always seemed to go on three legs. We amused ourselves with the animals, which came to us at once, as if quite used to being noticed, till my uncle called us.
On the way home, he told my aunt that he had arranged with the old man to let Cicely Higgins's mother live in the upper room of his cottage for the present. It seems each of the old people were entitled to an attendant, but John being a hale man for his great age, did not avail himself of the privilege, but cared for his wife himself.
My uncle had some control over these houses by virtue of his relationship to the founder, I believe, and, therefore, could put in whom he pleased. There were many such small charitable foundations about London in those days, but they were mostly swept away in the great storm which destroyed all the religious houses in the land. It was a storm which cleared the air, no doubt, but it left some sad wrecks behind it, as is the way of tempests.
When we reached home we had supper, at which two or three of my uncle's friends joined us—elderly, sober men like himself. We young ones went to bed directly after, and thus ended my first day of London.
[CHAPTER III.]
ANOTHER CHANGE.
FOR a few days I was kept in quite a fever of suspense, thinking every time I heard a strange voice or an unusual noise in the house, that some one had come for me; but as the days passed into weeks, and the weeks into months, and I heard nothing from Mother Benedict, I began to make myself at home in my uncle's house. My old life in Somersetshire came to seem like a dream—almost as much so as that still further away time when I lived at Watcombe farm with my father and mother. I practiced my lute, and worked at my white seam and tapestry, and kept up my Latin, learning a lesson every day which I said to my uncle at night, when he never failed to reward me, when I had been diligent, with a story out of his great book. For recreation we played with our dolls and the cat, worked in our own little gardens, and took walks with my uncle and aunt to see poor people. Sometimes we had playmates of our own to visit us, but not often, and I think we preferred each other's society at all times to that of outsiders.
Once, my uncle took us out of town to spend the day with a farmer who rented certain lands from him. We went away early in the morning, my aunt riding a sober palfrey, and we children occupying a horse litter under the charge of two or three stout serving men; for, despite the severities exercised toward robbers and broken men, the ways about London were dangerous for small parties. We met with no adventures, however, and when we reached the open heath, my aunt allowed us to get down and walk, on condition that we did not go far-away.
I shall never forget how delightful was the feel of the short springy turf under my feet after the stony paths of the city. I would have liked to rove far and wide; but this my aunt forbade, and I had to content myself with gathering such flowers as grew near at hand. We arrived at the farm about nine of the clock, and found the family had risen from dinner, and were dispersed about their several occupations.