She might have shed a few tears more when the train puffed away—in fact, it is pretty certain that she would have if she had not, at that moment, caught sight of the station-master, and remembered his rude laughter about Shanks’s mare. He had not caught sight of her yet, and Loveday was anxious to hurry away before he did, and in her eagerness and hurry she quite forgot about her tears and her loneliness; and then it was such fun to watch the ducks and geese on the green, and to make them run at one, and stretch their necks and scream, that she was soon laughing instead of crying; and when they got back there was a boat drawn up on the beach, and that was very exciting, for Mr. Lobb had come back with a big catch of crabs and lobsters, and Loveday, after being introduced to him, was for quite a long while perfectly fascinated, watching the creatures trying to get out of the great lumbering crab-pots which he had brought them home in.
“I wish now, missie, as yer ma hadn’t a-been gone, for she could have took home two or three of these, and welcome to ’em.”
“Oh, I wish she hadn’t,” said Loveday earnestly. “Father loves lobsters and crabs; he would have been so glad—so would Geoffrey.”
“Well, look here now,” said John Lobb good-naturedly. “Bessie’ll bile these presently, and then if she’ll pop one or two into a basket, I’ll take them up and post ’em, and your pa’ll have ’em in time for his breakfast in the morning.”
At which Loveday was full of gratitude, and thanked her new host very heartily and prettily.
So Bessie hurried in to attend to her fire, and as a cold wind was blowing in from the sea, she bade the children follow her.
“A big catch of crabs and lobsters.”
“Now I’ll unpack my box,” thought Loveday, and, Bessie having unstrapped and unlocked it for her, she began. There was a little white chest of drawers in the room, and a big cupboard built into the wall, so that she had plenty of room for her belongings. Her little frocks, though she had quite a lot of them, took up a very small space indeed, but two of her sun-hats covered one shelf of the cupboard, and she had to take another shelf for her best one and her red and blue bérets. Her boots and shoes she arranged very neatly at the bottom of the cupboard—at least Aaron did for her, for by this time he had followed her in, and had grown quite friendly, and he worked really busily until Loveday took out a big monkey and presented it to him, after which he did nothing but gaze at it and hug it with delight, and Loveday, who had been a little shy of offering it to him when she saw how big a boy he was, felt greatly relieved on seeing his pleasure.
“After all,” she said to herself, “he isn’t such a very big boy—he is rather a baby, and I am very glad.”